This year, for Thanksgiving break, I explored London, as well as the smaller towns of Oxford and Cambridge. It was such a beautiful trip, and was such a lovely experience.
Our first day in London was spent exploring. We visited the Shard, the tallest building in London and had dinner at one of the top floors. The views were gorgeous- we could see London bridge and many of the railroad tracks. On the way back to our hotel room, we passed by London Bridge, and though it was dark, it was still nice to explore.
During our time in London, we toured 3 colleges- Imperial, Oxford, and Cambridge. Imperial was in the middle of the city, but the campus was very nice and I learned a lot about how colleges work in the UK. Oxford and Cambridge were both 2 hour train rides away from the main hub of London, but I loved both of these small towns so much. All of the buildings, especially the housing, had so much character and were old in the prettiest way. At Oxford, we got a tour of both the Bodleian library, one of the oldest and largest libraries in Europe. We also got to explore some of the locations where the Harry Potter movies were filmed!
Our last day in London was my personal favorite- we visited a Formula 1 arcade, and explored the city looking for statues of Snoopy, the iconic beagle from Peanuts. Firstly, we started with the F1 arcade, where they had simulators of different F1 tracks. You could “race” alongside 9 other current Formula 1 drivers, and at my very last attempt in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, I managed to get first. The whole experience was so fun and I loved the decorations and atmosphere of the arcade. After this, we wandered around London searching for statues of Snoopy. Multiple artists had come together to paint statues of Snoopy’s doghouse. The result was a scavenger hunt of sorts, where our prizes were gorgeous paintings, each inspired by a different theme!
