Today was our first full day in London!

After an early rise (at least for me!) and breakfast, the group met up with our tour guide Philippa and a colleague of hers to begin our Beatles specific tour of London.

When many people hear that we are studying the British Invasion and the Beatles, the exclaim, “But why are you in London?? You should be in Liverpool, that’s where all of the Beatles stuff is!” However, many people forget that the Beatles came to London after leaving Liverpool, and did a lot of work here.

We got to see many sites important to the Beatles, such as the street where they filmed their “Hard Days Night” video, homes where they lived at various points, the site of their Apple store, and many more.

But fear not, we are going to Liverpool after our time in London is up  😉

Setting of the Hard Days Night video

First selfie in London – during our Beatles walking tour

After our walking tour of London we stopped for lunch and then hopped on a double-decker bus to the British Museum, London’s main history museum. While here, we got to see many cool artifacts, such as the Rosetta Stone, mummies, Assyrian winged lions (or Lamassu) from Mesopotamia, and sculptures from the Parthenon.

Inside the British Museum

Lamassu – British Museum

After exploring the British Museum, we explored London for an hour, shopping at Oxford Circus and further mastering the London Underground, or the Tube.

We then met back up at the hotel, and as a group, we headed out to our first group dinner together in London.  We went to an amazing Indian Restaurant.  While I can’t remember it’s name, I can tell you that it was fantastic!  I had always heard that the Indian food in London was very good, and it did not disappoint, especially for my first experience with Indian Food!  For those interested, I had the Chicken Tikka Masala, a very popular (and sweet!) Indian dish.  And of course, I can’t forget the Naan bread  🙂

After out group dinner, we ended up at the Britannia, a quaint pub near our hotel.  This was the first pub I went to in London, and I had a great time hanging out with the group and our Professor, Tim.

Overall, my first full day in London was amazing, and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

After a very long flight, we finally arrived at Heathrow airport in London, England!  While most of us were exhausted, having slept very little on the plane, we jumped into things right away to beat back the jet lag!

After meeting our tour guide, Philippa Owens, we took a bus (or rather, a coach, as the British would say) into the heart of London.  Philippa gave us a wonderful introduction to the city, as we drove by some of the most important places in London.  We stopped for lunch, where I got to have my first experience using pounds, and then stopped by the Victoria and Albert Museum for a quick look around, before continuing on our bus tour.

Victoria and Albert Museum

While we were driving around London, I was struck by the beauty of the city and it’s architecture.  Many of the buildings seemed like they should belong in Paris, which I suppose shouldn’t have been so surprising to me, since London is such an old city.  It was also very interesting to see some of the newer buildings put into place after damage done by World War II and the blitz.  Living in America, it is easy to forget how so many people were affected by the war in such a direct way.

The Eye of London

Once our bus tour was complete, we arrived at our hotel in the Kensington area, and got settled in.  After a brief rest, a group of us decided to go explore the nearby Kensington Gardens.  This was a beautiful park surrounding Kensington Palace, the home of William and Kate when they are in London.  As I will eagerly (and dorkily) tell anyone around, gardens and parks are my happy place, so I loved being able to relax and take a stroll around the park.  We were able to see Kensington Palace, the Prince Albert Memorial, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Princess Diana Memorial.  It was a beautiful first day in London, and I wanted to take advantage of it!

After such a busy first day in London, I decided to turn in early and rest up for tomorrow.  I can’t wait to experience so many new things in London this next week!

Kensington Gardens

Prince Albert Memorial

Today we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I had never been before, despite living in Ohio for ten years, so I was really excited for this trip, especially since the class of 2015 had just been inducted into the Hall of Fame a few weeks ago.

The display for new inductees was actually the first thing we saw after descending the escalator into the main exhibit. Included among the 2015 inductees was Ringo Star, who was the last of the Beatles to be inducted as a solo artist – and thus the most relevant to our class. Ringo’s drum set was actually on display, which was really cool, especially since it was in the exact condition that he left it that last time it was played. Other inductees this year included Paul Butterfield, Green Day, Joan Jett, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and more.

Moving on through the exhibit, we got to read all about the history of Rock and Roll, especially about the influence that the Rhythm and Blues genre and black artists had on the creation of Rock and Roll. I really loved that they included so many artists from this genre in the exhibit. While not necessarily “Rock and Roll”, they played an extremely important impact on Rock music and its history.

Some other big exhibits worth mentioning are Elvis, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles and the Stones are both part of the British Invasion, so we spent a lot of time at these exhibits learning more about their music and lives. I though it was great that they had John Lennon’s Sergeant Pepper costume – it was just as gloriously tacky as I imagined it would be. I also really liked learning about Elvis Presley. While Elvis, being American, was not part of the British Invasion, he still played a huge role in the music of the 60’s and Rock and Roll.

Overall, I really enjoyed visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was really interesting to be able to actually experience everything that we had been learning in the classroom. As with most famous people, it is easy to forget that these musicians were actual people, and it was incredible to be able to see artifacts from their lives and careers. These musicians all had such a huge impact on the music industry and Rock and Roll, and I really enjoyed discovering more about them.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

John’s Sergeant Pepper costume

The Beatles’ signatures in the Hall of Fame