I had been looking forward to this trip for such a long time. I would come out of class everyday more and more excited. When the time finally came it didn’t even seem real. Even though we left at 3:30 in the morning I was wide awake. By the time we finally arrived I couldn’t wait to get out and explore. Seeing everything we had been studying in real life was incredible. All of the buildings were so much bigger than I expected! Especially the Walkie Talkie. Never before had I bothered to learn about a place prior to visiting. It made a world of difference. I got so much more out of the experience. This was also the first time I had ever really sketched. I was skeptical of myself at the beginning, but I actually do think I got better as the week progressed. I learned so much over the course of the week. Not just about architecture, but about history, culture, and traveling in general. I also had the opportunity to spend time with some amazing people. This was probably my favorite aspect of the entire trip. Overall, this was one of the best weeks of my college experience thus far.
Author: Katie Shipman
Brighton
For the free day I decided to visit Brighton. We had to take the tube to Victoria Station and from there we took a train to Three Bridges. Here we had to get off and transfer to a bus that took us to Brighton. We got off the bus and started to walk, when we turned the corner we immediately saw the water. It was amazing. Our first stop was the Royal Pavilion. We couldn’t get inside, but we walked around the exterior and through the garden. After this we went down to the water. The beach was so fun, and it wasn’t even that cold! Next we went to the pier. We thought it was going to be closed, but we were wrong. We walked to the end and looked back at the shore. There were seagulls flying around and a lot of people were out walking. We got lunch at a small sandwich shop and then walked around The Lanes. We looked around a chocolate shop, a few home goods stores, and then stopped at a bakery. I got three macaroons, they were delicious! After this it was time to go. We made our way back to the hotel and had our final dinner in London.
Kew Gardens
The first thing we did today was visit Kew Gardens. When we arrived we walked directly to the Palm House. It was amazing, the entire building was full of different kinds of tropical plants. There were two white, spiral staircases that went up to a second level where you could look down over everything. After the Plam House we ventured over to the Waterlily House, unfortunately it was closed. The walk over was lovely though, so it was worth it. We stopped to take pictures in a field of flowers. Next we went to the Princess of Wales Conservatory. There were beautiful orchids hanging from the railings and the ceiling. We walked around some more and eventually ended up at The Orangey. We stopped here to eat (the chocolate cake was amazing!). After this we went on the Treetop Walkway. It was cool, but I think it would have been better if the trees still had leaves. We climbed down from the walkway and walked over to the Temperate House. It was closed for restoration, but at this point we were close to the Japanese Gateway so we went there instead. There was bamboo, Japanese cherry blossoms, and a little house with a garden. From here we could also see the pagoda. It was almost time to go, so we wandered back through the gardens to the exit. We crossed a crossed a pond and saw a peacock on our way back. It was a great day!
Day Three
We started day three at The British Museum. When we arrived the exhibits hadn’t opened yet, but the great courtyard was open and we took some time to sketch this site. It was really difficult to capture the glass ceiling in my drawings, but they turned out alright in the end. Not many other groups had arrived yet so the space was uncrowded and we were able to enjoy it. The center of the courtyard was occupied by several different gift shops (one for kids, one with books, etc.). There were also a few different spots to eat that lined the outside of the space. The first exhibit the group visited was the Rosetta Stone. After seeing that we saw the Parthenon display. Major elements of the pediments and the frieze were here. Seeing these in person really made me appreciate the scale and the amount of detail in the Parthenon. After these specific stops we decided to wander around and catch some of the museums highlights. We saw the worlds most famous chess set, a head from Easter Island, and a set of samurai armor. There was also a lot of beautiful jewlery on display. We spent a lot of time in the Asian galleries. There were amazing collections of statues, ceramics, and prints on display here.
Day One
The fist place we visited today was Bedford Square. The buildings surrounding it all had beautiful flower boxes and there was a small park in the center. After walking around for a bit we went to The Building Center. We expected to see a model of the city, but unfortunately it had been moved to another location. We explored the displays for a while and then hopped on a double decker bus to get to the Barbican. Here we talked briefly about “brutalist” architecture. The best part of the Barbican was the main plaza. There was a water way lined with plants, fountains, and a restaurant. From the Barbican we went to The Museum of London. The exhibits worked like a timeline telling the history of the city. There was also and interesting tattoo exhibit and a crime exhibit. After exploring for a while we grabbed lunch at Pret and then walked over to St. Paul’s cathedral. We got to climb all the way to the top and the view was amazing. The last stop of the day was a mall where we went out on to the roof and looked over the city.
Katie’s Bio
Hi, my name is Katie Shipman and I’m a freshman this year. I’m majoring in Architecture and hopefully minoring in Math. I’m from Columbus, I’ve lived here my entire life. I’ve been to Europe before, but never to England. What I’m most looking forward to on this trip is visiting Tate Modern. This is a picture of me rock climbing in Switzerland.
