From the London bridge you can see Tower Bridge as well as the London Eye. We then made our way toward Westminster Abbey and The Houses of Parliament. Walking up the stairs from the Underground, we were directly underneath Big Ben!
Sorry for the darkness of us in this picture. My main goal of the day was to see Westminster Abbey. There was a fee to go inside, but it was so worth it!!! There is a free audio-tour that explained a lot of the Abbey and what we were told was so interesting. We saw Isaac Newton's tomb!!
His is the one on the left! Then we walked around the rest of the Abbey. Everywhere you look there is a different tomb of one monarch and then a queen and then another king. It was quite incredible to listen on the history of the Abbey and all the coronation processes and the royal wedding. 
It was a great educational experience for me to learn about all the different kings and queens of England's past. Definitely a highlight of the trip! From Westminster Abbey, we took the underground to the Tower hill station where the Tower of London and Tower Bridge are in walking distance. Tower of London honestly looks so worn down and because London's downtown skyscrapers are so huge, it downsizes the Tower of London to not look that special. On the brighter side though, Tower Bridge was great! Most bridges are made of steel or a metal and not usually an attractive color, but the trimming of Tower Bridge was a vibrant baby blue that made the bridge very pretty!
Ever since Santiago, I have been very interested in how beautiful the architecture of cathedrals. In London, the most famous cathedral is St. Paul's Cathedral. Once you get up from the Underground, you are hit with a massive dome that is hard to take a picture of because you are so close! Sarah and I were very lucky because usually it costs to go inside, but because they were holding a night mass, we were able to go inside and see the church. The choir was singing the whole time and it was so peaceful. The building itself was massive but the singing really made the experience cool. From the outside, I tried to fit all of the Cathedral in a picture, but as you can see, not easily done. 
After a long day of sightseeing, we decided that it was time to head back to Cat & Martyn's for the night. We had planned on cooking dinner for everyone as they fed us the first night, but once we got home they just said "let's just order pizza because we know you are tired." That could've been the best thing we heard all day as we were dragging from all the walking around. A highlight of that night was us eating pizza and talking about the differences in cultures. I tried to explain how our addresses work because their houses all have numbers in a row (2, 4, 6, 8,....etc.) until the next block and they didn't understand how we do our addresses until I drew it out on one of the pizza boxes and showed them a map of Portland. It was again, a killer night!
Since Sarah and I felt that we had seen most of London in two days, we decided that it would be fun for us to explore Chelmsford and hang out with Cat & Martyn for the day. They took us shopping, we went to lunch at a place called Missoula (like Montana. It was hunter/American themed) and then they drove us to one of the biggest parks I have ever seen. The park itself holds one of the biggest music festivals in the country ever year and this year Beyonce is performing. It also served as a meeting point of the Olympic Torch on its journey through the country. The park's sides are three miles long and two miles wide. At the center there was a big mansion where a rich man used to live and he then gave his property to the city for the park. It was very relaxing and something that you would see in Portland without a doubt. 
The last stop on our tour of Chelmsford was the oldest church that had an open field with wild horses in them. Cat told us that sometimes the horses come running to you and you can touch them. As city children, both Sarah and I were pretty excited at this haha. Sure enough, two of the horses came running towards us and let us pet then and feed them grass that we picked. It was a funny thing to see two city kids get all freaked out at two horses!
We made our way back home and showered and got ready for the rest of our time in the UK. Cat & Martyn decided that they would take us to a traditional English dinner place and it did not disappoint! It was all you could eat and for very cheap! We really lived the Yorkshire Pies!!! It was getting near the end of our stay so we went back and got out the map to see what all we should see. They have traveled all over Europe so it was good to get some insight and advice on places to go see. Before we knew it, it was already 11 and we had to get up at 4 am to drive to the airport! We said our goodnights and went into our spare bedroom and started packing all of our stuff! Martyn had to work at 6 am so we thought he had gone to sleep, but once midnight came, it was officially Sarah's 21st birthday! Cat & Martyn knocked on the door and were holding a birthday cake with candles and a card for her! They then sang her happy birthday! That moment was the icing on the cake of a great trip! Cat & Martyn were two of the coolest and nicest people I have met and we wish them the best of luck on their year-long journey around the world. If they are ever in Portland, they will have a place to stay because we owe them a lot! Sarah and I had such a good time with them that both sets of couples felt that it wouldn't be the last time seeing each other. They will either make it to the U.S. or we will come back to the UK. 
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