Vivere a Riva: Spring Break Part 1 -- London

Thursday, March 30th, 2012 -- 9:45AM

Yeah I know I'm really behind at updating this thing, but here goes Spring Break. Bobby, Rick, and I left Barcelona late at night on a flight to London Stansted. We didn't get to our Hotel until 1:30am. At first I was a little sketched out by the old run down row home style hotel, but the room was actually pretty nice and the beds were super comfortable. We woke up early, tried to get some breakfast, but it was packed and it was only like toast and some bran flakes. We set off on foot through Victoria up towards the Buckingham Palace. We walked walked all the way through Hyde Park and saw the Serpentine Lake which had the Princess Diana memorial next to it. We made it to the Serpentine Gallery only to find out that the awesome pavilions that are built every year are only in the summer. We walked back along the other side of the lake watching all the skillful rollerbladers weave in and out of cones. We passed the Palace again en rout to the Parliament and Big Ben. We crossed the river and got some Mediterranean food for lunch. We walked by the London Eye but the line was too long. We continued along the river until we got to the Tate Modern Museum by Herzog & de Meuron. They are actually building another addition to it right now. That was easily one of my favorite museums, converted from an old train station. The art collection was really nice. We then crossed the Millennium Bridge by Calatrava towards St. Paul's Cathedral. Mass was about to start so we could only peak in for a moment. We walked along the other side of the river passing the London Bridge, which isn't too glamorous, but then made it to the more monumental Tower bridge. We crossed the bridge just as the sun was setting getting some great shots of the city skyline with a beautifully colored sky. We saw Norman Foster's City Hall which surprised us with it's really really nice exterior urban space. We stopped for dinner at a Frenchish restaurant on the river. We continued along the river towards Renzo Piano's "Shard" skyscraper, appearing to be a shard of glass. It is currently under construction, but close to being complete. It is the tallest building in London and is absolutely gorgeous. We were all star-struck by it and couldn't stop taking pictures of it. It's size is just phenomenal. We decided to try to ride the London Eye at night but tried to explore the city along the way and got kind of lost. We got there just as it closed and it seemed kind of pricy anyways. From here we just decided to call it a night and head home. I mapped our path for the day and determined we walked 12.5 miles within a 12 hour span. Incredible.

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

London Eye

Tate Modern Museum

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

The Shard at sunset

City Hall

Urban Space outside of City Hall

The Shard at night

The Eye at night

Our second day was a little more tame. We took the underground up to the AA (architecture school) to visit Esther. She was no where to be found at first so we went down a few blocks to check out the British Museum which has an amazing collection of artifacts. After that we stopped in the AA again and finally found Esther! We convinced her to play hookie and explore some of the city with us, since she hadn't been able to do much of that yet. We started with the Gherkin by Norman Foster. They wouldn't let us inside so we just admired the exterior for a bit. Then we went down a block to see the Lloyd's of London building by Richard Rogers, a building that looks inside out, with all of it's structure, circulation (elevators + stairs) and systems (HVAC, Water, etc.) on the exterior. Also unable to get in. We then went to see Broadgate by SOM which are also towers. We got kicked off the property because apparently the plaza is private property and we aren't allowed to be taking pictures of it. Also a beautiful building with exposed structure and a very nice structural canopy that connects the two buildings. We then hopped on the train and went north to the 2012 Olympic Park. We weren't able to get on the site but the nearby mall had an Olympic Store on the top floor with windows looking over the Stadium, the Aquatic Center (by Zaha Hadid), and the Polo arena. We headed back to Victoria and got some dinner nearby the hotel and called it a night since we had to catch a 4:30am bus to get to the airport in time for our Stuttgart flight.