The trip started with an early morning meet at Dublin Airport. Everyone met at the entrance to T1 at 6:15 am. We trudged our bags through security and declared our liquids and phone chargers. We had a short while for a quick scope in Duty Free before setting off for our gate where we would board the plane and depart for London Stansted.
When we arrived at London Stansted we searched for the "Stansted to London Express" train and Mr.Ferguson got tickets for us all to travel to London Liverpool Street. When we arrived at the station we each got a small pink ticket, not unlike a Luas ticket, to do us for the day. We made our way to the hotel and settled in.
We all met back down at the foyer and discussed what we would do for the day. We got back on the overground to Tower Gateway. Here we met with a very nice lady called Viviane. Viviane started our tour off with an interesting talk about Tower of London. She told us about the extraordinary animals kept in the Tower by William the Conqueror. Some of the animals included ostrich, lions, monkeys, tigers.
We then got travelled to Westminster and saw Big Ben, Westminster Parliament, the House of Commons and the changing of the guard. From there Viviane led us to Trafalgar Square where we had about 30 minutes free time to explore the square with its many shops and the pigeons ! It was getting dark and there was one last place to go, Buckingham Palace. We were led up towards Buckingham Palace. When we arrived everyone had their cameras and phones out snapping away at the Queen's almighty Palace.
After a short visit to Buckingham Palace we walked through Green Park to Piccadilly where we were shown around London's upmarket shopping district with shops like Ted Baker, Gucci, Hamleys. We all took a quick look around in Hamleys and met back up outside. At this point we had said goodbye to our wonderful guide Viviane. We all chipped in to giving her a £20 tip.
We then went to Queen Ice&Bowl. We all played an hour of bowling and then went ice-skating. After the skating we went into the diner and had a pizza buffet. The food tasted really good. We hopped back on the tube after a bit of free time and made our way back to Custom House.We all departed for our rooms and got a good night's sleep to do it all again the next day.
At 8:30 we had to be down in the breakfast room. There was a large range of food to be eaten in the hotel buffet- scrambled egg, rasher, sausage, pudding, pastries, etc.We all finished breakfast at about ten past nine where we then got ready to meet back down in the foyer to get the day's plan from Mr. Ferguson.
We then got the tube to the Imperial War Museum where we had an interesting look around at all these different war machines and guns and papers from WW1 and WW2. We spent about one and a half hours in the museum before setting off to the next museum, The Science Museum. This museum was enormous and had 5 floors of everything ranging from space craft to interactive science stations. We spent about two and a half hours here and it was by far my favourite.
We then got on the tube to Leicester Square where we had a few hours to look around in shops and get a bite to eat. Leicester Square had McDonald's, an M&M's store, lots of theatres and cinemas, and many souvenir shops. We met back up with the teachers and went on to Pizza Express which is like Ireland's Milano's.
The meal tasted amazing and we all had great craic at the table. We concluded the night with a visit to a West End show. "The 39 steps" was an amazing and extremely funny show about an innocent man hiding from police and a jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit. After the show we made it back to our hotel where we all go some sleep for our big day of travel ahead of us.
Day 3
The last day had arrived unfortunately and it was time to go home.We met for breakfast at the usual time and then met down in the foyer with all our bags as we had to check out that morning.
We made our way from Custom House Excel to Tower Gateway where we then got the tube to Bond Street where we spent a couple of hours shopping and enjoying the last few hours in London. We met back at the tube station on Oxford street at about 2:15 where we waited for the group to re-join so we could continue our travels to London Stansted.
We had a bit of free time when we arrived at London Stansted to buy food and get some dinner. We then went through security and had a few minutes before we had to board our plane from gate 50 to Dublin.
When we arrived back in Dublin it was time to say goodbye and thanks to our teachers Mr.Ferguson and Mr.Fay. We all dispersed into the cold and darkness of Dublin's T1 arrivals.
The London trip is one that will be remembered for the great craic we had and the different things we did.
Text & Photos: C.H.