The Remarkable City of London, the End of the Journey

Last week, we left you as we were getting off the Caledonian Sleeper train at London’s Euston station. By now, I think everyone was super short on sleep for one reason or another (but then, most of the students did say they slept well on the train…), but still looking forward to the London leg of our trip. Everyone disembarked from multiple carriages, counted heads, and headed to the Underground portion of the station to get day passes for everyone to get around the city for the next two days. We hopped on the Underground after a quick walk to the next station, a wave of suitcases rolling along the pavement.

After a small room debacle at the next, very small hotel – we were really early and switched up roommates, so it was totally our fault – everyone set off to find breakfast. The best breakfast vote went to Mihbaj Restaurant, a Levantinian-style restaurant that also served full English Breakfast just a few doors down. I hear it was phenomenal, but we had to skip out because the ONE plan I had for the entire trip called to say they were ready for us. *Runs across London*

The London portion of the trip was almost entirely open to whatever plans the students had in mind. It was interesting to see where they scattered to on this part of the trip since they had wildly different agendas! We immediately had a group take off to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Some took a bus tour to see as much of London as possible and others scattered to various sights for a more in-depth experience, like the Tower of London.

All the Foods

I feel like a LOT of eating was done on this part of the trip. You could have rolled me out of London by the time we were done. I think a particular favorite on everyone’s agenda was high tea (high tea = a more substantial meal, low tea = social tea & snacks to hold you over until dinner). A large group of students went to Café Concerto Kensington (a TikTok find, I believe) for tea early the first afternoon. The professor group had tea a few hours later at The Grill Room at Hotel Café Royal, which was so fancy and delightful – stuffed full of gold and mirrors. Apparently, we were dining in the footsteps of many of the greats: Princess Diana, Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, Winston Churchill, and Elizabeth Taylor to name a few. Fun. We tried so many teas, sandwiches, and desserts and were stuffed by the time we were done.

Doing the Things

Remember that run across London? It put us at the Voces8 Building for a choir rehearsal. I’m sure you’re wondering what in the world for? Well…the choir I used to sing in when we lived in Auburn, Alabama was on tour in London and performing the following evening with a collection of choirs from Alabama, Missouri, and Canada. Our schedule didn’t allow me to make it to the performance, so my choir bestie managed to get me security clearance (no really, they had security – so fancy) to come to their rehearsal that morning instead. I was elated not only to see so many faces I hadn’t seen in years and hug their necks, but we got to sit and listen to them for an hour, in heaven, tears streaming down my face style. Singing at that caliber is something I miss so, so much. I wish we could have stayed all day, but Jason was in major need of coffee, so we strolled past St. Paul’s Cathedral (didn’t go in, because again, coffee) and found him a coffee shop.

Here’s a snippet of their rehearsal. Not the best angle, but we’re here for sound, not the view.

We snagged the tube once Jason had coffee in hand, and got off in Mayfair for a quick run through Selfridges. Neither of us were in the mood for much shopping, so we grabbed a light lunch there instead. Jason was tempted by the watches on the ground floor but decided to pass when the first one he saw was £35,000. Woah! Nevermind. We wandered back to the hotel via Baker Street station which was overflowing with futbol fans – we missed the memo on that one. Security was literally pushing them onto the trains, they were so packed! Wild. A quick change of clothes for us and then back on the tube to head to the Hotel Café Royal for tea.

Night tours, a Beyonce concert, dinners, and whatever 20-somethings do in London late into the night on a bank holiday made up the rest of day one. We went to bed. I was already on night two with no sleep and needed to have my ducks in a row to get us out of London the following day. I have never slept so hard in a tiny double bed. Haha. The Point A Hotel was lovely and accommodating to our large group, but the rooms were literally the size of the bed with enough room to swing the door open and with no room to open even a tiny carry-on suitcase anywhere. Fortunately, we’d had training for this on the sleeper train the night before. Quaint.

IFRS and Canary Wharf

Nearly everyone made it down for breakfast the next morning and were again moving as a group. The hotel agreed to hold our bags for us until each person collected them at the end of the day to move to the airport hotel. We took the newly completed Elizabeth Line Underground to Canary Wharf. The Underground itself is such a wonder. One of the oldest stations (Baker Street) has been in operation since 1863 and is such an old-world contrast to the new stations with its noisy train, huge gaps between the train and platform, and gazillion stairs in the station. The newest modern stations like Paddington’s Elizabeth Line with their sleek lines, safety measures (the train doors open behind glass doors, so the track and train are not exposed), and escalators give a much brighter/lighter feeling. I think it’s neat that there’s almost as much history under the city as above. You can read about it here.

The students had another business meeting this morning at the IFRS Foundation, which houses the International Accounting Standards Board & International Sustainability Standards Board. I’ll be honest, I had no idea what they were talking about unless they were talking about sustainability. That’s my jam. But, about 75% of our students were made up of accountants, so they were following right along. After putting on a good show of following along from the front row, I bowed out about 15 minutes early with another professor to walk over to Mala Indian Kitchen to make sure they were ready for our group lunch.

Fun fact about Canary Wharf – this is a newly redeveloped high-rise financial area of London that once was home to many of the warehouses of the West India Docks, one of the busiest shipping docks in the world. Many of its original buildings are now listed and the docks themselves were shut down in the 1980s after container shipping became prominent (no more warehouses needed). A string of developers have come in since to revitalize the area and it is now home to 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in the UK. We were not meeting in one of the high rises, but it was fun to walk through them with our police escort, so we didn’t get lost.

When You Wish Upon A (Michelin) Star

Lunch at Mala was our last meeting as a group. After a fantastic meal, Jason gave some final instructions for the remainder of the trip, and we set everyone free again to get the last few things in before meeting us at the airport hotel that night. This had turned into a long, late lunch and we had dinner reservations at Pied A Terre, a Michelin Star restaurant for our last hurrah about 2 hours later. You remember the comment we made about the non-stop eating in London, right? We weren’t kidding.

We had just enough time to collect our bags and move them to another hotel before heading to dinner – totally not hungry. In the end, dinner was 8 courses and took HOURS, so we managed to eat everything and not feel too miserable. Luckily, when you have 8 courses, all of them are bite-sized so you can make it to the end without…well, let’s just call it an unfortunate ending. PLUS, they basically made me my own menu to avoid all the dairy when I couldn’t eat off just the regular menu or vegan menu because of my soy allergy (seriously…it’s ridiculous sometimes).

Obviously, this place gets high marks from me…if that means anything more than a Michelin Star to anyone. As a side note, if you’ve not been to a Michelin-starred restaurant, we’d highly recommend them. Before going, we assumed they were super fancy, with arrogant staff and super-strict dress codes. I suppose some of them might be, but what we found was anything but. Yes, the dress was smart casual, but no one wore a tie or jacket. The staff were amazing and went above and beyond to explain things, answer questions, and generally make us feel comfortable throughout the whole ordeal. The food though…well that was fancy, and we didn’t hate it.

Celebrating done, we thought we’d made it, were in the clear, and would be the last group to check in at the new hotel. We were not. One quickly followed us and then…we were missing a student. *panic ensues* One. How!?? After hours of frantic searching and unwillingly launching the University protocol for such things, we finally found them when they replied to a message. Asleep…in a room that wasn’t assigned to us! That’s a big hotel industry no, no (if there was a fire, for example, they wouldn’t be on the list of occupants!). So unfortunately, we feel like they’ve been blacklisted for us, which is a bummer because they have a huge European presence. We’ll have to marinate on that one.

Homeward Bound

And so…we began our trip home the following morning, again, with little sleep. We got cabs to Heathrow’s Terminal 3 because we didn’t have the brain power to figure out public transit at that point. Jason and I got breakfast quickly in one of the lounges after we saw everyone through security (United Card Perks!) and met them at the gate for the trip back across the Atlantic. I have never been able to sleep on planes, but I got a solid couple of hours in on the flight to Denver from London (Jason…not so much). The exhaustion in all forms was real at this point. After an uneventful layover in Denver – and a visit to the Centurion Lounge for food and drinks (AMEX Card Perks!) – we boarded our final flight back to Springfield.

We returned to Springfield with only about half of our group, intentionally. One student continue on to Italy and then France for another study abroad program, another stayed in England with her family, and a big group continued on to Ireland for a few days. Turns out, there was a pretty cool reason they wanted to visit Ireland, but that’s their story, so we’ll leave it to them to share.

Oh, I have one more fun story that just warms my little traveler’s heart. A group of students got together and got a tattoo (+44, the UK’s country phone code…you know, the US has +1) while we were in London to remember their trip. I think it’s safe to say they had a great time, and it was worth all our stress. Totally worth it. And yes…we’ll be doing it again next year. Even more fun…they’ve talked Jason, and a few other folks from the trip, into the same tattoo when they’re all back from summer break. Oh, the shenanigans. I just love all these connections being built.

For us for now, we will be enjoying a couple of quiet weeks of summer in Missouri and Iowa before Jason takes off to teach in Spain for 3 weeks in July. I plan to join him in France when he’s finished for a real vacation. Just us. Stand by…obviously, we’ll have to tell you about it.

Part 1 – Group Journey to the UK – Suddenly We’re Education Abroad Coordinators!

Part 2 – Learning to Appreciate the Remarkable Calm of the Scottish Highlands