Today was the Amazing Race around London. We broke up into 5 teams of 5 people and received clues at every stop to continue on towards the finish. Susan and Brian said that this wasn’t a race, but some teams became very competitive and ended up running to each location. Below is the list in order of all the stops.
- Platform 9 and ¾ at King’s Cross Train Station. This location was seen in Harry Potter.
- Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221 Baker St. This museum was closed so we could not go inside. Instead Phil made each group do a different dance move.
- Alexander Fleming Museum at St. Mary’s Hospital. This is the location in which Penicillin was discovered.
- The monument to commemorate the great fire of 1666. This was a “road block” where each team or one representative was required to walk the 311 stairs up to the top, and then back down. At the top, Erik pointed out that the Olympic rings on the Tower Bridge had been lowered to indicate one month to the Olympic games.
- Leadenhall Market. This market was the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter which was actually an optical shop.
- Cross Keyes Restaurant. This was our lunch pit stop.
- Temple Church as seen in The Da Vinci Code movie. The great fire of 1666 stopped short of this church, but was later bombed during World War II and was renovated into its modern state.
- Water pump. This location near Oxford St. was the birthplace of epidemiology where John Snow discovered that the town’s water supply was contaminated with cholera after 500 people had died from it.
- British Museum. Among other native exhibits, this museum displayed the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic gold medals that will be awarded at the games.
- Globe Theatre. This is the theatre famous for showing Shakespeare’s plays.
- Millennium Bridge which was featured in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince just south of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
- St. Paul’s Cathedral. We went and listened to Evensong, in which, a boys’ sung during a short service.
We then had a three course dinner near St. Paul’s Cathedral. No one felt guilty about consuming so much food because of the workout that Susan and Brian put us through. Although it wasn’t really a competition, team “Inner Chi” won, consisting of Stephanie, Rebecca, Krista, Amy, and Amber. Team Inner Chi even had matching shirts that read, “I love London”. No prize was awarded =[. After dinner, everyone went their separate ways in order to cross off various sites that they wished to see before leaving London. Seven hours of the day consisted of running/fast walking and by the end everyone was exhausted and ready to go to bed.
Cheers,
Stephanie, Rebecca, and Krista