This blog is coming to you from a London hotel room, where I lie on my bed in a semi-ridiculous state of soreness after my first bike ride in five years. It happened to be a three hour bike tour around the entirety of London- quite the introduction back! It was full of ups and downs. Metaphorically speaking, I didn’t fall off the bike (I did wear a helmet in anticipation of this happening, however).
I got to see green again riding through the parks, real grass green- something I haven’t seen in months. We saw the Queen’s guard gallop past us on horseback in Kensington Gardens and Buckingham Palace sans a Queen at home. Just as we started to go on actual city roads on bike- no easy feat, the skies opened up. In a stirring turn of events it was raining in England.
Apparently some guy climbed into the window of Buckingham palace THREE separate times and didn’t get arrested
As a former equestrian, I longed to swap my bike for one of the royal horses.
Not just raining, pelting down on us poor poncho-clad bikers. When you can’t see the road on a bike because of the rain, the fun evaporates real fast. After a rain demanded emergency Pret-A-Manger stop, I was a little reluctant to hit the road for a final hour. It was still raining, and I anticipated another wet cold and stressful bike ride back.
It was a little cold and a little stressful- but certainly not as wet as I was dreading. When we got to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, a miraculous thing happened- the sun came out. It stopped raining. And I couldn’t stop smiling. See photographic evidence below.
Oh, what’s that in the background of my selfie? Only BIG BEN!
Here is a classic Big Ben shot. Did you know Big Ben and Westminster Abbey are in the same square?
Anyways, it’s late here and I’ve had a very long day. Everything is sore. We are here for academic reasons, by the way. We’re touring some of the biggest drug development programs in London. I went to a University College London neuroscience lab today doing epilepsy research (science people, this lab was doing actual CRISPR! ACTUAL CRISPR). I’ll tell you more about that next week.
As the London family we spoke to in an ice cream shop tonight said: “Toodaloo”.
Ever lovely yours,
-Eleanor
Driving back through Hyde Park