London Trip
We arrived in London at 1 o’clock and we went straight to the Olympic Village for a tour. We had a tour guide to accompany us who told us which arenas were for what sporting events. When we did a tour round the village on foot we discovered that the Olympic Village was 97% recycled.
After we visited the Olympic Village we went to the Holiday Inn Express which we were staying the night in. The rooms were really nice and we shared a room with 1 or 2 friends. We had an hour and a quarter to unpack, and get ourselves ready for our meal at the Hard Rock Café at 7 0’clock.
We set off for the Hard Rock Café at half past 6 and after driving over the Tower Bridge we arrived at the café around seven. We all got off the coach as it started to rain quite heavy and made our way to the front entrance where we then got told to make our way round to the back.
As we entered the café there was a dress from the band Fleetwood Mac along with lots of music awards and LP records all along the walls. We sat down for the meal at seven and the meal came at quarter past 7, after we received our drinks. We all had either: a cheeseburger, a hamburger or a veggie burger with chips, which was delicious. We then had ice cream for dessert which was really nice too.
After we finished at the Hard Rock Café Adam drove us to the Hollywood Bowl where we stayed and played bowling for 2 hours. We got to choose our own teams and we could play as many matches as we liked. Everyone had hot dogs and a drink half way through or you could go and buy your own food from the café.
At 10 o’clock we got back on the coach and went back to the hotel. We arrived back at half past ten and then had an hour and a half until lights out. Mr Fletcher, had to stay up all night and patrol the corridor to make sure everyone was in their own rooms and being quiet as there were other paying guests on the floor who were paying £225 a night which is what we would’ve had to pay.
Tuesday 19th July,
Today we all had to meet at quarter past eight to go for breakfast at half eight. You had a choice of either having a full English breakfast or cereal and toast. After we finished breakfast we had an hour to spare and so we all got chance to go to the shop and buy some snacks and drinks for the day.
We left the hotel at 10 o’clock after having our rooms checked by Mrs McCooey and started our tour around London. We went past some famous sites such as the London Eye, The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and then we arrived at Buckingham Palace. We all went for a walk round the outside of the palace. There was a lot of people surrounding it as it was the changing of the guards. After watching the guards change over, we then went back to the Buckingham Palace shop. The items inside the shop though were very expensive-£5.95 for a pen!
After we finished at Buckingham Palace we went to Wembley Stadium for a tour round which we did alongside with another group of tourists. The tour guide took us round and into the conference room first and we got to sit in the seats at the table where people get interviewed by the press.
Then we went into changing room 3 and then changing room 1, which is the one the home side use. Inside changing room 1 there were the England players’ shirts in the spaces where they get changed on match days. We could go and sit in them and take photos. This was very exciting. We then went through to the player’s tunnel where two people got to be captain, one being me and the other being someone from the other group. We all lined up in two teams and the two captains led them out of the tunnels. Everyone got to take photos and sit in the dugout once we came out into the pitch area. Everybody then got into groups of 3 o 4 . This was because we all went up in our groups to hold the FA Cup and have a photo taken with it which we could then later buy at the end of our tour.
At the end of the tour we visited the shop in case anyone wanted to buy any souvenirs.
At half 2 we got back onto the coach to go for our pub meal at The Torch. For our meal we all had: fish or burger and chips and apple pie and custard for dessert. You were also allowed a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of water but if you wanted you could’ve bought your own. It was all delicious and we didn’t have long to wait. Everyone really enjoyed it as we were all sat round one big table together as well.
Once we finished the meal we went back onto the coach. It had just started raining really heavily as well so by the time we were on the coach we all looked like drowned rats! We soon dried off though.
When we were on the coach one of the pupils, Joshua Jones, made a little speech to everyone on the coach for the driver, to say thank you for driving us round everywhere and being so good. We all chipped in a pound or so for him.
On the way home we had two stops for anyone who wanted to buy any snacks and needed the toilet. We then arrived back at around half past ten. We were all really tired from the long journey home but we all really enjoyed it. The trip overall was really good and we all had fun.
By Kerry Wilks
