May 18th

Thursday, May 18th started off with an early visit to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on the outside of London.  Before going into the park, we took the Tube (Underground Train) to Stratford where we walked through a nearly brand new indoor/outdoor shopping mall which had a lot of stores and restaurants.  Upon arrival to the park, we were immediately in awe of the infrastructure and the development of the buildings in and around the park.  The first stop we made was the Aquatic Centre which was a very large and modern arena.  This was used for all swimming and diving events in the 2012 Olympics and now is open to the public to use for only 1 pound.  The centre has an 8 lane pool that holds as many as 4 swimmers in each lane as well as a large diving pool with all of the high diving boards, I couldn't even imagine jumping off of the tallest one.  In the other room, there was a warmup pool as well as a weight room and jacuzzi tub.

The next stop we made at Olympic Park was the ArcelorMittal Orbit.  This was an incredible experience because we were able to see nearly the entire city!  We also all got to slide down a steep and windy slide on the Orbit, needless to say we looked very silly.  The Orbit was definitely a cool experience and gave me some incredible pictures.

Our final stop of the day was a tour of the London Tower and Tower Bridge area.  This was an unbelievable experience and the landmarks we saw were incredible.  We spent a considerable amount of time touring this area and learning more about the history of England.  We also battled a heavy downpour during this tour and for most of the day.  At the end of the day we all went to a pub in SoHo for dinner for some authentic British cuisine.  It was an overall great day and we have many more to look forward to!