I visited England for eight days at the start of August. I travelled with my friend Zdenek and we started our bus journey in Prague on Saturday afternoon. We arrived at Victoria Bus station at 5 am on Sunday. The Underground was not working so early, so we rested. During the morning we went to Richmond to meet our host family, the Rowleys – Alison, Mark and their two boys, Sam and Josh. They are very friendly people and we were glad that we met them. They invited us to have dinner with them every day and the food was very good. We had the opportunity to taste British cuisine and we especially liked the desserts. We saw the beautiful Kew Royal Botanic Gardens near the Rowleys’ home and each day until Wednesday we went into central London - after that we stayed in London, near Hyde Park.

We saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben at noon, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street ( though there was fencing everywhere ) and Trafalgar Square with its wonderful fountains. We could see too that London is getting ready for the Olympic Games there. The Museums were interesting – the British museum, Design museum and the Science museum. I was very excited at the Science museum where so many things were interactive. This is a great idea which left us with so many memories and more newly acquired knowledge than a traditional museum. We used only the Underground, because it is the fastest, and we both enjoyed listening to the singers and players in the streets – they are very good. We were never lost, because we had three maps, but it was surprising to me that there were no bins in the streets.England is really ecological and it is good. I met up with my uncle and this was a very nice meeting. He took us to lunch at a Japanese restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. This was very funny because we did not use a knife and fork, only chopsticks ! We also visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and liked walking in the local parks – St. James’s Park and Hyde Park especially – and feeding all the ducks! We were lucky that the only experience we had of the London riots was on the news on our last day – I hope it will be calmer now. I am really happy that, thanks to the travel scholarship, I could go to England, as it is a wonderful country with friendly people and amazing places to see. I hope that I will be able to travel there again sometime – thank you for this opportunity. Veronika Palmova September 2011