London 24-27 July 2007
We arrived in London, England, our 2nd stop of our Around the World Trip, tired after a sleepless long haul flight. We lugged our bags through the Underground (the “tube” to locals) and were impressed by how clean, modern and easy it was compared to the dark, dungeon like subways of NY… although it was much more expensive.
Once in Westminster we walked from Victoria station to our hotel… we took the long way and passed it the first time, but later found out we were in quite a good location. A cute neighborhood lined with long blocks of connected houses/apartments with plenty of small shops and restaurants… and just south of Buckingham Palace. After we checked in, we lugged ourselves up two flights of stairs to the “first floor” and crashed. Rested and hungry, we wandered looking for food and stumbled across a hat shop (convenient since Andy was after a hat) where some crazy old man chatted us up and recommended some places to eat. We didn’t end up taking his exact advice, but did find a very good Italian place. We took a small stroll around the area afterwards and discovered an old church and a large shopping center before heading home for a glass of wine and more sleep.
Our first full day in London was a little gray and cloudy… the usual I suppose! We wandered through “our” neighborhood, which was even nicer in the daylight, and went to the train station to get on a city tour. Slightly cheesy, but a quick easy way to see the city! We climbed to the top of the double-decker bus to get a good view of all the amazing buildings and monuments we passed… but ended up getting soaked by the rain. We stuck out the weather to see the highlights: historic buildings, old English pubs, Notting Hill, Paddington (as in the bear), the first Hard Rock Café, American Square, lots of famous people’s homes, the Ritz, plenty of fancy car dealerships, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament/Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Tower Bridge, the London Eye Ferris wheel, Tower of London… and lots of classic black taxis (and even a few pink ones).
We hopped off at the Tower of London to check out the crown jewels and torture dungeons, but wouldn’t shell out the money so we moved on to Piccadilly Circus. Ok, so we had shopping in mind… but we’re bargain shoppers, right? Andy found a lovely man bag and I got some much needed jeans as we wandered away from Piccadilly Circus down Regent Street to Oxford Street. Heading back towards Piccadilly Circus in search of food, we found ourselves in Soho, London’s entertainment district that’s dominated by sex shops, strip clubs, and bars, but still has a casual, easy-going feel about it.
The next morning we got going early to use the last few hours of our tour tickets to get to Parliament & Westminster Abbey. We hopped off and walked over the bridge for some great views of Big Ben, then around the gates of Parliament. A tour of Westminster Abbey was a highlight of the day. I was disappointed I couldn’t take pictures inside, but learned about the history and saw the amazing details of this Gothic church and abbey. Built around 1050 it was used by the Benedictine Monks and for events such as all the coronations of British Royalty and Princess Diana’s funeral. We took in the details like the old English inscriptions, the famous tombs, rich artwork, carvings and stained glass and the incredible additions (that make it what it is today) by Kings Henry III, V and VII.
By the time we left it was pouring outside and there was no sign of it letting up (turns out London was having a major flooding crisis at the time) so we had to give up our idea of a picnic in the park and settle for eating it on the floor of the Underground Station. Oddly enough, we weren’t alone! Next, we zipped up our rain jackets and went to Oxford street via the Tube. We ended up in Soho again and chose a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner then headed across the river to see if the London Eye Ferris wheel was still going. We’d missed it by just a few minutes, but since it was lit up nicely and there was no crowd so we stayed and took some photos. We noticed that Parliament was lit up across the Thames as well, so I got a good opportunity to use my new Gorilla bendable tripod that Andy got me (it’s odd looking, but handy!).
On our last day in the UK we joined the crowds outside Buckingham Palace. We expected to take a few pics and move on, but it turned out that we were just in time for the Changing of the Guards ceremony. That’s what we thought by the look of the crowds anyway. After a look around we settled on the steps to wait with the masses… for nearly two hours! We passed the time by people watching which included watching the police on horseback whistle at people who kept climbing on the statues.
When the ceremony finally started people went nuts and crowded in to get a photo, but all we saw was a marching band with red costumes and furry hats and a few guards doing a bunch of marching around inside the palace gates. This carried on forever and we nearly left a few times, but waited it out only to see them march out in procession again. As popular an event as this may be, we wouldn’t highly recommend it! At least we were lucky to have a beautiful sunny morning after days of gray.
Afterwards, we wandered through St. James Park and along the Princess Diana Memorial Walk. There was a pond with birds roaming around and plenty of flowers. But, my favorite feature was the movable lawn chairs scattered around for anyone to use -- such a great way for people to interact with and create their own space in a green part of the city. We finally made our way back to pick up our things and head to Gatwick, then on to Barcelona.
