Exploring London

Last week I talked about getting to London, our first experience with public transit there, and finding our way to our hotel in our sleep deprived state.  After checking in to our hotel around 11am on May 25th, we each took a much needed shower before heading out to find some food.

We had heard that you should try to stay awake that first day and just go to bed early.  So with that in mind, we ate our first obligatory London pub meal of Fish, chips and a Guinness (none of them were fantastic in my opinion).  Then we headed out to explore the Canary Wharf area.  About an hour into exploring, and after a very strong Starbucks espresso, it was clear that Mike was not going to make it much longer without a nap (he can’t sleep on planes).  So we headed back to the hotel and napped for 3 glorious hours.  We woke up feeling like we had worked an overnight shift but decided to hit the tube and explore instead of wasting the whole day.

While planning this trip, I was a bit terrified at the thought of the tube.  Not that I would have admitted that to Mike or Trey.  I had rode the subway in NYC when I was a teenager, but never anything like it since.  I was worried about how we would figure out which lines and stops we would need.  Turns out, I worried for nothing.  The invention of the smart phone and maps makes that process super easy.  Type in where you are going and your phone tells you exactly which lines you need, and, if you are changing lines, where you need to do that at.  #mindblown.  How did we travel before we had smartphones? Be aware that if you close your map when you are on the tube and need to change lines, you may not have service that far underground. Not that we experienced that first hand and panicked or anything…. Also be aware that there are very good maps all over the underground if you, unlike us, close your map while on the tube.  No need to panic.  

So we headed for all that is Westminster.  We decided not to take in any of the attractions that evening, opting rather to just walk around and get acclimated.  We took one of the foot bridges over the Thames and were lucky enough to find an outdoor festival of sorts.  Later that evening I believe there was going to be live music, which we didn’t stay for, but we did get dinner there and then I found an ice cream cart (of course).  We walked past the London Eye before making our way back across the Thames, to gaze up at Big Ben.  Big Ben is currently under construction, but was still amazing to see.  Then we rode the very full (and hot) tube back to Canary Wharf and walked around that area before heading to our hotel for the night.

After sleeping like rocks, we woke up Sunday and went to The Breakfast Club for breakfast.  Our first traditional English Breakfast!  I didn’t realize that tomatoes and beans were part of a traditional English breakfast until this trip (we did not try black or white pudding).  Then we made our way to Greenwich port to ride the city tour boat to Westminster port.  It was drizzly and windy so was a great way to see some of the city.  Once we arrived at Westminster port we went to the Churchill War Rooms where we spent a couple hours.  Was pretty interesting to walk through that time in history.  We had purchased the 2 day London Pass.  There are hundreds of attractions that are included with the pass, way more than you can see in 2 days, but if you are going to take in multiple attractions, it actually is more cost effective to use the pass (trust me, I calculated it out in a spreadsheet while planning…see previous note about engineers rubbing off on me). Both the tour boat and Churchill War Rooms were part of that pass.  Having the pass didn’t mean that we never stood in lines, but typically meant we were in a different line than just general admission (if I remember correctly) 

After our time in the War Rooms, we rode the tube back to Canary Wharf and found a little pizza place near our hotel called Franco Manca.  Seriously some of THE best pizza I’ve ever had.  And if you know me, you know I have an ongoing love affair with pizza.  So good that I am still dreaming about it, and would consider a trip back mostly for the pizza. 

Monday morning we woke up after a not great night of sleep (Mike and I – Trey slept great).  We hit the tube early and arrived at the London Bridge station shortly after 9am.   We failed to realize when booking our trip that this Monday in late May was a holiday in the UK (was Memorial Day back home in the US).  So London was busy!  We had started our London Pass with the boat ride and Churchill War Rooms on Sunday, and since I had purchased the two day pass, we needed to get a few things in today.  Once we arrived at the London Bridge station, we were met by a man selling hop on/hop off bus tickets.  Since they were included in our London Pass, we decided to take a ride.  We took the bus destined for Buckingham Palace, but ended up touring central London for about 3 hours.  We saw Hyde park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (which had a ridiculous line to get in to it), Harrods and a bunch of other shops and museums.  I’m pretty sure the tour guide said if you were getting off at the Harrods stop not to forget your earbuds or your credit cards!  Mike made sure we stayed on.   The tour ended back at London Bridge station. 

From there we went to The Shard and road to the top (72 floors).  What a view of London!  I was nearing hangry so they fed me pizza (it always works to cure hangriness) and then we toured the HMS Belfast.  What a cool ship.  I can’t imagine living on that for months or years at a time.  We waited around that area for Bobs Lobster to open at 4:30 only to discover it was closed for the summer bank holiday (our friend Laura had been in London the year before and highly recommended Bob’s Lobster).  So back to Canary Wharf we headed.  We ate dinner at a BBQ place that was only ok.

Tuesday was our last full day in London.   We slept in a bit (we are on vacation after all).  Then after another breakfast at The Breakfast Club, we headed for Camden Market on the underground.  Actually we took the DLR which was right outside our hotel and the underground.  Look at us figuring out how to switch transit types!  When Trey was researching things to do in London, Camden Market showed up and was on his list of must sees.  Camden market is in Camden town (odd) and was one of the busiest areas we were in.  It has tent based shops like our US street fairs but also brick and mortar stores.  The food portion of the market smelled amazing.  Trey had some homemade noodles that spent some time getting happy in a cheese wheel.  We also tried dutch pancake bites with milk chocolate, bananas and strawberries.  Delish. All.of.it. 

When we had seen all we cared to of Camden Market, we hit the tube and headed for St Paul’s Cathedral.  The architecture in that cathedral is STUNNING!  We climbed a gazillion steps to nearly the top of the dome for a great view.  I almost died, but the view was worth it.  Strangely enough it was my idea to put ourselves through torture.  I forget that I have super short legs compared to the giants I live with.  Giants that like to do insane things like run up stairs.   Anywhoo.  The view from the top was amazing.  St Paul’s in general was amazing.  Thinking about the building process when most of those buildings were constructed makes the architecture that much more interesting.

After finishing up at St Paul’s we headed back to Canary Wharf, and enjoyed our favorite pizza spot again.  I know it’s likely against culinary rules to have pizza 3 times while in London, but I was guessing I wouldn’t find good pizza for the next week.  And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I like pizza.

We absolutely loved our time in London.  Way more than we thought we would.  It was an easy city to navigate, there was so much to do, and overall we felt safe while we were there.  I would guess this won’t be our last trip to that city.

Stay tuned for Ireland!