It’s late. Since I can’t sleep and this post is getting ridiculously overdue, so I might as well be productive with this insomnia….
I’ve covered three of the four places Chris and I went on our 10 days of vacation – Prague, Berlin and Paris. But before we went to Prague we spent two days in London, and that is where we ended the trip as well.
Since my first trip to the UK back in August, I’ve had the good fortune to spend about a week’s worth of nights in the city and really see a lot of the sights in central London. I love visiting London, and I was really excited to be able to show it to Chris now that I know my way around. There are so many fascinating things to see in London that I could have a whole blog dedicated to it (and I’m sure there are many better-informed blogs that do exactly that), but for now here are some basics and the story of our last day of vacation.
First off, here are my top ten things to do in London:
- Museums, museum, museum – Victoria & Albert, Natural History, National Gallery, British Museum, and many more. Paris might have a run on museums filled with paintings, but for everything else London has absolutely the best museums. And most of them are free.
- Gawk at the crown jewels, Henry VIII’s armour, and huge ravens at the Tower of London
- Drink in the history and beauty of historic churches like Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral
- Walk or take a tour along the Thames to see the icons of London like Big Ben, Tower Bridge and the stupid yet photogenic London Eye
- Window shop at some of the grand department stores like Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, etc.
- Take the underground and enjoy the warren of colour-coded tunnels beneath the city and the constant reminders to ‘Mind the Gap’
- Eat greasy fish and chips, drink a post-work pint in a crowded and noisy pub, or gorge on shortbread and luxury sweets from the department store foodhall
- Wander around the beautifully restored St. Pancras International train station
- Eavesdrop on conversations of young people from London’s suburbs, to see if you can even understand what they are saying
- Take a ride in a classic London black cab, but hold on to your luggage as it goes sliding around the big empty space in front of you during the usually wild ride
Seriously, mind it.
My goal was to show Chris as many of those as possible in our days there. I think I mostly succeeded, and I’ve got some pictures from various museums and sights that I will share another day. For now, I’ll tell you about our New Year’s Eve.
We arrived back in London just after noon, after taking the Eurostar train from Paris. It was a cool feeling to know that you had taken a train deep beneath the English channel. We had a very busy itinerary planned for the last day because we had saved a few big sights for the last day. It felt like we were taking part in the Amazing Race as we almost ran through the underground stations and wove through the crowds in an effort to get all the last places we wanted to go before they all closed.
Beautiful St. Pancras train station
Lego tree at St. Pancras
First off, we raced to Westminster Abbey and managed to squeak in just before they closed the line and were two of the last people in for the day. It was a quick tour but since the Abbey was not too busy we were still able to see everything we wanted easily. It was fascinating to see the chair where almost every British monarch for the past 700+ years has sat during their coronation, and to stand by the graves and memorials of some amazing individuals like Elizabeth I, Geoffrey Chaucer, Isaac Newton, David Livingstone, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin and so many renowned authors and poets.
Westminster Abbey
Right on schedule, we raced over to Regent Street to pick up a parcel at Selfridge’s. Before Christmas we had purchased a beautiful winter coat for Chris on a good sale, and it was ready after it’s adjustment by the tailor.
Selfridges
Garment bag in tow, we made it to the Tower of London in record time, and had a good look around. While not exactly a leisurely tour, we had plenty of time to see most of the buildings including the salt tower with its walls of carvings by former prisoners, the White Tower with its great collection of armour and weapons, and – of course – the crown jewel vault. Chris was amused by how excited I was to see the crown jewels again, which is slightly ironic since I’m not a diamond-crazy girl at all, but they are so beautiful and walking through the huge steel vault filled with its priceless treasures is just too cool.
No, of course you can’t take photos of the crown jewels, silly.
Next stop was to be St. Paul’s but due to my guidebook misreading, we had to change our plans and went instead to the Tower Bridge exhibition. The exhibition is a bit dull, but the evening views of London along the Thames were quite nice, and the bridge is so stunning to walk along that a bit of boring talk about bridges of the world can be handled.
View from the top of Tower Bridge
By the time we’d finished all that, I was exhausted and my feet were throbbing so much I was just mincing along. We made it back to our hotel to check in and have a little time to relax, and a lovely hot soak in the big bathtub at the Andaz had me feeling much better in no time. Then we dressed up a bit and headed out for our New Year’s Eve.
We had a quick dinner at the lounge in the hotel, then picked up some drinks for the road and took the underground towards Trafalgar square. By that time it was around 10 PM, and we knew there was no way we’d get a riverside spot to see the fireworks so late. Instead we headed to Trafalgar where we knew there would be a big crowd and large screens to see the show. The crowd in the underground was completely overwhelming, and the tunnels were not quite as charming when filled to overflowing with a huge crowd moving at a crawl. Luckily we were too excited to be too impatient, and after about 45 minutes of plodding along the cordoned-off route, we made it to Trafalgar. We were hoping to be able to see Big Ben from our spot, and we managed to find a great spot at the back of the square near the National Gallery where we could see Big Ben straight ahead of us, the screens, the Christmas tree, and the whole crowd of revelers.
Lion in Trafalgar Square
Fountain in Trafalgar Square
The wait went by fairly quickly, and we were lucky to have nice weather and not even need our toques, gloves or umbrellas. The countdown came and we heard Big Ben’s chimes over the loudspeakers as the booming of the fireworks began. We could see the top part of the fireworks (all the big explosions) above the square, and the energy in the area was so positive and happy that we felt we couldn’t have ended up in a better spot.
Incredibly blurry photo of Trafalgar at midnight.
About 20 minutes later the show was all over and the crowd started to disperse. There was no way we wanted to attempt to get back on the underground, so we decided to take a long way around. We walked from Trafalgar down a long road to Buckingham Palace, along a section of a park, and then down to Victoria station. When we finally got to Victoria around 2 AM (after a couple of detours and stops), it was buzzing with a rush-hour crowd. The fast food places were making a killing as ravenous people loaded up on burgers and fries, and we saw many families who were bunked down to wait until morning for their trains out to the suburbs and neighbouring towns. As for me, the underground ride back across town felt long enough, and I was asleep the minute my head hit the pillow when we finally fell into bed after a long and happy day.
Another thing you cannot help but take pictures of.
The next morning Chris had to leave so we went to the airport together. It was a difficult to say goodbye knowing that I would be staying for another month by myself, but the adventures we had together were worth the pain. Thankfully, the time is half over now: in less than 2 weeks I will be home for a break, in my own bed, in my own apartment, and not a moment too soon.
Chris meets two super-friendly officers on New Year's. (Isn't he handsome in his new coat?)
