And thank God, there were round trip tickets to London for less than $190 from Saturday morning to Tuesday evening...London here I come!
The first thing I did was meet up with Danielle, a good friend from the States, at the 360 Theater in Kensington Park for a stage version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! The 360 Theater was rather unique... Actors could enter from any direction down the stairs that the audience came in on. In addition, the outer ring of the stage actually rotates! It let them do some cool things like run in place and give the impression of travelling.
After the show we walked around London for the rest of the day. Before I get to the landmarks, here are some stereotypically British things!
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| Guards! |
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| Awesome Cabs! |
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| Telephone Booths! |
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| Ridiculous Pub Names! |
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| Fish and Chips! |
Now on to some of the nicer sights we saw while walking around:
Buckingham Palace! I'll be completely honest, this had to be the most disappointing sight we saw. I really hadn't ever looked at a picture of the Palace, so when we got there I didn't even know what it was. For some reason I pictured something a bit more... extravagant. Nonetheless it beats the hell out of my 14 sq.m. room back in Freising, so I'm glad I saw it!
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Now this is a sight! Looking out over the beautiful Thames at this beautiful architecture was amazing. This was really beautiful. These structures are really impressive; standing where we were, I think I could have hung around all day.
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| Just a little guy in the shadow of the big guy |
The London Eye. This impressive giant Ferris wheel provides one of the better views of the city that you can get. Mind you, I seem to remember each seat costing about 30 pounds (~$47). Not worth it in my opinion, but to each his own.
And finally, Westminster Abbey! Once again a really impressive structure to behold, but we didn't get a chance to go inside or spend too much time around the area.
Saturday and Sunday were almost completely dedicated to walking around and seeing some sights. Monday I spent almost the whole day getting out to the Harry Potter Studio Tour (which deserves it's own post), and after that my camera died :( Since I can't provide many more pictures of London, instead I'll provide a few tips:
Getting There
Look for flights using EasyJet. It's a discount airline company but flies out of major airports, unlike RyanAir. They also aren't strict about their carry-on policy at all. I'm not sure but I believe EasyJet is hubbed in England. There are 3 airports in London providing many opportunities to fly in, but the two cheaper ones are Sanstead and Gatwick. I flew into Gatwick, but both of them will require you to take a train into London proper. I used the 'Gatwick Express', it cost 19 pounds but I was into Victoria Station in 30 minutes.
Every day while there I bought a daily Underground pass for something like 7.70 pounds, it let me get around the whole city all day, and it was really cost effective considering the amount I used the trains.
Lodging
There are plenty of hostels around London. but be mindful that it is a really big city. They also run a lot more expensive than hostels in other European cities that I've been to, but just chalk that up to London being London, and look for a nice place to enjoy your stay.
The first place I stayed was "Palmers Lodge - Hillspring at Willesden Green." I would highly recommend it, they have their own bar, it's in a nice part of town, computer access, and the security is great (need a card to get into a front gate, to get into the front door, to get into the door on your floor, to get into your room, and then a card to open your large personal valuables locker). For the 3rd night, I stayed in Camden Town, much closer to the city, but not as nice; more expensive, more people per room, and situated above a (dead) bar that I couldn't even get into because of a "comedy night", and no computer access.
Museums
My last day in London I saw something like 4 or 5 different Museums. The greatest part is that they are all free and most are close to each other. Personally I visited the British Museum, the Science Museum (this is really geared more towards children), the Victoria and Albert Museum, and, my favorite, the Natural History Museum. You can easily spend just an hour or two at all of these places without spending a cent! Here is list of some more of the popular museums. This is a great way to spend a day in London!
Pubs
Maybe this is a bit telling of my interests, but the pubs were one of the things I was looking forward to most. I like their style of chilled out drinking, and of course the Ales that you can't get elsewhere in Europe. As much as I like German beer, I really missed that bitter ale taste. The difference between the Pub drinking style and the rest of Europe is that clubs/discos are the most popular mode of drinking for most other countries (for young people, at least). I'm not a big club guy, and I think pubs are a much better place to talk, enjoy your drink, and meet people. I met someone new every pub I went to, and even made a Danish friend at one who I keep in contact with a little bit. The only trouble with pubs is that, because they are open during the day, they have to close at 11 or 12 at night due to some odd English alcohol selling laws, so if you want to have a whole night of drinking, you will eventually have to move to a club. Either way, I recommend going to the famous SoHo neighborhood for both kinds of drinking establishments.
I had a great time in London and I think it is a top 3 must-visit city in Europe. One of the best parts for us Americans...they all speak English (or something like it), and so it's really tourist friendly for us.
Well, that's it for London. I'm really glad I got lucky and had 2 extra days off of work. Next post will be about the amazing Harry Potter Studio Tour that I did while there!
