We just arrived home after an amazing four days in the most incredible city, London.
Day one was arrived on a super early flight and caught the bus into the middle of the city, the weather was perfect so we strolled along slowly making our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Riverbank Park Plaza, right on the Thames river and only a couple of blocks away from the London Eye, Parliament/Big Ben and the Aquarium. It was the perfect location. After dropping off our bags we headed down the banks of the river to catch the hop on hop off bus at Trafalgar Square. The bus was the perfect way to get oriented with the city and it took us around all of the major London sights, including the famous London Tower Bridge. We got off at the London Tower and quickly headed in to meet up with the tour guide, a real live Beefeater. He was hilarious and kept us thoroughly entertained with the gory history of beheading, hanging and torture surrounding the castle. The tour ended with me drooling all over the display cases containing the real crown jewels, which of course you can't take photos of, too bad!
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| Our Beefeater Tour Guide |
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| Tower of London - Traitor's Gate |
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| The London Tower Bridge |
We then jumped onto a riverboat and headed back towards Parliament. After checking into the hotel and changing for the evening we headed over to Piccadilly St. and ate dinner at the first ever Hard Rock Cafe, cheesy/touristy we know but it was the first one. Afterwards we strolled back to the hotel, passing by Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Parliament house all lit up. It was beautiful!
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| Westminster Abbey at Night |
Day two started out bright and early by heading out for another day of sightseeing and most importantly to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. After grabbing coffee from a local stand we pushed our way through the crowds and made it just in time. However it ended up being a special ceremony, it was the Queen's Baton Relay, a baton very similar to the Olympic torch was being passed to symbolize the Queen's Commonwealth Games. The Queen was actually in attendance and we even saw her (from a huge distance), how cool is that?!
Afterwards we headed down to Westminster Abbey and then across the bridge to the London Dungeon. The Dungeon was a super cheesy, Halloween show showcasing the major gory history of the city such as Gay Fawkes, traitors, Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd. It was interesting and not at all scary but a fun little Halloween special. St. Paul's Cathedral was our next stop and it was absolutely incredible. The most gorgeous Cathedral we have stepped into. We didn't have much time but we were able to climb the stairs to the whispering dome, where a whisper from across the dome can be heard clear as day.
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| London Dungeon |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| The View from the Whispering Gallery |
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| The Altar at St. Paul's |
We ended the evening with a pub crawl down Fleet Street. Our first pub was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese built in 1538 and rebuilt in 1666 after the great fire burned it down. The pub where the first dictionary was written and authors such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc have all found inspiration for the works in the pub. Across the Street is the Tipperary, the first Irish pub in London as well as the first place to get a Guinness also dates back to before 1666. The skinniest pub known as Ye Olde Cock Tavern was also frequented by Charles Dickens. Across the street on the corner the old London Bank has also been turned into a swanky pub. We hit a few other pubs and of course had a traditional meal of Bangers and Mash AND Fish and Chips before grabbing a cab back to our hotel.
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| Fleet Street |
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| Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese |
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| Ye Olde Cock Tavern - Skinniest pub in London |
The next morning we woke up even earlier and met up with our tour group Evans and Evan Tour Company for a trip to Windsor Castle, Roman Baths and Stonehenge. Windsor Castle was incredible, as it should be since it is preferred over Buckingham as the Queen's place of residence. We saw Queen Mary's Dollhouse and State Apartments. It was definitely a Palace I could feel at home in! We made it just in time to see the changing of the guards and it was AWESOME. We had to run back to the bus though to make it in time for our next destination the Roman Baths. The city of Bath is a UNESCO world heritage site and was incredible, I wish we had spent way more time exploring. The Baths date back to the Roman times. We ended the tour with a trip up to Stonehenge where even though it was cold and windy the site was still a wonder to see.
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Changing of the Guards
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| Windsor Castle |
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| Roman Baths |
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| Traditional Meat Pasty |
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| Fresh Toffee Fudge |
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| Stonehenge - It was very windy! |
The next day was grey and raining. London must have known we were sad to leave. It was the best trip ever and both of us can not wait to go back!
