Journey Log 9: A Friday Afternoon/Evening in London
London
Before catching the train to London, we spent the morning with Tim's family and had breakfast. The train arrived at London Paddington around 1:30pm. We had coffee with Alex before he was off to Brussels. After that we hopped a cab to the Ashburn Hotel, which is a "fab" 2 star hotel in the Kensington/Chelsea are. We just needed a place to throw out shit, shower and sleep. We checked in and dropped off our stuff (Room 47, ha!) We hopped the London Underground to Westminster and saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. We didn't get to go inside Westminster, but it was still pretty fab to see. After that, we hopped the tube to Trafalgar Square , which is by the National Gallery of Art, we walked around and then went on our way to Piccadilly Circus and then to the Soho area and had dinner at a small Italian restuarant. Afterwards we went shopping on Carnaby Street. We stopped by Shakespeare's Head for a pint (Shakespeare used to drink there, hence the name). Marianna and I decided to do the London Eye, which is a large ferris-wheel like structure that has these large glass-enclosed bubbles that fit maybe 20+ people in them. It moves very slowly (takes about a half an hour to go around fully) It is located on the Thames across from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Tim waited for us in a bar because he is afraid of heights. Luckily, we went late enough that there was not much of a wait. Then we hopped the tube down to the hotel and met some blokes from New Zealand and went to a pub for drinks. Pubs in England close at 11:30. Very odd.
On day two we will hit the Salvador Dali show, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Art and then maybe do some shopping on Oxford Street.
London feels like home to me -- I could so live here.
Before catching the train to London, we spent the morning with Tim's family and had breakfast. The train arrived at London Paddington around 1:30pm. We had coffee with Alex before he was off to Brussels. After that we hopped a cab to the Ashburn Hotel, which is a "fab" 2 star hotel in the Kensington/Chelsea are. We just needed a place to throw out shit, shower and sleep. We checked in and dropped off our stuff (Room 47, ha!) We hopped the London Underground to Westminster and saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. We didn't get to go inside Westminster, but it was still pretty fab to see. After that, we hopped the tube to Trafalgar Square , which is by the National Gallery of Art, we walked around and then went on our way to Piccadilly Circus and then to the Soho area and had dinner at a small Italian restuarant. Afterwards we went shopping on Carnaby Street. We stopped by Shakespeare's Head for a pint (Shakespeare used to drink there, hence the name). Marianna and I decided to do the London Eye, which is a large ferris-wheel like structure that has these large glass-enclosed bubbles that fit maybe 20+ people in them. It moves very slowly (takes about a half an hour to go around fully) It is located on the Thames across from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Tim waited for us in a bar because he is afraid of heights. Luckily, we went late enough that there was not much of a wait. Then we hopped the tube down to the hotel and met some blokes from New Zealand and went to a pub for drinks. Pubs in England close at 11:30. Very odd.
On day two we will hit the Salvador Dali show, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Art and then maybe do some shopping on Oxford Street.
London feels like home to me -- I could so live here.