1 Day in London

Remember how you were super jealous I got to fly business class?  Don’t deny it.  I’d hate myself too and I’m really not looking forward to my next non-business-class-transatlantic-flight.  But alas, I just got back from a southwest flight from Albuquerque, a quick way to bring me back to airplane-reality.

Back to Europe.

I landed in London at 6AM and headed straight for the hotel.  I really only had 1 day to explore the city and wanted to get the most out of it.

Disclosure: I visited Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London Museum on a previous trip, so did not visit these 2 places on my “1 day in London.”  BUT I highly recommend them to anyone planning a quick trip to the UK.

First on our list was the British Museum.  It’s FREE!  What?!  I’m a sucker for anything free, and it was a short walk from our hotel.  Double points dance.

Lisa is an avid “audio tour” fan, so we buckled down and paid the 4.50 pounds for the tour.  We found the tour to be clunky, for lack of a better word.  We spent a lot of time saying things like, “wait, what is it talking about?” and “where do we go now?” and “ugh, they could have done this better.”  So critical 🙂

Highlights included the Rosetta Stone (the British Museum’s Mona Lisa), an Easter Island statue, and some pieces of the Parthenon.  Oooh, and we got to see the 2012 Olympic medals.

And the Instagrams.

After the museum it was time for some afternoon tea.  Also within walking distance.  This time at the Kingsway hotel.  Would I go here again for tea?  Well…..it wasn’t super expensive as far as tea is concerned (15 pounds) but wasn’t anything to write home about.  BUT the scones were amazing and if my stomach bigger, I’d have eaten a lot more.  We got 4 crust-less sandwiches.  And let’s just say that crust-less sandwiches are way better than sandwiches with crust.  Don’t be fooled.  And they were made on white bread, which I haven’t eaten since about 3rd grade.  Also amazing.  Tier 2 had 2 different kinds of scones, both buttery and delicious.  The top tier had random dessert type items.  Only meh for me.  But it was a fun activity and we were stuffed. (oh yeah, we got some tea too).

After tea we needed to walk off our sweets, so it was time for St. Paul’s Cathedral.  This was where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married.  They didn’t let you take pictures, but you’ll have to trust me that it was very nice inside.  It cost a few pounds to get in, BUT admission included an audio tour!  Lisa was in audio tour heaven!  And this tour was an improvement over the British Museum tour.  The best part of the Cathedral was getting to climb the dome.  500+ steps to the top.  A great way to burn off the scones and tighten the buns at the same time!

These steps were not ADA accessible and there were some definite low ceilings.

BUT the views were amazing!

There’s a special place in my heart for the Globe Theater.  I built a scaled replica in 9th grade.  It was pretty awesome.

And then it was time to SHOP!  We took the underground straight to Harrods for a little window shopping.  If you go to Harrods, be sure to find the puppies and kitties on the top floor.  Yes, live puppies and kitties.  Super cute.

The toy department was selling Will and Kate dolls for their anniversary.  100 pounds.

After 2 hours in the store, we decided to head back to the hotel and grab some dinner.  We ate at a lovely little restaurant near Leicester Square.  We had a grumpy waiter but enjoyed a fish pie (2 words I never thought I’d say in 1 sentence).  But it was actually pretty tasty.

As we made our way back to the hotel, we realized what a cute little neighborhood we had landed in.  Covent Garden!

Cute shops and restaurants AND Laduree!  What’s Laduree?  It’s actually a French shop that is famous for macaroons.  We were planning on hitting it up while in Paris, but figured it would be easier to just get some here.  So we did.

My favorite was the salted caramel.  It was filled with actual caramel.  Genius!

We then looked at pedometers (because we’re nerds) and realized we’d walked over 22,000 steps.  Which meant we could indulge in our bag of English Candy.

So we laid in bed passing a bottle of sparkling water between the 2 of us….and ate our macaroons and candy. Not a bad finish to our day in London.