After arriving in London early in the morning, I anxiously got through Customs, picked up my suitcase, and got onto my first ride ever on the Underground. Public transportation is such a foreign concept to us Southern Californians, so I was (and still am) just amazed at how it was all set up.Took the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square, where my hotel was, and it was about a 45-minute ride. Was extremely humored by the fact that at every single stop the British woman's voice said "Mind the gap," and that I got to hear "Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters" more times than I could count.
Once my first ride on the Tube was over, I made my way to the Imperial Hotel where Ally and I would be staying for the next two nights. And I can't forget the absolutely ridiculous key that they gave me upon check in. It was just unreal -- reminded me of a bathroom pass from, like, 2nd grade, with a big long metal stick at the end of it.
But anyway, with a few hours to spare before Ally's flight arrived, I made my way to the British Museum -- a view of which we had directly out of our hotel room window. Of course I didn't realize this before I left and spent a little while lost in London trying to find it. But since it was early in the trip and I was so excited to be there, I didn't mind at all (a month later, and exhausted, I would not have been amused).
London Highlights:
- went to the British Museum (got a little lost on the way back to the hotel)
- went to Covent Garden for fish 'n chip dinner ($20 each for a little take out joint!)
- saw Buckingham Palace at night, after a walk through Green Park
- gawked at our hotel's breakfast buffet, with all of the ambiguous foods in big vats of increasingly ambiguous liquids (My favorite was the red, and by red I mean red, meat (?) floating around in steaming red juices. Whatever that was, I didn't dare touch it.)
- early morning adventure finding the London Bridge (and I expected a COOL bridge)
- long, rainy walk to the "nearby" Tate Modern museum (loved it!)
- crossed the bridge over the Thames to St. Pauls
- went to see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye
- went to Harrod's and had a blast shopping around, got an amazing raspberry+pistachio tart
- saw Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery (didn't go in), and the Westminster gate
I'm still shocked at how much we were able to see in such a short time. Our departure time the following morning was 6:45 am, headed to Paris. Though we expected early mornings, little did we know just how often and early they'd actually be... that was just the beginning.
