After two, very cold (so much for sun bathing), days at sea we arrived in Dover, England. The cruise had people from customs on board the ship for those last two days at sea so you didn't have to worry about that as you disembarked. Everything went smoothly until you got off the boat into Dover.
We were going to take a train into London instead of an excursion. The only problem was the train station was about 2-3 miles from where the boat docked. I would've honestly walked it had I not been with my mom, whom I had to push/pull her luggage in addition to mine.
But the line for a cab was out of control. And to my observation, not moving AT ALL. And it was cold. I did not pack for THIS cold of weather. I pulled out of my suitcase all the cold weather gear I brought, two thin jackets, and I braced myself for the cold. After TWO HOURS of standing in this line, that moved about six feet, some other "locals" got the bright idea to call a private cab company. I knew there was no way I could call on my phone (no service) but there were two college aged girls behind us in line that I overheard were going to call. So I
Getting onto the train I noticed that 90% of the seats were facing one particular direction. Not really thinking about it, I got into a seat facing that direction. I was surprised when the train took off going the opposite direction. I know this seems to be a theme of this trip, me getting sick/nauseous/uncomfortable. I have never been like this, especially with motion sickness! But I think 30 has changed me. So again, I felt sick. But not enough to not enjoy the beautiful view. It all reminded me of a Harry Potter book/movie (go ahead and judge me)!
And into Victoria Station in central London we arrived! Once I figured out that they put their directions on the FLOOR and not above you, we were good to go.
We made our way to our hotel. Another huge thank you to Rick Steves, this time his London book. I found this very cute quaint bed and breakfast (the breakfast part was a surprise to me, it didn't mention that in the book) called Luna and Simone Hotel from his book. It's run by two brothers and a son that have run this place for 40 years. And it's still the three of them you see at the front desk and serving you at breakfast! The rooms aren't anything fancy, but it's about as good as you get without sacrificing getting a true London experience. And what could be cuter than this street it's located on???
Luna Simone is the two blue-gray doors and as close as you can possibly get to a bus stop!
The street of our hotel
The street of our hotel
Our Room
It's actually not a given that you get your own private bathroom in London. That was definitely at the top of my list of things I was looking for!
Anyhow, we decided that with the remainder of our day we would start out on one of those double decker buses.
J.K. Rowling's Neighborhood
Outside Buckingham Palace
Big Ben and London Eye
Parliament
Tower Bridge OPENED as we passed by on London Bridge- a rare and lucky sight to see!!!
Crossing over Tower Bridge
Tower of London
The next thing on my agenda for the day, because pretty much all tourist attractions were closed, was to go to a pub. Before I even booked our hotel I "walked" the streets around the hotel using google maps street view. Call me nerdy, but seriously you should try it some time! It really is helpful in knowing what you are getting into. But as I was doing this I stalked out this pub that I knew I must try. However, when we got off the tour it was Friday about 5:30 pm and this is what it looked like:
I wanted a London experience but I wasn't brave enough to fight that crowd with mom in tow. So I found another pub just down the street named The Greyhound. Sorry this picture isn't great, I got it from google...
There were not nearly as many people in this pub. We actually were able to get ourselves and table and enjoy being in the company of true Londoners.
We had a couple of these...
Then we headed to find somewhere for dinner. As we passed back by the first pub I realized that it had a downstairs restaurant. We went down there and it wasn't packed at all. Cute little place too!
We at Fish & Chips and had some of these.
During the short walk home I snapped these pictures:
I surprisingly found this very helpful for not getting hit by cars!
Breakfast the next morning at the hotel was definitely an experience on British culture. Here's their menu and the series of questions you have to answer:
How are orange juice and cornflakes interchangable?
What if I don't want coffee or tea or anything caffeinated?
What on earth is up with the main coarse???
So for the main coarse I wasn't sure what to get, but there was a couple next to us that had their food brought out just before we had to order. When they sat it down it was two of these looking things:
The American lady looked at her husband with fear in her eyes and said, "how do I even eat this?"
So I knew they weren't playing around when they said boiled eggs. And therefore I went with the first choice: Fried egg, grilled bacon, and baked beans. I thought the beans were a weird addition but I kinda thought of it like Joey from Friends does, "eggs good, bacon good, beans good, what's not to like?"
Oh and the bacon turned out to be Canadian bacon- I would prefer regular but it was still tasty.
So it turns out that was a pretty traditional English breakfast which I realized when I was looking at post cards later and they had a picture of my exact breakfast!
Next up for the day was the Changing of the Guard. We were walking distance from Buckingham Palace. We got a pretty good spot to view the whole thing- thanks Rick Steves for the suggestions!
The Changing of the Guard was another one of those "you've gotta do it once" things but not really anything that crazy that I feel I would have to do ever again.
From there we walked to Westminster Abbey, not really the best idea to walk with my mom that far but I couldn't ever find a convenient bus pick-up. We waited in line for about an hour to go in. No pictures are allowed inside but here's the pictures outside.
Next up, the Tower of London. By this point in the day it was getting late. Despite my best attempt to get there fast, by the time we got there it was only an hour before they closed (I think they closed at 5:30, why so early?). When I went to buy the tickets the lady did nothing but try to talk me out of it. She tried so hard that I actually at first agreed with her and walked away. But then I talked it over with my mom, she was out and just wanted to sit down but agreed that I should go in. So I went back to the lady to buy a ticket and this was the second round of our conversation:
me: I want to buy a ticket to the Tower of London.
lady: I would suggest you don't do that, it's only an hour until closing.
me: Yeah I know, but I still want to buy a ticket.
lady: You should come tomorrow.
me: I can't come tomorrow, I leave tomorrow morning.
lady: You should save coming here for the next time you come to London.
me: I don't know when that is going to be, I would like to see what I can see today.
lady: Well you definitely aren't going to see the crown jewels and you might not even get to see anything else.
me: That's okay, I'd still like to buy a ticket.
lady: Well this is a really bad idea and don't come back mad at me when you don't see anything (then she proceeded to angrily process my order).
Talk about covering your bases and ensuring customers don't come back mad! What's funny though is that they must do such a good job of not selling tickets that I got to see quite a good bit of the Tower of London because there were hardly any lines and people around!
No I didn't get to do the beefeater tour, and there were still parts of the Tower that I didn't get to see. But the way I see it, who know's if I ever get to go back and at least I got to see some of it.
Outside the Tower of London
Inside the Entrance Gate
But if I had tried to hit up the biggest and best parts with the limited time I had I wouldn't have ever planned it out the way I actually did it, but it was like perfect clockwork of what I got to see. I mean seriously, perfect!
The lady at the gate taking tickets told me to go straight to White Tower. So I promptly ignored her advice and went to see Torture at the Tower at the Wakefield Tower first.
Then I went to White Tower. No lines at all, just moved right through the whole thing as fast as I wanted.
One of the Towers in White Tower
Before I went into White Tower the line for the crown jewels looked like this:
When I got out of White Tower the line for the crown jewels looked like this:
I thought at first that it was closed, but the door was open, like it was waiting for me to come in.
Despite the fact that EVERYONE said I wouldn't be able to see them at this late hour, I went right in and there was only a few people in there so it made it easier to get through there quickly and still see all the jewels! How's that for amazing!!
Afterwards I took some more pictures around the Tower of London.
Tower Green
Scaffold Site (where executions occured)
And then I went to take a picture of Tower Bridge, but wait, it can't be opened AGAIN could it?!? What luck I must have!!!
Traitor's Gate
"Guard" looking into traitor's gate
After the Tower of London we made our way to another Pub. Not that I'm opposed to going to another type of restaurant, it was just an easy decision and who wouldn't want a few more beers in London?
The restaurant we went to with Trafalgar Square in the background.
Long-handled pulls- they pull the beer up from the cellar! Fun to watch the bar tenders pour these because it takes some serious effort to pull, even a little throwing of their body weight!!
Not the typical view you get with a beer!
Fish and Chips sample platter (sorry blurry and sideways). FYI- that's not guacamole but pea mash and don't eat the pickled onion. :/
One last picture...
London was amazing. We were sad to leave, although money wise I was not because it was expensive! I would love to go back one day and see more of it!!
