So it’s been a whirlwind of a week. Last Tuesday I left Colombia and three airplanes later, arrived in London. I flew Iberia & British Airways and had my first overseas first class experience. I have to say I liked it quite a bit 🙂 So much so that I already made plans to upgrade my return flight to the US to first class. I’m not about that 13-hour coach life anymore. I’ll take a flat bed seat, real dinner (well, as real as airplane dinner can get) and tasty wine any day over being cramped in coach.
London
After a brief connection in Madrid, I arrived in London. My second special guest (Mommy!) was already waiting for me. It took a while for us to navigate Heathrow to find each other but we finally did. Of course she was beyond thrilled to see her darling daughter 🙂 We hopped on the tube (London Underground) and headed to our hotel. We stayed in Mitre House Hotel near Paddington Station which ended up being a great location. It’s near Hyde Park and Kensington Palace, so the area was quite scenic and we had easy access to the tube. Throughout our stay, we mainly used the tube for transportation. It was pretty easy to navigate, even for me given that I’ve never really used any subways in the US on a regular basis.
In retrospect, we did quite a bit of sightseeing in London. By day three I was quite exhausted. After we arrived, we went to the London Eye. It offered some great views of the city, but I think it was a bit overpriced. The views weren’t that great. I think I got better pictures of some of the landmarks from just walking around and bus tours. It took about 20-30 minutes for a full rotation of the wheel and that was it. We had fast track tickets, so we didn’t have to wait in line that long, but the general admission line was insane. I can’t imagine waiting in that line for over an hour for a 20 minute experience. It’s not worth that type of wait in my opinion.
For the rest of our sightseeing, we mostly used our London Pass. The pass definitely pays for itself if you plan on going into 2-3 of the common attractions. It included a hop on hop off bus tour, hop on hop off river cruise, and admission to many of the most popular sights. We started with the hop on hop off bus and visited Buckingham Palace. The Queen was there, so the state rooms weren’t open for tourists, but we happened to walk up to the palace right before the changing of the guards. It was a madhouse. People were everywhere. Not my cup of tea, but my mom was able to get some pictures of the guards marching into the palace gates. I was in the middle of the crowd and saw absolutely nothing other than the back of people’s heads. The joys of being short 🙁 We got back on the bus and got off at the Westminster Abbey stop. Admission to the Abbey was included in our pass. The Abbey was beautiful. The detail and intricacies of the architecture of these old churches never cease to amaze me. The fact that these places were built essentially by hand is crazy to me. Included in admission to the Abbey was an audio guided tour of the tombs, monuments and chapels within the church. It was all really interesting. The hop on hop off bus came in handy as well. After lunch, the whole walking thing was getting old. We got on the bus and basically rode it out until its last stop. We got some great pictures on board and they even had a live tour guide on the bus who was really entertaining.
Our last day in London, we visited Kensington Gardens and Palace. Kensington Palace is where Queen Victoria grew up and the official London residence of Prince William and Princess Kate. Afterwards we got on the hop on hop off cruise on the Thames River. We got off at the Tower of London which was ridiculously overwhelming. I didn’t realize how huge it was until we got inside. Some of the crown jewels are kept there and we saw those, but after that we left. I can’t imagine trying to get through all of the Tower in one visit. I was also hungry, so I definitely wasn’t even going to try. We got back on the cruise and headed to Greenwich for a late lunch. After that it was time for my nerd moment. I had to go see the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker St! For our last dinner, we went to Rum Kitchen in Soho which had the best jerk chicken ever. Like seriously, I inhaled it before I could even get a picture. I didn’t try their cocktails, but they looked delicious as well. It had a Caribbean beach shack vibe. Right up my alley. The next morning, it was time to head to our next stop. Paris!
Paris
So London was great, cold and rainy, but great. But by the time I got to Paris, I was officially irritated with being cold and wet. And after arriving in Paris, it was still cold and wet. I think this impacted my first impressions. Then, on top of all of that, I felt like the attractions weren’t as centralized as I expected. They are all in the center of the city, but not as close to each other as I thought. But it could be that I was just irritated because it was pouring down raining and we were stuck at the Eiffel Tower with no where to go. Actually it’s probably very likely that was the case. Anywho, the second day went a bit better. The weather was nicer and we got to see some of the Louvre and Champs-Elysees. We also took a sunset/night bus tour which was nice. It wasn’t rainy the second day, so the sunset was really beautiful. We didn’t stay in Paris as long as London, so we didn’t get to see everything we wanted, but I think we hit the main sights. I wouldn’t mind going back to see a bit more of the city.
Mommy’s here for a few more days. We have gone to Spain and are in Italy now and I’m in the sun again! 🙂 I’m absolutely loving it. More about Spain and Italy in my next post. Later gators 🙂
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