At the end of our trip to Europe, we spent 10 days visiting three different cities. The first city we decided to visit was London! We originally wanted to study abroad here, but it was so expensive that we chose Galway instead. Because we still really wanted to go here, we decided to spend four days exploring the city and seeing the sights.
We arrived in London after almost 8 hours of travel from Galway. We stayed in a cute little house on the edge of town found through airbnb. We had our own room and bathroom, and the house had a beautiful garden and nice kitchen. We relaxed at the house the first day and walked around the neighborhood, saving up energy to hit the city the next few days.
Sunday, our first full day in London, we walked around the town and got ourselves oriented. We walked through Trafalgar square and some of the surrounding areas, figuring out our way around the city. Later that day we decided to go to the Tower of London, which was a really cool experience. We got a tour from one of the Beefeaters, which were men dressed in old uniforms that new all sorts of information about the tower. According to them, the tower has been a plethora of things. It has been a mint, a zoo, a home for kings and queens, an armory, and more. The tour was so fun and informative, and our guide was hilarious.
After taking the tour, exploring the Tower a bit more, and going through the exhibit of the Crown Jewels, we decided to walk across the amazing Tower Bridge which was close by. We walked across it, taking loads of pictures along the way, and once we crossed to the other side we got to watch as the bridge rose up for boats to pass underneath. Later on we had dinner at a cool food truck near the Tower Bridge and enjoyed a mojito with the bridge and the setting sun as our view.
We had bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus that travels around London and decided to use them on Monday. We sat on the top deck of the bus and took it around the city for awhile, enjoying the sights and the quips coming from the live tour guide. We hopped off for a quick burger for lunch, and then hopped back on. We rode it through Picaddilly Circus, near Big Ben and Westminster, and over towards Buckingham Palace. We got off here and went to go see where the Queen stays, taking pictures and walking through Hyde Park nearby.
Later on we headed out to dinner, and then went over to the London Eye. We had bought tickets for the Champagne experience on the Eye, which was the coolest thing. We were escorted to a Champagne bar and waited for our guides, and were then lead onto the Eye and got to skip the whole line. We decided to go at 9 at night, which was the perfect plan because the sun had just set and we got to see the city light up from 450 feet above ground. They gave us a glass of champagne as we entered the pod on the Eye, and then rode it around for half an hour. It was so beautiful from the top! This was definitely one of my most favorite experiences in London.
Tuesday morning we decided to head to Notting Hill - partly because of the movie filmed there, and partly because we had heard it was beautiful and wanted to check it out for ourselves. The neighborhoods there were so cute and the Portobello Road market was really fun. Afterwards, we explored London a little bit more.
With our Hop On Hop Off tickets we got a free River Thames cruise, so we got on this after getting back into the city. It took us down to the Tower Bridge again, where we got off and ate a delicious lunch of bangers and mash (mashed potatoes, gravy, and sausage). Sounds a bit weird, but it was sooo good. We hung out down by the river while eating, enjoying our last day in London. After this we hung out a bit more, found a place to eat dinner, bought a few knick knacks, and then headed home to pack and rest for the next leg of our trip.
