United Kingdom: London Part 1

London Day 1: Buses, Mummies, and Chinese Food, oh my!

After our Mad Max tour, we rolled our luggage to the Bath train station and hopped on the next train to London. After traveling 1.5 hours through the English countryside with views of plenty of sheep and possibly one of the chalk horses, we arrived at London Paddington station. Since we were tired from the full-day tour and had our luggage, we decided to catch a cab to our hotel - plus, a ride in a black London cab seemed like a must-do experience. Our hotel was situated along Hyde Park, which was full of people enjoying the sunshine in the late afternoon...unfortunately, that was the last we would see of the sun for awhile...

After depositing our bags in the room, we headed out the back of the hotel to grab a late dinner at The Audley - a nearby pub. On the way, we quickly realized we were staying in a luxurious neighborhood as we passed a variety of high-end vehicles - Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Ferrari, Masarati etc just parked one after another along the street. 

The next morning we awoke to cloud covered skies and the first of 4 nonstop days of spitting rain. Undeterred, we donned our rain coats, packed our brolly and headed to explore the city. After all, as the Brits say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Unlike the torrential downpours of Florida, one can still manage to sight-see quite effectively in the light rain of London. 

To start our day, we jumped on the "hop on, hop off" big bus tour. Luckily, a section of the upper deck is covered so we were able to sit upstairs and enjoy the views while staying dry. We planned on using the London Underground to accomplish much of our sightseeing, but the doubledecker bus allowed us to first see the city from above before heading "underground."

The tour gave a great perspective of the locations of the major sites and landmarks while a narrator provided a little history, comedy, and even some singing along the way. As the name implies, you can get on and off the bus at various locations if you want to further explore a site.

We caught the first bus of the morning which allowed us to see most of the route and jump off in time to join the hordes of tourists waiting for the famed changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

Although us tourists were willing to stand in the rain, the Guards apparently were not. As the rain picked up, the police officers informed us that the ceremony had been cancelled due to the weather. While disappointing, we had actually only been waiting a few minutes; many others seemed to have lined up much earlier. We settled for a picture of a guard "on duty" in front of the palace.

After finding our way through the dispersing crowds, we hopped back on the bus to finish the tour route. We planned to visit the British Museum in the afternoon and decided to walk through Covent Garden towards the museum per Rick Steve's advice. Covent Garden offers a variety of boutiques, cafes, and street performers. Interestingly, every street performer (aka busker) in London auditions for a permit, even the ones in the subway system! 

Hungry for lunch, we passed through a side alley into Neal's Yard - a Hippie courtyard with brightly painted window frames, wellness centers, vegan eateries, trees potted in recycled containers, and endless charm.  After photographing the courtyard, we entered Homeslice -  a cash only pizza place with no utensils and measures how much is left in your wine bottle with a ruler to charge you for how much you consumed. You can order a whole pie or by the slice. Since there were numerous toppings we wanted to try, we shared three large slices to get some variety. Fun fact: British don't have a word for zucchini - they say it in French. 

Happily full from lunch, we continued our walk to the British Museum. The museum is free (like the Smithsonian) and intimidatingly large. Fortunately, we had downloaded another Rick Steve's audioguide that led us through the highlights from exhibits on Egypt, Assyria, and Greece.

As we said earlier, the museum is expansive and you could spend days admiring all of the items England "acquired" over the years while Empire building. The Rosetta stone, which helped crack the Hieroglyphic code, was definitely one of the stars of the show.  

On the second floor, an impressive Egyptian exhibit contains a wide variety of mummies in all shapes and sizes.

Even the pets were mummified - like the ancient kitties in the picture below!

Next, our Rick Steve's audio tour led us to the Greek section to marvel at the Elgin Marbles - a somewhat controversial group of sculptures removed rescued from the Parthenon in Greece in the early 1800s and shipped to London where they are now safely on display at the British Museum. 

After exploring some of these ancient civilizations on our own, we decided to join an Eye Opener tour.  These are a great way to get an in-depth walk-through with a local expert on a variety of exhibits.  We had checked the board on the way in and had identified one of the more impressive exhibits, Assyria, for this free tour.

Assyria was a Mesopotamian civilization who were a contemporary empire with Babylonia and Egypt.  Large, stone lions stood guard to exquisite reliefs, much as they would have in the royal palaces in northern Iraq.  The most famous of these reliefs are those showing the lion hunt.  It was an amazing exhibit made all the better by the explanations of the guide whose descriptions provided the context and meaning of the reliefs.

The British Museum is truly one of the top museums in the world and worth a visit when in London.  It's also the perfect escape from a rainy day.

Hungry and ready for a break from pub fare, we stopped at Yautcha (Chinese) for dim sum and other traditional Cantonese dishes like kung pao on our walk back from the museum.  Though not in London's Chinatown, this was one of our favorite meals of the trip and a spot worth considering when in the area. 

And Ashley doesn't know of a better way to top off a good meal besides gelato.  It just so happens that she had found a popular spot in Soho called Gelupo. Real flavors with fresh ingredients such as mint chocolate chip, blood orange, coconut, and even avocado. It definitely brought back memories of our time in Italy. 

Our final stop for the evening was a quick visit to one of the famous London department stores - Fortham and Mason. It was...super fancy, with no fair comparison to any department stores back home.  Of course, Ashley was immediately drawn to Fascinators and other accessories that had no chance of leaving the store with us. However, a compromise was reached with Nate and several tins of tea became souvenirs.  

London Day Two: Touring the Tower, a Westminster walking tour, and admiring art at the National Gallery

The next day looked much like the day before - more rain.  Our jackets and brolly (umbrella) were in for some use again. Two days of rain in London and Ashley was already starting to wish she'd packed her wellies.  Enough complaining now, as we were appreciative the rain ensured the most authentic of London experiences.

We had another full day planned with an early start.  With a one day travelcard in-hand, we rode the Tube to Tower of London and arrived just before it opened. To miss the already long ticket lines, we had pre-purchased tickets online which guaranteed that we were one of the first few tourists through the old gate.

Per a tip from our guidebook, we made a beeline straight to the Crown Jewels to avoid the soon-to-be lines within the walls. It was great advice.  We walked straight in with no wait and had plenty of time to view the various crowns, sceptors, orbs, and the massive world-famous diamonds. It was set-up a bit like the moving walkway for the penguins at Seaworld, but no crowds (yet) allowed multiple passes before we moved on.

Having checked the jewels off our list, we walked back towards the entrance to catch the next beefeater beefeater/Yeoman Warder tour of the day. While most people stop for the tour immediately upon entrance, we recommend going to the Crown Jewels and then participating in the guided tour, which is included in the price of admission. Regardless of what order you choose, just make sure you take the tour at some point. As the rain continued, Steve, the Warder leading our tour, led us into the chapel to give a fast-paced, highly entertaining history of the Tower, the beefeaters, and the executions - the British humor mixed in kept it light.

One of the legends of the Tower involves the ravens. Per the story, at least one raven must remain in the walls or else the Kingdom will fall. So now, to protect the Kingdom, the beefeaters take care of a few ravens in the Tower by feeding them meat and providing "homes."  

After our beefeater tour, we walked the walls of the Tower, which offered great views of the River Thames and the Tower Bridge.

Next, we made our way to the White Tower, which is located in the center of the grounds and dates back to William the Conqueror. Inside, the History Channel presents a variety of exhibits including some armor, weapons, and tools used in the infamous executions.

When we entered the White Tower, Ashley overheard someone asking where a tour was meeting. Never passing up an opportunity for learning, we too inquired to the tour as if that was our purpose for being there. It turns out we stumbled upon another free tour. While not guided by a beefeater, it was entertaining and informative nonetheless. The tour provided a history specific to the White Tower and helped make sense of the unfurnished rooms, old chapel, and the lives of former residents - we even saw the ancient privy and learned about the royal bum wiper.

Leaving the Tower around lunch time, we stopped for a bite to eat at Wagamama, an Asian fast casual noodle chain found throughout the UK with a location conveniently just outside the Tower walls. 

Full from lunch, but hungry for more tours, we tubed to Westminster to meet up with a guide from London Walks. As the name implies, they provided guided walking tours all over London with over a dozen options to choose from each day.

We chose a walking tour of the area surrounding Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. After meeting our blue badge guide at the designated Tube stop, we began our two hour walk of the streets and courtyards of the nearby neighborhood. 

While this tour did not go into Parliament or the abbey, our guide provided detailed information regarding the architecture and history of the buildings as well as pointing out things to see should we go inside on our own later. 

With the major landmarks covered, we detoured off the main road into the neighborhood located just behind the Abbey. Although we had been surrounded by tourists, double decker buses, and cabs just seconds earlier, we found ourselves in a quiet, upscale neighborhood of row houses similar to the Georgetown or Capitol Hill areas of D.C. 

Serving as a reminder as to how much this City has been through, our guide pointed out the fading bomb shelter signs painted onto the brick, which were used during the air raids of WWII. 

Nearly finished with this tour, we were led to Dean's Yard, an expansive courtyard, where the famed choir school is located. This area provided a peaceful, quiet view of the Abbey, which most visitors don't know to explore. 

By the time we finished our walk, the Abbey had closed to visitors in preparation for Evensong. Not wanting to waste any of our vacation daylight, we walked to the National Gallery in Trafalger Square. Per usual, we used the walking tour in our Rick Steves book, but had to take some detours due to relocation of some of the artwork. Even with our detours, we managed to see works from most of the greats - Davinci, Van Gogh, Seurat, Raphael, etc.- before closing. 

After a long day of touring, we treated ourselves to a splurge meal. Changing into more appropriate attire (i.e. not raincoats), we dined at Maze, a Gordon Ramsey restaurant in nearby Grosvenor Square. Although we missed the pre/post theater dinner deals offered by Maze, our meal was delicious nonetheless with attentive service. On our walk back to our hotel, we passed the US Embassy, which explained the diplomats we had been noticing in the lobby.

Although we had managed to see so much already, it was hard to believe we were halfway through our time in London.