Our final stop...
LONDON!
Our cruise ended when the boat was docked in Southampton, which is about 2 hours outside of London. But we knew we wanted to extend in London of course, and I wish it could have been longer than 2 days but Brennan was a party pooper and "had to get back to work".
We were on our own planning out those 2 days and we quickly realized we weren't in Kansas anymore. We were so spoiled by State Auto so figuring out our own hotel, transportation, and food in London was quite the adventure. Safe to say we will never be backpackers.
I actually had to check our camera and make sure I had all the pictures from London because I swear we had more, but being constantly on the go and always trying to figure out what bus or ferry to get on had us busy! We were on the go for a straight 48 hours and it was really fun, really exciting, and really exhausting all at once.
We took the 2 hour bus ride to London with an English tour guide named Simon. He was so darling and petite and proper I wanted to put him in my pocket and keep him.
We were dropped off at our hotel in Kensington, stored our bags, sent a text our to our families after having no cell service for over a week, and then it was back out to the streets to explore.
Everyone told us to buy a hop-on-hop-off bus tour pass, so that was the first thing we did. The bus has a constant route that stops at every and any thing you would ever want to see in London. It was impossible to hit them all in 2 days but we did somehow managed to hit most of it.
For sure one of the coolest moments in our time there was in the first half hour of sitting on the bus, and turning a corner and seeing Big Ben completely unexpected. The turn we took was literally right next to it, and it was so big and close we just looked straight up at it with our jaws dropped. It actually gave us chills. Of course we got right off at the next stop.
He looks like this tall skinny thing in most pictures, but he's got some meat on him!
Ben is even cooler in person-- no pictures do him justice.
There's even a line to take a picture with one of these bad boys. And there's one on every corner.
Then we explored around Trafalgar Square and got some lunch at a wannabe Chipotle called Tortilla, then headed to the London Tower, where everyone said we MUST go.
The center of the city! This sums up London in one picture to me.
We took a ferry down the Thames River under the Tower Bridge over to the Tower of London with every other tourist in the city. London was PACKED to the MAX with tourists, everywhere you went.
The bridge actually raises to allow ships to pass!
THIS PLACE HAS SOME HISTORY THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. So bear with me while I share...
The Tower of London was built in 1066 and was used as a royal palace and safe place for the military. It looks like the picture above but is huge and wraps around in a giant rectangle. We were short on time when we got here (because it closes at 4 FYI-- and they recommend taking 3 hours here) and couldn't get all the pictures we wished dang it.
Today it holds all the crown jewels with an estimated value of $20 billion. No pictures allowed inside but it was absolutely incredible.
Another crazy fact: 22 executions took place in the "torture chair" in the Tower of London, the last being a German spy in 1941.
At least 6 ravens are kept here at all times for superstitious reasons still to this day.
In the 1200s there was a royal zoo inside the Tower of London filled with way exotic animals like polar bears, lions, and elephants.
See what I mean?!
This really is a MUST see, but I do think it's somewhere you only need to see once.
Cinderella's castle or Tower Bridge?
That Cinderella blue!
Then we took a long walk over to the Shard, which is this big building that literally looks like a shard or glass and is supposed to have the most incredible view of London, but at $50 a person we passed and caught the next bus back to Kensington.
By this point it was late and we were hungry and tired, so we went to this cute little underground restaurant called Dirty Dogs.
I will say that London does not have the most amazing food. Nothing awful but nothing blew our socks off either, which is interesting because it's such a melting pot and there are so many different ethnicities. These Europeans just don't know what they're missing over in America! But Dirty Dogs had a cool vibe and good hot dog.
After that it was back to the hotel for a long shower and short sleep.
The next morning we were supposed to be up to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but it started at 10 AM and you have to get there 2 hours before to get a spot and we just didn't make it...so I watched a video of it on YouTube in our room HAHA. I didn't realize how long it was! So I wasn't too bummed we missed it-- we had to make the most of our last day!
We grabbed breakfast at a bakery at Paul Rhodes and decided to walk from our hotel to Notting Hill.
Notting Hill is like the Tribeca of NYC-- the place you want to live. I can't even really describe the unique charm of it. Mostly I couldn't believe real people lived here.
From there we walked back towards Hyde Park, the Kensington Gardens, and of course Kensington Palace to say hi to Will & Kate!
I eat this royalty stuff up. I could not believe this was where they really lived. I have no idea how they deal with tourists going through their house everyday-- obviously they live in a different wing but still!
We were going to rent bikes and ride through Hyde Park but Bren RRRRREALLY wanted to get a good picture of us in front on Big Ben for his office. Yesterday was all fails and he wanted to give it another go. Bren was really in love with Big Ben...their names are pretty similar you know ;)
GOT IT (after a few tries)
We then headed next door to Westminster Abbey to see where Princess Diana was married and it is just insane how old that church is and how much history it has.
That night we really wanted to see Wicked and heard that if you buy tickets the day of at Piccadilly Circus they're cheaper. So we hopped back on the bus and headed there. After getting tickets we headed to Oxford Street to eat and shop until the show. Oxford Street had some of the most fantastic shopping I've ever seen, and we were in trouble because Pounds do no convert the same way Euros do! Bren got some Nike's that were 70 pounds that ended up being $120... those pounds are tricky and we didn't have cell service to convert prices so we just guessed and went with it...we still laugh about it all the time. When in London...
We ate at this place called Nandos which is Portuguese chicken barbeque... sounds weird but it was actually pretty good. My parents actually ate at a Nandos in Ireland so I think it may be a chain restaurant in Europe.
We ended the night with Wicked. I grew up taking piano and singing lessons and learning all the Wicked songs so it was so neat for me to FINALLY see this on Broadway. The English accents made the show especially fun and I would be lying if I said Bren and I didn't both tear up when Elphaba was singing the climax of Defying Gravity.
After taking the Tube back to our hotel we said a sad goodbye to London and got ready for our early morning flight the next day.
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Reasons we loved London:
-It is Europe's NYC, DC, and LA all wrapped in one.
-It is not overrated and exceeded my high expectations.
-There is SO MUCH TO SEE AND DO. Never a dull moment.
-They speak ENGLISH! So refreshing.
-They still have royalty! And still do so many royal traditions they've done from the start.
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LONDON WE LOVED YOU
xoxo
