Tales of a trip to London

Though I enjoyed being in Dublin, I was really eager for our time in London. 

The hubby and I were both arriving to London on Friday morning, and we agreed that I'd wait for him at the coffee shop at his terminal.  I had about an hour to wait.  It was a nice break from the craziness of everything, with a good book and a tasty smoothie.

We were on the go pretty much every waking hour of the day.  Not anything crazy, but we definitely maximized the hours we had to see as much as we could.  My feet were in so much pain at the end of each day, as I of course did not pack practical walking shoes but rather my favorite flats.  To this day they are still sore, and I swear I even mildly sprained one of them.  Far from the relaxing vacation on the beach for sure, but worthy of all the pain.  :)

Leading up to our trip, we kept reading about how rainy and cold it was there - they were apparently having a ridiculous, unusual summer.  Even Dublin was cold and rainy when I was there.  So it was much to our surprise that aside from the first afternoon we were there, it was hot and sunny every single day.  And the days were flippin' beautiful, cause for some stunning blue skies for photos.

Day One at Big Ben - our only rainy day

Day Three at Big Ben - what a better view than the first time

We discovered upon arrival that our hotel was the official home of the entire International Olympic Committee. This means the entire hotel was on secure lockdown. Security was hyped up in much of London in preparation of the Olympics, but was especially prominent at our hotel to protect these high officials. After all, if someone wanted to negatively affect the Olympics, you go after the top. Thinking about it that way gave me goosebumps, but I also felt relief that we were in the middle of such high security.

A massive tent was constructed at the front entrance to house 4 x-ray machines and metal detectors. You would have never known it was the Hilton, except for a tiny sign down the side road that I was fortunate to have noticed or we would have walked right past.

We were immediately rushed to a security check-in tent where our passports were checked and we were issued our badges for the week. We had to wear them at all times in the hotel and to get through security. It kind of made me feel important. Once we were deemed harmless, we checked in and found ourselves with this lovely room on the 10th floor, overlooking beautiful London.

Haven't figured out how to focus in a mirror yet, but here I am with my official hotel pass.

We had the perfect view of the London Eye, which looked magical all lit up at night.

We tried to plan out our time in advance, but not really knowing the lay of the land (and knowing it could be crazy with pre-Olympics hoopla) we knew we'd have to play it all by ear.  The first day there led to an impromptu visit to Windsor Castle after checking into our hotel.  I had briefly read about it while sitting at our registration desk in Dublin, and since we hadn't made any other plans for that day we figured why not check it out. 

It turned out to be one of my favorite places, so I'm glad we did. 

First off, it's the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.  That's pretty impressive.  It's been around for over 900 years, and Queen Elizabeth II calls it home.  In fact, she was home when we visited, as the flag was flying and her car was there.  It looked like a little Kia or something...not what I'd expect the Queen of England to be driven in.  Inside the castle walls were several buildings, towers, and even a chapel where a lot of the greatest leaders of the royal family are buried.  We were able to view the royal apartments, such as the King and Queen's drawing, dressing, and dining rooms, all ornately decorated from the 1800s.  It was fun to imagine the people that walked those halls.

Windsor town was charming, and we spent as long as our feet could bear walking around.  Then it was back on the train to the city.  I felt so European.

We stayed in the perfect location.  An underground stop was only a block away, and we were within walking distance of two major train stations which we used a couple of times.  Across the street was massive Hyde Park, which was a fun place to wander around and people watch.  Buckingham Palace was only a few blocks away, where we watched the Changing of the Guard (along with a million other people). 

Picadilly Circus (the Time Square of London) and Leicester Square were about 5 blocks away and walkable, though often a bit painful on our aching feet. There were many restaurants, pubs, souvenir shops, and even casinos in this area (we did no gambling, just checked them out), so it became a frequent location for us to visit at night. 

We enjoyed a pint and fish and chips on several occasions.  When in Great Britain, do as the British do.

London is an expensive place to be.  The US dollar is approximately 1.60 for every British pound, but we found that pricing for everything was about the same as home in US dollars.   Entrance fees to anywhere were 15-20 pounds each, so we're talking $25 - $30 every time we wanted to go into an attraction.  Each.  That adds up fast, but fortunately we found some savings by skipping a few things that we could still enjoy on the outside, we attended a service at Westminster Abbey and got to experience the amazingness of the church for free, and we took advantage of a 2-for-1 offer at a few attractions. 

We often passed by the home of Prince Charles and Prince Harry after dinner, and I would scan the streets for a hopeful glimpse of Harry heading home from an evening out.  The hop-on-hop-off bus tour guide one day told us that Harry is frequently sighted walking home at night from the pubs.  I even day-dreamed about running up to him to say hello and ask for a photo, but we all know I probably wouldn't have done that.  Unfortunately, no royal sighting from afar for this lady anyways. 

This royal home sort of blends in with the rest of the buildings in the area - I would have never expected the future King of the country to be living here. 

The hop-on-hop-off bus proved to be a really great way to see the city.  And paid transportation!  There were stops all over the city, so we were able to get around much more easily from attraction to attraction.  It was also nice to just sit up top in the sunshine and take in the views while the guide explained what we were looking at.  There is so much history in this city. 

Did you know that this is not the London Bridge? 

I didn't.  Apparently it's a common misconception, so at least I didn't feel entirely stupid.  It's the Tower Bridge.  The London Bridge is the next one up the river, an undecorative, ordinary bridge that I didn't even bother taking a picture of.  The children's nursery rhyme is correct though - London Bridges did fall down.  The first one burned and fell down, the second fell, the third was taken apart and sold to a guy that put it back to together somewhere in Arizona, and the fourth is standing today.

We had one day trip planned in advance, with a tour company that picked us up and took us to Oxford University, Stratford upon Avon, and Warwick Castle.  We were smart for planning this tour on day 3 of the trip, as by then we were ready for a break from the walking and happy to sit on an air conditioned coach much of the day. 

We drove through the Cotswolds, which is a picturesque area of rolling hills and sheep and quaint cottages.  This is the countryside that I was dying to see, though photo opportunities were not ideal as we cruised by.

Oxford University was impressive.  They don't have a campus like many of our universities, but rather sprawls through the city and is made of up over 40 colleges.  Each college is a square block (or more) of dormitories, a dining hall, a library, and a central plaza in the middle.  So when you apply to Oxford, you have to choose a college you want to be a part of.  That was interesting - I hadn't realized it was set up that way.

We visited the Christ Church college, which must be the most famous due to good old Harry Potter.  We saw the staircase where one movie was filmed, as well as the dining hall that had inspired the one in the movies as well.  It didn't matter much to me, though I have shockingly seen scenes from the movie in that dining room so I wasn't lost to that piece of pop culture.

We also saw where Shakespeare was born and lived...but it was just another ordinary house really, and I enjoyed walking around the town more than seeing the house.

Our last stop was at Warwick Castle, which was pretty cool.  We climbed a tiny circular staircase of a zillion stairs to a tower that had some gorgeous views. 

Our last night, we went to see Wicked.  I have been dying to see this show, but the tickets always sell out in minutes when it's here in town.  Given how prominent theater is in this city, it seemed like the perfect way to end our vacation.  And the show was so good! 

Our trip home was a gazillion times better than my experience with Delta on the way there.  A gazillion trillion times better.  The main reason is because we were upgraded to first class!  And sitting in first class for an 8 hour flight is simply amazing. 

Champagne?  Yes please.

How did we maneuver this?  Well, when we checked in online, the screen said to check with the gate attendant if we were willing to be bumped to another flight.  We knew the vouchers to be bumped had to be good, so we volunteered immediately.  They told us that they might not need to bump anyone afterall but they'd keep us in mind.  We heard nothing more and were the last ones to board (why do people rush to go sit on an airplane?) when my boarding pass beeped like crazy.  The guy ran off with it, then got another attendant, and we soon found out that they were upgrading us.  We assume that they managed to not have any bumps by moving a few people to open first class seats.  Score!

First class is insanely awesome.  First of all, they greet you with champagne.  Throughout the flight, we were served drinks, then mixed nuts, then more drinks, shrimp cocktail, rolls, salad, more rolls, more wine, main course (steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus), rolls again, and then ice cream sundaes.  That was in the first 1.5 hours of the flight.  Later came more drinks, fresh chocolate chip cookies from the oven, a variety of chips and candy, and right before we landed a hot ham and cheese sandwich.  I have never eaten or drank so much on a plane in my life. 

And best of all, we had the most comfortable seats that actually reclined all the way flat.  And the seats had a massager, though not a very good one.  I spent most of the trip, when not eating, curled up under a plush blanket reclined watching movies.  It made the long trip so bearable and relaxing.  I know we'll never travel like that again (unless upgraded for free), but I was so thankful we got to experience it now.  A glimpse of what the rich must enjoy, except to them they probably don't enjoy it but just expect it as the norm. 

This has turned into the longest post ever, but we saw and did so many things that I wanted to remember that I couldn't narrow it down any further. 

It was a fun trip.