Originally published: 12/1/2015 | 3:30pm
Now, I will continue with Days 5.5-7 of my trip to Europe which consisted of the long-awaited stop in London. We arrived in the early evening and spent the second half of Day 5 of our trip resting and finding dinner nearby our hotel. The following two days were spent exploring as much of London as we possibly could. There was actually so much to see and do that we didn't make it to all of the popular tourist sightseeing spots or activities. In fact, most of what I wanted to do in London was something that did not get put on our itinerary. Personally, I wanted to ride the London Eye and eat fish and chips, but there was not enough time to do so. I guess this means I'll just have to plan another trip to London! ;) Anyways, back to my storytelling about my time in London.
Upon arrival we were all very tired and hungry. Once everyone got settled in their rooms (we stayed at a Hilton Hotel just outside of London), we were free to go next door to a location that contained several restaurants with a variety of food (most of which were American chain fast food restaurants). I chose Pizza Hut and ordered a salmon alfredo pasta. After eating dinner in my hotel room with my friend, it was time for bed because we had a busy day ahead of us.
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went on a guided tour around London (see my Google Photos Collection link below for pictures) that ended with a final stop at Buckingham Palace as the guards were just completing their shift change. We then took the famous double-decker red bus to the British Museum and spent a couple of hours there. My friends and I spent most of our time looking for "artifacts" that appeared in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. Due to copyright issues, most of what appeared in the movie are similar artifacts and not what you would actually find in the museum. Once our time at the museum had expired, we went to dinner at Wagamama. This is a popular Asian cuisine restaurant in London (there's even a location in Heathrow Airport). I also have a picture of what I ate in my photo collection, which I believe was yakisoba. The meal comes with chopsticks (which I learned how to use on this trip), but forks are available if needed. After we finished dinner, we went on a Harry Potter tour that ended with a final stop at Platform 9 3/4. I am a moderate Harry Potter fan and thought this was a great addition to our trip. We got to walk and take the public metro around London which allowed for a lovely nighttime view of the city. Then, it was back to our hotel for the night.
Our tour guide allowed us to sleep in on our final day in London since we had gotten back very late the night before. We shipped our luggage to Paris before checking out of the hotel and took a bus back into London to visit Piccadilly Circus. This area was very similar to Times Square in New York with large LED screens and locations for shopping all around. My friends and I went to a very large souvenir shop before realizing how bad the heat wave that we were going to experience for the remainder of our Europe trip was. We then went to The Gap to buy shorts because there was an incredible 70% off sale. When our shopping time had run out, we went on our final tour in London----the Jack the Ripper Tour. I was very excited about this tour, but between the heat wave and unexpected disappointment in the lack of excitement of the tour I can honestly say that I was not a fan. Once the tour was over, our group left for the train station where we caught the Eurostar train to Paris.
I had fun with my friends in London, but much to everyone's surprise that was not my favorite city on our trip. Perhaps I feel this way because I did not get to explore London the way I had imagined. However, this is not to say that London does not live up to tourists' expectations. I believe that if you are planning a trip to London with a list of activities you should make it to each of those activities to get the best experience. There is so much to see and do in London, and if you have very specific things you want to do those must be done. You never want to take a trip and feel as though you didn't have the best experience possible. That being said, London can easily be a city that takes multiple trips to be able to see and all that you wish. I encourage you all to consider visiting London one day if you have not done so already. It is a unique city with so many activities to do that you'll never really get bored! Check out my Google Photos Collection at the following link to see what I talked about in this post: https://bit.ly/KTTinLondon.
Feel free to leave comments below, tweet (@KimiThoughts), or leave a post/message on Facebook (@KimisTravelThoughts) and share your stories and experiences with traveling to London!
