Monday, October 14, 2013

London Town

This is England
We had a pretty quick and painless bus ride from Sheffield into London arriving at 11am to give us just two short days before flying out the following evening. Each of us however flying out of separate airports heading to other sides of the world. So it was sad to know we only had a few more days together before more time apart and that our travels in Europe were coming to an end. We didn't let this get on our minds though, we had the whole of London to see!

New London Town
We stayed in the Fullam area at a nice enough backpackers for a very reasonable price of £9 a night each, and they even had a bar where I could have my last British beer. Coincidentally, like most English bars, they don't actually serve any English beers, so a Guinness it was which is technically British at least. From there we whizzed about London town on the Tube and red double becker buses. We got ourselves a unlimited day ticket for transportation at a reasonable price, just cheaper than our nights accommodation. We were able to make the most of our time seeing as much as I believe we possibly could have during our two days of wonderful English spring weather.

Big Ben all light up
The main highlights were you guessed it, the typical highlights of the London area: Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Convent Market etc etc etc. All were great to see, especially for Amy. A few of the more memorable places we visited were the British War Museum. This spiraled up from ground level going through the many and various fights, battles and wars that England and Great Brittan has faced. It was a great place to spend the morning, even had some dress up for us to try on. The London Museum was another highlight of our free attractions. It again went through the ages of the settlement of London Town. It had great displays and information through time of the original settlment, through to the kingdoms, Roman occupation and events like the great fire. 

Playing dress-ups at The War Museum
The final of my highlights was to take Amy to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. I have fond memories of this museum from when I visited in 2008. Modern art can sometimes bring the question, is this really art? There were many and various examples of this on our visit but once again, we did truly love what was on display. Some very strange, graphic and purely brilliant pieces. 

Amy with a double decker bus in Piccadilly Circus
Once again we utilised the services of the local free walking tour to run us around a quick loop of town and give us the usual humorous stories and history. These tours are really a great starting point for any visit to a new city, or even one you have already visited before. Even repeating the tours, which I did on this trip after already having done some of them previously while in Europe, they were still fantastic, with new history, stories and locations.


A highlight for Amy was definitely the British icons of the red telephone boxes and the red double decker buses. For me it was the final pint of ale which I shared in the company of my favourite person in the world. Nestled in a hidden little pub, dating back from who knows when, sitting in some big old chairs next to a very wonky table.

Trafalgar Square at sunset

1 comment:

  1. You guys manage to do so much in a short time. I love doing London too. Always more to see.

    ReplyDelete