My First Day in London!

Hello Everyone!

On Wednesday I started my European backpacking trip and I’m exhausted! Jet lag is no joke...

Other than that, my trip has been pretty smooth so far! We left Cleveland airport after boarding late and made it to our layover in Iceland on time. Only to board at Iceland late too! We weren’t too concerned about this delay but we did have tickets to see inside Westminster Abbey that closed at 3:30 pm and we arrived at 3:35. The lady at the front was a total gem though and told us they’d honor our tickets if we came back tomorrow or we could be let in now but we’d have to leave by 4:30 pm. Unfortunately, we have a pretty fully itinerary this week so we decided to opt for going in. I felt that, as more of a history buff than a religious person, that an hour was plenty of time to see the main points. No pictures are allowed inside but I did get to see the coronation throne used by EVERY member of the British monarchy and where Will and Kate got married. Very beautiful! I also got some very Hogwarts themed vibes coming from the garden.

Westminster Abbey cost money to get into but there is not a set time that you have to be there, just make sure you get there before it closes! It is best to buy and print tickets ahead of time on their website.

After we left Westminster Abbey we were hungry so we decided to stop along the Thames and get dinner at a place called Bleecker. A quick burger and fries was enough for us because we decided to try and get on the London Eye.

Typically they suggest to buy the tickets ahead of time and I’m not sure if we were just lucky but we were able to purchase tickets and get on the eye with in about 20 minutes without buying ahead of time. The line looks huge but the wheel (fun fact not an actual ferris wheel)* constantly moves and they load about 20 people on each cart.

*As told to me by our tour guide Jessica, the London Eye is not a ferris wheel since Ferris wheels need two support beams. Terrifyingly enough the London Eye only has LARGE support beams from one side of the wheel. A fact revealed to me after getting off thankfully 😅

So more about the mentioned tour guide. My aunt Cheryl found a website called Free Tours By Foot that essentially sounds like the name. You book a tour with them that takes you on a mile walk based on the theme you have selected, ie. Harry Potter locations around London, Thames River tour, etc. Once you’ve completed the tour you have the option to pay as you’d like. Basically, you’re tipping your guide what you think they are worth! They are located in many cities across the world like New York and London and it’s super easy to use. After our experience with this first tour and how well it turned out I’m pretty pumped for our Harry Potter one on Monday!!!!

This particular tour started at the Jubilee Gardens right beneath the London Eye and finished on the London Bridge, giving you a great view of the Tower Bridge (last picture) at night. They emailed us a reminder about the tour, the day before with a picture of our tour guide and the statue (first picture) of where to meet. Jessica was extremely informative and gave many fun facts and details about the city's history like the London Eye not being a ferris wheel or that the south bank of the river used to be a place that no one wanted to go to and was cultivated into a beautiful hang out spot to enjoy during the warm months with bars, food trucks and nightlife. There were many people out enjoying the warm summer evening by having a few drinks! 

After sleeping 3 hours of the last 48, we headed back to the hotel on our first tube experience and proceeded to knock out immediately. Fun fact but no so fun lesson, there is a tube line in London called "Northern." I have traveled on my fair share of tubes, trams, metros, etc. but this is the first time I am navigating them completely independently (Cheryl doesn't do navigation lol). Though the Northern is named Northern, that does not mean it only goes North. I spent a few good minutes trying to figure out how to get home since the color matched my tube map but it said North on it. We ended up taking the Northern Line Southward. I felt like Patrick Star during the SpongeBob episode where they were trying to find the treasure and couldn't read the compass... "OH I thought you said Weast!"

Our hotel is the Premier Inn Blackfriar and my first impressions are pretty accurate from the comments online. Small but will do perfectly for two people who will more than likely never be in the room other than to sleep.

Already messy but our bed for the week!