We arrived in London at 6:20am, cleared immigration, and followed signs to the tube. We had bought a 3 day London Transport multi-zone pass before we left, so had no lines to buy a ticket, and just hopped on the early morning train. It might be harder later in rush hour, but our early morning trip was easy. Both of us had one 22 inch suitcase on wheels and a daybag.
We went to our lodging in London, Cherry Court Hotel, Victoria Station This little B&B hotel is infamous for its TINY rooms - barely a foot on either side of the beds! No chairs, no luggage racks, nothing except a clean, small room at a very reasonable price for London, located a short walk from Victoria Station in the middle of the tourist destinations of downtown London, and a very friendly and helpful family-owned business! I'd happily stay there again!
The B&B doesn't do much with breakfast - baskets containing fruit, crackers, and snacks are delivered to the room in the evening for the next day's breakfast...no problem - on the street corner is a great little sandwich shop that does a nice breakfast at a cheap price, and you can order a sandwich to go for a lunch picnic for less than 5 GBP.
Anyway, our first morning, we dropped off our luggage and headed back for Victoria to catch the tube to the Tower of London. We had pre-paid for tickets, but found there wasn't much of a line in mid week, early May. Maybe later in the summer you need to buy ahead, but we didn't need to...but then, it didn't hurt anything, either!
Heading in to the Tower, we spent a few minutes getting our bearings, and then joined a Beefeaters tour. Although it was interesting and the guide had a great sense of humor, it wasn't as "absolutely fantastic" as I had heard from a friend...we may have done just as well touring on our own...an okay way to see the sights, but not any real surprises. Maybe I'm just too much of a pre-planning type to not have known the bits of history told by the guide!
What DID impress me was how friendly and courteous the Beefeaters are - they will talk to you, pose for pictures, and were just a delight!
There was very little waiting - no lines for anything we wanted to see - just walked right in the see the Crown Jewels! I highly recommmmend an early May trip!
After spending a few hours there we headed out to find a double-decker red city bus, the #15 to St Pauls...where we found there was a service going on, so tourists couldn't enter...no problem - we just walked around a bit then caught #11 bus that took us through Covent garden, to Trafalgar Square. We walked by 10 Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade, the Parliament and Big Ben, to Westminster Abbey.
We took a tour of the Abbey -literally a walk through the history of England. It is so much a museum that you almost forget its a house of worship, but it is still actively used as a Anglican Church.
We would have stayed a bit longer, but we had reserved seats for the Tea at the Ritz, so we had to run! If eating with a pompous setting appeals to you - go for it!!!
Really, the setting is exquisitely upper crust, and very casual clothing is frowned upon...but this is a lot of fun for those of us who have dreamed of Tea at the Ritz as a lovely treat to be anticipated and savored...and I loved every minute!
I've been to teas where the food was skimpy and expensive, but at this epitome of teadom, food was plentiful and delicious, service was perfect, and we had a glorious time! They treated the two of us lagging, jetlagged tourists so well that we didn't want to leave!!!
But eventually we turned down refills of our teapot and sandwich trays. Talk about service! Wow - I was so impressed, and stuffed, and dead tired!
So we left the Ritz, took a stroll through Green Park passed Buckingham Palace, by Victoria Station and back to our room to retire for the evening! And that was the end of our first day of our 21 day trip! |
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