Our plan and itinerary for London kept growing after we toured the city via a vintage double-decker bus. This was a fun and informative hop-on-hop-off bus that took us to Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, around downtown London (down "the Strand"), then taken by a river boat down the Thames River and ended at the London Eye. A royalty flag is flown above Buckingham Palace when the Queen is present; however, she wasn't at the palace the day we went!
We then stood in what I seemed was the longest line ever! It was cold and windy while waiting and my anticipation level was spiking as the largest cantilevered structure (a structure supported on one side) in the world was just towering over me. The London Eye is technically not a Ferris wheel, because: a) the capsules are completely enclosed and climate controlled, b) the capsules are fixed to the outside of the structure and not suspended from it, and c) the structure is supported by an A-frame. This Eye has A-frame legs, a diameter of 135 meters, height of 450 meters and weighs 1,500 tons. There are 32 gondolas that rotate 360 degrees around the wheel and it takes about 30 minutes to go full circle. Each capsule was surrounded by glass windows and could hold approximately 15-20 people.
Beautiful view of Big Ben!
Panoramic view of London at night!
For the first few nights we stayed at the hostel Pride of Paddington. The hostel was above a nice pub and was in a great location near Hyde Park. There was a underground subway "the Tube" station nearby, so it was easy to get around. London's Underground Tube is very organized, easy to use and not as daunting as it seemed. We bought an Oyster card, cost about 50 pounds (by the way, London's currency is in pounds) and it provided us with unlimited Tube and bus rides around the city. It was well worth the money and I highly recommend getting a card when traveling within London.
Typical London breakfast: Black pudding, mushrooms, eggs, sausages, grilled tomato, beans and coffee.
Typical London lunch: Fish and Chips (french fries)
The weather was cold and rainy throughout our stay there, go figure. However, the bars and convenient Tube stops made it bearable. On the days that the weather was miserable, we went to some of London's great museums. Many of the museums are free, so we definitely wanted to take advantage of that.
We first went to the Tate Modern, a very prestigious modern art museum. This museum was VERY cool and had many famous paintings and artists that I was happy to see firsthand: Picasso, Salvador Dali, Kandinsky, Mondrian and many beautiful Monet paintings. There were other structures, or "pieces of art", that were quite interesting, such as the glass container of water to show condensation or the dirty rags on what seemed like a clothesline. We also went to the National Gallery which houses many older Western paintings: Monet, Bellini, the famous self-portrait of Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Raphael, Michelangelo, Venus and Mars by Botticelli and many more.
The museum on the next rainy day was London's Natural History Museum. This is by far my FAVORITE museum so far in my life! The exhibits were hands-on, interactive and PERFECT for school trips! I'd love to bring all of my students here to experience the evolution and fossils exhibit, the interactive natural resources and "earth today and tomorrow" exhibit, lunar and Martian minerals and the Darwin center that houses a HUGE structure called the Cocoon. This is a self-guided tour of a research and collection lab for millions of species.
The Planetary exhibit that has an escalator into the center of the Earth!
Martian mineral!
We wanted to tour the Tower of London Museum; however, it was closed due to the holidays. The picture below is me standing in front of the Tower.
Every Christmas season, London sets up their famous Winter Wonderland fair. I believe it was hosted by a German company, because there were beer tents everywhere. There were tons of rides, craft shops, food and a really neat carousel bar that was so much fun!
For Christmas Eve we went to Midnight mass at Westminster Abbey. We had booked tickets beforehand and yet had "general admission" seats. The Anglican mass was very formal and the chorus sang beautifully.
Since the Tube and buses were shut down Christmas day, we decided to rent bikes and ride around the city. The picture below is of Ledenhall Market where parts of Harry Potter was filmed. Much of the city was shut down on Christmas day, so many tourists would just walk/ride around downtown London. It was a great way to get a good and inside look at the city. We found one pub that was open and of course wanted to get some mulled wine. The hotel that we were staying at the latter part of our trip was Bermondsey Square Hotel and they provided us with a very delicious 3 course Christmas dinner complete with a paper crown and poppers!
St. Paul's Cathedral on Christmas Day (notice my Christmas beanie!)
Walking over Millennium bridge.
My London vacation wouldn't be complete without a visit to Harrods! Wow, was I blown away! This department store was huge and jam packed with people on Boxing Day (huge shopping discount day).
London was a great city and there was still SO many things that I didn't have time to complete. Another trip is definitely foreseen in the near future.
