London - her experience

Before going to London, I think not a day went by without me checking the online weather reports to find out how the weather will be while we’re there. I even knew by heart the hour intervals when it was supposed to rain in each of the 6 days of our holiday (16-21 May). It was such a great surprise that we only had 2 hours of rain, and only one cloudy day.
Another thing I did before leaving was a list of places I wished to see…Here’s when I had another surprise in store for me: London is so big , interesting and exciting and there are so many things to do and see, that it’s impossible to do it all in 6 days…so we has to prioritize :)

Accomodation:
We stood at Hotel Normandie, very well located close to the city center and in walking distance from Hyde Park. The rooms were quite small, but all in all I would say in was a good price – quality ratio. Breakfast was included in the accommodation price, and I can honestly say that after 5 mornings of English breakfast (fried eggs, ham, sausage and beans), I no longer want to hear / smell/ taste eggs for the next 2 months.

What we visited:
First thing you have to do (preferably at the airport, upon you arrival) is to buy an Oyster Card – a public transportation card. We paid 30 ₤ for a one week Oyster card available in areas 1 and 2.
First of all, I have to mention that I found all the entrance fees to museums/churches etc HUGE… this was another good reason to prioritize J
We bought a one day “London Pass” for 36 ₤, which offered us free entrance to almost all the places of interest we wanted to visit (of course, at a lower price than what one would normally pay at the entrance), and discounts / special offers to restaurants, pubs, cinemas and theatres The trick here was that in order to make this purchase “worth-it” we had to visit enough places during that day…and here’s what we chose:

In the morning we took a boat cruise - very nice, especially since the boat crew took the time to explain the meaning / history / importance of every single building on both riversides all the way from London to Greenwich. Of course, at the end of the cruise they politely said good-buy with a bucket in their hands, making it very difficult to avoid showing how much you appreciated their comments and visiting tips.
Greenwich is such a quiet and peaceful place, it was a pity we only spent 2 hours there. It has a huge park climbing up to the Royal Observatory, with a nice view and dozens of people desperately trying to step on the Meridian line

St Paul’s Cathedral with its famous Dome - an iconic feature of the London skyline.
I was determined to climb up to the Whispering Gallery, but unfortunately by the time we got to the cathedral we were so tired that we decided to leave this 500 and something steps climb for our next trip to London.
It’s a good idea to plan your visit in order to listen to the choir singing, this could be a nice relaxing moment outside the city’s buzz.
Entrance fee: 12 ₤, estimated time needed: 2 hours

Tower Bridge
First we climbed up in the bridge to the walkways that offer fantastic views of many of London's most famous sights. The visit to the bridge was timed with a bridge lift - it is worth trying to see one from the base of the bridge (the schedule is available on the web site)
Entrance fee: 7 ₤, estimated time needed: 1 hour

Tower of London
I went to the Tower with high hopes to see all the torture instruments, which, to my disappointment, were only three J… and not bloody enough for my taste. But a visit to the Tower of London is worth it, to take a look at the Crown Jewels, the Medieval palace, the White Tower (which at the time we were there was home to a nice armories exhibition) and have a nice chat with the ravens (there was one “shouting” at us at closing time, probably telling us to get off his property).

My advice is to also take a walk on the riverside and around the Tower in the evening, it’s worth seeing it light up, and you’ll also get the chance to see the Tower Bridge at night – a sight you shouldn’t miss!
Entrance fee: 17 ₤, estimated time needed: 3 hours

After this full day, we had a nice dinner at Wagamama (Japanese restaurant that had special offers for London Pass holders)

That’s about all we were able to do in our London Pass day; and trust me, it was a race, no time to waste if you want to group all these things in only one day.

When the weather wasn’t very good, we went to Madame Tussauds. Except standing in line for every single photo you want to take with the wax figures, not the mention the ENORMOUS queue at the entrance, I would say Madame Tussauds is nice, but not “25 £ worth of nice”. If the weather is good, there are plenty of better things London has to offer.

Westminster Abbey, known to everybody for its coronations, royal weddings and funerals, is a masterpiece and one of the places I recommend visiting. As a joke, I would say the abbey is a beautiful graveyard with exquisite architecture – because 80% of the abbey consists of tombs, vaults, memorials, graves etc.
Entrance fee: 12 ₤, estimated time needed: 1.5 hours


Where to go / what to see:

Harrods, an almost 100,000 sqm department store, mostly decorated in Egyptian style, owned by Mohamed al Fayed is an interesting place to see. Of course it would take forever to visit all the shops and the 28 restaurants inside of it, but at least try to stroll through the perfume, chocolate, jewel and clothes departments. We ended up in a store selling designer dog collars - I didn’t even dare to look at the prices :)
Two interesting things about Harrods:
In 1898, Harrods installed the world's first moving staircase; nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal
In September 2007, Harrods hired a live Egyptian cobra to protect the shoe counter, guarding a £62,000 (€84,880) pair of haute couture ruby, sapphire and diamond encrusted sandals launched by designer Rene Caovilla.

Oxford Street - Europe's bussiest and most dense shopping street - we strolled on Oxford and Regent street several times, as it was on the way from our hotel to Piccadilly Circus. Shopping was not on our to-do list in London (guess why :)), but for those looking for a bargain I would recommend Primark. My advice is to set a time-limit for your shopping spree at Primark, otherwise you risk spending countless hours inside and missing on better things you can do in London.

Hyde park – take at least a couple of hours to walk trough the park – it’s great! We were lucky to go there when all the trees were in blossom, I absolutely loved it. Try to walk by the Speakers' Corner the Tyburn gallows, the Rotten Row , the Crystal Palace, the Diana Princess of Wales memorial Fountain, London's Holocaust Memorial and "the upside-down tree". Or just take your time and sun-bathe in one of the comfortable chaise longues you’ll find in the park.
While you’re in Hyde Park, take the time to also see the Kensington Gardens and the Kensington Palace – they’re very close.

Buckingham Palace
The changing of the guards from a tourist’s point of view is like a fight for life.
First, you have to fight to wake up early, to get to the Palace early in order to get a good visibility-place. The changing takes place around 11:30 am, but the diligent tourists are in front of the Palace around 9 am :)
Then, you realize your good-visibility-place is useless, because you have to run from one side of the square to the other to see the guards coming to the Palace (and fight not to get kicked by other tourists running alongside with you).
Then, again resume your fight for the good-visibility-place; there’s a compromise here – if you had good visibility while chasing the guards, for sure you won’t get a good spot anymore, because they’ll all be taken :) That’s what happened to us!
Round 4: fight to at least take some good photos from behind the fence. The sight is quite scary: hundreds of arms holding tightly their cameras, squeezing through the fence pillars, and taking photos without being able to see what they capture, hoping to zoom on a guard and not on a bush :)
All in all, the changing of the guards’ ceremony would be nice if it wouldn’t be such a touristy chaos. And there’s no way of winning this fight when your opponents are big groups of Japanese tourists armed with cameras and ready to make any sacrifice for their photos.

In front of the Palace is St James’s Park, I’d recommend feeding the squirrels in the park instead of harassing the Queen’s guards :) The squirrels also might appreciate it more than the poor guards.

Soho Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to walk all the small streets in Soho, we stopped to Carnaby Street and had a good beer at O’Neills . Soho is a good place to go for some evening / night fun – lots of pubs, restaurants and clubs filled with fun-loving lousy brits :)

Camden Market : Like our London Pass guide book said: “Camden Market has to be seen to be believed” :) Camden was a touristic surprise, a unique place I wouldn’t have expected to find in London.
Basically, it’s a group of 6 markets selling everything from designer, alternative & vintage clothing and accessories to one-off pieces of art, furnishings, antiques, jewellery, records & CDs, collectables, arts & crafts and international food.

But the best thing about Camden Markets is the atmosphere there: it’s a complete contrast to the metropolitan feel of the central London shopping areas such as Oxford and Regent Street.

Walking through it feels like participating in a huge bohemian carnival.

It also features an impressive selection of restaurants, bars and cafes, as well as countless international food stalls, serving everything from Turkish pie to Thai curries, dim sum and authentic masala chai.
We spent half a day there, but I would have gladly stayed the whole day...

Trafalgar Square –
with Nelson’s Column at its centre , is also the place where the National Gallery is. We went by when the weather was quite cold and windy, so we didn’t enjoy this place that much.

Piccadilly Circus
It’s particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue of an archer popularly known as Eros. Except its notoriety and the fact that it is a famous road junction for some of the main streets in the city center, I didn’t find it particularly interesting.

Covent Garden: We went for a walk around Covent Garden in an evening, and I think this is the best time to go there because there are plenty of open-air cafés, restaurants, pubs, market stalls and shops. Probably the piazza is most famous for the many street performers who entertain the visitors. But be careful, their shows might become too interactive for your taste - as it happened to us when we ended up kissing at the orders of one of the performers, in front of around 100 people stareing at us (and when I crowd like that applauses you for a kiss, what can you do? – you MUST kiss :)

Houses of Parliament / Big Ben
They’re not open to the public, so all we could do is take a look from the outside. I liked them much more at night, when they were light up. On our last day, we even got the see the flag rise on the House of Parliament (which means the MPs are in session – as our guide on the boat said, it’s a very rare sight, so definitely worth taking a photo of :))

London Eye

(also known as the Millennium Wheel), at a height of 135 metres is the biggest Ferris wheel in Europe. We didn’t ride in it because we decided the view of the city we saw from the Tower Bridge was good enough.
Entrance fee: 17 ₤, estimated time needed: 1 hour

Overall, I think London is one of the places I would surely like to visit again in the future. Five days is not enough to soak in everything this city has to offer, and it's a pitty having to always be on the run. Yes, it's expensive but not as expensive as the myths say (the most over-priced are the entrance fees, but the food can be affordable if you don't go into the first glam restaurant on your path).

* More photos here

'Till next time!