Monday September 19 to Friday September 23, 2016
I’m back to London! Wohooo 🙂 I love this city.
It has taken me a while to write the last few blogs from London.. Writers block or maybe after coming back from the trip i was too tired to even think…. Probably both I guess but here are my last 4 blog posts from London.
On my last blog post from Bruges, I told you that is was traveling on my own. So here are a couple things I have learned.
- When things go wrong, you are it. I need to figure it out on my own. I have my handy smartphone with me so I have info at my finger tips which makes things so much easier. Having an international plan or even a local phone is worth the $.
- I can do as much or as little as I want to do that day. I know I am coming back some time soon again so I don’t feel I have to cram everything in one trip
- You meet very interesting and nice people but you need to be open to talk to strangers – no problem for me! I talk with everyone. 🙂
Day 1:
I arrived in London via Brussels on Eurostar after spending the weekend in Bruges. It was about 1.5hrs or so from Brussels via the underground channel. I was out as soon as i sat down so i did not see much of the scenery or when we went in the channel. Oops!
I woke up at Kings Cross Station. Yep, this is the place where Harry Potter will leave to go to Hogwarts… They have platform 9 3/4 here. 🙂 I was back on the Tube to go to Victoria Station since my hotel was in the Westminster neighborhood. Awesome location; only 2 blocks from the tube and lots of pubs and places to eat very close. My hotel was called The Beverley. I had the cutest room with a very comfy bed.
After dropping off my bags at the hotel, I decided to walk all the way to Westminster Abbey and do the tour. As i was walking past Victoria Station i stumbled upon the Apollo Theater where they were showing WICKED! So on a whim, i walked to the box office and got tickets for that evening. LOVE that show, one of my favorites.
After getting my tickets, i continued my walk to Westminster Abbey. On the way there i found this cute church – Westminster Cathedral – OMG! the altar was gorgeous. you will not think much of the church looking at the outside.
They also have a tower from which you can view the city – on a sunny day – which was not the case on the day I was there. 🙂 The gentleman that mans the elevator when he came back up to pick me, asked me: “So did you see EVERYTHING?” Hmmm, Yes, I think so I replied. -Well, I really did not see much – He smiled at me and then told me to follow him and he took me to all 4 viewpoints and showed me the main sites that you could see from there. Haha! Yep, I missed them all. You could see the ET, Wembley stadium and some other places he mentioned and that I can’t remember now.
I chatted with him for a bit longer and then he was satisfied I had seen EVERYTHING he took me back down on the elevator. 🙂 Great start for my adventure of the day.
I walked all the way to Westminster Abbey to find out that the last time to enter was 3:30pm. I think it was close to 4:30 when i arrived. So i decided to stay for the Evensong service. It was what the kids and I did at Notre Dame but this time I could actually understand what they were saying/singing. While I was in line waiting to go in, I met this sweet old lady that was from London. She knew right away I was a “Yankee” – yes, she called me that; not sure what gave me away! haha! Must be my Yankeeish accent. LOL She used to be a University professor in St Louis and was now retired and back home to London. She told me a bit of the history of the Abbey. Pretty cool! So when they finally let us in for the Evensong service, I was able to see the Abbey anyways although did not have the luxury of staying too long doing the oohs, aahs when walking thru.
I had already read the walking tour of the Abbey in Rick Steves guide so I knew what to expect. Wish i could show you pics, but they are prohibited at the Abbey. Here is a link for a short video so you can see the Abbey. This abbey has seen Royal family weddings, coronations, funerals, etc.
After the religious service was over it was time for dinner and Wicked at 7:30pm. I found a cute place to grab some sushi and I headed over to the Theatre. I think Monday was the day of meeting people. Sitting next to me at Wicked was this family from Singapore that were in London dropping off their son at college. How cool is that! Going to college in London. Wicked was amazing as always. After the theatre, i walked back to my hotel and crashed. It was along day and on Tuesday I had to get up early to catch the Harry Potter’s bus to go tour the studio!!
Until next post, much Love, Ana ❤
Adventuring and other travel musings... 