Our hostel was nice and clean, 6 person rooms and we actually met another Canadian in our room who had just gotten fired from her job as a nanny and was looking for more work... Also one of the guys was a snorer....
Day one : touring.
we bought 3 full day transit passes which was a very good decision and then hopped on the tube!
First, as shown in the picture, we headed to Westminster stop to see the parliament buildings, the London Eye, Westminster abbey, ect.....
Just for the record, big ben is the bell, not the bell tower... one of our guides tricked us on that question, don't let it happen to you!
Westminster Abbey. We didn't actually go in because the entrance fee was fairly high but it is a gorgeous building, and we even had some blue sky!
Parliament. We actually went in and watched a debate for about a half an hour. It was there first bill of the day, out of fifty that were on the schedule and it was 2 in the afternoon. efficiency is definitely not stellar.
For lunch we took the tube up to Jamie Oliver's Restaurant Fifteen. We had thought about going for dinner but as it was a set lunch menu was 25 pounds so we thought it would be the more reasonable choice. The food was phenomenal. I had a buffalo mozzarella and fresh figs salad, slow roasted pork, and then a delicious flan type dessert. highly recommended. and we got this great tubular padded corner table, see below:
Bianca looking lovely! I'd say she wins the most stylish traveler apparel award here this year.....
On the way back down towards the London Bridge we took a quick pit stop at platform 9 3/4. Took us forever to find it, there are some renovations going on in Kings Cross station at the moment......
A London Bridge..... not the one you would have thought huh?
Here is the Belfast, currently stationed in the Thames as a living memory.
The Tower Bridge, Tower of London somewhere there in the background.....
Look at those models! The Tower of London was not nearly as tower like as I would have expected. I also don't have any pictures of it but if i find a good one i will add it! They were also selling mulled wine (i think) and oysters beside the tower. almost stopped but we had a boat to catch.
Another picture of the London eye taken from the boat that we rode from the Tower Bridge all the way back the Westminster. This day was super tight time wise but turned out to be perfectly planned.....
The sky was gorgeous, definitely a surprise since I had heard, as everyone does that rain is the mainstay.
The guy on the boat explained to us via loudspeaker that it was not in fact a tour boat but that he would do his best in the hopes that we may feel so well informed later that we would part with a tip. He pointed out the old Billingsgate fish market , the old Globe Theater and many other sites as well as interesting anecdotes..... I'd say it was worth it, he could become a full time guide I think.
Arriving back at our hostel we had just enough time to change into a presentable outfit and head to the theater for WICKED!
It is the prequel to Wizard of Oz and was glorious. Funny and sad and so well meshed with the wWizard of Oz storyline it makes you really wonder how it all went down....
Day two Bianca and I took off without the gentlemen (I think they were heading back to take a tour of the tower of London) and may our way to the Portobello Road Market which you may or may not be familiar with from the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. If you have not seen this, i recommend it. We tried to get there fairly early to avoid the rush but our forethought didn't prove all that effective, the entire street was alive with people bustling and buying and busking....
It was mostly a series of quaint shops with tables set up outside and then several stalls as well.... Really cute area. Did I mention it is in Notting Hill.......
This is one of several musical entertainments we stumbled upon. Whether due to sheer exuberance, or they guy on the lefts hair (hair horn?) or the fact that they were legitimately really good, but they drew a huge crowd.
Baubles and Bianca
Bianca treated me to one savory and one sweet cupcake from they Hummingbird Bakery. As you can see they were quite good....
BAGS!
Sidewalk art near Leicester Square where we almost bought more theater tickets.
A taxi, i almost got runover taking this photo...
That evening we met back up with the boys and headed to the London Museum of Natural History ( free, what a novel idea) and checked out a few of the exhibits before it closed.
On our way back toward Victoria Station for dinner we made a quick stop at Buckingham Palace to pay our respect to the queen, she said she was to busy to see us .....
We then wandered our way back into town and stopped for curry! a must do, it lived up to expecations for sure! It was Andrew's first time having curry and I think he enjoyed it until he was peer pressured in to eating the rest of the Vindaloo, poor guy.
Day 3 and we finally make it to Trafalgar square. impressive that we missed it really the first time we tried to find it but we didn't spend much time looking because we came upon the fabled store Top Shop which we spent far to long exploring....
In the afternoon we went on an adventure to find Camden Market. A magical place that we'd heard stories about. after much trial and error with both the tube and the buses we finally came upon our destination. heaven, really. stores and stalls that went on in all directions, junior designers selling there wears, more vintage stores than i've ever seen apart let alone together. it was marvelous if somewhat damaging to my bank account...
This last night we spent in London we decided to check into the Piccadilly hostel. ie party hostel. 8 floors ofr something of rooms, we were in a 12 person dorm. It being Sunday we of course had to head out on a pub crawl....... It was great and we met the two fantastic Swedish ladies pictured below. Also I would like to thank Tania for the picture, i didn't take my camera on this little escapade...
The next morning we check out of our hostel and headed right to the bus depot where we caught our connection to Cambridge!
As some back story, Bianca's cousin Graham is currently attending Cambridge as an economics student and kindly offered us a place to crash for the night AND a guided tour! What a guy!
This third floor row of windows, roughly center is Grahams "res" room. everything is beautiful here.....
Kings college cathedral and poorly placed tree. Graham walked us all over, took us out for some cider and the best pub food around. also we climbed the highest point in cambridge which was so un imposing it was laughable... though apparently it did have quite a history...
The canal behind some of the oldest colleges...
we saw newton's mathematical bridge, said to have been constructed with no nuts or bolts, met some of the locals, you know, the whole shebang...
Someone punting(i think that's what it's called) along the canal... i thought it was a little to cold that day for it but this guy proved me wrong.
Kings Cathedral again. We actually went in and read up on it's history
The beautiful ceiling of Kings College Cathedral
The winding roads of Cambridge.
What I woke up to on Tuesday morning. the sun didn't shine for long but boy did this make my day!
My lovely travel buddy!
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