London
London Day 1
In the Streets of London
Landed in Heathrow. 10 hour flight and a nice upgrade, the flight had plenty of leg room and a vegan meal, which made the red eye manageable. Noise canceling headphones on and I am out.
Touch down.
Customs was a breeze thanks to the somewhat new UK visa process which basically makes you answer a few question online like, “are you a threat to society” and thanks for the $20 bucks, scan the passport and your through.
We took the Picadilly Line into London which from all the other options into the city seems like the most straightforward forward. We head down to the underground, tap with Apple Pay at the gate, no need to buy a ticket anymore and jump on the only train running into the city. We were having a laugh as the first stop, Cockfosters. But, yeah. No transfers, no hassle. Just tap on the way out and you’re done. It might be a few mins longer but I like the idea of not having to transfers trains and ease of the tap. The girls slept most of the way too. Catching up on some sleep after the flight. So far so good. First train ride down.
The train dumps us at Kings Cross station right in the middle of London and it’s chaos. It’s loud and there are tons of people twisting this way and that, and we are trying to push all our luggage through it to the streets. My phone map, which is going to be my lifeline on this trip says its is a short walk to our hotel from there. A short walk is relative when you’re dragging luggage through traffic, crosswalks rough cobblestone walkways but we finally manage it.
Navigating the London Tube
We marched on into the streets of London to make the most of the few hours we had here and to shake off the dust of the long flight. With plenty of hours of daylight remaining we found the Circle line and took it down to the Tower of London. We wanted to catch the Ravens of the Tower before they bed down for the night. We loved the legend of the Ravens from our last visit. Unfortunately, there was a private event and they had the entire front walkway sealed off and heavily guarded. Such is London. We walked around the back of the Tower and across the Tower Bridge. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and at sunset over the Thames, it really doesn’t get much better than this. It reminds us of the last time we were here over 7 years ago with our friends and we can’t believe we’ve made it back.
On the other side of the river, we made our way to Borough Market, hoping to grab some delicious street food from one of the vendor stalls. Again, luck wasn’t on our side as most of them were closed by the time we arrived. The pubs were jumping, but not our scene, so we found a really nice Fish House. Did you say London Fish and Chips! You know it! The girls had salmon and I had a nice piece of cod deep fried and golden delicious with mounds of chips enough for everyone. No longer ‘hangry’ but definitely feeling the long flight we found a gelato shop around the corner. Say Ciao from London. Tomorrow we board the Eurostar for Belgium to begin our rail adventure of Europe.
Tomorrow’s Plan
Train to Belgium tomorrow. We stop in Brussels and should have time to explore the city before we continue on to Ghent. The journey ahead is full of lots of unknowns and we are ready to see where the road takes us. I hope you stay with us!
