London !!!

Since last weekend was Easter, my daughter had about 6 days off from school. My wife had meetings in London this week, so we put the dogs in the doggie hotel and went to London for about 5 days. Tons of fun. My daughter just read Romeo and Juliet in school, and at the Globe theater they were performing a somewhat modern adaption of the play. We had to get tickets. Just way cool. The theater is inside, but no roof, so it's an "open air" type of theater. It wasn't raining, luckily.

Before we left, we bought rain jackets, because of the weather forecast. Then of course it only rained for about 1/2 of the first day.

And the London Eye! We were out on Friday night, and were just going to go look at the giant ferris wheel. But we got there and they said they were closing in 1 minute. We bought tickets on the spot and were honestly the only people on the whole thing. Not sure why they let us do that, but they did. Tickets were 45 pounds each, so it was 135 pounds for the three of us. I'm curious what it costs for that thing to go around once. They said normally to reserve an empty car is 750 pounds. It was a pretty awesome experience.

And then on Easter Sunday, we went to the service at Saint Paul's Cathedral. Normally that is 25 pounds just to get in and see the place. But because of the service, it was open to all. They said no pictures but I had to sneak a few. They even did communion for everyone, so I'm saved for another year. (I'm not even Catholic.)

It's interesting, to get into England, you scan your passport, they take a picture and you walk through. So we got off the plane, and we were in England with luggage in 25 minutes. But then on the way home, it was just my daughter and me. Customs was no problem, Global Entry makes it easy. But there was a storm in Dallas Monday night. Our plane from Houston was cancelled. We had to get a hotel room there at the airport and then got home yesterday. That was pretty stressful. They didn't cancel the flight until after a couple delays and it was 9:30pm. Some people were VERY, VERY, mad.

Anyway, it's a great city. A lot different from New York City. My daughter thought the English Londoners didn't like American tourists. I'm not sure. Wait staff in restaurants aren't very friendly, but they don't get tipped, so I can see why. I talked to a couple English people. One cashier at a store was pretty friendly. But I'm not sure what Londoners think of Americans. Not that it bothers me or anything.

We only rode the subway in the Underground twice. It was so packed with people. I just kept thinking about the shooting at the concert in Russia. With that many people so close together, and really zero escape routes. At one point the subway train stopped between stations, just for a minute, but yeah, it bothered me. It was a long minute. My wife and daughter didn't even notice. My wife was on a work call.






Here is the Globe Theater before the performance:


The Tower Bridge:



The tall building is "The Shard" and the rounded building is the city hall for London.


Going Down into the London Underground:


Underground Station for London Bridge:


On the Subway:


I got this picture from the top of one of the double decker busses:


Here's inside the ride of the "last minute.com London Eye" What an incredibly dumb name.



I thought this was funny, "drinking fountain and cattle trough combined."




Saint Paul's Cathedral.

I hope the pictures aren't too big, here's a couple more.




Here's the restaurant at our hotel.





This is near Covent Gardens, it's actually "Dury Lane." Like where the Muffin Man lives!!!


There is a skateboard "park" under one of the bridges. This was Friday night. I'm glad the kids are skateboarding and not out spray painting something.



Pizza from a restaurant

It is a great place to visit. I was there many years ago. I was the Civil Air Patrol exchange Cadet from Maryland in 1954. People generally were great but the weather sucked. However, given the choice of London England or Edinburgh Scotland I would have to go with Edinburgh.

@Fox Mike…I've heard the same thing about Edinburgh. I would like to go there sometime.

Love riding 'the Tube' when in London, the Churchill War Rooms museum is a great take….if you like Churchill/History of course, which I do.

What hotel did you stay in, always looking to stay in a different hotel when I am there!

Thanks

Great pictures! Even the escalators in the underground are backasswards .
Was there about 45 years ago in February and the weather just sucked for 4 days straight. Had a relatively new girlfriend
that took me with her so we just stayed in a lot. She had an interview a ways up the food chain at Barkley's Bank and they paid for
her to go for 3 days and we extended a couple more.

My wife's office is right by the Tower Bridge, so we stay at the Dixon Hotel. It's pretty nice, and only about 30 minutes from almost everything.
Here's a link:
Dixon Hotel

I was going to also say, I was thinking about my comment on the crowded Underground. But aside from that, we walked around at night. For such a big city, I never felt unsafe. There are places here in Dallas I don't like even during the day, but there in London, we didn't. Of course I'm sure there are places in London I wouldn't want to go even during the daylight, but around the city center, it is very safe. And! There aren't a lot of noticeable police. So it doesn't feel like a huge military presence.

I had signed up for the Loch Ness Marathon and we were making arrangements when Covid shut down the world.
Still would like to go, Marathon Tours has a week long trip deal and you stay in Edinburgh. They leave time for some
touring and sight seeing type of stuff so it's a decent deal to let them handle the logistics and flights.

Thanks for the pictures! Sounds like a cool trip.

@Kevin
Thanks for the 'trip' report. After reading your experiences my spouse and I realized our trip to London was 10 years ago almost to the date.
Saw many of the same sights that you and your family did.
Stood by the Eye but because of the overcast weather we did not ride it....enjoyed your enterior shot. 45$ BP per person...ouch. Having the entire Eye for your selves would make it worth it.
We walked much of London, ate at a number of pubs and restaurants and rode the train to Oxford and back. Our experience (10 years ago) was that there was no issues with us being Americans...of course if there had been, my spouse is also Canadian and everyone loves Canadians.

Was there last July. Never rode the Ferris wheel but did go up inside the shard for an expensive meal. Went through the Buckingham Palace and a taxi tour of the city. Could have spent more time there but the money ran out.

Was there mid 80's when my Frigate made port in Portsmouth. Unfortunately didn't have a lot of time for London because we had to take the train from Portsmouth to there so only a 1 day in the city. Got to see some cool stuff there and eat a whole bunch of fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper of course cause it was still legal then. Loved England and of course London and look forward to getting back there one day.

Did you walk out over the glass panel on The Tower Bridge? When we were there is was funny to see little kids stroll across it while some adults hugged the solid outer edges and would not let go of the rail for anything! Pretty cool to be on it when it opens up below to let boats pass.

Just noticed that little green Nissan...not bad for 30 years old.

Great pictures Kevin. You ate at a pizza joint in London?? Just kidding. Did you eat at any true Fish & Chips places? I love their fish and chips (with an alcoholic malt drink to wash it down).

Been to London several times and would like to go back again. As a country we liked Wales the best though had family in Scotland. We like B&B's over hotels. Best play we seen was Phantom of the Opera many years ago.

" But I'm not sure what Londoners think of Americans."

During WW2 the Brits had a saying. "Yanks, overpaid, oversexed and over here." It wouldn't surprise me if some still felt that way.
Paul B.

Robb Barnes said:

Did you walk out over the glass panel on The Tower Bridge? When we were there is was funny to see little kids stroll across it while some adults hugged the solid outer edges and would not let go of the rail for anything! Pretty cool to be on it when it opens up below to let boats pass.

Click to expand...

We did not. We walked over the Tower Bridge a couple times. But in the evening just as it was getting dark. I didn't notice the glass panels.

We did not walk over the Millennium Bridge either. 13 years ago we were in London and walked over the bridge back then.

I read a review this trip that the metal bridge is hot and too shiny in the sunshine and slippery in the rain.

With all the people we avoided it altogether.

Wayno said:

I've traveled extensively Central America to Canada. Canada and the U.S. are the only places that are clean and decent.

Click to expand...

I would politely disagree with you. I think there are plenty of nice clean places in all sorts of countries. Just like there are plenty of dirty places here in the states.

I've been to Europe many times, and over the years, I find myself thinking how nice it is. As we walked around downtown, we talked about how little there was in the way of street trash.

Last summer we were in Amsterdam. My daughter fell in love with the city and its architecture and the canals. It too is a very clean city.

Been to downtown San Antonio or Austin recently? Not the cleanest.

I simply asked the question, is the condition of England or London, or any of Europe up to the travel brochures? After all, the infrastructure has been in place a long time.

The question was not a confrontation.




.