My Happy Travels

Not a city girl, but when your flight lands in London for your UK adventure, it would be silly not to take the opportunity to explore and find all those iconic landmarks! Besides that, when you land with 24+ hours of flight time behind you at 5:30am (not including the time we left home to get to the airport and the 3hrs waiting at the airport for the first leg of the journey) then there is no better way to shake off the jet lag and adjust your body clock than to jump straight into tourist mode running on pure adrenalin.

All the hype of the process to get through Heathrow being challenging, long and complicated fell flat on its face. We had nothing to declare, our visas were seemingly attached to our passports and never questioned, we collected our bags, scanned our passports and walked out the door to find our prearranged black cab driver Gary waiting literally at the exit door!

Tip #1 take everything you read with a grain of salt and research your arrival requirements using the correct sources of information.

We arrived on a public holiday so Gary tells us we were not experiencing the normal level of traffic. Our journey to our accommodation in Kensington took maybe 40 minutes at most. No queued traffic and we found ourselves delivered to a one way street of terraced houses and hotels. It was picture perfect and just what I had hoped the area would be. Our room was not ready but they were happy to store our luggage so after a quick reset, freshen up and toilet break we headed off for our first of two days in London.

Researching London attractions led me to the London Pass. We purchased a pass that included 4 different activities one of which was a two day hop on/off bus service.  Coincidently there was a bus stop 600m from our accommodation so we used the first of the 4 passes on the bus and managed to time our walk to the stop just as a bus arrived. They cycle through about every 20 minutes or so.  We grabbed front row seats on the upper deck of the bus and settled in. Our target was Buckingham Palace which we were guided to through one bus change and a leisurely stroll through the Green Park.

We were a little early for the daily changing of the guards so we wondered around the vicinity of the Palace entrance. We dipped into St James Gardens, stumbled onto the Guards residence where some practising was going on, past the Kings Gallery and Mews and before we knew it the crowds were all heading for the Palace gates to gather for the procession.

I feel like you can’t come to London and not catch this show. I’m certain people skip it due to the overwhelming crowd that gathers, but for us, we decided it was something to experience.  The process is drawn out and I wouldn’t describe it as spectacular but it was worth the wait.  We had more of a street view than the Palace courtyard view. On reflection, I think, personally, the street view is the better pick. The courtyard (not that we could see it) did not have the horses or much of the marching. The ‘changing’ ceremony obviously happens in there, but it is all pretty stagnant and more of a performance of the band standing still than the procession you get in the street.

After the ceremony was done the crowds disperse and we made our way to the Household Cavalry for a snap with the horses on duty. Stunning horses with their rider dressed in uniform is a sight to see. Definitely a highlight.

Back on the bus, we hitched a ride to Trafalgar Square and found a pub for lunch. The statues in this space are spectacular and reminds you that London holds so much history that you just can’t possibly absorb it all on a quick visit.

From here it was another bus around to the London Eye and a stroll along the Thames before finding another bus to the Tower of London via the Tower Bridge. The second use of our London Pass had us walking straight through the gates of the Tower of London where we viewed the crown jewels, walked along the rampart and climbed the White Tower to view the armoury of times gone by. Quite the eye opener and well worth the time taken to explore.

By the time we were done touring the Tower, jet lag was definitely kicking in and we all looked like we had spent the day smoking the devil’s lettuce rather than exploring the city of London fuelled on adrenalin. Cab ride back to our accommodation, an early pub dinner and pass out. Day 1 successfully completed!

Day 2 started with a very good English breakfast at the The Blackbird just around the corner from our accommodation.  For our last full day in London we had decided to use our passes to tour Westminster Abbey in the morning and Kensington Palace in the afternoon.

With breakfast hitting the spot we headed to the bus stop for our ride to Westminster Abbey. Not being a religious person, these places of worship fascinate and aww me. The detail architecturally is always next level. On the outside there ware many faces, creatures, angels and full body carvings etched into the walls. This was only a taste of what was to come inside.

The building housed countless shrines and tombs of notable, wealthy or royal members of society. From Kings and Queens to scientists such as Stephen Hawking, this was a spectacular cemetery in reality which also happened to crown the British Monarchs past and present as well as marry them to continue their long line of succession. Despite the lack of religious belief, the Abbey is something to behold and says much about humans and their ability to record history in a way in which churches have honed down to a fine art.

From Westminster we jumped back on the bus for a final lap around the London sights to be delivered to the gates of Kensington Gardens. A quick bite to eat at a niche little Italian restaurant and then onto our tour of the Palace.

The tour of the Palace which holds a place in the current Royal family history was probably underwhelming if I’m honest. It had four galleries to explore. The King’s Gallery, the Queen’s State Apartments, the history of Queen Victoria’s relationship with the last Indian princesses of Punjab and finally Queen Victoria’s childhood memorabilia from Kensington before she was crowned Queen. The finals rooms regarding Queen Victoria childhood was the best as far as items on display including some of the family jewellery and as far as grandeur was concerned, the  King’s Gallery was impressive, especially the art work on the ceilings.

The final item to complete on our London stay, and the one I was most looking forward to, was a visit to Abbey Road to attempt a recreation of the famous Beatles album cover picture. We wondered out of Kensington Gardens with a mission to find a cabbie not only willing to drive us to the iconic crosstalk, but to also be our photographer! Luckily for us, we found him waiting at a nearby taxi rank and he was more than happy to help tick this particular mission off my list.

The photo speaks for itself! We walked the walk, snapped the snap and drove on by the Abbey Road studio for a snap and our London adventure was satisfactory and thoroughly complete.