london calling

The first time I went to London was kinda on a whim, and it was only for 36 hours. Nonetheless, it was magical. I spent the entire day walking around the city with the sun shining and surrounded with British folk who were just as excited to see the sun as I was. I could not wait to get back.

London β had a few advantages of London α:
1. This time I had 5 days
2. This time I had Mark+Cherie and Sam

I rolled into Victoria Station early in the afternoon, picked up an Oyster card (love these things) and hopped on the Tube. The London Underground is alot of fun for Americans. The main thing that makes the Tube so fantastic is that the announcements are in the Queens English.  It never gets old to hear the voice overhead direct you to "mind the gap" every time you make a stop.

MC and I had planned to meet at the palace they had reserved for us, so off we went. I felt kinda out of place waltzing into our posh hotel wearing a 70 litre backpack and a few days worth of facial hair, but was way stoked to see my favorite European expatriate couple. When I saw them walk into the door I knew London was going to rock on so many levels. It certainly did.

First thing we did was go here:

To understand our travel traditions you need to understand that my crew and I have known each other for years. We have a history. So when we travel, we do our best to sync the history of the place we visit into our saga of friendship. Prince Albert Hall is a great example of this. The reason this was first on our list wasn't because we wanted to see a show; it was because we had already seen a show.

In 2010 Mark moved into my life and introduced me to the Killers. He was so excited to get the blu-ray copy of their concert at Prince Albert Hall I swear he watched the entire disc no less than four times in the first two days he owned it.   So of course, we HAD to visit the actual place where it was filmed. We walked around, snapped a photo and added another layer to one of our favorite memories and went off to make a few new ones.  This was the method we followed for the next few days. Here are some of the things we did/saw:

 Hyde Park! (Totally bigger than you imagine it to be) We did 'Speakers Corner' on Sunday evening. That is a fun experience that is rife with the essence of English free speech. 

 One of my favorite Disney films has a scene glorifying this place; but in real life its not much to visit for a frugal traveler like me. It would have been way cooler if David Tomlinson would have jumped out of the bushes and started singing to me. At least we got a fun photo.

 Nothing awakens you to the fact that you are in London than seeing the Biggest of the Bens

 Whitehall Road ruled a good chunk of the world for centuries. It was a must to see.

 We didn't catch the changing of the guard, but I did catch Sam's awesome dance moves.

 London pubs are fun. I will write more on food in another post.

Yeah I admit, it is about the most touristy thing you can do in this part of town, and I don't usually gravitate towards this type of blatant recreation of pop culture but we had to do it. The local folks who commute down this street must despise the throngs of people that make a pilgrimage here just to run out in the middle of Abbey Road and snap a picture in between red lights.

A true highlight of the trip was seeing this show at the Queens Theatre. We were kinda tossed up between Wicked and Les Miserables but since TKTS had seats for this one (and MC hadn't seen it live yet) we were easily won over. BEST DECISION of the day. This show was dynamite. Les Mis in London should be on everybody's bucket list.

Easter Sunday was our first full day in London. We got up and ate a stellar breakfast at the palace, and then walked right to Westminster Abbey. We were lucky we were an hour early, there was quite the line. Attending Easter Services there was pretty incredible. The organ they got in that place is out of this world (and I think they intended it to be so). Anglican services are good times and even though we were not-so-secretley hoping that Dr. Rowan Williams would break tradition and speak here on Easter Sunday, the Dean of Westminster was good to hear from. The BBC camera crew was there to catch some of the action, so look for me on the 2nd row when the special on Westminster Abbey airs next year!

After we finished with Anglican Easter, we walked down the road to Latter-day Saint Easter and had a wonderful time with the congregation there. Even though there are tons of Mormons all over the world, you never really get as good of picture of how cosmopolitan our membership is until you attend a London congregation. It was simply and inspiring day. Of course we topped it all off with some of the best Indian food we have ever had for our Easter dinner. It was no India Palace, but it did the trick.

Later that week we went to see all the fun British stuff like:

 The actual Rosetta Stone!!!

 The coolest Train station in the world!

 My favorite cathedral in the world!

 London from the sky!

 The reconstructed Globe Theatre!

 Tower Bridge!

 The Tower of London!

 The pub Charles Dickens used to hang out in!

 and Kensington Gardens.

Overall, London β was all I had hoped for! Our last morning we trekked to St Pancras and hoped a train to the Benelux states for some good food, family time, and more adventures.