I Left My Heart In London

Chris had a TDY last month to Mildenhall, England and I got to accompany him!  I've already talked about our airport disaster in the previous blog and our first 4 days there were not exciting because Chris still had to work and I had no car so all I could really do was workout, read or watch TV so I'll just skip straight to Saturday morning.

We took a free shuttle at 6:30am from base to the London Heathrow Airport.  I expected this bus to be pretty gross because, well, it was a free bus.  Nope.  This thing was luxurious!  We were off to a good start!

Once we arrived at the airport we took the tube into London and immediately began exploring.  We were so blessed to have been able to make this trip on one of the rare days London isn't all foggy and gross.  Of course, the first thing I did was step into a typical red English phone booth and immediately discovered it smelled like someone had been peeing in there every day for the last 2 weeks.  YUCK!  I stepped into the one next to it and discovered nothing but pornographic pictures and prostitution advertisements.  *sigh*  It would have to do for now.

After stopping for a quick breakfast of porridge, fruit and carrot juice (which is weird, don't drink it unless you have real love for carrots) we followed some signs and came across Buckingham Palace!  We couldn't tour it because the Queen is there right now and we did not stay for the changing of the guard because it was 10:00AM and it didn't start until 11:30AM.  I just didn't really want to stand against the gate for an hour and a half so maybe next time.  We then proceeded to Victoria Station to jump on our tour bus which would take us all over London.

We stopped in at Sherlock Holmes Pub for some - you guessed it! - FISH AND CHIPS!  We had heard from our travel agent that this place had THE BEST fish and chips and she insisted we go there.  They did not disappoint!  It was so delicious and it came with mushy peas which was a first for me.  It was peas at the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Pretty good stuff!  The pub had a restaurant upstairs, which is where we ate.  They had a section of the room blocked off behind glass like a museum would do and it was set up exactly like Sherlock Holmes' office in the stories.

Once we had a little lunch we hopped back on a tour bus and got off at Trafalgar Square.  There were street performers everywhere including the guys who paint themselves as statues, a couple of guys were drawing every nations flag on the ground in chalk, a man who could convert his bike into a drum set, girls giving out hugs for pounds to feed starving children and a guy putting on a skit to involve the audience.  Pigeons all over the place which was not good news for me since I'm really not a fan of birds.

From Trafalgar Square we made our way to the big stuff!  This was my favorite part of the tour because on our way to The London Eye we passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, crossed over London Bridge and Tower Bridge!  Funny story: Arizona purchased London Bridge and had it assembled only to realize it was not the bridge they thought it was.  Arizona thought London Bridge and Tower Bridge were the same thing.  England basically said "no, you idiots, and we would never sell you our Tower Bridge!"

Right across from The London Eye was Big Ben and The House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  I had to stand there for a little while and just soak it all in.  So much detail and history in these structures.  My pictures really do not do them enough justice.

 







On to Piccadilly Circus!!  This was my favorite area!  It was pretty much the Times Square of London.  All of those big TV's everywhere and scrolling light up signs.  I discovered there was an M&M World in London and demanded we go.  So we did.  I frequently have to let my inner child out.

Finally, it's time for Hard Rock Cafe.  This is the coolest part of the night because of how the events played out.  We walked up to what we thought was the restaurant and discovered it was only a shop.  No restaurant connected to it and my heart kind of started sinking into my stomach.  I thought "SURELY there is an actual restaurant here!  They don't just post up a merchandise shop....do they???"  Turns out the place was across the street haha.  We saw this ridiculous line out front just to put our names on a list to be seated. Found out it would be a 2 hour wait minimum!!  It was over.  We went back next door feeling a little defeated and ready to just get our shirt and leave.  Chris got the idea to purchase the Hard Rock Membership card while we were checking out so we could start putting points on it since we visit one every major city we travel to/through.  When purchasing our membership we found out we get Priority/Preferred Seating at every location.  This means we get to jump to the front of the wait list....starting right then!  Haha so we get it all purchased, run back next door and find out it's only an hour for priority customers.  We walked over to the pub next door to have a drink while waiting and it was barely 30 minutes before our table was ready. Talk about a lucky night!

After dinner it was time to head back to our hotel.  I did not take any pictures of this because we were both to exhausted to make anything interesting happen for the camera.  We have every intention of returning to London after the Summer Olympics are long gone!