Whirlwind tour of London

We had a visitor for the past 10 days. Chuck's mom flew over from the US. Because it was her first time outside the USA, I made sure to schedule a ton of things for her to do.

We went to 3 Christmas Markets in Germany (Flensburg, Lubeck and Bremen), flew to London and visited all the major sites and went to Windsor Castle, drove to Amsterdam and visited all the major sites including a stop at the Zaanse-schans.

Back to London.

We took a quick Ryanair flight from Billund over to Stansted and then the train into town. I think Sue was on stimulation overload with all the things to see and do in London.

The first day we spent touring Windsor Castle. I had never been there before, so it was great to pick up the audio guide and roam around the grounds for a few hours. Windsor Castle is amazing, impressive, over the top, oppulent, magnificent....need I say more?

Some of the highlights...

• Taking the underground during rush hour and packing into the tube on the picadilly line.
• ...and having my MIL get scolded by the London bobby for taking pictures in the underground (with the flash) after I told her not to.
• Wandering through St. Paul's cathedral and the crypt
• Listening to one of the beefeaters at the Tower of London
• Seeing the crown jewels
• River cruise from Tower Bridge to Westminster
• Shopping at Harrods
• Shopping with the hoards of people on Regent Street - Hamley's and Liberty were complete chaos.
• Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe - sometimes it's the little things and when you've lived in Europe for 2 years the comforts of a (semi) American meal are welcomed!
• Simply Food's death by chocolate dessert - simply divine.
• Staying at the Rembrant hotel - lovely.

A few pictures.

St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle

Interior courtyard at Windsor Castle

Mother in law, Sue at Windsor Castle

Beefeater at Tower of London

Tower of London

me with long curly hair, oh my!

More from London

Here's our 4-day Itinerary in London. It’s really two full days in London with a travel day on each end.

Day 1 – We flew into Stansted Airport, which is just north of London and took a 50 minute ride on the Stansted Express train to the Liverpool Street Station. The Stansted Express train was very convenient and the price was right (about $30USD/person round trip). The train has probably seen better days, but the cars were clean and smelled fresh and the seats were comfortable. The Liverpool Station was about a 10 minute taxi ride from our hotel. We quickly checked in and after checking our watches it was midnight local time and 1am Denmark time.

Day 2 – We are Americans, so as per our stereotype, we’re up early and ready to go. As a side note, we are usually the first ones at an early morning sight and we are asked…or it’s stated…Americans? This was our first trip to London, so we packed in as much sightseeing as possible. We walked from the hotel to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is absolutely amazing. The interior frescos and beautiful and very ornate. Too bad we couldn't take pictures inside! Our next stop was the Tube to get our 1 day pass for the underground (about $7USD). One of the workers said to Chuck, “How do you like Chicago?” I guess our Midwestern accent hasn’t changed with our year in Denmark!

We rode the Tube to the Tower of London, toured the grounds, saw the Crown Jewels, and then headed back on the Tube to take the Original Sightseeing Tour (about $25USD). Here’s a separate post about the bus tour. We ate lunch at The Texas Embassy, which had some amazing salsa and chicken tortilla soup. Chuck’s comment when he took a bite of the salsa was, “Mmmm, tastes like we’re back in the US.” We hopped on the Tube to make our way to Warr’s Harley Davidson Shop to get our BIL a birthday present. Then, back to the Tube (District Line) and the Tower Hill station. It was already 4:00, so walked over the Tower Bridge and back to the hotel to drop off some of our loot. Our last ‘tourist’ sight for the day was the Tate Modern Museum. Later that evening we had dinner at the Great Wall Restaurant near the hotel, which was good, but nothing spectacular.

Day 3 – We were up early and walked over toward the Tower Bridge for the 9:30 tour. We were stopped just short of crossing the river by a film crew. They were clearing the Tower Bridge so a helicopter could film some shots for the Sherlock Holmes movie. Cool. We toured the Tower Bridge and the Engine Room (how could an engineer pass up the engine room?!?!?).

We had a little time before the St. Paddy’s Day Parade at noon, so we decided to see the changing of the guard at 11:30 at Buckingham Palace. This, was not an original idea, as we arrived at 10:30 and there was no way we were going to get any closer than the roundabout. But, now we know what to do for the June visit. The weather was beautiful; sunny with a slight breeze. I’m so accustomed to gray skies that I forgot the sunscreen for Chuck…you see where this is headed. Ooops. He has a nice ‘flushed’ pink look. The next stop, was the Parade, which started on the north side of Green Park. The parade was little dull, so we decided to head to Harrod’s, shop a bit, and have lunch at the pizzeria, which has amazing bruchetta. Harrod’s is complete and utter sensory overload with way too many people wandering around. After being surrounded by all of London in Harrod’s, it was time for a little seclusion. Ahhh, our London Eye champagne flight with just six people…..perfect. We ended the day with dinner overlooking the London Tower at Strada.

Day 4 – It was going to be a long day. Chuck managed to get sick…food poisoning from his dinner at Strada. 3am was way too early for the wakeup call, the 4:10am Stansted Express train was just crazy, and the 6:40am flight back to Denmark was just poor planning on my part. I won’t make that mistake again. Chuck's bout with food poisoning lasted a good 96 hours. Yuck!

Birthday weekend in London, England

What a way to spend my thirty-something birthday! Living in Europe makes celebrating birthdays sooo much fun because within a few hours you can be in just about any fabulous city...with, of course, an amazing husband *blush*.

I refer to Chuck's birthday as Chuck-fest because we seem to celebrate for weeks and I tease that we celebrate my birthday for a day, maybe two. Well, this year was definitely Holly-fest with the celebration starting on Monday, March 9th with flowers and champagne...and the celebrating just got better as the week progressed.

We just returned from my birthday weekend in London. In a word (or two) A.ma.zing. Fab.u.lous. The weekend highlights...

• Dinner at Strada overlooking the Tower Bridge
• Champagne flight on the London Eye
• Strolling along the Thames with Chuck
• Watching a helicopter crew film scenes for the Sherlock Holmes movie
• The Crown Jewels at the Tower of London
• The Tower Bridge
• Harrod's
• Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

The weekend flew by. We are returning in early June to take in some more sights because we basically did a quick drive-by of the central and western attractions such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Hyde Park, St. James's Park, Marble Arch, etc. We're also going to do a day trip to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Oxford (or Baths).

The slideshow is posted.

The Original Sightseeing Tour in London, England

Yes, I am a fan of the Hop on Hop Off bus tours in European cities. The 2-hour tour was perfect to get a good lay of the land. We took the HoHo Original London Sightseeing Tour (Yellow route), but there is also a Red route and a Blue route. The fee of about $25 (discounted using the London Pass) or about $30USD gets you admission on all three routes (within a 24 hour period) and the City Cruises river cruise. The Yellow route has a live commentator, the Red route has headsets so you can listen to the commentary in a variety of languages, and the Blue route is the museum route. The commentary was minimal and I didn’t find it as informative as in other cities (NB: Berlin has the best HoHo commentary, Vienna is also very good).

Sights on the Yellow route: Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliamentary Buildings, Buckingham Palace (need to get off to take pictures), London Tower, Tower of London, London Eye, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Green Park.

The HoHo in London wasn’t as good as in other cities and it is very difficult to take pictures of the sights; however it is a good way to familiarize yourself with the sights and plan out which ones deserve a personal visit.

London - Here I (errr, we) come

I just booked a birthday weekend in London. We've never been there before, so this is going to be a quick whirlwind 'scouting' trip. We're already planning a longer trip during the warmer months. So far the agenda includes...

• Take the hop on hop off tourist bus to get a lay of the land
• Go to St. Paul's Cathedral
• London Bridge
• Musical or play...I'm dying to see Wicked (hint, hint)

Any recommendations for a nice birthday dinner, pub, cafes, sights, would be great!

**Update: Apparently Chuck was a little taken aback that "I" was going to London. Actually, "WE" are going to London...for "MY" birthday. :)