UK Trip Part 2: London

Friday after our sales meetings were over, I headed to London with a coworker to play tourist for the weekend before going home. Since he had just moved to the UK a week earlier, he was a bit nervous driving, so he recruited a friend to drive for us. It worked out perfectly as his friend's car wasn't working and he wanted to visit his family who lived in London. We stopped for dinner and drove around until we found our hotel. He dropped us off and then we checked in and had a few drinks in the hotel bar. 

The next morning, we got up early and tried to map out our day while we ate breakfast. Our hotel was a block from the nearest underground station, so we headed there and bought an all-day pass. 


First on the list was Buckingham Palace. When we got there, we were in the middle of a HUGE mob of people. We couldn't really see what was going on, but then it dawned on me....it must be the changing of the guards! We were only there a few minutes before the marching band paraded through the streets and the crowd quickly dissipated. There was a huge fountain in front of the gates, so we headed there to see if we could get a better view. 

We decided to then walk to the Houses of Parliament. Only, we took the wrong road and it lead us to the National Gallery. There was another big fountain in the center and some really neat buildings and statues along the way. Once we got our bearings, we decided to walk to the River Thames and follow the river back to the Houses of Parliament. 

When we reached the river, we were right in front of the famous London Eye. And we knew we were on the right track, because we could see Big Ben from the bridge, as well as some of the Houses of Parliament along the way. I just LOVE the architecture of all the buildings! Big Ben was just that....BIG. All these little sculptures and figures carved right into the walls on the buildings!

Next up was Westminster Abby. It's amazing how old this church is. There was a more modern looking chapel right to the left of the church. The sign on that building said it was built in the 1500's. And that was the NEWER of the two!! 

After Westminster, we wandered around trying to find some lunch. We turned down a road we thought would lead us back to the river, but we ended up in some business and residential type neighborhood. We wandered for a little while, until we eventually got back to the main street, right in front of the underground station we came in on. So, we decided to hop back on the Underground and head up to SoHo to find something for lunch. Can I just say that I LOVE their Underground system? It's so easy to navigate! The escalators were a little freaky though...not only did some of them have tv monitors along the way every 2 ft, but the incline was ridiculous!! It was so steep! 

After lunch, we wandered a bit more and did a little shopping. Unfortunately for me, after the conversion rate, everything was so expensive, I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything. And besides, I already had a new coat and wallet! So, we decided that it was getting late and decided to head back to the hotel.


We had gotten off at an earlier stop so that we could find a pub or something to hang out for a little while. We found a little pub on the corner and had a beer and watched a rugby game. The funny thing about pubs, is that they actually match the glass to the beer! My favorites were London Pride and Beck's (trust me....the Beck's there is different than the Beck's here in the states!). 

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to do much. There were tours and museums and parks and a ton of other things I wanted to see. I'm very glad I got to at least spend some time in London. But you just can't do it all in a day. I'll just have to go again and see something else!