Tour of London: Sightseeing, Food, and Hotel

Today, I am taking you on a tour of London.  We went on vacation after Danny's wedding in June, and London was our first stop.  After London we went on a cruise on the Celebrity Infinity.  This is the second time we have been on the Infinity, the first time was when we went to the Antarctic a few years ago.  I can't wait to take you along on our vacation.  On this trip we will be going to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Shetland Islands in Scotland, and Gerainger and Bergen Norway.  Our first stop is London and I hope you love it as much as we did.

London was such a fun city to visit, and I'm sorry, for all those people who say it's rainy in London, there wasn't a rain drop in sight, it was in the mid to high seventy's everyday that we were there.  It was hot and beautiful and London is amazing.

I do want to make a few recommendations for a hotel and some restaurants.  We stayed at the Mercure London Bloomsbury on Southampton Row.  It has recently been remodeled, and it is beautiful It offers unlimited internet, breakfast is not included in the price, but there is a super cute coffee shop, called Tutti's.  It's about 3 blocks away on Lambs Conduit Street.  They have great food and amazing lattes.  I was a happy camper.  Our cousin Emmanuel lives on the same street as Tutti's, so he recommended it and he was right on the mark.  We also had great pub food at Friend at Hand on Herbrand Street, amazing Indian Salaam Namaste on Millman Street, delicious Italian Ciao Bella on Lambs Conduit Street, and hummus at Hummus Bros on Southampton Row.  All of these restaurants are within walking distance, 3 to 4 blocks of the hotel.  We also ate at the Museum Tavern across the British Museum and we had a delicious Sunday Prime Rib and Yorkshire pudding for lunch.

Now for our Tour of London.  We took Big Bus Tours in London and they were great.  You can get on and off the bus where you want, and visit all of the sights in the areas.  I would also recommend taking the tours that have the live tour guides.  These guys are great and give so much information, and the personalities of each guide is different, but ours had us laughing.

We stayed across the street from Russell Park, so that was one of the first places we walked to in London.  It's such a cute little park, and they have this great fountain that this dog had a great time walking through.  David was laughing as he watched the dog.

I also had to get a picture of the London phone booths.  They are so fun.  I have always seen them in pictures and movies, but seeing them in person was really fun.

Vince had wanted me to look for the Tardis.  He is a big Dr. Who fan, but alas I couldn't find it.  I actually looked online to see if there was one around.  Instead, we got him a Dr. Who t-shirt.

Next, we got on the Big Bus tours and it was so fun.  Our first stop took us over the London bridge, and to Borough Market. (this was last Tuesday's post)

This is all of the foot and car traffic on London Bridge crossing the Thames.

This is a beautiful bridge that you see from London Bridge.  It's just so pretty.

This is the church next to Borough Market, called Southwark Cathedral.  It is so pretty and is located next to one of the entrances to Borough Market.

We took London Bridge to the south side of the Thames.  Then we took the bridge in the picture above back over the Thames to The Tower of London.  There is also a building called the Needle, but I could not get a picture of it.  I took this picture of the Tower of London.  It's really interesting.  I loved the catapult, the tents, and the soldiers.  We did not go inside the Tower of London, we didn't have time, but it was a great stop.  If you are going to be in London for 4 to 5 days, this is a tour that I would go on.

Above is one more picture of the Tower of London.

Next on the tour was Big Ben, Parliament, and The Eye.  I had always heard of the Eye, but I had no idea what it was.  It is a huge Ferris wheel on the Thames, and it is beautiful.  It is totally lit up at night.

We went past Big Ben and Parliament and then back over the Thames.  This is when I got this picture of the Eye.  I have more, but this was so close up, that it was pretty dramatic.  It must be so amazing to be on at night.

Next we go back over the Thames on another bridge and I got a great picture of Parliament and Big Ben from the river.  Beautiful! (We were kind of back and forth over the Thames the whole day it seemed.  There are lots of bridges in London.

Our next stop is Buckingham Palace.  It is beautiful.  It was fun getting the picture of the Queens Guard in front of the palace.  We also went past the Royal Mews.  I had no idea the Mews were stables.  In the Bloomsbury neighborhood that we stayed in all of the homes have mews, which have now been turned into very expensive flats.

Our next stop was Piccadilly Circus.  I didn't take any pictures here, but it is a really fun area.  We went into lots of stores and looked around.  There is a theatre district and Chinatown also.  

Next stop is back to the hotel.  We spent about 8 hours sightseeing.  What a day. 

We went to Salaam Namaste for cocktails and dinner and then to bed.

Sunday we went to The British Museum which has an amazing Egyptian Exhibit and a library that is out of this world.  We also had lunch at the Museum Tavern.  I would suggest a traditional roast beef lunch on Sundays.

 I hope you liked our tour of London.  We really enjoyed it.  I always love hearing from you.

Have a great day

Debi

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