Last day in England

Our last day in England was St. Patrick’s Day. I had planned it that way, of course. I have always wanted to celebrate St. Patrick’s day in a different county as it is one of my favorite holidays. It probably would have made more sense to have planned it when we went to Ireland, but we went there for our honeymoon and we wanted to get married in the summer. England was the next best option!

The morning of St. Patrick’s day in London was cold and wet. I was happy that it finally rained at least one of the days we were in London- that’s what any tourist expects and almost wants on a visit to London. I wanted the real “feel” of dreary London and I got it.

First, we went back to Westminster Square for a final look at the abbey and Parliament. We then walked to the other side of the Thames River to the London Eye. Now, I’m not one for giant ferris wheels and I feel very strongly that something of this nature greatly takes away from the charming buildings of 18^th century London, but I had to take a ride on the eye because I knew it held superb views of the city and you can’t get views like that anywhere else. On the eye, you get a real perspective of the enormity of London. When you are tubing around underground London your whole trip, you really don’t realized where you have been in perspective to everything else around you.

We captured some great pictures that day especially since it was an overcast. The eye takes you one time around at a very slow pace and gives you ample time to take in all the views of the city. You stand in a giant pod with a few other people, where you can move about freely to look at each side of the city. It is well worth the money.

Westminster Abbey

We then hunted down the famous Abbey Road and Paul McCartney’s home.  Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles used to record, is directly across from Abbey Road. After taking some great pictures, we rummaged around trying to find Paul McCartney’s home. In the middle of all this, it started to rain and then it started to pour! It took a few minutes of running around in the rain to find some place we could take cover which was not easy to find in the residential area we were in. We finally found a restaurant to take refuge where we ordered a hot pot of tea and soup. My hair, pants, and shoes were soaked and my thick wool coat had gained 10 pounds of soaked up rain- so much for enjoying London’s dreary weather 😉 The restaurant was named Richoux and there were pictures hanging all over the walls of all types of celebrities hanging out there. I guess it could have been some kind of famous restaurant and we didn’t even know it.  

Abbey Road

We decided to head back to our hotel to get on some dry clothes and head out for our St. Patrick’s day bash. Although my husband was hesitant, I insisted we go to Soho for the night’s celebrations. As I’ve mentioned, Soho is the entertainment center of London, and although it can be a bit sleazy, and you definitely need to be aware of your surroundings, Soho is the place to go for any type of night life in London.

It turned out Soho was just the ticket! We had the time of our lives. We started our night next to the theater district at an old pub. It was packed on the ground level, but you could climb up to a loft where you could look down at the bustling street below you. This is probably my fondest memory of London because to me this was real London, the hustle and bustle of life at its fullest. I sat and stared  out the window grasping my cold cider for almost an hour.  Oh, and that’s the other great thing about London, they have all sorts of ciders on tap in the bars. So delicious and much better than regular beer!

Later, we met a few Irish kids and a girl from Wales and ended up hanging out with them for the remainder of the night. We had an amazing time! This is the kind of experiences that sticks with you after you have come home. To actually get involved at a personal level with the locals in their culture is what really heightens your experience when traveling. I will definitely never forget that night or them.

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London, England: Our First Full Day (Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Theater)

Our first full day in England we began with visiting Buckingham Palace. Although we didn’t get to see the changing of the guards, we saw the horse parade and followed the parade down to the bottom of the street that leads from the palace to the horse parade area. The horse parade area was nothing but a big square pad of dirt which I found amazing how they transformed it into the women’s outdoor beach volleyball venue for the 2012 Olympics 4 months later. If you walk under a breezeway past the horse parade you will be on the street where all the government building sit, including number 10 downing street, the seat of the prime minister. If you walk farther past this in one direction, you will run into parliament square that holds the grand parliament building, Westminster Abbey and the Supreme Court building. The other direction will take you to Trafalgar Square.

Buckingham palace is great, but it’s definitely not the grandest palace I’ve ever seen. You can only tour this palace for 2 months out of the year when the queen is away on holiday.

Horse parade pad

As for Parliament, you can only do tours when the houses are not in session. This includes Saturdays throughout the year and six days a week during their designated months listed on the website. This really bummed me out until I found out that when parliament is in session, the public is allowed to come in and watch it live in person! In the process of this you are able to view several other rooms and hallways of the building including the grand Westminster Hall, which I think is a great trade for not getting a full blown tour, if not better due to the fact that it is completely free whereas a tour is not! Once we were admitted in, we surprisingly had free rain to move about to the different rooms as we pleased. We were able to see both houses in session, the feisty house of commons and the distinguished house of lords. What an experience! You can stay as long or short as you like, which is wonderful for a tourists who has many things planned in their day. Visitors sit in the balcony for easy access in and out. If you are early prior to going into the sessions, they will take you in a room and explain all the ins and outs of Parliament to you. It is very interesting although the room was very small and hot and I had to keep kicking my husband to stay awake which was kind of embarrassing! Ha!

Viewing the inside of parliament was the one thing I absolutely had to do on my visit to London. So many people go to London without actually visiting the house of Parliament and I think many people don’t realize that they can tour or go in and view the sessions. I am glad I did my research ahead of time and was able to partake in this great opportunity. It was such an experience to say I have done this when not many people have. If you go online you can view the schedule of times the houses meet and schedule your visit accordingly. You can attend debates, question time or watch committees. All is listed on the website. http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/ You do not need to buy tickets in advance, only make yourself known to the Visitor Services staff who are standing on the side of the building (or ask a cop). Entrance is based on a first come first serve basis, and you would need to leave time for security check.

According to the online site, the guided tour takes 75 minutes and includes the Commons and Lords Chambers, the Queen’s Robbing Room, the Royal Gallery and Westminster Hall.

Westminster Hall

The famous Westminster Abbey is located directly across the street from Parliament. Be aware it can be closed for unexpected reasons like the queen being there (which was the case when I was there) or closing early on Saturdays. Due to these road blocks, I never actually got to go into the Abbey although I was right by it for 2 days of my trip!

Westminster Abbey

After touring Parliament we had to get back to our hotel to get ready for the play I’ve wanted to see all my life- Les Miserables. I grew up listening to the soundtrack and know every word to every song, but I have never seen the play or movie. London’s elaborate theater district rivals with Broadway with roughly 40 venues for performance. We saw the show at the Queens Theater, a charming little theater house. I remember how the floor of the stage was quite slanted, lower in the front and higher in the back and the center of the stage turned like a giant wheel making the illusion of the actors running or moving in the scenes. Due to this layout, and the actual theater being fairly small, I think no matter where you sit you feel like you are almost in the stage. As for the actual show, it was everything I thought it would be- phenomenal. The actors were superb and every voice was amazing. I was so glued to the stage that my husband thought I was mad at him!

Purchasing Tickets:

I wanted to ensure a perfect seat so I researched online and purchased my ticket prior to coming. I read online reviews to decide what seat would be the best. I am glad I ensured a good seat, but I also know you can get greatly discounted tickets if you show up right before the show and ask for any available seats. I didn’t want to take this risk and not be able to sit with my husband or be stuck on the end of a bad row or something, but my sister and her husband actually did this while they were in London and it worked out great for them. I actually would advise to buy your ticket in London whether you get a discount or not, because we had such a hard time finding the venue amongst the oodles of them that we almost missed the first part of the show. You can never anticipate what your day may end up being like once you are actually on your trip, and over planners and organizers that just have to have their tickets prior to going sometimes get punished for it. Again, if there is anything I have learned from traveling it is that you just cannot plan for everything no matter how hard you try. It is great to research and prepare in advance so you know all your options, but when it comes down to it, in many situations, it is best to just go with the flow and decide when you are there based on the how you feel that day, how much time you have etc.

The theater area is close to the racy nightlife area of Soho and close to this area is the major shopping district and Piccadilly circus. This area is like the Las Vegas or New York of London. This is where all of the entertainment, night life and partying happens. After walking back from the theater, we actually ended up in Piccadilly circus. After I got home people asked me if I had been to Piccadilly circus and I told them I didn’t think so. I didn’t realize at the time that I had in fact been there not only one but twice on the trip. And each time I thought it was a totally awesome area. Piccadilly circus is like the Time Square of London, lined with amazing buildings and major high end shopping. We walked the perimeter of the artistically curved building upon entering and exiting the theater area in Soho. The huge curved buildings in Piccadilly are amazing and very appealing to say the least. We were amazed as we walked along them, they seemed to just keep going and going! This area has a completely different feel from other parts of London, which is why I say there is something for everyone in London depending on where you go.

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Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus