lustrous London

London
Day One (May 17)


After a very early flight from Dublin, we arrived in London before noon.  We checked into our hostel and grabbed much needed coffee from Costa on our way to a whirlwind walking by many of London's sights.

We first headed along the River Thames towards the Millennium Bridge.  Near the bridge, we viewed St. Paul's Cathedral and Shakespeare's Globe.  Since Joe and I had both been before, we didn't really go in anywhere.  It was just nice to be walking in lovely London once again.

After the Globe, we continued our walk towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  From here, we took the Tube up to King's Cross station so that Joe could see Platform 9 3/4.

We headed to the Charles Dickens Museum after King's Cross, because Joe hadn't been yet.  Unfortunately, it was closed for the week for refurbishment.  Lame.  Since our plans were no more, we decided to go to Hyde Park to see Speakers' Corner instead.

Near the corner, we found the most ridiculous statue ever.  It looked like gummy bears and was labeled as "Jelly Baby Family."  Ridiculous.

We walked around Hyde Park a bit, but found Speakers' Corner to be not exactly booming.  Probably because it was late afternoon on a Tuesday.  

After Hyde Park, we took the Tube to Chelsea, the neighborhood of London where Joe studied abroad when he was in college.  It was a pretty wealthy neighborhood.  We headed back to the hostel after we had our fill of walking around.

Day Two (May 18)

We began our second day in London by going to Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.  Pictures of aforementioned landmark works much better on a cloudy day than on a sunny day, like the one the last time I was in London.

We headed across the Thames and went by Westminster Abbey.  The line was much shorter than it was the week after the Royal Wedding.  It may also have been because it was while most tourists were at the changing of the guard.

Buckingham Palace was our next stop.  We happened to catch the beginning of the crowd-herding for the changing of the guard while we were there.  

We took the Tube to Soho after Buckingham Palace.  Soho is essentially the theatre district of London.  I don't think I have seen that many theatres in one place...ever.  Soho was interesting, but not quite so good for Joe Goes... interviews.  I did, however, find a pub called The Round Table!

Instead, we ended up going to Covent Garden, a shopping district filled with street performers.  We got all of the interviews that Joe wanted pretty quickly.

On the way back to our hostel area, part of the Tube was down, so it was kind of annoying.  After we got back to the hostel, we headed to the Westminster area again to go to a few pubs.