Great Britain 2024 - Part Nine - Ending Our Trip In London

Day Twenty - 01 October

Winston Churchill.

We left Glasgow and took our next to last two train trips.  Over the last twenty days we spent one day and two hours riding twenty trains 1,389 miles (2,236 km) across Britain.  These last trains, the longest segment ridden, would take us to the start of our trip, London.

It was raining when we arrived and we took a taxi to our hotel located on the edge of Hyde Park.  If the weather had cooperated a walk in the park would have been nice but the weather and our busy schedule would prevent us from exploring this large park. To be honest, as it was near the end of our travels in Britain, I was too tired to do much wandering.

Day Twenty-One - 02 October

Westminster Abbey.

We took the tube to Westminster station and met our walking tour guide near the statue of Winston Churchill.  From the start you could see the Elizabeth Tower with its famous Big Ben bells.

First stop in the walking tour was Westminster Abbey.  A lot of history has taken place here and many famous British subjects are buried here.  Unfortunately the crowd of tourists were often standing on graves that you wished to photograph.  Still we saw the resting places of Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, and Michael Faraday.  While I gawked at the scientists the Wife gawked at the authors and poets.

From there we walked to Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guard.  Along with the regular soldiers there was a large contingent of Gurkha soldiers in their distinctive uniforms as well.

Buckingham Palace from the mall.

We walked to Trafalgar square where we stopped for lunch at the Admiralty pub.

After lunch we walked toward the river Thames passing number 10 Downing Street along the way.  At the Thames we got on a boat and cruised up the river.  Unfortunately the weather, which had been fairly dry most of the morning so far decided to get a bit wetter so we went inside the boat and admired the buildings through windows.  From the ship we saw the Shard, the Globe Theater, and other landmarks you could see on the way to tower bridge.

Tower Bridge over the Thames.

At Tower Bridge we got off the boat and toured the Tower of London.  We met the legendary ravens and saw the crown jewels and learned of the history of the tower and the beefeaters who guard it.

One of the Tower of London Ravens striking a pose.

The walking tour ended here and we walked to the nearest tube station and headed back to our hotel.  It had been a busy day full of walking and history.

Day Twenty-Two - 03 October

Today we were on our own and the weather cooperated with us.  We started with a tube ride and a short walk to the Globe Theater.  We toured the reconstruction of the famous theater where Shakespeare's plays were - and still are - performed.  

Inside the Globe Theater.

From there we walked to a place to eat suggested by one of the wife's students.  The place was a food court with several vendors offering everything you would want to eat.  We ate at the Black Pig.  Finding a place to sit was challenging (an understatement) but we finally found a seat at a picnic table.  We didn't have any drinks and the lines to places selling drinks were long.  The Wife enjoyed her sandwich.  I did not enjoy it as much.  Too messy and spicy for my taste.  This was probably the only meal in Britain that I did not enjoy (or didn't finish).

The London Eye.

We walked along the Thames to the London Eye.  We were early so we had some drinks at a chips shop near the eye.  We had skip-the-lines tickets but we didn't realize you needed an app to use them so we found a place to sit at the Wife sloooowly downloaded the app.  We were a bit early so we had time and we managed to get on the eye on time.  The view of london from the eye was pretty awesome.

The Parliament building and the Elizabeth Tower (home of the Big Ben bells) seen from the Eye.

We were tired from all the walking and touring so we made our way back to the tube and headed back to the hotel.

Day Twenty-Three - 04 October

We  checked out and took an Uber to the train station where we took our last train, the twenty-first - this one an express train to Heathrow Airport.  The rest of the way went fairly smoothly.  It was a long day but it was nice to be home.

The Wife and I really enjoyed this trip.  Meeting with friends was a delight.  Not worrying about a language barrier was comforting.  transportation, while there were a few hiccups, was easy to figure out.  It felt different from our 'normal' trips which are in more exotic locations.  This trip was about history and everywhere felt familiar and definitely not exotic.  This is probably how our future trips to Europe will be like.  We still have a few exotic locals to visit but that is for another day, another trip, and another post.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.