For many years now, I have wanted to go to Europe, particularly England. And on our 11-hour layover from Kenya to the States, Ruthie and I were able to do explore London. We had sat down with the google search bar earlier in the break to map out a path we wanted to take, so we were prepared. We even had metro schedules printed off. It’s amazing though how things can look so nice on paper and are so different from reality. Like the differences in time that we calculated for making it through the line for UK entry. Or the difficulty in exchanging currency, finding the luggage storage place, and buying a metro pass. And everything cost more than we had calculated from online. But in the end, it was all good.
After we had stashed our carry-ons for the day and bought our underground pass, we were on our way into the city!!! The underground ride was about an hour to our first stop – London Bridge. We exited the underground, emerged above, and followed the signs that indicated the direction of London Bridge. When we made it to the river and walk though, we couldn’t believe we were actually at the right place. That’s London Bridge? It was so unimpressive. Just a normal, plain bridge. But, low and behold, it was the bridge we sought. Haha! It was even engraved for our convenience.
Despite its humble appearance, Ruthie and I decided to make it into an epic moment and cross the bridge with the hundreds of people swarming into the city for work who were doing the same. I honestly can say we were the only people in that mass who were wearing jeans. Everyone else was dressed up to impress. And they were all in black and gray…a little odd. We definitely stood out with our purple-ish and blue coats. We had an awesome view of the more impressive Tower Bridge from the center of London Bridge and did not miss the photo opportunity it afforded.
Then we headed back to the underground to make our way to Parliament. Alas, the underground on the Piccadilly line was delayed for the next 20 minutes. Ruthie and I debated walking to our next destination, but we decided that by the time we got our bearings and started in that direction, the line would be running again. So, we grabbed a free underground paper, skimmed the articles, and waited. Once the lines were cleared up, we were on our way to Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey.
When we debarked from the underground train, we saw an amazing sight. Parliament was beautiful. It’s amazing to think about the influence of the British political system on the rest of the world. I felt like I was coming home. It was so cool to be in the country with which America shares so much history. We took some pictures with Big Ben and the Eye of London (which was unfortunately closed to visitors due to annual maintenance) before crossing the Thames and capturing the entirety of Parliament in our pictures. We arrived on the scene around 9:30, so we heard the clock chime at that time. Then we headed over to Westminster Abbey to view it. Although we did not tour it, we ended up strolling around St. Margaret’s church nearby in an attempt to past time before 10 am when the clock would gong. Our efforts succeeded and we heard the clock strike the hour.
Upon hearing the bells chime, we headed to Trafalgar Square. On the way, we stopped to have some fun with the telephone booths and once at the square we wandered around for a little while. There were several fountains and statues. Then we glanced around some tourist-y stores before making our way to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. This ceremony ended up being quite fanfarish with a parade of the guards and band marching in. There were a ton of tourists crowding the gates, so it was difficult to see some of the ceremony, but we could hear the music regardless. By the end of the ceremony (45 minutes), some people had tired of waiting around, so we had a better view into the enclosed area.
After the guard had changed, we were numb from the cold and hungry, so we looked around for somewhere to eat. Our goal was to find some cute little café on the way to the underground station we would use to ride back to the airport. It turns out that we did find a café; it was just a hole-in-the-wall, loyal-customer place that served amazing paninis and lattes. By the time we finished eating, we were happy, full, warm, and content from hearing all the British accents surrounding us. When we tipped the waitress, she told us, “Cheers, darlings.” Loved it.
*story continued in next post…
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