Day 6: London (Sept. 22)

Today's photo set is here on Flickr.

Last day in London. Boo! There's still so much to see and do and I don't have any more time! Well, that's what the next trip is for.

Day 5: London (Sept 21)

Highlights: Millennium Bridge, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Windsor Palace and the Royal Collection, and the play "Wicked". In the meantime, here are today's pictures.

I had originally planned to see the Tower of London in the morning, then after lunch see St Paul's Cathedral, cross the Millennium Bridge to see the Tate Modern, make my way to Buckingham Palace to see the Gallery and the Staterooms, and top it all off with an Oktoberfest dinner at the Bavarian Beerhouse. I was quickly learning that what I plan doesn't always translate into what I do.

Decided that I wasn't that into modern art enough to want to see the Tate, so after making my way to the Blackfriars station I walked to the South Bank to at least see what it looked like from the outside, then took the Millennium Bridge towards the City. Passed by St Paul's (couldn't go inside) and walked east to the Tower of London. I had an appointment to meet a friend for lunch on the south side of the Tower Bridge, so paced myself to see what I could before then, and then caught what I missed after lunch.

Then I made my way over to Buckingham Palace in the afternoon - didn't see the Changing of the Guard - for my reservation to see the Gallery and the Staterooms. There was a special exhibit of "Treasures from the Royal Collection" containing Mythology and Regency, the latter celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Regency Act by the future King George IV (but no pictures allowed in the Regency exhibit). The tour led to the "back yard" of Buckingham Palace which led to the street halfway between the Hyde Park station and Victoria station. But when I got to the station, I made a quick decision that I'd rather go see the play "Wicked" at the Apollo Victoria Theater right across the street - I had never seen it before, and I figured that even though Oktoberfest was coming to an end soon, I'd be in Munich in a few weeks anyway. 

(Originally published 9/29/11 at 2:09am, Amsterdam)

Day 4: London (Sept 20)

Here's the set of pictures on Flickr for Sept 20, 2011.

The plan for today was to get up and go to the train station for a tour that goes out to Stonehenge and Salisbury, leaving at 9:15 and returning at 6:45, then grabbing a bite to eat and heading to the Globe Theater to watch a play. I got to see Stonehenge, at least.

Day 3: London (Sept 19)

Here's today's set of pictures on Flickr for Monday, Sept 19, 2011.

On my first day in London yesterday, I was knackered from lack of sleep so I decided to push my 8am bus tour into a 10pm bus tour. I slept in a bit longer than I had anticipated and made it out to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard a few minutes late, but it turned out that it didn't matter because they're on every-other-day status now instead of every day, and nobody bothered to tell me. That was the only time I had allotted and I'm not sure if I can swap other things around to make room for it on another day. We'll see. Will and Kate never answered my email about a private tour of the Palace (neither did Harry or Pippa) so I was left at the gates.

Day 2: London (Sept 18)

Here's the entire Flickr set of today's pictures.


After my Virgin Atlantic flight landed on time despite a late start, I breezed through Customs (my questions were "What's your name?", "What's your purpose here?", and "When are you leaving?", I'm not sure if the Customs official even looked at me), my first order of business was to figure out where I was going. It was more difficult because there was no free wifi in the terminal, which I had been counting on. Fortunately I remembered the name of the Tube station, Kennington, and I figured out how to get from the airport to the Kennington Station. I bought a one-day Travelpass which allows unlimited use of the Tube and bus system, and gives discounts on other travel (like river cruises).

London details

Looking at my itinerary, I kept getting fooled that I had one extra day in London, but I was bookkeeping my first airplane travel day against London. So really I only had 4 days, not 5. And with one of them taken up by a full-day trip to Stonehenge, I needed another day. I was able to steal one from my time in Amsterdam; after reading the guidebook for that city, I found that I had given myself one too many days there. Overall, though, I did pretty well with my original rough cut back in March.

So, here's my detailed itinerary for London.

London and southern England (Sept. 17-22)

5/29 Update: Departure date from Houston is Sept. 17, so I get into London's Heathrow Airport on the morning of Sept. 18.
9/5 Update: Decided to add one day to the stay (4 days in town, 1 day out of town).

I will have a Eurail pass before I leave, I'll get the one that is good for about 2 months and allows me unlimited access. The rail pass also allows me discounts on buses, ferries, and other stuff along my way, but I plan to do the vast majority of my intercity travel by rail.

I went to England with my family after I graduated high school in 1984. We went to Paris in 1988 after I graduated college, before I started my job (and ironically, I'll visit after I leave my job with that same company). But that's the extent of my journeys in Europe. I've always wanted to do an open-jaw trip (fly into city A, travel on my own to city B, and fly home from there) so that's where this trip came from. And a co-worker suggested that "if you have the chance to do something that you've wanted to do since you were a kid, do it" so I've got a few of those sprinkled in this trip too.