Travel: First day in London

[Note: I am currently on the Eurostar from London to Paris and thought it would be a good opportunity to get some blog posts typed.]

London was amazing, even given the increasing cold every single day and the fact that I ended up with a cold while I was there.

It would be incredible during the summer, I can imagine being able to enjoy picnics in the parks and a drink in the sunshine in a pub after work.

The first two days I spent with a friend from work wandering around and exploring some of the typical London sights. Walking out of the tube station on the first day (Westminster) and seeing Big Ben as soon as you exited the tube station was a bit of a shock. Not so much the actual sighting of Big Ben, one of those monuments you have seen numerous times so instantly know what it is but more the fact that it was right at the exit of the tube station. I guess in hindsight it makes sense for these attractions to be right near public transport.

A bit of wandering around in the brisk London air we managed to find Buckingham Palace, turns out the changing of the guards is every second day in the off season and today was not the day. Not too far away from Buckingham Palace we managed to come across Westminster Abbey, we decided against the 19pound entry fee and instead admired it from afar. I still can not get over how many old buildings there are everywhere, as in everywhere you turn there is something to look at.

By this point we were ready for some lunch so found a good ole english pub to sit down out of the cold and have a meal, we made sure we were sitting near the entrance so we could people watch at the same time. I love just sitting down and people watching when on holiday it is always interesting.

After lunch we stumbled upon Trafalgar Square, a decent step up from the shopping centre with the same name in Wanganui and also walked down The Strand.

To end the first day off we went to see Matilda, which was amazing! I didn’t have high hopes for it to be honest as I have never seen the movie nor read the book so didn’t know what it was all about but I really enjoyed it. I would have loved to have seen some other movies while I was in London but I will save that for the next trip.