It was time for our spring tradition. We had to took the hard decision choosing between London and Rome. Daniel wanted to visit Rome, but (as I told you before) I’m not really into Italy, so ‘we’ have decided to see London first 🙂
London is the most astonishing city I have ever been in. Big, fat and fabulous, spectacular mix between old English traditions and new culture and modern vibes. It was love from first sight – the architecture, the castles, bridges, gardens… and nice English weather of course. We have spent almost a week there, feeling and living in that mesmerizing place and atmosphere, and it only took us 5 minutes to decide that this is THE place. Our place abroad.
We took 2 hours flight to Luton early in the morning and landed in rainy England just in time to find out that everything they told us about the spring mornings there is true. Yep, it was cold. It was windy and it was foggy. And wet. Like really, really wet. And grey. Like really, really grey.
No matter that, we reached London by bus with the agency and had half-day tour through the city. Let me tell you something for London – half-day tour is not enough. Life-time tour won’t be enough. We were absolutely sure that we’re going to see each of the emblematic spots by ourselves separately later, but it was useful for us to use the bus tour to get acquainted with the city, the transport, the nearby shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs… Later we reached the hotel and checked-in. Hotel itself was great, clean and was (and still is) located nearby metro station. Remember – close to metro station is a must for your trip there. We had everything we needed – nice place to stay, map and metro station, good food, shops and pubs nearby. And rain, of course.
We didn’t pay and didn’t join any tour offered by the agency we used. We asked for a trip to Stonehenge and found out that they don’t have such to offer, so we booked it there through local UK agency. Each day we were having really nice breakfast in the hotel and cup of hot tea. Then, grabbing our daily coffee from Starbucks, we were moving on by the plan we had.
Day 1: As mentioned, we had half-day bus trip through the city. We stopped by the hot-spots, checked-in in the hotel afterwards and walked in the neighborhood just like locals. Something strange happened in the afternoon – all clouds disappeared and sun came out. It was pleasant to see Buckingham shiny like a golden coin 🙂 It was May 1st, so it was Bank holiday together with festive Change of the Guard at Buckingham Palace – really nice thing to see.
Day 2: We had long walk by river Thames, exploring the bridges and nice places nearby. We went to the London Eye (absolutely MUST for everyone!), London Aquarium (not so spectacular as it was supposed to be) and Westminster, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Lovely, absolutely lovely.
Day 3: Weather was really bad so we though it was good idea to visit London Science Museum before our trip to Stonehenge. Luckily, during our hour and a half trip to Salisbury sun shined again 🙂 Let me tell you something for Stonehenge – it was really nice and interesting there, but whole-day trip would be total waste of time – half-day trip would be enough. Place itself is well-organized and not really crowded, it was really windy when we got there, so a nice cup of tee was perfect add to this experience. I liked it. It was interesting, magical, and we found that there are plenty of other places like this one, just smaller. Something in my list already!
Day 4 and 5: Walks through the city, parks and Buckingham Palace. Weather was fine and we had the chance to walk through the parks and spent our whole days there.
We got back to Sofia poor and deeply depressed that we were not able to stay any longer. But we promised we’re going back there to explore the whole country.
Notes from me:
- Go at least once to a local pub.
- Try fish and chips, pork ribs, Sheppard pie, traditional English breakfast with black English tea and pudding!
- Try not to bankrupt.