Cheers Old Chap - London Day 1

For those of you just joining me, I am currently half way sharing my tales of my 2 week European extravaganza in France and England. My previous posts cover my activities both in Paris and around the French Countryside (including the Loire Valley, Mont St. Michel, Normandy, and Caen). After a week of baguettes and croissants, we headed across the English Channel to the land of fish 'n chips. We used the Eurostar website to book our train from Paris to London which I highly recommend. We didn't exactly love Paris (read why here), but we really enjoyed the rest of our time in France. Spending the second week in England was a nice change of pace after France. In Italy, we suffered from severe travelers fatigue after two weeks. After a week in France, we were already a little worn, but England gave us renewed energy for a new adventure in a language more familiar to us. People in France, for the most part, spoke enough English for us to get by, and I remembered enough of my high school French to fill in the gaps. Language barriers always cause me some extra travel anxiety, so when we arrived in England, it was nice for that to go away. Our schedule in England was very similar to France. We had 3 days in the city followed by 4 days in the countryside. Today's blog covers London Day 1.

As soon as we arrived in London, we got British Pounds from the ATM and hailed a taxi to take us to the Hilton London Metropole Hotel. I struggled a lot with finding a good London hotel. I ended up picking this hotel because it met all of my requirements and also got slightly better reviews than the others I looked at. (I browsed their website before posting this, and it looks like they're undergoing a renovation which is good and bad. Good if you get a renovated room; bad if you get an old room near construction noise.) One thing I will say about this hotel is that we had a horrible experience with them one of our first days there, but their management really came through for us. My husband carries a lot of his toiletries in a plastic grocery bag. One day, by accident, the maid threw that bag away which contained his soap, cologne, deodorant, etc. for the rest of the trip. (Even though cologne is on my "do not carry" list for traveling, he brought it anyway.) Lots of those things were easily replaced, but the cologne was pretty expensive. We asked the hotel immediately, and the maid admitted to throwing the bag away. The hotel took our address and said they would mail us items that they could find. Both of us rolled our eyes and vowed to give this hotel a scathing review when we got home. But about two weeks after we got home, a package arrived in the mail. Sure enough, the hotel manager replaced as many of the items as he could including the cologne. He also included a handwritten letter of apology for what happened. Sucky accident, but gold star for customer service!

Back to the trip.

On our first day in London we went to Mme. Tussauds wax museum, the British Museum, and the Imperial War Museum. I highly recommend all three of these activities, and they filled the day nicely. Mme. Tussauds is a personal preference. I went to one first in Las Vegas and had a blast there. It was so fun for me to see life-size figures of famous people, historical figures, and British Royals. And each Mme. Tussauds is slightly different, so it's not like if you've seen one, you've seen them all. The Washington DC one has all of the US Presidents while the one in London has more emphasis on the British Royal family (naturally). My husband thinks I'm nuts (and tickets aren't super cheap - £22.50-£30.00 for adults) but I think they're so fun! (I'm planning our trip to Southeast Asia, and I was so excited to see that there's one in Bangkok AND Singapore. But I, being the good wife that I am, will not make my husband go to BOTH. Haha!) TIP - Tickets are cheaper if you buy them online in advance. Not to mention that Mme Tussauds is your best chance to see the Queen!

Meet the Queen at Mme. Tussauds in London

Stop two for the day was the British Museum. This is a great place for budget travelers because it's FREE! And don't let the title fool you. While there is a lot of information on British history here, think of it more as the Louvre of London. There are exhibits from nearly every culture and every period in history. One of the coolest things that we saw was the Rosetta Stone. The actual Rosetta Stone. What's funny is that I didn't expect it to be an actual stone. :)

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London

I'm sure one could spend many more hours than we did at the British Museum, but military history is more my cup of tea, so I was anxious to get to the Imperial War Museum. This, like the British Museum, is also free, so it makes the hefty ticket price to Mme Tussauds a little easier to stomach.

I really enjoyed this museum. Their exhibits are constantly changing, but if it's still there, go through the World War I exhibit which is an interactive, life-size trench warfare experience. I think it was designed for kids, but I still found it fascinating. There is also a very moving Holocaust exhibit. If you've never been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC (which is by far the best), I encourage spending some time in the exhibit here in London.

Imperial War Museum in London

Unlike Paris where we walked almost everywhere (sometimes without realizing just how far we were going to walk), we took the underground (tube) most places in London.

Now should be the time where I tell you that we sat down to a nice dinner and had a blast scoping out the hip night life, but I've already established that I travel like an old nerd. I wake up early and see as much as I can see in a single day before everything closes at 6PM. Then I do sit down to dinner, but it's usually at a cheap cafe or pub where I can dine and be done in an hour. Back to the hotel and in bed by 8:30-9:00. Why? Because I'll be up at 4:30-5:00AM the next day to start all over again. And it's not that my beauty regimen takes hours, but because there are several housekeeping things that I do throughout the trip to help future trips be more efficient.

First, I journal daily about the day's events and what I enjoyed or didn't enjoy to help me remember it better. Sadly, I didn't start this until my trip to Japan in 2012, but I've done it for every trip since and will continue doing it for all future trips. Second, I take a daily look at costs. I have a sheet where I record every penny we spent that day from the cost of the hotel to the ice cream we got from a street vendor. When I get home, I put everything onto a spreadsheet by category. That helps me get an accurate idea of budgeting for future trips. In a previous post, I mentioned that I used to budget $100/day for food for 2 people. After Italy and France and England, I realized that we don't spend even close to $100/day on food. This has done two things. It's helped me budget more realistically for future trips, but it's also helped me see where we can afford to enjoy a little more luxury. (This came in very handy during our trip to Dubai which I'll blog about later.)

That's all for London Day 1. HERE are the highlights from Days 2 and 3 including Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and some reviews of 2 fabulous shows on London's West End.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler