United Kingdom Trip: London, Day 3

I'm back with my second post in my UK series. I hope you all had a good holiday; I sure did. I'll have a post about my holiday break coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy Day 3 of London. As I mentioned in the first post in this series, there are a lot of photos.

After a good night's rest, we were up and at 'em for a full day in London. Because we had a long day ahead of us, we decided to go out for breakfast. While Keith and I have both had the full Irish breakfast (it's the same as the full English breakfast), Audrey has not, so I found a cafe within walking distance called Terry's Cafe.

It was quintessentially small, very British, and quaint. Audrey and I both got the step down from the full English while Keith got the full one.

My step down from full included eggs, English bacon, English sausage, bubble & squeak (it's cabbage and mashed potato patties that are fried and absolutely delicious!), and, of course, beans.

With full bellies, we made our way to Sky Garden, located on the 34th floor of the Walkie Talkie building. Tickets are free but go fast so you need to book them starting two weeks in advance of your planned day.

Much like the Sky Bar at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, this top-floor, glass-enclosed area affords you a view of London from every angle. Once again, you can see the Shard. I'm sure you've guessed by now that our Airbnb was in Central London, which made getting around so much easier.

Also like the Sky Bar, there are words on the panes of glass letting you know where certain points of interest are. This one made me laugh, though, because you really have to expand the photo in order to actually see Wembley Stadium.

The city winds its way along The Thames.

A shot from inside the Sky Garden.

There's free water but also a coffee shop on this level while the half level up top has a small cafe.

We were done at Sky Garden around 11:15 or so and since Audrey and I's afternoon reservation wasn't until 1:15, we decided to go to where Keith wanted to really go. So, back on the Underground where we made our way to Trafalgar Square.

The iconic Nelson's Column surrounded by four lions. I've seen this in pictures so many times so it was really cool to see it in person. Off in the right-hand corner, you can see The National Gallery. Like most museums in London, it's free to go in but there was no time. Maybe next time.

Up close and personal.

There were plagues around Nelson's Column giving you a history of Trafalgar Square.

This wasn't our main destination, so after looking around a bit, we headed south on Parliament Street. Scotland Yard is just off to the left down a side street.

This path takes you directly by HRH King Charles' Horses Guard. I've watched a lot of YouTube videos and shorts about the guard so it was cool, again, to see them in person.

You can go beyond the arches and into a back parade ground where I saw this guard keeping watch. I've seen him in videos so many times that I consider him sort of a celebrity.

We passed this statue of Spencer Compton, the 8th Duke of Devonshire.

We stopped at The Red Lion to use their bathroom. I just love the flowers that adorn the tops of most pubs in London.

We finally made it to a statue of Winston Churchill and our destination.

Across the road from Winston is Elizabeth Tower aka Big Ben, the London Eye, and 

...the Houses of Parliament to the left.

Back behind Winston is Westminster Abbey, a place Keith really wanted to go. Here is where all the royalty gets married, and where many royalty and famous people are buried. 

Such as Queen Elizabeth I.

And her older sister, Queen Mary. 

Queen Mary of Scots is close by, as well as many King Henrys, although not King Henry the 8th. Also buried here are Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and C.S. Lewis, to name but a few. My phone was about dead so I took many photos with Keith's phone although he has yet to send them to me.

After our whirlwind visit through the Abbey, we had reservations shortly after all, we headed back to the Airbnb where we freshened up and left Keith. Back on public transport up to Picadilly.

Afternoon tea was a must for me while in London, and I wasn't going to skimp so we went to a fancier, more expensive place: Fortnum & Mason.

Our elegant table.

Audrey loves tea so I let her pick, and she chose Victoria Grey - a blend made in honor of Queen Victoria herself.

They have a standard and a savoury tea, so we got one of each. The finger sandwiches were the same, but the scones and patisseries were different on each tower. They brought us macarons later and we had unlimited tea. We were so incredibly full when we left, that much is for certain.

A view along Picadilly Road.

After tea, we browsed around the actual store, checked out a few shops, and then got on a bus back to our lodging. We collected Keith and headed to another place in Kensington that I had wanted to go to and reserved months prior.

The Churchill Arms. This classic pub is named after Winston and has been in existence since 1750 - although it was renamed after WW2. I had booked a table because I figured it would be busy and, as you can see by this photo, I wasn't wrong!

I had some issues with the management of this place. First, I had requested to change my reservation from 2 people to 3 months prior. They never responded but when they emailed me a few days prior to confirm, I reminded them I wanted a table for 3 and not 2. Lo and behold, when we got there they still had us down for 2 people but after a bit of back and forth, they got us a table.

Then, even though it said nothing on the website that you had to order food with a reservation, they told us that we had to order food. This kinda pissed me off because if I had known that, I would've made the reservation for an evening where I wasn't stuffed on afternoon tea. I mean, we just tried to order appetizers and drinks, but they weren't having it. 

Still, the interior was beautiful and they had Bulmers on the menu! I hadn't had a Bulmers since my trip to Ireland in 2014, so I had two. We didn't stay long as we were disappointed with the whole experience so we headed back up to the Underground station.

However, I wasn't going to let that experience ruin our night so we stopped at a pub called the Old Swan between The Churchill Arms and the Underground. 

That had Inch's Berry Cider on tap, which was lovely, so I drank one.

Back on the Underground, I noticed that we'd have to pass Picadilly on the way back to our lodging, so I suggested we stop at Picadilly Circus. It's London's version of Times Square and a huge tourist trap, but we had the time as it was only around 9 pm or so.

The live billboard in the square.

Keith and I both really had to go to the restroom at this point and he spotted a HardRock Cafe. It's another tourist trap so I groaned, but Keith got excited because he's been to several HardRock cafes around the world. So, he offered to buy us all a drink. After a stop in the loo, I enjoyed a smoked whiskey sour.

Audrey then offered to get us a round of Lemon Drop shots which came with these Picadilly shot glasses that we got to keep.

Nicely buzzed, we stepped back out into the throng of tourists and just took it in.

Many were flocked around a memorial Victorian fountain crowned with what is widely believed to be a statue of Eros.

After this, we went back to our Airbnb and had more drinks before finally calling it a night.

Whew! What a day! This is exactly why I said that I needed to do one post for each day of the trip. It was a fun day and we were the consummate tourists. 

Until next time, friends,

H.A.