First Stop: London

After months of planning ‘the trip’ and hours upon hours of staying up late to talk about it even when we should have been getting some sleep for the next day of work,we were finally gone! It was liberating to be rid of the long hours of work and we were ready to finally head out into the world! We slept very little on what seemed like a short flight to us (7 hours) from Chicago to London. Only 2 more hours than flying from California to Michigan like we had previously done over the Christmas holiday. We slept very little and were greeted by the rain Gods in London. Stepping outside it felt like being ‘up north’ in Michigan. It was cold! Is this what we quit our jobs for?

Just as we got off the 1.5 hour tube ride (underground metro) in London, we began walking down the street to find our Airbnb and the heavens opened by greeting us with pouring rain. We smelled and probably needed a shower anyway after the long transit the day before, but now we were soaked. The moment we stepped into Blenheim Lodge, our gracious hosts Roger and Agri greeted us. They were awesome. Even though we looked like drown rats, they invited us for afternoon tea in their dining room overlooking a garden in the back of their English mansion that was overflowing with flowers of all colors (or should I say colours). It was fantastic. This ended up being one of the best Airbnb experiences that we have had. Everything was done just right and it really allowed you to feel like a local, which we loved! After tea we took a nap, which felt amazing. Once we woke up, we headed to a neighborhood fish and chips joint Toff’s Fish Restaurant. Normally I would skip the fish ‘n chips because I’m not a fan, but decided I had to try- When in London, right? It did not disappoint. It was outstanding. More fish n chips in my future, at least in England anyway. Satisfied is the only way to describe the end of the first day.

Day 2 we were much more ambitious. Anxious to see all of what London had to offer. We took the metro to the center of town and walked around the Covent Garden area until it was time for our free walking tour at 1 pm. What a great concept. It is an awesome way to learn some history of London by someone that is trying to impress you with their knowledge since you pay them only what you think they deserve. It was a pretty large group but we covered some ground learning all about this King and that King. We walked past all of the major sites including: Big Ben (which isn’t a clock tower but the bell itself), Parliament, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge (which isn’t very impressive at all and wouldn’t be famous at all if 3 bridges ago it didn’t fall into the Thames River), and a slew of museums. It was a great overview of the main cluster of London – totally worth the 10 pounds we gave the guide at the end of the tour. You can’t go to London and not see those sites. To our delight the tour ended in a traditional English pub. By that point, we were only too glad to sit down and drain down a pint of ale. Still don’t get the stuff. It’s a room temperature beer but we had to try the English tradition. To hell with cold beer (ok…maybe only this time)!

After the beer, we made our way to the SoHo district. This reminded us of our days in New York City’s lower east side. There are some cool and unique places. Finally we ended up in a pizza joint. We had walked so many miles for the day that we were beat and that was a wrap for the day.

The next morning we woke up feeling energetic once again. We decided to do an Insanity workout. Even though we were on the first level of the B&B, it was hundreds of years old and shook like crazy… 100 elephants running through the place. We only made it half way through the workout when we decided that was probably enough. Afterwards we enjoyed the delicious English breakfast that was laid before us by our hosts and off into London for another day. This day, much like the last we walked a TON. We decided to explore the Thames River area. Walking from the London Bridge which is unimpressive, through some terrific markets and into the Shakespeare globe area. We didn’t want to pay money to go inside of it since we aren’t much for Shakespeare’s work anyway. We would rather spend the 8 pounds on 2 beers riverside. Once we had enough of the one side of the river, we crossed the river and made our way to Old Town. There really only is one area of old town worth visiting at this point since there are tons of new business buildings popping up everywhere. The most impressive thing to see and do in Old Town is where we ended our walk in the afternoon sun: London Tower grounds. This really exceeded our expectations. Lots of great history and stories behind the buildings where many kings protected the city of London from invasion. Yes, there were also loads of tourists there too.

When we entered the grounds, a Beefeater greeted us. No, not a grazing cow or a decent Gin but a man dressed in a strange outfit. The origin of that word goes hundreds of years back when soldiers that were charged with guarding the king would be called Beefeater because others saw that they were always allowed to eat with the King (who apparently ate a lot of beef).   The Beefeater gave us a great hour-long tour, which was a nice intro to the place. Afterwards we outran many of the others in our group to where the Crown Jewels of England are housed. After a short line to get into the building we were looking at all of the finer jewelry that kings and queens over the years had worn. They had a nice display, and kept you on an escalator as you looked at the Crowns to make sure you didn’t take too long.

The last day of our trip in London started with a jog in the brisk air (temps in the low 50’s) down through the neighborhoods close to our B&B, one of them was called Bishop’s Court. Very impressive to say the least as we saw mansion after mansion. According to our hosts, there was a house recently that sold on this street for a cool 70 million pounds. Crazy but made for an interested jog in the ‘hood’. After the jog we enjoyed our last day of English breakfast and said farewell. It was a good trip in London. The weather wasn’t always the best. Overall it was cool and cloudy but it was a relaxing couple of days and honestly the weather didn’t stop us from exploring this wonderful city. Lots of history and lots to see and do in London.  London is an extremely expensive city as well so we were glad to move onto a little cheaper place. We were ready for the next leg of our journey which would hopefully include some sun…. Italia!