London - 2 days in London

Day time highlights:

Tripadvisor is a very good tool for trip planning, especially for HOTEL selections and tips for getting around the main attractions.

Transportations & Sightseeing:
   You could take one of those Hop-in-Hop-off Tour Bus (Day Pass)                 
           - very convenient, most of them have 8 stops at the most popular tourist attraction                     
           - but you could get stuck in traffic at rush hours

   You could take the local bus #9 - self-guided sightseeing tour bus  (cheaper)
           - you will pass by many tourist attractions as Harrods, Big Ben, St. Paul Cathedral, Tower of London and Kensington Palace 

                       

Metro system - London's metro system is very convenient
                                   - Their metro staffs are very nice and helpful (unlike Paris)

Walk - If you really want to feel the city, scrolling around London is not a bad idea, the top attractions were pretty far apart though

Cruise - Take a River Thames cruise/city cruise from London Eye to the Tower of London
             - Or take a River cruise from the Tate Modern to Tate Britain 
                                                   (Tate to Tate Boat ~£5.50 single, £11 return)

Taxi - We had bad experience taking taxi back to hotel from the downtown area.  We showed the taxi driver our hotel address, we showed him the map and the GPS directions from Iphone.  He still took us to the wrong area, and we ended up walking 30 minutes back to hotel.  Unless you book the taxi ahead of time, avoid taking taxi as a tourist.

 

I only had two days in London, here was the original plan for the two days:

Day 1:
 - Westminster Abbey (opening hours: 9:30am - 2:30pm (for sat))
 - walk through St. Jame's Park
 - Buckingham Palace 
            - watch Changing the Guard (make sure you check the schedule ahead of time)
 - House of Parliament, Big Ben
 - Tate Gallery
 - Thames River Cruise to Tower of London
 - Tower of London
 - Tower Bridge

(optional): St. Paul Catherdral + Millennium Bridge
                 Trafalgar Square + Covent Garden (Department Mall at the West End)

 

Day 2:
 - breakfast at Hotel
 - Victoria + Albert Museum (free admission)
 - Harrods (Knightbridge) - Afternoon tea at Georgian Restaurant - Book ahead
 - Shopping around at Mayfair
 - London Eye (enjoy the sunset view or the night view)

Our hotel's sunset view from the Lounge :)

Our actual 2 days:
  We were tired from the flight on our first day, we had a very chill first day.  Touring around the main attractions via a private car, shopped around at Regent Street, lunch, back to hotel and spa.  
  Second day was a power walking tour: walking to all the main attractions: Big Ben, Westminster Abbeys, Buckingham Palace, St. Jame's Park, south bank, London eye, Olympics sites, Millennium Bridge, Tower of London, Mayfair...etc etc......It tells you that all the main attractions could be visited in one day (a little congested but it was manageable :)

London - Day 2 (Part 2)

London - One day tour (continued):

London Bridge

Millennium Bridge  

We strolled along the Thames river, we walked by so many restaurants, food stalls and many attractions.  One of them is the millennium bridge.  We passed by so many bridges.  The most common misconception is that the London bridge is the iconic image of London.  But IT's NOT.

Common misconception: 

This is the TOWER BRIDGE, not the London bridge.

Tower of London:

The Tower of London is the most famous of all the Medieval English castles.  Many men and women were killed and imprisoned in this great fortress. 

"In the late 15th century the castle was the prison of the Princes in the Tower. Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence, and despite attempts to refortify and repair the castle its defences lagged behind developments to deal with artillery.

The peak period of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, were held within its walls."    - Wikipedia

River Cruise:

After a long walk from here and there, we decided to take the river cruise back to the Westminster area.  It's a very good option if you don't want to walk anymore and still be able to enjoy a relaxing cruise ride along the river Thames.  It also had an audio tour guide  with the cruise.  The fee from the Tower Millennium Pier to the Westminster Pier was 9,50 pounds.  

 

London - Day 2 (Part 1)

          

London - Day 2:

After having a full breakfast buffet at the hotel's lounge, we took the hotel's shuttle van to Chelsea.  It was a very peaceful Sunday morning.  While we were heading to the Buckingham Palace, we didn't know the Paralympics hadn't ended until we saw this sign: 

 

Paralympics - London 2012

In fact, it was the last day of the Paralympics in London 2012.  We were fortunate to witness part of the Paralympic marathon.  Everyone gave a big applause for every athlete that ran by.  It was very inspiring.  The Paralympics games never fail to impress and to inspire.  It always reminds you that somewhere in the world, there are still a lot of people who never give up.  

The atmosphere and the crowd were great, it reminded me of the time when Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics in 2010.  Tourists and athletes came from all over the world to celebrate for this big event.

 

This is the one of the official mascots (Wenlock) for the London's Olympics.  83 of these sculptures were installed close to the famous landmarks of London.  It actually looked creepy when I first saw it, but eventually I did get used to it and I began love taking pictures with the weird looking mascots.  

Big Ben , Houses of Parliament & Westminster Abbey:

  

How can we miss seeing the Big Ben when we come to London?  Most of the roads were closed for the Paralympic.  We were able to sit in the middle of the road to take pictures.  We were very lucky that the two days we stayed at London was very sunny.  The weather was perfect to tour around and took pictures.  We were told that London usually has gloomy weather.  We sat right in the middle of the Westminster bridge and took great photos with the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.


London Eye vs. Flying Swing?  

Walking over the Westminster bridge, we had great views of the House of Parliaments on the left side and the London eye on the other side.  Initially, the London eye's ride was on my "must-do" list for London.  However, when I was looking at the speed of its movement and the long line-up, I went for the other option instead.  We saw this carnival that was right across from the London eye, and they had this flying swing for only 7 pounds and no wait time!

Both London eye and the flying swing provided magnificent views of the London's top attractions: Houses of Parliaments, Big Ben, River Thames..etc.  The ride in London eye will last 30 minutes when the flying swing only lasted for 2 minutes.  Since I didn't want to wait for the line up and I kind of didn't want to get stuck in the Eye for at least 30 minutes from the slow rotation, I went for the cheaper option instead :)  It was a hot day, taking the flying swing was very refreshing.  The swing was awesome as I could also have an amazing view of London including the London eye.  If I go back to London again, I wouldn't mind taking the London Eye to watch the sunset along the River Thames :)  

London - Arrival

Arrival to London (Sept 2012):

We took Air transat from YVR -> London Gatwick Airport.  
In the beginning, we worried about this budget flight would be a very uncomfortable ride as the flight tickets are a lot cheaper than other airlines.  I did some research on it, and some said it's those old planes that the passengers had to share the tiny tv monitors....

Yet, the flight journey was a lot better than we expected.  No, we didn't have to share any tv monitors, we each had a touch screen tablet with a lot of movie/tv selections in their program.  The seats were comfortable and it was a peaceful and quiet flight journey:)

Arrival to the hotel: 
Once we arrived to the airport, we went to the train station and we took the train from Gatwick to Clapham Junction.  After we arrived to the Clapham Junction, we weren't sure about the directions to our hotel, so I went to ask one of the staff for directions.  Friendly staff told us that the hotel is only 10 - 15 minutes walk from the train station.  When I showed them our hotel's address, the page had a list of all other hotels from the other cities.  The staff kindly teased about our Euro trip's itinerary and he showed his other colleagues about our busy vacation schedule.  Anyway, we followed his directions and we carried our luggage.  We walked on the uneven stone road/sidewalk, it was getting hot and the jet lag was kicking in.  The walk was actually longer than we expected but we did finally make it to our nice hotel :)



Hotel Verta by Rhombus  - Battersea
We arrived London early in the morning, so we checked in and we had a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel.  The hotel room was nice: spacious with a scenic view.  It faces the River Thames and the heliport.  The room was very quiet, the windows were thick enough that we didn't hear any noise from the heliport.