London at Night
Picking up where the last blog post left off, we had just landed at Gatwick airport in South London. We grabbed our bags and prepared for a long line at customs. Turns out, because we arrived in Ireland, there was no long line at all! In fact, there was no line at all and we just walked right in. Easy peasy.
We got some cash from an ATM and then found a place to get SIM cards in our phones. We're Millenials and need our cell phone data haha. We thought about getting some food but got wrapped up in buying train tickets and then catching a train so we just waited. There's a super-easy train that would take us all the way up to our hotel with no transfers.
The train ride took about 45 mins and was easy breezy. We left the train station and I accidentally got turned around so we walked the wrong direction for a few minutes. Whoops. The walk should have taken us about 10 mins but ended up taking 20. Our hotel is called Malmaison London and is really, really nice. The room is huge and the hotel has some great style.
We hadn't eaten any actual food for a long while (plane food just doesn't really count, especially the beef kind that tastes bad) so we went in search of something to eat. Apparently, New Years Day is a big holiday in London? Because just about every single restaurant/pub was closed. We ended up just getting some pasta salad and a wrap from Tesco (a chain of very small grocery stores). I actually thought mine was pretty good! Reminds me of the good old days back when I was in London before. I would eat Tesco meals fairly regularly and even had a Tesco meal with my mom on Easter when she visited haha. We ate the food in a park just outside our hotel.
So we were tired but we couldn't go to sleep yet because it was only about 3 or 4pm. We didn't want our bodies to get too messed up by sleeping at that time. So we decided to head over to St. Paul's Cathedral and see what was going on over there. On our walk over, we commented a bunch on how empty the city seemed and how everything was closed. Closer to the tourist spots, some more things opened up though. It was prettttyyyyy chilly so we bought hats at a store.
St. Paul's Cathedral is beautiful and a big landmark in London. We listened to the bells, then Lacey brought us over to a new mall that was built just behind it. We took an elevator to the top of the mall and had a FANTASTIC view of the cathedral and the whole city of London. Absolutely beautiful. The mall didn't exist when I was here last time so it's really fun to see the changes and for Lacey to show me around to all the cool, new spots.
We walked along the Thames over to Tower Bridge to see it lit up at night. It was magical. There were lots of people down by the river and by the Tower Bridge so the energy of the people kept us moving. We stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee and warm up. Our energy levels started to really crash so we headed back to the hotel.
Our hotel has a restaurant in the bottom level and they had a meal deal on 2 cheeseburgers. We decided to do that for dinner because it was easy and close to our bed haha. The food was fine. Nothing too special but it filled up so it got the job done. We headed upstairs and went to bed around 8pm.
We love love love London and are so happy to be back. We were only out and about for like 3 or 4 hours but it was fun and we can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.
We got some cash from an ATM and then found a place to get SIM cards in our phones. We're Millenials and need our cell phone data haha. We thought about getting some food but got wrapped up in buying train tickets and then catching a train so we just waited. There's a super-easy train that would take us all the way up to our hotel with no transfers.
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| View from mall by St.Paul Cathedral |
The train ride took about 45 mins and was easy breezy. We left the train station and I accidentally got turned around so we walked the wrong direction for a few minutes. Whoops. The walk should have taken us about 10 mins but ended up taking 20. Our hotel is called Malmaison London and is really, really nice. The room is huge and the hotel has some great style.
We hadn't eaten any actual food for a long while (plane food just doesn't really count, especially the beef kind that tastes bad) so we went in search of something to eat. Apparently, New Years Day is a big holiday in London? Because just about every single restaurant/pub was closed. We ended up just getting some pasta salad and a wrap from Tesco (a chain of very small grocery stores). I actually thought mine was pretty good! Reminds me of the good old days back when I was in London before. I would eat Tesco meals fairly regularly and even had a Tesco meal with my mom on Easter when she visited haha. We ate the food in a park just outside our hotel.
 |
| 3 dollar meal deal from Tesco |
So we were tired but we couldn't go to sleep yet because it was only about 3 or 4pm. We didn't want our bodies to get too messed up by sleeping at that time. So we decided to head over to St. Paul's Cathedral and see what was going on over there. On our walk over, we commented a bunch on how empty the city seemed and how everything was closed. Closer to the tourist spots, some more things opened up though. It was prettttyyyyy chilly so we bought hats at a store.
St. Paul's Cathedral is beautiful and a big landmark in London. We listened to the bells, then Lacey brought us over to a new mall that was built just behind it. We took an elevator to the top of the mall and had a FANTASTIC view of the cathedral and the whole city of London. Absolutely beautiful. The mall didn't exist when I was here last time so it's really fun to see the changes and for Lacey to show me around to all the cool, new spots.
 |
| Pub on a cute street |
We walked along the Thames over to Tower Bridge to see it lit up at night. It was magical. There were lots of people down by the river and by the Tower Bridge so the energy of the people kept us moving. We stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee and warm up. Our energy levels started to really crash so we headed back to the hotel.
 |
| Tower Bridge |
Our hotel has a restaurant in the bottom level and they had a meal deal on 2 cheeseburgers. We decided to do that for dinner because it was easy and close to our bed haha. The food was fine. Nothing too special but it filled up so it got the job done. We headed upstairs and went to bed around 8pm.
We love love love London and are so happy to be back. We were only out and about for like 3 or 4 hours but it was fun and we can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.
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