Day 14 - We see London!

Today we slept in to recharge after yesterday. Even though we went to bed very early, it was a 3 AM - 9PM day full of uncertainty and homesickness.

After a very nice breakfast put on by the hotel for whoever was left (some people managed to get flights today), we gathered all of our stuff and rode the bus back to the airport. There, we checked into our new hotel which is walking distance to the ticket desks.

This hotel is much nicer. It's a "5 star" hotel on google, which I guess means it has a fancy restaurant somewhere. We didn't bother trying to find it. We are lucky to get a room upgrade, but forgot what room we booked in the first place because we were falling asleep, so the impact is semi-lost on us. This hotel room is much nicer though: it has a tub with a TV, and complementary mini bar! The mini bar has coors light and a scotch and that's about it.

We dropped our stuff, refreshed slightly, then headed to the Underground station to ride into London.

The plan was- there was no plan actually. We were just going to ride the tube (actually this isnt the tube, more on that in a sec) into Paddington station and somehow see Big Ben. While on the train, we found a nice walking guide that basically covers all the hit spots possible in a big circle starting from Paddington and ending at Picadilly Circus.

The trains out of Heathrow are kind of confusing. There's the Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line. Both have purple trains and logos. The Heathrow Express costs 3x the Elizabeth line, and is a private train with nonstop service to Paddington Station. The Elizabeth line is/was better known as Crossrail and is the newest Underground line in London. It's not really an Underground though since it has full sized trains, very long trains and travels most of the way above ground.

We arrived at Paddington Station very quickly (again, why would you pay for the Heathrow Express??) and immediately did what one does when in said station:

We also saw some fun Great Western Railway trains!

Then we began our walking tour! The tour started in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, where we strolled along the big pond.

Then we made our way to the museum area, where we saw the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert museum, and London Oratory. Three of these are self-explanatory. We still aren't sure what Victoria & Albert have in theirs.

Due to timing to get to Big Ben, we didn't stop into any of the museums, and instead headed to lunch at a nearby pub! Nick got a wild game meat pie and Lauren got fish and chips. Both were very delicious and we got to watch Aston Villa cream Man City on the telly. So yeah we got the full pub experience.

Then we went to Harrods! In Stausbourg, our tour guide said Galaries Lafayette there was like Harrods but better. She lied- it was more like Macy's than Harrods. Harrods was much busier and grander by a long shot, and we didn't even bother going above the 2nd floor since it was so crowded. We focused more on Harrods merch itself, and got a nice set of teas for us in a Harrods tin.

After Harrods we walked over to Buckingham Palace and saw the guards!

Then we walked to the big climax of the walk: Big Ben!!!

It was very cool and even did some ding-donging for us.

We crossed the Thames and headed towards the London Eye, getting more Big Ben and Parliament pictures on the way.

We decided to splurge on London Eye tickets to get a better view of London. The sun was setting, so it became a twilight/city lights tour instead. Still very worth the ticket price!

Right outside the Eye exit was... a CHRISTMAS MARKET! THAT'S RIGHT WE AIN'T DONE. It was mostly food, though, and the crafts were subpar. No mugs, just paper cups.

Nick messed up and forgot what the Globe theater was called, and instead took us to the National Theater which is nothing more than a movie theater building. That being a bust, we headed back across the Thames to the National Gallery.

You'll never believe it, but the National Gallery had a GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKET. They had a live choir, sausages, and way better craft booths! We got a hand painted ornament to commemorate our stay in London.

We walked to Piccadilly Circus after, the last stop on our walking tour. The location itself wasn't very impressive, but the Christmas vibes on the way were very good.

This is where things started to fall apart. We ran out of planned things to do, and it got really crowded with people in what seemed like all of London. It is the weekend before Christmas after all, so everybody is home and shopping! For the next hour, we fought crowds along the busy shopping streets, trying to find a place to have dinner. But all the pubs and restaurants were FULL, and we were in the heart of tourist mania with no way out!

We ended up taking a shortcut through Seville Row (which was empty) and eventually, after trying multiple pubs and restaurants, found a burger place with tables. By the time we finished eating, there was an hour wait!

We ended the day taking the Elizabeth Line back to Heathrow. Tomorrow morning we will pack again, check in again, and re-start our journey home. This delay in London was not welcome, but we made the best out of it and now we can say we've been to London! Better than staying trapped in a hotel, too! We got to see everything we wanted to see, except for one thing:

Hopefully things go well tomorrow (today's flight left with no issues)! We're extremely fortunate to be refreshed and still excited to go home, rather than fed up and just waiting for it to be over like a normal airport experience. It will be very exciting to try business class (especially from a sleeping perspective). Our plane tomorrow will land 24hrs from when we're writing this (10:50 PM here, 3 PM SFO time).

There will be another post, because who knows what will happen??? Therefore:

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