Our Day Along The River Thames

Spring is approaching here in England. The wind is no longer biting and cold, flowers are beginning to bloom in the city, and the sun feels warm on your skin. We took this beautiful time in London as an opportunity to spend it by the river.

While walking along the river just around the corner from Borough Market (more on that later) we couldn’t resist checking out some street art. We’re not quite sure what this represents. Any ideas?

During our walk we found yet another Cathedral, the Southwark Cathedral, to explore. We didn’t expect to find another one of these holy places so soon, but couldn’t resist exploring on our way to the market. This was one of the more beautiful buildings we’ve found and the interior is a beautiful work of art. It was also nice to see the courtyard outside alive and filled with people enjoying lunch in the spring air.

   

The cathedral had a sculpture of Shakespeare and a stained glass window that depicted some of his plays. We also learned that his brother was buried in the graveyards of this very building!

The real goal of our adventure was to find Borough Market. We wandered the market in search of nothing in particular except to people watch and taste some of the delicious foods being sold there.

 

While we were wandering the market we found this board that had writings of what people wish to do before they die. Some of them are funny and some of them are powerful. I found myself standing by the board wanting to read every one.

 

We stopped at a noodle shop called WOKIT for lunch and had some of the most delicious noodles we’ve ever tasted.

 

After a delicious late lunch we continued our walk along the river. We needed to head toward the boat tour we had booked for later that evening.

After our walk along the river we had the opportunity to see the sights and attractions from the river itself on the London Eye River Cruise. The day was beautiful, but chilly on the boat (even in the sun). Our tour was at the perfect time of day because we had a wonderful sunset ride. The views were stunning and despite the chilly winds on the water we enjoyed every minute of our tour.

We hope you enjoyed following along with our day along the river. We know that there are a lot of other things to do in the city (many of them free!). What do you think we can’t miss when we’re in London next?

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Views Over London From The London Eye

Seeing the views of London from the London Eye has been a bucket list item of mine for quite some time. We were in London last November and did not have enough time to go on the London Eye. We were only here for a whirlwind weekend and when we looked into going on the Eye the line was easily a few hours long.

This time fate was on our side. Our first day back in London for a week long stay and the line was barely a ten minute wait! We jumped on the chance to see London from such great heights.

We boarded the observation pod with a group of about ten other people and slowly made our thirty minute revolution from the river, to the top of the city, and then back to the water. The views of Parliament and Big Ben were incredible. This was such a wonderful opportunity to see such iconic sights from  a 443 foot tall Ferris wheel. Now, some may be wondering why go on the London Eye when you can see amazing sights of the city from the 72nd floor of The Shard. Then I realized that I wouldn’t have amazing photos and views of the gorgeous building itself in the London skyline! The observation deck of The Shard is the highest viewing point in the city today and definitely one of my favorite buildings of all time. We will make it to The Shard one day, but there is just something about the allure of a giant wheel next to the River Thames. After all of the excitement snapping pictures on the way up, we were able to relax and soak in the city on the ride down. We were even lucky enough to have a day with some puffy clouds and blue skies which can be rare sight during the winters in southern England 🙂 The Eye is a great attraction nestled in the heart of the city. You’ll find yourself seeing the spokes and pods from all over as you wander around the city. We even caught a few glimpses through the trees while we were at Buckingham Palace. Since we wanted to squeeze the most out of our major London attractions we decided to book a discount ticket for the Eye and a river boat tour. Our tour will head out on Friday evening. I promise we’ll get out another post and pictures of our river tour and city wanderings very soon. As far as “tourist attractions” go the London Eye is a must. It may seem like a goofy tourist thing to do, but you get great views of a great city and some time to unwind before you head back out into the business of it all. What’s your favorite London attraction? Is there something we just can’t miss while we’re out here? Let us know in the comments below. We have a few days left and would love to hear from all of you.

10 Photos That Will Make You Want To Travel To England

  

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10 Photos From Our Weekend Trip To London

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Our Weekend in London

Day 1:

We set out for London! Our hotel was Staycity in Heathrow, right outside London. So we used the trains to go in and out of the city. I really do recommend this tactic if you’re in an area for a few days and you want to save some money. This is especially useful if you didn’t have the time to plan ahead. A night or two in a major city on short notice can really cost a lot of money! This way we had a nice furnished apartment that was only about a 20 minute train ride from the heart of it all.

Our first pub is O’Neill’s where we ordered our first drink (a pint!) in London. Chris said he had a Guinness “Extra Cold” and it was the best Guinness that he had ever had.

After a couple drinks at the pub we headed on back to our hotel. Since we drove all day in from Lakenheath we needed to rest up for our big day in London tomorrow.

Day 2:

We spent all day Saturday in London and tried fitting every big attraction into our schedule the best we could.

The infamous “Gap” that all of the train announcers warn you about!

While walking towards the Tower of London we encountered the London Wall.

Our first attraction we set out to see was the Tower of London since it won our London attraction poll. Yesterday’s blog post was all about the Tower of London.

There were so many birds flying around in and outside of the Tower of London.

We saw views of The Shard as we made our way to the Tower of London.

We had great views of Tower Bridge when exiting the Tower of London.

The next stop on our attractions list was to see Big Ben. I am a huge Disney fan and our friend Nicolle absolutely loves Peter Pan, so seeing Big Ben was a must for us.

We saw the London Eye, but wasn’t able to ride it because of our busy schedule. The lines were horribly long and we were getting hungry for dinner, so we put it on our to-do list for next time we are in London.

We started to get hungry and went in search for dinner. We found a great Sushi restaurant called Yo! Sushi. Admittedly, they’re all over the city, but this one was just around the corner from the London Eye. They can get a bit pricey, but if you watch what you eat you can have a meal for a reasonable price.

After dinner we made our way to King’s Cross Station in search of Platform 9 3/4. There was even a Platform 9 3/4 shop that we walked around in afterwards.

Day 3:

Now we weren’t supposed to go back to London on the third day. We were supposed to just drive back to Lakenheath, but Nicolle lost her wallet and we had an idea as to where she left it (the Harry Potter store was the last time it was seen). So we all piled back onto the train and headed to London in search of the missing wallet.

Since we missed our picture with Paddington Bear yesterday and our train into London stopped at Paddington Station we took our photo with the famous bear.

After our photo with Paddington we went straight to King’s Cross station where the Harry Potter store is to find the missing wallet.

When the woman behind the counter said, “Yes, I do have a wallet that was left here yesterday,” and handed Nicolle her wallet we all breathed a sigh of relief. The missing wallet had been found!

The tube made a stop at the famous Baker Street. We were pressed for time, so we did not get to go explore Baker Street.

All in all we had a great time in the city. We wished we had another two weeks to fully explore all the city has to offer. We still missed a lot of big attractions, museums, and much more. Hopefully we’ll have our chance to visit London again one day; perhaps on our way back through Europe to the states. Be sure to keep in touch for more updates on our adventures here in the UK and beyond.

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