Highlights of the day: Big Bus, Tower Bridge, Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Hamley’s Toy Store
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 – The plan for the day was to roll out of bed once we felt rested from the flights and jet lag. That happened somewhere around 10am and by the time we got out of the apartment, it was close to noon.
It was going to be a lax day, just hop on the Big Bus (£40.5/adult, £31.5/child – 2 day pass) and grab whatever sights seemed the most interesting. Big Bus had a very user friendly map and easy to understand route. Station #30 Blue was just next to our Airbnb at the Thistle hotel. This was a shared stop with the other two bus companies (Original and Golden Tours) and they all had an employee waiting at the stop, which allowed us to buy advance tickets for Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral without having to pick a day/time slot.
We must have just missed the bus because we waited at least 25 mins for the bus to arrive. The Big Bus app is also helpful to track the stops and the live bus locations.
Our bus had a live tour guide and you could listen through the free headphones on the bus.
The downside was the traffic, but this gave us plenty of time to take silly pictures.
We started on the Blue line, but needed to transfer to the Red line. Most people were trying to do the same thing, so we let the crowd get off at stop #5 (which had a longer line for the red transfer) and we continued on to stop #4. After some quick shots in the smelly phone booths, we hopped on the Red line, which is the route with most tourist sites and busiest buses.
By the time we reached Tower of London, stop #16, it was well after 14:00. This would mark the first and last time we used the bus to get around the city. The tube is much more efficient.
We were all starving, so we decided to save Tower of London for the next day and instead head toward Borough Market for lunch. On the way, we stopped at Tower Bridge. This would also give us a chance to get out of the rain.
We purchased these tickets in advance (£24.5/family ), but the line wouldn’t have been long either way. You enter near the Tower of London side of the bridge and upon check-in you are loaded in an elevator and taken up to the top. There’s a quick 5 minute video about the history of the bridge and then you can walk out onto the glass floor, which is where the kids spent most of their time laying down on the glass and taking pictures.
After spending our time up top, we were off to the engine rooms below, which included a kids area where they could draw their own bridge designs.
The rain was still coming down pretty good, so we bought a couple umbrellas in the gift shop before heading out.
Connor and Kate were having some challenges sharing the umbrella, so we bought connor his own british flag umbrella at one of the nearby markets outside. I guess we got what we paid for with the £7 umbrella since it only lasted a few hours before breaking.
We were all starving, so we quickly headed over to Borough Market, which was a little bit of a walk (xx mins). It took some time to find a booth with food we liked as well as seating so we didn’t have to stand up and eat. We settled on Porteña, which had either the best empanadas we’ve ever had, or maybe we were just really hungry.
There was a German tour group beside us while we ate, so the kids got their first dose of a foreign language on the trip as we tried to pick out any words we might recognize.
Southwark Cathedral was nearby. It wasn’t very crowded and it was free to enter (they do accept donations and a “picture tax”).
We went through the cathedral in about 15 mins and then spent the rest of our time meeting Doorkins Magnificat (the cathedral kitty).
Not very friendly, but the kids were having cat withdrawl since we left home, so they forced in a few strokes of the fur.
There were a few employees throughout the cathedral that were happy to answer any questions (plan a few extra minutes for the answer because they like to talk).
We hopped on the tube at London Bridge station (Jubilee Line) for our next stop, Westminster Abbey, which is open late on Wednesdays (Wednesday Lates – 16:30 to 18:00) and it was already too late to hit any of the other sites that closed at 16:00.
We did not buy Westminster tickets in advance (as we didn’t want to be locked into a specific time/day) but the line was only 5-10 minutes long.
They also ask you to refrain from taking pictures in most areas. It was rather busy inside, so it took 25 mins to walk around through all the people.
I had visited before, but had not been inside, so I was suprised at how many famous people were buried there (C.S. Lewis, Darwin, Isaac Newton, etc.).
From Westminster, its an easy walk to Buckingham Palace through St. James Park, which had plenty of ducks, squirells and other animals to keep the kids entertained.
The flag was up at Buckingham, which meant the Queen was at residence and we couldn’t go inside, so we admired from a distance.
We left Buckingham Palace and walked toward Jermyn St. (a great place to shop if you have an extra £1M laying around) on our way to Hamley’s Toy Store. It was also time for some food and coffee (jet lag still in effect) so we stopped off in a Costa Coffee before making it to Hamley’s.
To understand Hamley’s, try thinking of a high-end Toys R Us on crack with 6 stories of pure entertainment. Each floor had its own theme (Harry Potter, Lego, young kids, dolls, etc.).
We let each of the kids pick one toy, which took some time to decide. Cohen got a really cool penguin that swims in the bath. Kate chose roller skates that attach to your shoes. Connor couldn’t find anything small enough to travel, so he saved his purchase for another store.
It was time to hit the sack after a long day, so we jumped on the Tube again and headed toward our Airbnb. And since the tube was so clean, the kids decided to touch as much of it as possible.
We didn’t have a proper dinner, so I grabbed some kebabs from Taza just down the street. It was a quick meal and off to bed. Tommorrow would be an earlier day (fingers crossed).
Gleitz Well Traveled 