London Day 1

Monday, 8 July 2024

Arriving super early into London we had to somehow get through the day without falling asleep on the tube and ending up in Slough, or simply falling asleep in on a park bench and waking up when the sun went down– as it happened the constant rain varying in intensity from light drizzle to bucketing down certainly meant the sunning-ourselves-in-Hyde-park option was off the table.   After making our way from Heathrow to our accommodation in Paddington we stashed our luggage and headed out on an almost 5 hour walking tour of our precinct, starting in Hyde Park..

..passing Buckingham Palace which was unexpectedly exciting as we happened to catch King Charles leaving the palace after some official engagement.

From there we went through St James Park, Trafalgar Square, Nelsons Column, the West End, Neils Yard..

..then a long haul all the way back down Oxford Street back to our hotel where we could finally officially check in and have showers. It was about 3pm by that stage and although we had vague plans to go and find somewhere later to eat dinner, after 5 +hours of walking with 13kms covered, no-one could face another step so we spent the rest of the day relaxing and trying to keep our eyes open until it was conceivably bed time.  I lasted until about 7.30, everyone else lasted until the end of the penalty shootout between England and Switzerland in the Euros which resulted in the streets all around us coming alive with honking car horns.

The location of our dodgy hotel is fantastic – a few hundred metres from both Hyde Park and Paddington Station. The room is incredibly small despite being incredibly expensive.  Our first night only had 3 of us of in it, so Jon and I could each have a bed rather than share what is more like a king single bed than a double bed. With Jett returning to us tomorrow it will be a bit more crowded.