London Journal - Day 1

This adventure begins in London. It had been a few years since I have spent time in London, so I was eager to get back to the vast, diverse city, to explore some areas I had not explored before. I love London, and the more I go, the more I love it. London is such a huge city, with so much to see, but it can be overwhelming if you try to cram too much in. On previous visits, I did a lot of the more "touristy" sites, and on this visit, I was more interested in getting to know some of the neighbourhoods at a slower pace. That was the best idea, I think, as it was my favourite trip to London so far.

We landed at Gatwick airport around 8:30 am, and after making our way through the immigration fun, we caught the train into London Victoria. From there we took a taxi to our hotel in Waterloo. I've found that with luggage, it's always a good idea to just grab a taxi, and pay a few pounds for the ease of getting somewhere with heavy luggage. It's worth it.

Despite the fact that it was about 11 am, our hotel had our room ready, which was a marvelous surprise. We could go freshen up (after an overnight flight it is the best feeling in the world to simply wash your face), before heading out to meet my friend for lunch in the City. We walked to Waterloo Station, and immediately bought an Oyster card, topped it up with money, and used that on the Tube for the rest of our time in London. It was the easiest way to get around, and I highly recommend it.

We took the Tube into the City, and met Sonia for lunch at The Folly. It was fun to see her. We met in Lakeland several years ago (through my friend, Emily) when she came over to promote her product, the QBag at Publix. The restaurant was garden-themed, and served a delicious burger and sweet potato fries. The City is the business district of London, so we were surround by suits and banks, business people on lunch breaks. The architecture there is worth just wandering around. Tall, white columned buildings centuries old, next to new skyscrapers, with some old historic churches tucked behind a block. Pay attention - there is so much to see.

After lunch, Sonia took a bus back to her neighbourhood to work, and Mum and I walked down to St. Paul's Cathedral. Even though I had been to St. Paul's before, and even climbed to the top of the dome, my Mum had not, and it is definitely a favourite of mine, so we toured it (listening to the audio tour) and enjoyed learning more about it. Just sitting underneath the dome, admiring the splendid architectural work of Sir Christopher Wren, was enough for me. It is a majestic place.

We left St. Paul's and my goal was to try to get ahead of the rush hour from the City. Riding the Central Line Underground at rush hour is madness, and we were a little bit ahead of it, thankfully, but we still had crowds and a diversion to overcome. Our destination was the Marylebone area, which had a certain bookshop I was eager to visit, Daunt Books. The walk through Marylebone was charming. Lovely buildings with shops and restaurants along the way, and flowers hanging in pots along the streets. I spent quite a while in Daunt Books, admiring the beautiful shop as well as collecting an armful of books. As I was paying for my books, I asked if they sold tote bags, because I needed one. The kindly man looked at me (and probably thought - oh dear, this girl is such a book nerd) said they do indeed sell bags, but he was going to gave me a tote bag. And it's a lovely Daunt Books tote bag! (May I point out that this exact same thing happened to me in Edinburgh earlier this year. I am okay with this trend) 

From there, we had some dinner at Ask Italian on our way back to the Underground stop. I am not sure how we were still awake, but the enjoyment of London must have steeped into us. After dinner, though, we headed straight back to the hotel, via Tube, and crashed.