Wed. 08-29-07 -- London, England
Originally published on 09-01-07
Well London is EXPENSIVE!!! Things are mostly priced as you'd expect, if pounds were dollars... but pounds are TWO dollars (roughly). We're attempting to run on a $200 a day budget (that includes hotel, food, transportation, admissions to attractions, EVERYTHING) and I'm glad to say that even with high London prices, we were still just under the daily limit on our first day.
So what can you do on $200 in London? Here's what we did: Once we got through customs, we bought tickets for the tube (£3 each) to get us to Earl's Court where we are staying. The tube ride took about 50 minutes (we had the option of a 15 minute express train, but that cost £6.90 per person). Once at Earl's Court we walked to the hostel and checked in (£43/night). Well, actually we were 2 hrs too early for check in so we just filled out paperwork, paid, and left our bags in the storage area. With two hours to kill and our loads dramatically lightened, we decided to walk to the Victoria & Albert museum (admission: free). But first we needed to find some lunch, so we found a "cheap" place that sold sandwiches (£2 each).
If you hang out with a Brit in the U.S. for longer than a week, you're sure to hear them pine for their oh so much better version of bacon. I've heard the same homesick whine from both Ritchie & Maria, so of course I ordered the bacon sandwich! Bacon over here is definitely different than it is in the U.S. This bacon is mostly meat instead of our mostly fat. But, I didn't come to the conclusion that one bacon is better than the other. The difference wasn't that pronounced to me... but I could see how our bacon doesn't satisfy the craving for U.K. bacon.
ANYWAY! We bought our sandwiches and walked over to the Victoria & Albert museum. We ate them outside and then went inside for a look around. We saw some pretty cool stuff like a HUGE persian rug from like the 1500's. We also saw some pretty awesome marble statues, and these really big 'cartoons' that Raphael did for some tapestries made in the 1500s. We looked at probably only 1/5 of all the stuff they had before it was time to head back to check in. Once back we got to our room and fought the very strong temptation to just go to sleep. Neither of us slept well on the plane, and it's an 8 hr time zone difference from Portland, so we were VERY tired. But we had to stay awake so we could adjust to this time zone, so we forced ourselves to leave!
We decided to go out to Westminster to see some of the famous sites. We walked back to the Earl's Court Station and were a bit surprised/dismayed to find that one round trip ticket cost £5.10. That's roughly $10 each for a fairly short ride on the subway!! But what else were we going to do? So we paid it and got on. When we arrived, we emerged at the Westminster Pier exit and we were right on the Thames. Up some stairs and there was Big Ben right across the street. I got chills! I was surprised to see that Big Ben was kind of a sandstone color instead of gray. Also there are lots of gold accents around the clock face. It looked awesome seeing it in person! We walked halfway across the Westminster Bridge so that we could get a good view of the Houses of Parliament towering over the Thames. Then we crossed the rest of the way to see how long the line was to ride the London Eye (that giant ferris wheel).
The line wasn't bad, but it cost (gulp) £15 per person. But I figured when will be my next time to ride it? So we paid and got in line. The ride was nice, you get in a capsule with 25 people and then it slowly rotates to a 450 foot vantage point over the city. You look down on Big Ben, and down the Thames in both directions. After The Eye, we went for a walk through Westminster. We walked by Westminster Abbey, #10 Downing Street, through the horse guards field (and saw some stationary soldiers), through a bit of St. James's Park, Trafalgar Square, and finally ended up in Piccadilly Circus. We stopped by a grocery store to get food for dinner. We got: a baguette, a ball of mozzarella cheese, a container of pasta salad, and a 4 pack of Stellas for £6.05.
Back on the tube (very crowded this time) and a short ride back home. We ate dinner in the shared kitchen area (our room is crazy small! It has a bunkbed and a tiny sink, and that's it!) and then we came back to our room to read/write and go to sleep around 8pm.
