My sister Megan and I had been talking about doing a backpacking trip through Europe since we were practically in diapers. We had hoped to do it while we were in college, but I kept popping out kids. The years were passing and I wondered if we'd ever get around to it. Finally we decided to go for it during summer 2017, why the heck not?! Waiting until we were in our late 20s allowed us to be more financially stable and be able to stay in hotels and instead of hostels and enjoy a few more of the finer things, such as the lounge at Seatac where we began our journey. I had always wanted to try out one of the fancy airport lounges that offered unlimited food and drinks. I got to Seatac from Spokane at about 2pm and our flight to London didn't leave until 7. I bought a $45 lounge day pass and put my feet up and took full advantage of the all you can eat food and drinks. Megan joined me at about 4 o'clock and we had a great time sipping champagne and excitingly waiting to get on my first international flight.
When it was time to board we anxiously waited our turn and got on and found our seats. I was so excited about every little thing on the plane. Our seats had blankets, pillows, and earbuds on them and you would have though I won the lottery by how excited I was about that. We took off without any issues and were on our way! The service was comparable to some 1st class flights I've been on. We were served a huge dinner with complimentary wine and had screens in our seats to watch new release movies and play games. After we ate Megan and I tried to sleep a little bit for the 9.5 hour flight. I think I managed to get about 5 hours, which is pretty good for me as I usually have a really hard time sleeping on planes. When we woke up they were serving a traditional English breakfast with scones and tea and pretty soon it was time to land in London!
After landing we made our way through London Heathrow airport and through customs. We figured out their subway system and hopped on the tube towards our hotel. It was about 12:30 pm London time when we landed and we made it to our hotel around 3, just in time for check in. We stayed at "Hub by Premier Inn" near Westminster Abbey and St. James Park. We did a lot of research in choosing all our hotels. The most important factor was "hote loke" aka hotel location. We wanted to be near the center of town and most of the popular attractions and we definitely chose wisely in London. We were within walking distance of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The London Eye, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace; and also right across from a metro station that could take us anywhere. The hotel had free breakfast, snacks, and coffee, and a cool lounge with a good happy hour and friendly staff. The rooms were modern and pretty cool. The only downside of the hotel, which didn't bother us, was the room was small and didn't have a window. We got to our room, put our bags down and thought about taking a nap... but we were too excited! We freshened up, drank some coffee, and set out to explore!
Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. We walked there and found it easily. We took pictures of the guards with the cool hats and admired the huge statues and gardens near the palace. Our next plan was to get on The Original Tour bus. It's a cool double-decker bus that has different routes that take you around London's attractions. You can get off and on at whatever spots you want and tour at your own pace. Our only problem was we couldn't find the bus stop. After some walking in circles we eventually found it (the map provided by the company was NOT to scale or in the correct orientation, not that I'm blaming anyone...) Once on the bus, we plugged in our earbuds and listened to some history and information as we drove by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and crossed London bridge. We got off the bus near the bridge and decided to take a cruise down the Thames.
We grabbed a London pride beer and a bag of chips each and listened to the guide as we cruised down the river. The bank of the river is lined with lion head statues that indicate flood levels in London. Our funny tour guide stated the rhyme "When the lions drink, London will sink. When it's up to their manes, we'll go down the drains. When the water is sucked, you can be sure London is... in trouble". The relaxing boat ride ended near Big Ben and we got off and walked back towards our hotel. We walked by a traditional English phone booth (photo op!) and a statue of Abe Lincoln ("that's our guy!"). We also walked by this giant sanded area called Horse Guards Parade, that I'm still not really sure what it's used for, but it looked cool. We walked through Trafalgar Square (also know to us as truffleupagus square, ttutankhamun square, tootie-fruitie square, tuna noodle casserole square, etc...) We ended the evening having a pint of peroni and a plate of fish and chips at the pub right by our hotel. We called it a night at about 9:30 pm and had a great night's sleep in our hotel
