Part Two: London (Part One: Dublin, here)

London Day One: B and I enjoyed a short flight from Dublin to Heathrow, and arrived in London around dinnertime. We looked at a map and decided to just take the tube to our hotel in Chelsea. After getting off the tube, we were walking and walking until we came upon a huge soccer stadium and got excited – that has to be the Chelsea Football Club! But it wasn’t. In fact it was the soccer stadium that was we had passed two two tube stops previously. Woops! We had gotten lost on the way to our hotel and walked 40 minutes in the wrong direction! We finally made our way back to our original stop, and of course found our hotel just a few blocks in the other direction.

After checking in, we decided to walk around the area to find a spot for dinner. We ended up selecting a nearby Indian restaurant, which had great food! Despite the less-than-nice server (how dare he question B’s ability to eat lamb vindaloo, or me to eat spicy chicken without rice?!) the food was great.

A group at the London Pride Parade

Day Two: Our Walking Route (about 8 mi)

London Day Two: On our second day in London, it was time to explore! We took the tube downtown and got off at St. James’s Park and walked to visit Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square (where we ran into and got to enjoy the city’s Pride Parade!), the horse guard, Westminster Abbey, and more. Then we crossed the river and toured the other side – taking in the sights like the London Eye, The Globe Theater, the Jubilee Gardens, the London Bridge – before crossing the Tower Bridge to get a better look at the Tower of London and then find our way to dinner and drinks at the pub, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.  B had been to London twice before, and each time had wanted to go to this old pub (it’s been around since the 1500s! Or as one Brit pointed out when we were there, “Longer than your country has been around.” I did mention that America was around..just not our government) and we finally made it there! My food was kinda bland, but the old pub atmosphere, shared tables and drinks made for a fun night.

in front of the Tower Bridge – ready for the Olympics

B and me at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Less than stellar food at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (my “pie” is on the left)

In case you didn’t realize it, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is really old

London Day Three:B and I took the train again to St. James’s Park and decided to spend the day seeing some of the sights we hadn’t gotten to the day before. We first started at the Churchill War Rooms museum which was really cool. While B is a history buff, I hadn’t expected to enjoy the exhibits so much – I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re looking for something different, and indoors, to do in London. After spending a few hours in the museum, it was time to go shopping! We hit all the ones on my list (including Top Shop and Harrod’s) minus Boden, which apparently only has two stores and not downtown. Oh well. After a long day of touring and shopping, it was time to try a typical Sunday meal – a roast. We headed back to Chelsea for yet another meat and potato (chips this time) meal and of course a few pints. Being Sunday, not much was open too late, which wasn’t that bad, because we had to be up early for our return flight to Dublin. In Dublin we were going to rent a car and head west, beginning the second adventure of our trip. More to come on that …

(Part one of this post, our Dublin trip recap, can be found here)