We only had about 5 days for all of the above. I wanted one more day in London but Zai wanted a day more in Liverpool (next entry), so yeah. I decided to be nice haha. Just like the previous cities, we went out early every day just to see and go to as many places as we could. We shortlisted some places to eat as well and actually found our way to these places via train and walking. Okay let's start with first day.
Day 1 - We arrived in London on EasyJet via Gatwick Airport. It was a funny feeling when we arrived because I felt like we teleported to London from Amsterdam. We left Amsterdam at 10am and reached London at 10am due to the 1 hour time difference and during that 1 hour journey, we were sleeping. So it really felt like we slept and woke up to a new destination.
We then bought our train ticket to go to central London. Felt like the longest train ride ever cause the train was crowded and we were dragging 4 big bags mind you. Not to mention most of their train stations do not actually have elevators or escalators. I think because they have one of the first train system in the world. So yes, Zai gotta do all the carrying and lugging while I tried to help as much as I could la. :/ So hopeless I know. We tried as much as possible not to take cab! Ex-pen-sive! Cannot. Haha.
Once we left our luggage at the hotel, we straight away went to Harrods and Primark thereafter. Harrods was just 15 minutes from our hotel. Super crowded. We didn't even go to their branded sections. Only went to their Harrods brand section. Primark was a different case. They have some outlets all over London and the one we went to was not crowded. As they always say (whoever they are), some of the things at Primark are really cheap. I bought a lot of undies at £1 each haha!
After shopping at these two places, we went back to hotel only to be surprised at how small our hotel room was.
Day 2 - We decided to book our hop on and hop off bus on the second day so that we could also check out the changing of guards at Buckingham Palace (they change on alternate days in winter). We went to all these places via the hop on and hop off bus:
1. Hyde Park
2. Buckingham Palace
3. London Bridge
4. Tower Bridge
5. Big Ben
6. Westminster
7. Trafalgar Square
8. London Eye
9. River Thames
10. Harrods
11. Hard Rock Cafe
For some of the attractions, the bus wouldn't stop at the place directly so we had to walk for a bit which we didn't mind because we could see more things! Oh by the way, we waited an hour to watch the changing of guards at Buckingham Palace. We watched the entire ceremony. We didn't even intend to be one of the first few to stand in the front row. Haha. Oh and we almost got cheated at London Eye. An "Italian tourist" (or so he claimed) came to us asking for directions and wouldn't leave us even when we kept saying we don't know the directions. Soon after, two "policemen" (obviously fake) came to us demanding for our passports. The "Italian tourist" obliged and they expected us to take out our passports too but I looked at Zai and told him not to give. He asked for their police ID and told them off when he realised the IDs were fake!
Day 3 - We booked a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford. Why not Bath? Oxford appealed more to me. When I say Oxford I didn't mean the university only but that's where the universities are. We took a tour so that we could cover these three places in a single day. It was a little rushing but we didn't mind because how long can you stare at the Stonehenge? Oxford was a walking tour so we just had to follow our guide and at the end of the walk around Oxford, he gave us some free time and that was enough. We took pictures as we walked. Nothing much to shop there anyway except for some trinkets at a Christmas market and some small shops.
As for Windsor Castle, we managed our time such that we could walk through the entire castle and still had time to shop for a castle charm at Pandora, still had time to buy breakfast and still had time to watch the changing of guards (yes we watched one at Buckingham Palace and one at Windsor Castle!). Heh. Just that if we were to go on our own, we would really dilly dally and take our own sweeeet time.
Day 4 - Was our last full day at London. We were deciding between two things:
1. A whole day trip to Bicester Village for shopping.
2. Watch a musical, have English tea-break, walk around Oxford Circus, have good food, go to Platform 9¾ and eat nice cakes.
We chose the latter. For the first time I didn't regret not going shopping haha. It was just fun to eat crumpets, scones, muffins and drink English tea at The Muffin Man. Not to mention lobsters! We went to Burger & Lobster and had their £20 lobster. Only two things on their menu. Burger and lobster. We also went to the Hummingbird Bakery for cakes. So so yummy. We watched Wicked the musical and walked around Oxford Circus (it's like their Orchard Road). And I got excited at Platform 9¾. :D
We then bought our train ticket to go to central London. Felt like the longest train ride ever cause the train was crowded and we were dragging 4 big bags mind you. Not to mention most of their train stations do not actually have elevators or escalators. I think because they have one of the first train system in the world. So yes, Zai gotta do all the carrying and lugging while I tried to help as much as I could la. :/ So hopeless I know. We tried as much as possible not to take cab! Ex-pen-sive! Cannot. Haha.
Once we left our luggage at the hotel, we straight away went to Harrods and Primark thereafter. Harrods was just 15 minutes from our hotel. Super crowded. We didn't even go to their branded sections. Only went to their Harrods brand section. Primark was a different case. They have some outlets all over London and the one we went to was not crowded. As they always say (whoever they are), some of the things at Primark are really cheap. I bought a lot of undies at £1 each haha!
After shopping at these two places, we went back to hotel only to be surprised at how small our hotel room was.
Our very small room. See I'm not exaggerating.
The iconic telephone booth. :)
Harrods
Day 2 - We decided to book our hop on and hop off bus on the second day so that we could also check out the changing of guards at Buckingham Palace (they change on alternate days in winter). We went to all these places via the hop on and hop off bus:
1. Hyde Park
2. Buckingham Palace
3. London Bridge
4. Tower Bridge
5. Big Ben
6. Westminster
7. Trafalgar Square
8. London Eye
9. River Thames
10. Harrods
11. Hard Rock Cafe
For some of the attractions, the bus wouldn't stop at the place directly so we had to walk for a bit which we didn't mind because we could see more things! Oh by the way, we waited an hour to watch the changing of guards at Buckingham Palace. We watched the entire ceremony. We didn't even intend to be one of the first few to stand in the front row. Haha. Oh and we almost got cheated at London Eye. An "Italian tourist" (or so he claimed) came to us asking for directions and wouldn't leave us even when we kept saying we don't know the directions. Soon after, two "policemen" (obviously fake) came to us demanding for our passports. The "Italian tourist" obliged and they expected us to take out our passports too but I looked at Zai and told him not to give. He asked for their police ID and told them off when he realised the IDs were fake!
Photos in random order cause lazy to arrange. =X
Westminster
Hyde Park
River Thames cruise that came with the hop on and hop off bus (my smile is weird here).
Big Ben!
London Eye.
Must go in every city.
Cute bus somewhere near Trafalgar Square.
Tower Bridge
London Bridge
Buckingham Palace
Day 3 - We booked a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford. Why not Bath? Oxford appealed more to me. When I say Oxford I didn't mean the university only but that's where the universities are. We took a tour so that we could cover these three places in a single day. It was a little rushing but we didn't mind because how long can you stare at the Stonehenge? Oxford was a walking tour so we just had to follow our guide and at the end of the walk around Oxford, he gave us some free time and that was enough. We took pictures as we walked. Nothing much to shop there anyway except for some trinkets at a Christmas market and some small shops.
As for Windsor Castle, we managed our time such that we could walk through the entire castle and still had time to shop for a castle charm at Pandora, still had time to buy breakfast and still had time to watch the changing of guards (yes we watched one at Buckingham Palace and one at Windsor Castle!). Heh. Just that if we were to go on our own, we would really dilly dally and take our own sweeeet time.
Windsor Castle
Stonehenge
Oxford, where the graduations take place.
City of Oxford
Very British dinner and they're halal! Fish & Chips, baked potato, meat pie.
Day 4 - Was our last full day at London. We were deciding between two things:
1. A whole day trip to Bicester Village for shopping.
2. Watch a musical, have English tea-break, walk around Oxford Circus, have good food, go to Platform 9¾ and eat nice cakes.
We chose the latter. For the first time I didn't regret not going shopping haha. It was just fun to eat crumpets, scones, muffins and drink English tea at The Muffin Man. Not to mention lobsters! We went to Burger & Lobster and had their £20 lobster. Only two things on their menu. Burger and lobster. We also went to the Hummingbird Bakery for cakes. So so yummy. We watched Wicked the musical and walked around Oxford Circus (it's like their Orchard Road). And I got excited at Platform 9¾. :D
Hummingbird Bakery
Going to Hogwarts.
This is so so yummy and the meat is oh so thick and juicy! Comes with salad and fries.
He removed the shells and look at the meat! They're not even breaking apart. Yeah he wore a bib haha.
Oxford Circus
The Muffin Man
Wicked the musical.
Day 5 - Our train to Liverpool was in the afternoon so we didn't do anything much except to go to the train station at Euston and had breakfast.
Tip 1: If you really want cheap hotel, consider EasyHotel (cheaper but much smaller than Ibis Hotel). You see London's hotels are not cheap. After you convert GBP to SGD, you easily double up the amount. Since we knew that we wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the hotel room, we thought that we could stay in this super cheap hotel at about £30 per night. Nothing to complain about the hotel, walking distance to the train station, clean, etc BUT the only problem was the room was very small. We couldn't even open our luggage. I was complaining at how squeezy it was on the first night, then got over it by the third night. So I survived 4 nights in that. :/ It's a cheap and good deal if you don't have so many big luggage, and if you're staying alone. Two of us with 4 big luggage is oh-so-squeezy. But we saved on accommodation, A LOT.
Tip 2: Book the hop on and hop off bus if you wanna go to a lot of places in one day. I know some people say that it's cheaper to go to all these places via public but taking the hop on and hop off bus was VERY convenient to us. We went to a lot of places in just one day and we didn't have to figure out how to go to all these places cause the bus would take us there. We could go to the attractions any time we wanted for how long we wanted cause there would be a bus every 30 minutes. No restrictions at all. Just take note of the first bus and last bus timing. Ours came with tickets to the River Thames cruise so it was a good deal. Less than SGD40 per pax I think and we had tickets for the next day free just that we didn't have time to make use of it.
Tip 3: Beware of suspicious people. Don't be too nice to strangers. Haha. Always check their identities if they claim that they are policemen. Anyway policemen won't go around asking for passports without any valid reason.
Tip 4: Take a one day tour to places out of London. That way you will save time. Traveling to places out of London can take up to 3 hours and that's only to one place. If you have a few places in mind, book a tour and go to all those places in one day. Your transportation will also be sorted. Besides, some places requires you to change bus and train so might as well take a tour bus right.
Tip 5: You can buy tickets to the musical last minute at some kiosks in major shopping centres. There's no need to book in advance unless it's a very popular musical? Then maybe you can book way in advance? But I booked Wicked on that day itself. It was full house but we managed to grab the last few seats. Check out the address of the theater first before heading out! Ours was next to the train station so it was easy to locate. Oh and, the musical will last about 3 hours so take note! At least mine was that long. I thought ours was only for an hour plus, like watching movie you know. But luckily we didn't have anything going on after that.
Tip 6: Book your train ticket to Liverpool, Manchester etc in advance. I got mine at like £12.50 only. Reach early and board the train early. We boarded the train just on time and by then we had no space to put our luggage in the cabin cause they were all taken up by others and they don't have much space for luggage. We had to squeeze our luggage at the isle area and on top of ourselves. :/
Okay, next city in next entry whenever I'm ready. So busy now. Act busy only hahah!
I lovee your day 4! Haha. I watched two musicals, the 2nd one after we found out about the leftover tickets. I can't imagine going around with 4 bags haha you all started shopping early on the trip eh? I'm always torn between backpack and wheeled luggage cos of all the stairs at the train stations haha.
ReplyDeleteWhich two musicals did you watch? One was enough for me cause I can't sit still for 3 hours even with a break in between hahah. We brought two backpacks and two luggage (those 4 wheelers kind so they were easier to pull and push). Half the time my husband would be carrying and pulling 3 bags altogether and I only carried one. That was how I survived. =X
DeleteOur backpacks were pretty empty when we started the trip. We didn't shop much in Switz and Amsterdam. But I think the chocolates that we got from Switz and some trinkets and cheese we got from Amsterdam, plus the stuff from Primark at London, yeah that pretty much filled our bags. And guess what, we bought a huge duffel bag at London cause our bags were almost full even before we reach Liverpool and Paris! Haha.
And yes the stairs, almost made us faint from all the carrying. Haha.
Hahaha yes the stairs are a killer even when my hubs and I were carrying one hugee backpack each.
DeleteI caught Les Miserables and Billy Elliot! We both enjoy going to musicals in Sg so we're pretty used to the long shows haha
Yeah imagine carrying a luggage up and down. :/ I just went to your blog just to see your entry on London. And I realised you guys had like many hours of sunlight in summer, so good! And you managed to walk around without taking the hop on and hop off bus too! Awesome! Haha.
DeleteHaha yeah the daylight in summer in realllyyyy lonngg.. but I loveee winter la so I don't mind the shorter daylight hours :)
DeleteI actually don't like cold but I'm surprised that I not only survived winter, but actually like it a little too. Haha.
DeleteHi! May i know for the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, did you book them in advance or on the spot? :)
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't book in advance. :) I booked the day before. They have plenty of buses. When I took it was usually empty haha. I didn't book on the day itself cause the office opens later than the first bus. So I wanna get my tickets for the first bus. :)
DeleteOh my the room! Claustrophobic seh!!
ReplyDeleteLondon is so beautiful. So classic.
Super small I was complaining for the first night. :/ But cheap la. Yeah classic! Never gets old. The city and the countryside both beautiful. :D
Delete