This morning, we woke up super early to catch the morning train from Cambridge to London with Geoff. Lots of tired people going to work plus us. We arrived at King's Cross Station again, and we went to grab breakfast, since we were very hungry.
Before I share more, though, I have to say: Londoners walk very slowly, even if they are probably trying to hurry. Perhaps living in New York has made me move too quickly, but I just prefer having people move faster. Also, Londoners seem to be very bad at figuring out how to walk past people. One lady looked positively petrified when we were walking towards her on the sidewalk as if she had no idea how we were all going to cross each other on the same sidewalk. But enough of that.
We got breakfast at a little French café upstairs: Patisserie Valerie. We both got Croque Monsieurs, and they were actually pretty good. Way better than the one I had gotten on a Greek island a few years ago...yeah yeah, feel free to comment on the obvious.
King's Cross Station is really quite nice. Love the high ceiling and how spacious it all feels, even with tons of people walking around. There are probably more people crowded into Penn Station everyday, but at least there's huge open space in King's Cross.
From there, we headed to the Airbnb house we'd booked for the rest of our trip. It turned out to be in a what seems to be a quaint, working class neighborhood. I spied a few kebab shops on the street nearby and a Lidl grocery store on the corner. It's almost like being back in Berlin!
The house itself is great. There's a bed upstairs and one downstairs plus a couch. It's got a full kitchen, too. Our Airbnb host even left us some snacks in the fridge!
After we settled in a bit, we went to meet Geoff for lunch. We decided on Thai as a nice Thanksgiving lunch. Not bad, though I wish they would've given us more Thai iced tea for the two-and-a-half pounds we paid for that little drink (that's about $4 for that drink). I nearly finished it in three gulps.
We finished lunch and then all headed our separate ways: Geoff back to work, Marcia to meet a friend, and me to hobble around the city however far my leg would allow me to walk. I ended up hopping on the tube down to Trafalgar Square, which I somehow missed my first time in London. It was pretty neat. Lots of activity happening in the square. There was a dude dressed up like Yoda. Another as a Stormtrooper. Still others as gold statues and whatnot. Far off in the distance behind the column, you can see Big Ben and maybe even the Parliament building.
I decided to head into the National Portrait Gallery, since it was free. Free is good! It was like being back in AP Art History. Lots of good portraits, but alas, I was not allowed to take photos. So, I shall just tell you what good stuff I saw.
Some paintings by Claude and Turner were beautiful. Amazing sunsets with gorgeous openings to the sea in the foreground. Really quite stunning. The most famous piece I saw is called The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger. Definitely learned about this one and the visual illusion with the skull at the bottom (if you look at the painting from the lower right corner, the skull appears in full). Clearly, I did not do a thorough job of walking through, though, because I missed the Arnolfini Portrait, which is a famous piece by Jean van Eyck. I will have to head back before I leave.
After a good 45 minutes cruising through the Gallery (I am a quick museum visitor), I headed out, walked around Trafalgar Square to snag a few more photos, and then hopped on a random bus toward St. Paul's Cathedral.
With an Oyster card in London, you can pay as you go or buy certain passes. We went with the pay as you go option, because you get charged a maximum of seven pounds per day. Once you hit that limit, it's basically a day pass. That bus ride got me to my limit for the day, so I decided to hop on and hop off wherever I felt like it. I saw the Waldorf Hotel, which looked fancy.
I finally got to St. Paul's Cathedral, and I snapped a quick picture across the street of the Millennium Bridge (that one that the dementors destroy in Harry Potter) and the Tate Modern in the distance.
For St. Paul's, since I had not been able to visit it last time, I thought I'd check it out this time. But, I tend to avoid paying to enter churches (just feels wrong), so when I went in and realized it was 14 pounds for students AND you were not allowed to take photos, I looked up to see anything interesting from the ticket office and then promptly walked back out. So, my pictures are of the outside.
At this point, I was pretty tired, so I headed home. Took another bus, got on the tube again, and hopped on another bus. And voila, I was right outside the front door. I love not having to walk too much.
After relaxing at home for a bit, I went to meet Marcia at Jamie Oliver's Diner in Piccadilly Circus. Good Thanksgiving meal of a reuben sandwich, shoestring fries, barbecue pork rib fingers, and chocolate cake (which I only had a tiny bite of). Definitely felt comfortably full, not like Thanksgiving overstuffed full.
When we finished dinner, we walked around the area for a bit. It reminded us of Times Square, but a bit cooler. Also, not as crowded.
There was a giant snowglobe in the center of the square.
We strolled a bit and eventually just hopped on random buses.
Eventually, we arrived at Trafalgar Square, and it looked pretty neat at night, too.
After that, we called it a night and headed home. Tomorrow, my cousins arrive, and we have more fun stuff planned for the weekend. Very excited to go to the Harry Potter Studios on Saturday! Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!
Before I share more, though, I have to say: Londoners walk very slowly, even if they are probably trying to hurry. Perhaps living in New York has made me move too quickly, but I just prefer having people move faster. Also, Londoners seem to be very bad at figuring out how to walk past people. One lady looked positively petrified when we were walking towards her on the sidewalk as if she had no idea how we were all going to cross each other on the same sidewalk. But enough of that.
We got breakfast at a little French café upstairs: Patisserie Valerie. We both got Croque Monsieurs, and they were actually pretty good. Way better than the one I had gotten on a Greek island a few years ago...yeah yeah, feel free to comment on the obvious.
King's Cross Station is really quite nice. Love the high ceiling and how spacious it all feels, even with tons of people walking around. There are probably more people crowded into Penn Station everyday, but at least there's huge open space in King's Cross.
From there, we headed to the Airbnb house we'd booked for the rest of our trip. It turned out to be in a what seems to be a quaint, working class neighborhood. I spied a few kebab shops on the street nearby and a Lidl grocery store on the corner. It's almost like being back in Berlin!
The house itself is great. There's a bed upstairs and one downstairs plus a couch. It's got a full kitchen, too. Our Airbnb host even left us some snacks in the fridge!
After we settled in a bit, we went to meet Geoff for lunch. We decided on Thai as a nice Thanksgiving lunch. Not bad, though I wish they would've given us more Thai iced tea for the two-and-a-half pounds we paid for that little drink (that's about $4 for that drink). I nearly finished it in three gulps.
We finished lunch and then all headed our separate ways: Geoff back to work, Marcia to meet a friend, and me to hobble around the city however far my leg would allow me to walk. I ended up hopping on the tube down to Trafalgar Square, which I somehow missed my first time in London. It was pretty neat. Lots of activity happening in the square. There was a dude dressed up like Yoda. Another as a Stormtrooper. Still others as gold statues and whatnot. Far off in the distance behind the column, you can see Big Ben and maybe even the Parliament building.
I decided to head into the National Portrait Gallery, since it was free. Free is good! It was like being back in AP Art History. Lots of good portraits, but alas, I was not allowed to take photos. So, I shall just tell you what good stuff I saw.
Some paintings by Claude and Turner were beautiful. Amazing sunsets with gorgeous openings to the sea in the foreground. Really quite stunning. The most famous piece I saw is called The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger. Definitely learned about this one and the visual illusion with the skull at the bottom (if you look at the painting from the lower right corner, the skull appears in full). Clearly, I did not do a thorough job of walking through, though, because I missed the Arnolfini Portrait, which is a famous piece by Jean van Eyck. I will have to head back before I leave.
After a good 45 minutes cruising through the Gallery (I am a quick museum visitor), I headed out, walked around Trafalgar Square to snag a few more photos, and then hopped on a random bus toward St. Paul's Cathedral.
With an Oyster card in London, you can pay as you go or buy certain passes. We went with the pay as you go option, because you get charged a maximum of seven pounds per day. Once you hit that limit, it's basically a day pass. That bus ride got me to my limit for the day, so I decided to hop on and hop off wherever I felt like it. I saw the Waldorf Hotel, which looked fancy.
I finally got to St. Paul's Cathedral, and I snapped a quick picture across the street of the Millennium Bridge (that one that the dementors destroy in Harry Potter) and the Tate Modern in the distance.
For St. Paul's, since I had not been able to visit it last time, I thought I'd check it out this time. But, I tend to avoid paying to enter churches (just feels wrong), so when I went in and realized it was 14 pounds for students AND you were not allowed to take photos, I looked up to see anything interesting from the ticket office and then promptly walked back out. So, my pictures are of the outside.
At this point, I was pretty tired, so I headed home. Took another bus, got on the tube again, and hopped on another bus. And voila, I was right outside the front door. I love not having to walk too much.
After relaxing at home for a bit, I went to meet Marcia at Jamie Oliver's Diner in Piccadilly Circus. Good Thanksgiving meal of a reuben sandwich, shoestring fries, barbecue pork rib fingers, and chocolate cake (which I only had a tiny bite of). Definitely felt comfortably full, not like Thanksgiving overstuffed full.
When we finished dinner, we walked around the area for a bit. It reminded us of Times Square, but a bit cooler. Also, not as crowded.
There was a giant snowglobe in the center of the square.
We strolled a bit and eventually just hopped on random buses.
Eventually, we arrived at Trafalgar Square, and it looked pretty neat at night, too.
After that, we called it a night and headed home. Tomorrow, my cousins arrive, and we have more fun stuff planned for the weekend. Very excited to go to the Harry Potter Studios on Saturday! Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!
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