On Wednesday, September 5th, Christine and I took the Virgin Atlantic redeye from Atlanta to Heathrow. We have been talking about going to London for 10 plus years, and now that we officially #EmptyNesters with Madison at Auburn and Carson at Ole Miss, 2018 was our year to cross the pond.
After not sleeping on the plane, we landed on Thursday, September 6th at 9am in Heathrow. We easily found the Uber to take us to the Waldorf Hotel, in the centrally located Theatre district of London. As is our travel tradition, we start our vacations off with a tour of the city. Based on a fantastic referral from our neighbor’s the Oliver’s, we scheduled in advance and kicked-off our trip with the a Small Car Big City (SCBC) two-hour vintage 1992 mini-copper tour with Sam, our tour guide. SCBC is a bit expensive but what an amazing way to first experience London. Sam zipped us all over the city, and we very quickly learned that in London cars have the right of way vs. pedestrians. In addition to our behind the scenes tour, we got great recommendations from Sam. See pics below.
On the Saturday the 8th, we walked 8-miles, starting off
with St. Paul’s Cathedral. On our way to
St. Paul’s we passed a futuristic looking truck, see pic, which then learned is
part of the upcoming movie ,Men in Black 4.
St. Paul’s was amazing especially climbing the 528 steps all the way to
the top. To save time, I recommend buying tickets in advance. After, St. Paul’s we walked
across the Thames River via the Millennium Bridge. So we didn’t have to wat in-line, I took Bree's
advice and booked an afternoon VIP Chocolate and Prosecco tasting on the LondonEye. We heard mixed reviews on the
London Eye, however our experience was amazing, include cutting the line, VIP reception area, and getting two laps around
the eye. After the Eye, we were
exhausted and unfortunately ended up taking the long way back to the hotel. See walking map and
pics from Saturday below.
This is my favorite picture of the whole trip with beautfiful Christine, Millennial Bridge, Thames River, St. Paul’s and the clouds.
On Sunday the 9th, kicked of the day, by going to a beautiful mass at Corpus Christi Church, nestled in-between the buildings Theatre district, aka walked by the entrance twice. After mass, our goal was Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We walked across the Thames near our hotel, so we could traverse the south river walk to the Tower Bridge. The river area is so friendly, with street vendors, museums, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, plus you get the picturesque views of both the famous London skyline buildings including the Shard and the Gherkin. The Tower Bridge was amazing, we took the tour to the top, where you can stand on a clear floor looking straight down 139 feed to the road and river. As a surprise bonus, we got to see the drawbridge go up and down. After the bridge, we did the Tower of London tour. The White Tower was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror, plus the tower has the Crown Jewels (line too long for us), moats, jails, knights, and a thousand years of history, right on the northside of the river. See maps and pictures of Sunday below.
For our final day in the UK, we wanted to get out of
London for a day trip. Christine and I have been
debating since we booked the trip, which picturesque town(s) to go see. Personally, I wanted to see the ocean and
Christine wanted a classic English countryside.
We ended up deciding to take the train Dover on the English Channel and
then Canterbury. We caught the express
train to Dover, by less than 15 seconds, which was fun and stressful. The best part to Dover was the train ride and putting
my hand in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the rest of Dover was
underwhelming. On the other hand,
Canterbury exceeded the hype with the Cathedral and gondola tour. After arriving back St. Pancras trainstation, we walked the 2 miles back to the hotel. See pics and multiple walking maps from Sunday.
DOVER
DOVER
FINAL WALK BACK TO HOTEL
Thank you for letting us share pictures from our London / #EmptyNester Trip. If you have any questions, please email Shaun Priest at shaun@closerq.com.
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