London Part 2 - Classic City and Modern Flair

For the second half of our London tour, we delved into some of the unique neighborhoods of the city, hit up some of the big tourist sites and museums, and of course had a lot more food.

Our fourth day started with a river boat ride from Peter and Janice's apartment to Blackfriars Pier and a short walk to St. Paul's cathedral. The building is over 300 years old, and survived the bombings and fires of both world wars. It was an impressive church, especially the climb up to the dome and the views from the top. Unfortunately you can't take pictures on the inside.

St. Paul's

View from the outside of the dome.

Standing over 300ft above the floor of the cathedral, looking down through tiny glass window.

The view of London from the top.

The 365ft tall dome.

After leaving the cathedral, we went on a *very* long walk past a number of London's tourist sites. London is a very walkable, scenic city. We strolled along the Thames, pressed through the crowds next to the London Eye, and crossed over towards Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster. From there we walked through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. Finally, we continued west and caught a bus to the far side of Hyde Park.

Millennium Bridge across the Thames.

Parliament and Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey.

Buckingham Palace. We didn't see the queen.

At this point we were starving, so we had lunch at a nearby Lebanese restaurant, Randa. Paul went here last year and loved it, so we returned. It's still fantastic - one of our favorite Lebanese restaurants anywhere (and yes, that includes Lebanon!). Our next stop was the science museum. There was a large interactive exhibit on climate change that we really enjoyed. Next door is the natural history museum. The building was magnificent and reminded us of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. We liked both museums, but if you're short on time, stick to the impressive natural history museum.

Hummus and fattoush. Delicious!

The neighborhoods to the south of Hyde Park have huge mansions, some of which have been converted into embassies.

In the science museum, you enter past a Stegosaurus through a giant molten sphincter!

The natural history museum entrance is a bit more traditional, and the building is very grand!

Behold!

Janice works at London Imperial College, right next to the museums, so when she finished we met up with her, toured her lab, and then had a happy hour drink. We sought out the best ramen in London for dinner. The internet led us to "Kanada-Ya" ramen shop. It was very good, but not quite up to par with some of our favorite places in the States. We took a post dinner walk to burn off some calories, passing through Trafalgar Square.

Happy Hour!

Kanada-Ya Ramen! Very delicious.

It's not a David & Paul trip without some jumping photos! This time at Trafalgar Square.

Janice feels left out if she doesn't get a turn!

After dinner we took another long stroll, this time down Regent Street.

The following day we were going to switch "hotels" from Janice and Peter's to Thomas and Pete's. Thomas and Pete live in Maida Vale, a cute and still *somewhat* affordable neighborhood. Our friend Alexis from New York joined us. We stayed at Thomas's place for another 4 nights to wrap up our week in London. It was great reconnecting with friends and finally getting a chance to meet Pete!

Before heading over to Thomas's we got another full English breakfast. Can't complain!

Peter was snapchatting his food. OK, so was Paul.

Later that afternoon, we went to a neat bar called the Prince Alfred. Thomas had planned lots of visits to super British pubs and restaurants. The Prince Alfred was unique with short little doors that cordoned off sections into little cubbies. Later that evening we strolled along the canals "Little Venice."

The bar at the Prince Alfred.

One of the tiny doors!

Drinking some local beer.

Little Venice in London. Not totally unlike the Camden Locks, just a bit classier.

The next day we took a walking tour (we're sensing a theme here...) around a few neighborhoods, including a stroll through Hampstead Heath and some good food. London is a great place to just wander around, with lots of parks, interesting shopping streets, and delicious food. It helped that the weather was lovely - sunny and warm.

Springtime in London!

Some very expensive houses in these neighborhoods...

Lunch at the Holly Bush, an adorable pub in Hampstead. Thomas reserved us the window table!

Scotch egg. Classic. So fried.

Another cute pub in a cute neighborhood.

Thomas, Alexis, and David in Hampstead Heath.

Dinner that night was quite an experience. Thomas made reservations at Brasserie Zedel, a throw-back French restaurant in the basement of a 1930s building. We started with drinks at Bar Americain, an opulent french/american bar with an international aviation twist. Sound confusing? Think about going to an ex-pat bar in Paris in 1940s, and you get the idea. Sazeracs, marble, art deco, and international flair. Dinner next door in the Brasserie was accompanied by live music and classic French dishes. The whole experience felt like we were transported 75 years into the past.

Sticking with the time-travel theme, we went for a couple of drinks at Cahoots, a hidden underground bar modeled after a London tube in war time, complete with subway tiles, a train, and a DJ who might have busted into swing dancing at any moment.

The art deco interior of Zedel.

The neat atmosphere of Cahoots.

Passing by some dramatically lit buildings on the way home.

For our last full day in London, we explored yet more neighborhoods (this city has a lot of them!). We walked through London Fields Park, did some shopping on Columbia road, explored Shoreditch, met up with Alexis's Italian cousin for some drinks, ate some food, checked out the heart of the city, bought some souvenirs at Harrod's, and met up with Janice and Peter again for some ice cream. We really covered a lot of ground!

I don't think that means the same thing in American English....

A delicious breakfast at a cute little bakery.

Mural, bikes, hipster. Check, check, check.

Another interesting mural, this one at the Shoreditch Boxpark.

David and Alexis enjoy the warm late-spring weather.

Harrod's at night.

Saying bye to Peter and Janice.

We highly recommend you set aside multiple days if you're visiting London. Each neighborhood holds exciting surprises, the food is varied and great, and the attractions and museums are top notch. Our time in London came to a close, but our journey isn't over yet! Stay tuned for our last UK post - a day trip to lovely Cambridge with Alexis, Thomas and Pete.

Return to London - Football and Gravestones in the English Capital

At the beginning of this year Delta was advertising a fantastic deal on flights to London using skymiles. Since we have friends who live in London, and the flight was basically free (except for taxes), we booked a trip! We've both been to London before, David in high school and Paul last year, but it's such a huge and important city that we had barely scratched the surface of all of the things to see and do. So unlike most of our vacations where we don't stay in one place for too long, this was a great opportunity to explore a city in-depth, and have a long visit with friends.

After a red-eye flight, we met up with Janice and started the first day with food at Camden Locks market and a stroll along the canal to Primrose Hill.

The view of London before landing at Heathrow.

Camden Locks market. It was very crowded!

The canal at Camden locks.

David and Janice enjoying the sun along the canal.

The view from Primrose hill.

And the view from Janice and Peter's new apartment. Not too shabby!

Our next stop was our first ever Premier League game! We saw Arsenal defeat Norwich in Emirates Stadium. We had a great time, thanks in part to some rowdy hooligans in the rows behind us. They were consistently excited about the possibility of getting more beer, and sang songs about procuring said beer. See, in the stadium you can't bring alcohol to your seats - you can only buy and drink it on the the concourse. We learned this the hard way as we had to chug some crappy Carlsbergs so we could get back to our seats. That aside, it was an awesome experience to see a Premiere League game, and we can add it to our European soccer list along with the Atlético Madrid game we saw in 2010.

Wearing our new Arsenal scarves!

The stadium was cool. It's only a decade old.

We had a few craft brews after the Arsenal win.

We bought the most British foods we could find at the grocery store. Yellow is the healthiest color of food!

After a busy first day, we hit the ground running again on our second day. We took the train to Canary Wharf, a business center just east of the city center. London transit is comprehensive, but it can take a while to get around. It's very multi-modal: during our week in the city we took the subway (tube), the overground (kind of like frequent commuter rail), the DLR (light rail), buses, the river bus, and Uber. Everything is frequent and convenient, but it can get quite expensive. Buses are often the best option in terms of price and convenience, but it can take a while to cross the city in traffic.

The transit map is a bit intimidating. So many lines! Google maps worked really well for planning trips.

The Canary Wharf area is the center of commerce in London, with gleaming office skyscrapers towering above the Thames. One Canada Square, a 770ft tall skyscraper built in 1991, was the first big skyscraper in the UK and established Canary Wharf as a jobs center. London (and Europe for that matter) didn't really have many skyscrapers prior to the 1990s. Now the area is full of buildings, and it's actually reminiscent of some US cities' downtown, with a lot of office buildings and not much residential or retail. That said, there are taller buildings in Atlanta, so as Americans, we're drawn more towards the older historic buildings, which Europe has in abundance, rather than the new skylines which don't really compare to large American or Asian cities.

From here we walked through the Greenwich foot tunnel under the river to visit the museums on the south bank. The tunnel is over 100 years old, and is a unique way to cross the river. Greenwich has a great collection of museums and sites perched on a grassy hill. The Royal Observatory, Maritime Museum, Royal Naval College, and Prime Meridian are all located in this area. We took in the sights and exhibits at the Royal Observatory, snapped a tourist picture standing on the Prime Meridian, and took a nice stroll along the river.

Canary Wharf is full of modern office buildings.

The pedestrian tunnel under the Thames River.

Looking back at Canary Wharf across the river, through the twin domes of the Royal Naval College.

David standing on the site where the Prime Meridian was first established  in 1851 to aid ship navigation.

The view from Greenwich hill was very popular on this sunny spring Sunday.

Our final stop for the day was Crystal Palace Park, on the south side of the city. It's a bit out of the way and the park itself is nothing special except for one thing - dinosaurs! These statues represent people's first idea of what dinosaurs looked like based on fossils and information available in the late 19th century. They really don't match the modern understanding of dinosaur biology, which makes them all the more fun. Most of them just looked like large iguanas or turtle-rat monsters!

LOOKOUT! A lizard...err...dinosaur!

Peter got some great local beers after we left the park.

The following morning was a bank holiday in the UK. We arranged a tour of a famous Victorian cemetery called Highgate Cemetery. This cemetery was on the northern outskirts of town and was very popular with upper middle class and wealthy Victorians. On our guided tour of the west cemetery, we learned a lot about the style and pomp associated with funerals in London in the 1800s. During World War II the cemetery fell into disrepair and only recently was starting to be repaired. Decades of neglect gave the cemetery a very overgrown, melancholic air that added to its charm. This tour was actually one of the highlights of the entire trip and is a must do when in London! Make sure you book ahead for the tour of the west cemetery.

Full English breakfast en route to Highgate,

Tombstone being reclaimed by the earth.

Most of the cemetery was overgrown which gave an eerie yet beautiful impression.

The Egyptian Mausoleum. This themed area was meant for the rich and famous, but was actually pretty unpopular in Victorian times. 

Coming through the main alley in the Egyptian Mausoleum.

More of the Egyptian Mausoleum. This tree was massive, and surrounded by a ring of sunken tombs.

Douglas Adams's tombstone in the east cemetery - David's a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Highgate has lots of nice paths and is a great spot for a stroll, especially in spring.

People have left lots of personal touches throughout the east cemetery.

Lots of the east cemetery looked like this, with close plots overgrown by the encroaching forest.

After learning about 19th century English customs for the afternoon, we made our way toward the city center to get drinks and dinner in 21st century London. We went up to the top of one of the taller buildings in the city, affectionately called the "Walkie Talkie" to take in the view. The upper floor atrium in this building is beautiful and the cocktails were very good. We wrapped up the day by visiting a trendy restaurant called Duck and Waffle in another skyscraper nearby.

The observation deck and sky gardens.

London has some interesting buildings - here is the cheese grater and the gherkin.

The view from the observation deck.

So pretty! And tasty!

The bar at Duck and Waffle.

The namesake Duck and Waffle dish.

Sunset over central London at the Duck and Waffle.

There's always time to be goofy! Especially after you're stuffed full of good food!

All the running around can really wear you out!

With a week in London, there was a lot to see and do... stay tuned for post number two!