To quote Joey from Friends “London, Baby!” and “I need to step in my map, hang on” – London was far more than I expected. I lived in Europe for a summer in college and I never made it to London because I thought it would be too similar to America. I expected modern and English speaking people just like myself. Boy was I surprised! London is made up of many different districts and each district is unique.

Downtown London held up to being modern with some sky scrapers and a New York City vibe coupled with some historic buildings. As you get into other districts it almost felt like I was back on a small random street in Italy. I enjoyed these parts more because I am not a big city person. London was also a melting pot of cultures. I heard a new language being spoken such as French or German on every block. Based on my experience, I would highly recommend London to anyone who is new to Europe, a big city person, a history lover, shopper, or just loves to explore new territory and find the cute nooks and crannies of a city like myself!

The sights

The sights for me are what made London so special. I’m not a museum or history person, rather I love walking around a city and right before my eyes I can see the horse drawn carriages plodding along the cobblestone streets, the smell of must and beer as people head to the local pub to drink on a Friday night, the royals in the Crown Jewels at the top of a high castle, and well it is London so the public beheadings taking place for the amusement of the people. What a different world I step back into. This world consumed me for the five days I spent in the city.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Not a huge cathedral person either, but what made this one special was the large roof dome that you could actually climb hundreds of stairs up to get to. Europeans seem to like their spiral staircase so naturally the steps spiraled up and up and up. If you looked down at the stairs, the spirals all looked the same: it was almost as if your eyes played and optical illusion on you because it felt like you were stepping and moving no where.

Once we finally reached the top, I got an amazing view of the domed roof. It was so intricately designed with every little detail painted. Just makes me wander how in the day and age of when the cathedral was built how they were able to paint the ceiling. Did they have the biggest ladder in history? What technology allowed an artist to do this? It was a marvel truly.

At the top, we saw a sign for “Way up”, it reminded me of the movie click when Adam Sandler is in bed bath and beyond and there is a sign for “way, way beyond”. Beyond I went. Hundreds of more stairs I climbed to get to a new viewpoint on the roof. I got a view of the entire city of London.

Historic pub walking tour

Hear me out on this one, this was one of my favorite things I did the whole trip. We had an amazing guide who led us around London, starting near St. Paul’s cathedral. He talked about the fascinating history and pointed out things I would have not noticed on my own. He truly painted a picture of what living in London was like centuries ago and to go along with that was walking in centuries old pubs each with their own unique histories!

We met people from all over the world and funnily enough people from our own backyard in Orange County. Randomly, I met a guy who works in my same building in Irvine. What are the odds! The friends we met on this tour we hung out with the rest of the night and exchanged social media accounts. If you are traveling as a couple or a small group of friends and want to meet other people this is the way to go as people start becoming really chatty after two or three beers!

Pub crawl

We did something crazy. My boyfriend and I did two pub crawls back to back. We told our historic pub walking tour guide that we had another pub crawl scheduled that day and he said he had not heard of anyone doing that before. I guess we were the first! This two pub crawls were very different. The first was about this history and the pubs and the second was about partying. It started off at a fun ‘american’ bar and took us to all these fun bars and clubs throughout the night ending with my two favorite clubs of soho. I would have never found these places on my own nor had friends to enjoy the clubs with otherwise! My boyfriend and I actually did do a mini-pub crawl of our own the night before and we had trouble trying to google where the heck to go, so I was very pleased to have done this. It was instant friends, a fun atmosphere, and a free shot at every bar we went to!

Unrelated to the pub crawl, the drinking scene in London is so unique, I loved it! I stayed in Soho and every corner there was an old fashioned style pub with the people standing outside all well dressed in true European fashion sipping a beer. People who lived here must all have their favorite pub that they meet their friends with every Friday night. I was kind of jealous of this! This doesn’t really exist in America. It was funny, all the pub names were so similar too. Through in a king’s name, a random word, and such and you had a pub.

Tower of London

After the pub crawl, we’d over slept a bit and got moving to our next sight. The Tower of London! The old kings and queens used to live in this castle. Again, you could just step right back in time and imagine how he’d people lived. The castle was more a miniature city if you ask me. The walls guarded it where a big moat used to lie. Once inside it was open air and spread out with multiple towers that used to be armories, chambers, and prisons. It was fascinating! Up on the wall, you had views for miles around for what must have once been open land. Of course, more people used to get beheaded and tortured here. If there’s one thing I learned about London history is that everyone beheaded each other, got the plague, burned with the whole city in 1666, or somehow otherwise had an excruciating death. It would amaze me if anyone used to live over 30 the way it sounds.

One of the best parts of the whole place was the Crown Jewels. I had to stop and remind myself that this was all real gold and diamonds and not some Hollywood set in Disneyland. I couldn’t have even imagined living in that time and wearing an all gold gown topped with a gold crown, ruling the whole kingdom.

London eye

The London Eye is essentially a bigger, fancier version of a ferris wheel. It has glass, circular pods that you get into that fit 15-20 people. You get an amazing view of all of London from this tall London Eye. Some insider tips, you can buy tickets ahead of time online. You pick a time, but that doesn’t mean you get to skip the line. The line goes faster than you think, but it still took us 45 minutes in what I thought was ‘off’ season in October. Once you get to the main tourist attractions and to the heart of downtown, I started to feel like I was in a real big city with wall-to-wall people everywhere. By the end of the trip I was somewhat sick of being on my feet and standing in Disneyland worthy lines for all the attractions. I can’t even imagine what summer must be like.

London dungeon

The London Dungeon is a tourist attraction right next to the London Eye. It was not what I expected at all – the website said there was attractions and a special Halloween ‘screamfest’. I guess I was picturing a big wide open place where you get to pick what attractions you want to do. Instead, it was all planned out where you are shepherded room to room with your group and each room is hosted by one of London’s notorious villains of the past whether its Jack the Ripper or a woman cooking humans into her pies. The actors did a great job and involved the audience to make it more engaging. It was cool – I don’t get scared easily and I wasn’t blown away by any of the rooms but it was a solid performance.

What I was most excited for was the rides, but the ‘rides’ were a let down. There was a log ride, but there were no drops and it was just pitch black the whole time. No excitement to it really more of a get you to point A to point B. The second ride was like tower of terror in California Adventure. You get strapped in and the ride drops you a few floors down rapidly. It was awesome! But it only did one drop, if it went up and down a few times it would have been great. If you like spooky attractions such as this and even want to learn a little more about London in a fun and animated way, this is a great attraction for you.

Hyde park

Hyde Park is London’s answer to Central Park in New York City. It was gorgeous, I am rather speechless about the whole place. The Kensington Palace side was very exquisite and European. There were statues, large green areas, falling autumn leaves, large trees, and water features. I had so much fun strolling through the park and taking in the refreshing fall air. I would dedicate a couple hours to really enjoy the park. We were on a time pressure so we sped walk through the place. I got 28,000 steps and 14 miles tracked on my apple watch this day!! You could say my feet were done after this trip.

Kensington palace

Kensington Palace is exactly what you would expect from a palace. We got to see the old kings and queens chambers with royal red carpet and thrones. Some parts of the house were more modern and you could tell they were from a different era. The palace had large windows to enjoy the view of the park which must have once been left in solitude when the royals lived here. The gardens were also beautiful and I got a few good pictures here. It was a solid stop, but if you are anything like me, you will go rather quickly through the house. I would say an hour was good to see what there is to see and take it all in.

Notting hill

Have you ever seen the movie Notting Hill with Julia Roberts? Well this inspired me to visit this cute, artsy district of London. Notting Hill is famous for the multi-colored houses and street markets. I could just imagine living in this city and walking to my local coffee shop every day on the way to work. It was a very insta-worthy stop and I was so happy to see a whole new side of London and really take in the culture.

Wembley stadium

Ah, the reason I came to London in the first place at the end of October – NFL football in London! The Chargers had a game in Wembley stadium against the Titans and it was such a perfect excuse to take a trip to London. I may not have otherwise gone to London, but I am so happy the game brought me to this wonderful city. Wembley stadium was amazing! I do not even know how to describe the excitement in the air as the underground was packed shoulder shoulder on the way to the game. Stepping off the underground, there were people in every jersey imaginable which was funny because in America people only where the actual jerseys of the teams playing. I guess Europeans just wear what they have!

We paid for the official tailgate which I am happy we did because it got us out of the crowds and we met some great friends. We met some friends who happened to pick Chargers for their football team even though they were from England and Ireland. The stadium itself was amazing, packed with 85 thousand people!! Of course it helped that the Chargers pulled out a win in the final 30 seconds of the game, making for an amazing finish and an obligatory celebration at the bar in Wembley. If you have the chance to go to a soccer match for England I can only imagine how amazing it would be!

Buckingham palace

Buckingham Palace was one of the sights that you have to ‘check’ off your list. It was just as grand as I imagined. I happened to show up where there was a guard change. To be honest, there were way too many people around – thousands joined to watch! People were walled up by the gate peering on their tippy toes to get a better look. There is a large fountain with steps that people stepped back on to get a better view. The guard change was the guards playing music and there were police on horses keeping the event in check. It was cool, don’t know about thousands of people walled up not being able to even view the event cool, but I am glad I got to see another piece of London.

The royal mews

The royal mews is the horse stables behind Buckingham Palace. We got to see the old horse carriages, the arena, and some horses out practicing for some royals from the Netherlands to visit the next day. It was interesting to see because one of the carriages was all gold! What money these people have haha. I am a huge horse person though so this was a fun stop for me, but many others may have opted to skip.

Soho

Soho was the district I stayed in while in London. I must know how to do my research right because it was my favorite district!! It was so cute, quaint, and European. The streets were narrow and the buildings were old. It was popular but now crowded if that makes any sense. Soho is not a downtown buzzing with too many people like the heart of London was which I really enjoyed! It really felt like I was back in Florence or Milan except it had all the old English pubs and oh my gosh the food! Soho is the heart of the buzzing nightlife. It was nice to be able to walk everywhere at night and every bar, pub, or club I stepped foot in blew me away. Can I go back!!

Platform 9 and 3/4

Haha, so I met those friends from the Chargers tailgate and we decided to all go out to dinner together. Well the stop for dinner was at Kings Cross Station, and me being a huge harry potter fan, yes I had to stop and take a picture at platform 9 and 3/4 and yes there was a 30 minute line to take a picture which then loops you through a gift shop. So if you guys ever read this, I am incredibly sorry for making you wait in that line again 🙂 worth it!!

Trafalgar Square

We were randomly walking around and found Trafalgar Square. It had a huge fountain and statues, exactly what you would expect from a European square. It was a central hub, with a great photo opportunity in front of the fountain!

So there you have it! All of my favorite sights and activities in London! Enjoy!

As this post already got rather long, I will write you another one on where to stay, where to eat, how to get around, and all the other important information that you need on a trip to London!