First Time in London: A Quick Guide
London was amazing. I recently went to the London for the first time in my life. I only spent 3.5 days there but I feel like I got a good sense of the city. It was great to see all the famous places that I’ve always heard about but never been. My arrival at Heathrow went very smoothly and I took the train to Tottenham Court Road Elizabeth Line Station.
I stayed in an underground hotel called Zedwell Hotel. I believe it was an old tube station that wasn’t needed anymore, so they converted it into a hotel. This was in the SoHo neighborhood and I found it to be a great location for a visit. Plenty of places to within walking distance and one block away from The British Museum. The hotel room itself was very small but it was clean and got the job done.
I walked along the Thames river all the way down to the City of London. There is so much old architecture in London. My favorite thing to do was just walk around looking at the cool old buildings. It is so interesting to see the different styles of architecture and also the different levels of where the buildings are. Most of the very old buildings were below the street level. Sometimes even 2 or 3 levels below street level. Very interesting that they have raised the streets up over the years..
The main walking loop I did was from SoHo all the way to The Tower Bridge and back, which is about 6 miles. This takes you through the historic City of London and along the Thames until you get to the Tower Bridge. In the City of London, there is a nightly ceremony called Ceremony of the Keys that has been going on for over 700 years. I wanted to see it but unfortunately the tickets sell out weeks in advance. If you are interested in seeing it for yourself, I recommend booking tickets far in advance.
I also went to The British Museum and that was pretty cool. Lots of stolen art work from all over the world. They got a big chunk of the Rosetta Stone from Egypt, a part of the Acropolis from Greece and one of the giant statues from Easter island. It was pretty cool to see it in person. Even the building of the museum is incredible and originally it was an old Roman structure from about 2000 years ago. Crazy shtuff.
After the museum, I had to have myself some fish and chips. The fish was perfectly fried and washed down nicely with the malt vinegar. I did screw up by not getting the curry sauce though. I heard someone else order curry sauce on the side after I had already finished my food and a small part of me wanted to cry for missing out on this potentially amazing curry sauce adventure. It’s ok Nick, you’ll get the curry sauce next time….
All in all, I really enjoyed my first visit to London. Some parts definitely feel like NYC since there are always people around and Piccadilly Circus reminds me of Times Square. I took the train from the famous Kings Cross train station up to Ely to visit with Family. I would love to come back and explore more in London. Stay tuned 😉
