Favre European Vacation 6/20/18: London, England Day 1

After a good night of sleep, despite the spiders, we took our time getting out the door which allowed for a leisurely late breakfast/early lunch of leftover pizza, laundry to be done and more Guardians of the Galaxy before we headed out the door around noon to enjoy our first full day in London. We walked the block to the bus stop to get to the Hammersmith station to catch the tube. We rode into London and headed to Trafalgar Square to collect our London Passes and Oyster cards. Turns out the Pass came with £40 each on two Oyster visitor cards along with a Child's Traveler card which has a value of about £32, so it was a good deal. Too bad we didn't receive those right at the start. We had loaded the Oyster cards we received from the flat owner with money already to get around when we arrived at Heathrow. Oh, well.

It was really easy to ride the bus to the tube and take the tube everywhere. The MoovIt app was so very helpful to help us navigate. It provided estimated times and suggested routes via biking, train, bus, etc. With our mobile phones and that app, we never got lost. We didn't use it in Edinburgh nor Dublin because those cities were much smaller and easier to navigate on foot or through the hop-on-hop-off buses. London is much larger, busier and spread out.

On our way to pick up the London Pass, we came across a gelato store called Amorino. It was not only delicious, but the employees make such beautiful cones. It was hard to eat because we didn't want to ruin it. We highly recommend grabbing a cone if you come across one of these shops.

Delicious and beautiful gelato at Amorino

After we collected our Pass we walked around, watched street performers in front of the National Gallery and then went inside to view some of the art the Gallery had to offer. The building itself was beautiful and I could've wandered the halls to view the architecture for hours. Mark enjoyed looking at the art. Keira enjoyed it when she could identify pieces. She spotted a couple of paintings by Van Gogh pretty quickly. I don't know much about art and I don't appreciate it in the way I should, but it was interesting to walk through the Gallery.

Keira recognized these pieces by Van Gogh

After the Gallery, we wandered around and watched more street performers and also paused for pictures. Here are a few of my favorite ones.

Leo, their protector

We're so lucky to have been many places together

Never too old to get on dad's shoulders

We jumped back on the tube and headed to Camden Market where we walked around the stalls and looked at the goods people were peddling. There were lots of trinkets and souvenirs, as well as brand-name items for sale. I have a feeling the brand-name items weren't "official". 

Following the Camden Market we headed to the London Zoo. In retrospect we should've taken the bus because our feet were starting to hurt after a full day of walking. But, we powered through and enjoyed the Zoo. It was nice to finally be able to wear short sleeves and shed our jackets after lugging them around all over Edinburgh and Dublin. It was actually unusually warm during our stay in London. But, it was a welcome change to the cool, rainy weather we had in the other countries. Dublin was a mix of weather, so we can't really complain and actually, it wasn't that bad in Edinburgh once we picked up a couple of cool-weather items. Isn't it just like a Minnesotan to HAVE to talk about the weather? Ha! Anyway, the London Zoo was really fun though I liked the layout and beauty of the Dublin Zoo more.

More gorillas

My two favorite gorillas

Checking out the layout of the Zoo and leading the way

Where, oh where, are we?

Giant birds - this was as close as I would get to them

It was evening by the time we finished at the Zoo. We pushed our feet to keep walking and made our way to catch the tube and bus back to the flat. We ate in Richmond (near the flat) at a place called Lotus Palace. I would NOT recommend it. It was edible, but not good. The restaurant also smelled like seafood. Of the places we dined, this was probably the most disappointing. But, we filled our bellies. Afterward we went to the Waitrose grocery store and picked up some groceries - mostly milk, fresh fruit, and snacks. We traveled with bags which was a good idea to avoid paying for them and ensure reuse which is great for the planet. I wish the U.S. would adopt something like this to attempt to reduce plastic usage. Later that night we stayed in, watched some TV and did laundry. It was nice having clean clothes to wear! It's the little things. We also spent some time resting and rubbing our feet. On average we walked 20k+ steps/day!! We probably should've lost weight, but all the walking probably just balanced out all the eating we did, including ice cream virtually every day - sometimes twice a day! Well, we were on vacation!