Honeymoon Day 1 (And A Half)
Traveling from the US to London at night is, on paper, one of the best ways to travel to London. Essentially if you leave at 8pm Saturday, you'll arrive at local London time at 8am Sunday, 5 hour time change plus the almost 7 hour flight. 7 hour flight is the perfect amount of time to catch some sleep and then run around the city as soon as you land, no time lost!
Just one problem: Actually sleeping on a plane. I'm a very light sleeper, so even with music I know and love to put me to sleep, eye covers, and a travel pillow, I'm lucky if I actually slept for two hours. Molly on the other hand definitely slept more, not necessarily well, but she always sleeps in moving vehicles. Second problem arises, we had a great tail wind, so we're in London just a hair ahead of schedule, so even less possible sleep time.
A nap is our top priority, but unfortunately, it's 8am when we leave the plane, so we'll be through customs on a train and at our hotel by 10am. Check in isn't until 3pm, so we either need to occupy ourselves for five hours or find a nice park bench to sleep on, so we decide to run around London and see what's local to us in the area.
We stayed at a hotel by King's Cross, which is a very busy and easily accessible train station that will take you to anywhere the London transit system can take you, so I suggest an easy time killing option: A game of Football! Tottenham vs Leicester City at Wembley Stadium. We have a 3 day train pass that will take us anywhere we want, so we decide to see if we can snag tickets to the Tottenham game.
It's a long ride out to the stadium, and it was a big crowd there ready for the game and we learned some bad news... Even though two top stars for Tottenham wouldn't be playing, the game was sold out and we couldn't get into the match. Turns out this is a blessing in disguise, because it led us to a Mexican restaurant that had a happy hour special for BOGO drinks. Their happy hour is from open to close, every day. Of course I think that means Molly gets her drink, and mine's free: NOPE. It means she gets two drinks and I get two as well, literally you have to each buy one get one. The thing that's nice about England though is that even though we're now just scratching 12 Noon, no one at this restaurant isn't drinking, everyone's half in the bag at noon!
Molly and I realize how tired we are after a few drinks and decide it really was for the best we didn't go to this football game because we'd actually be dead. We hop the train back into downtown and look for a tattoo shop my Boo told me to go see: Frith Street Tattoos. We only ended up turning ourselves around twice before we finally located the basement shop and asked if they had walk-in availability. We had a nap to get to in another two hours (it's about 1pm now) and they said "We don't have room now, but we have availability later," which is 100% expected in walking into a shop randomly on a Sunday afternoon with no advance notice. I'll be asleep in a couple hours so I'd rather not get a sleepy time tattoo, so instead we bought some swag and grabbed some stickers and looked at their artwork and headed back out to walk around the neighborhood some more.
We're pretty close to Piccadilly, which is tourist souvenir junk heaven, so we try to walk over there and see what they'll have and prices (Pro Tip: always window shop places first before you actually buy tourist junk, otherwise you'll overpay or buy 7 of the same thing with slight differences between them). The Theater district is on our walk back through to the hotel, which also includes SoHo and Russell Square Park and the British Museum.
I should have mentioned the weather right? Landing at Gatwick Airport, it was about 45*F light wind and was drizzling/light rain. By the time we checked in at the hotel 2 hours later, it was 55*F and partly cloudy, and now at this point at 2pm is 60*F and it is SUNNY AF. We saw a hint of London rain in the morning, and we'd never see rain or bad weather again for the rest of the trip. Assume anything else I talk about from here on into the future is a high of 60*F and a low of 42*F, because we hit the lucky weather streak PERFECTLY.
We arrive back at the hotel a little short of 3pm and they're almost done with our room, the biggest room in the hotel*. *I actually booked this hotel purely on price and location and not at all on accommodation, we knew the room was going to be small, but man, this room was small. You could fit our entire hotel room, private bathroom and all, within my bedroom back home. The room was just big enough for a half wardrobe and a full bed, and the bathroom was big enough that when you sat on the toilet your face was in the sink and you could touch the stand-in only shower directly in front of you. Again, known problem when we booked it, we're here to run around London, not hang out in the hotel room. This room is good for a quick sleep and back out to the grind.
Molly and I are both tired so we get a bit of a nap in, her more than me, because I came down with my usual problem: Travel Sickness! I don't know what it is, but every time I travel, my stomach always acts up on me the first day. And it's bigger travel, like going to the West Coast or Europe (I was hella sick when we went to Athens on our first day there). Luckily for me though, I didn't need to puke and the sickness wore off by the next day and I was good to go, but I was so tired from the flight I pretty much was out like a light for a good hour.
After our naps and showers, we walked back across the street to King's Cross station, because that's where Platform 9 3/4 is located and we're tourists doing touristy things, so we have to see the Harry Potter store and get a photo with the cart in the wall. Turns out the Cart in the Wall has a long line for photos, so we cheated it and it looked a bit like this:
Molly picked up some swag at the Harry Potter store, that looked like this:
And then it was time to grab some dinner. We ate light, just grabbed a pasty at the station (a regular croissant for me, tummy hurtin'), and decided that we'd done enough for one day, so it was back to the hotel for a good night sleep so we could blitz the city for a whole day.
Not exactly, you see the convenient thing about our hotel room is that we were tucked way off to the side on the first floor, which makes for getting in and out of the hotel a breeze, no stairs, no elevators, small little building, but the walls were paper thin. We could hear everything inside and out... I'm a light sleeper, so that meant doing the only thing I knew how to do to help me sleep: White Noise. Found a Spotify track a little over 3 minutes long that mimics the sound of a fan running, threw that shit on loop all night. For the next 4 nights, that track would be played a total of 671 times. But it worked like a charm and I slept well each night.
But Joe, why wouldn't you just spend more on a better hotel with better accommodations? Because that makes you stay in the hotel longer and not see the city and we're here to see London and all the sites it has to offer, we can get a bigger hotel room in Barcelona at the end of the trip, and we're staying in a Penthouse the last night of the trip, when we're exhausted and don't want to move anymore. I PLANNED THIS OUT I THINK I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.
I have no idea what I'm doing. Good night.
Joe
Just one problem: Actually sleeping on a plane. I'm a very light sleeper, so even with music I know and love to put me to sleep, eye covers, and a travel pillow, I'm lucky if I actually slept for two hours. Molly on the other hand definitely slept more, not necessarily well, but she always sleeps in moving vehicles. Second problem arises, we had a great tail wind, so we're in London just a hair ahead of schedule, so even less possible sleep time.
A nap is our top priority, but unfortunately, it's 8am when we leave the plane, so we'll be through customs on a train and at our hotel by 10am. Check in isn't until 3pm, so we either need to occupy ourselves for five hours or find a nice park bench to sleep on, so we decide to run around London and see what's local to us in the area.
We stayed at a hotel by King's Cross, which is a very busy and easily accessible train station that will take you to anywhere the London transit system can take you, so I suggest an easy time killing option: A game of Football! Tottenham vs Leicester City at Wembley Stadium. We have a 3 day train pass that will take us anywhere we want, so we decide to see if we can snag tickets to the Tottenham game.
It's a long ride out to the stadium, and it was a big crowd there ready for the game and we learned some bad news... Even though two top stars for Tottenham wouldn't be playing, the game was sold out and we couldn't get into the match. Turns out this is a blessing in disguise, because it led us to a Mexican restaurant that had a happy hour special for BOGO drinks. Their happy hour is from open to close, every day. Of course I think that means Molly gets her drink, and mine's free: NOPE. It means she gets two drinks and I get two as well, literally you have to each buy one get one. The thing that's nice about England though is that even though we're now just scratching 12 Noon, no one at this restaurant isn't drinking, everyone's half in the bag at noon!
Molly and I realize how tired we are after a few drinks and decide it really was for the best we didn't go to this football game because we'd actually be dead. We hop the train back into downtown and look for a tattoo shop my Boo told me to go see: Frith Street Tattoos. We only ended up turning ourselves around twice before we finally located the basement shop and asked if they had walk-in availability. We had a nap to get to in another two hours (it's about 1pm now) and they said "We don't have room now, but we have availability later," which is 100% expected in walking into a shop randomly on a Sunday afternoon with no advance notice. I'll be asleep in a couple hours so I'd rather not get a sleepy time tattoo, so instead we bought some swag and grabbed some stickers and looked at their artwork and headed back out to walk around the neighborhood some more.
We're pretty close to Piccadilly, which is tourist souvenir junk heaven, so we try to walk over there and see what they'll have and prices (Pro Tip: always window shop places first before you actually buy tourist junk, otherwise you'll overpay or buy 7 of the same thing with slight differences between them). The Theater district is on our walk back through to the hotel, which also includes SoHo and Russell Square Park and the British Museum.
I should have mentioned the weather right? Landing at Gatwick Airport, it was about 45*F light wind and was drizzling/light rain. By the time we checked in at the hotel 2 hours later, it was 55*F and partly cloudy, and now at this point at 2pm is 60*F and it is SUNNY AF. We saw a hint of London rain in the morning, and we'd never see rain or bad weather again for the rest of the trip. Assume anything else I talk about from here on into the future is a high of 60*F and a low of 42*F, because we hit the lucky weather streak PERFECTLY.
We arrive back at the hotel a little short of 3pm and they're almost done with our room, the biggest room in the hotel*. *I actually booked this hotel purely on price and location and not at all on accommodation, we knew the room was going to be small, but man, this room was small. You could fit our entire hotel room, private bathroom and all, within my bedroom back home. The room was just big enough for a half wardrobe and a full bed, and the bathroom was big enough that when you sat on the toilet your face was in the sink and you could touch the stand-in only shower directly in front of you. Again, known problem when we booked it, we're here to run around London, not hang out in the hotel room. This room is good for a quick sleep and back out to the grind.
Molly and I are both tired so we get a bit of a nap in, her more than me, because I came down with my usual problem: Travel Sickness! I don't know what it is, but every time I travel, my stomach always acts up on me the first day. And it's bigger travel, like going to the West Coast or Europe (I was hella sick when we went to Athens on our first day there). Luckily for me though, I didn't need to puke and the sickness wore off by the next day and I was good to go, but I was so tired from the flight I pretty much was out like a light for a good hour.
After our naps and showers, we walked back across the street to King's Cross station, because that's where Platform 9 3/4 is located and we're tourists doing touristy things, so we have to see the Harry Potter store and get a photo with the cart in the wall. Turns out the Cart in the Wall has a long line for photos, so we cheated it and it looked a bit like this:
 |
| We're not about to wait in that line. |
And then it was time to grab some dinner. We ate light, just grabbed a pasty at the station (a regular croissant for me, tummy hurtin'), and decided that we'd done enough for one day, so it was back to the hotel for a good night sleep so we could blitz the city for a whole day.
Not exactly, you see the convenient thing about our hotel room is that we were tucked way off to the side on the first floor, which makes for getting in and out of the hotel a breeze, no stairs, no elevators, small little building, but the walls were paper thin. We could hear everything inside and out... I'm a light sleeper, so that meant doing the only thing I knew how to do to help me sleep: White Noise. Found a Spotify track a little over 3 minutes long that mimics the sound of a fan running, threw that shit on loop all night. For the next 4 nights, that track would be played a total of 671 times. But it worked like a charm and I slept well each night.
But Joe, why wouldn't you just spend more on a better hotel with better accommodations? Because that makes you stay in the hotel longer and not see the city and we're here to see London and all the sites it has to offer, we can get a bigger hotel room in Barcelona at the end of the trip, and we're staying in a Penthouse the last night of the trip, when we're exhausted and don't want to move anymore. I PLANNED THIS OUT I THINK I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.
I have no idea what I'm doing. Good night.
Joe
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