England - London & Vicinity

August 20 - 28, 2019

London is a big city with so much to do. We enjoyed the tourist attractions such as the Tower Bridge and London Eye, as well as learning about navigating the tube and learning whether to tip at restaurants. There are also so many great places in its vicinity worth exploring - Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Oxford, just to name a few. After a jam-packed 8 days in Iceland, we slowed down our pace and also start home-schooling in London. We truly enjoyed our 12 days here and can’t wait to come back someday!

Day 1 - Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The Shard

Day 2, 4, 10 - Home school

Day 3 - Westminster Abbey, South Bank, Millennium Bridge

Day 5 - Windsor Palace, Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral

Day 6 - Science Museum, Harrod’s

Day 7 - London Eye, Shakespear’s Globe, Buckingham & Kensington Palace, Trafalgar & Leicester Square, Chinatown, Covent Garden

Day 8 - Hyde Park, Harry Potter

Day 9 - Hop-on, hop-off bus

Day 11 - Oxford

Day 12 - Head to Paris

Voyagers tips: Keep your itinerary flexible, as the rain can make certain plans less viable. London Pass is great because it includes many major attractions so you don’t have to argue about “is this worth the money”. City Mapper is an awesome map that provides step-by-step direction on how to get to places. Hotel rooms with two double-beds are hard to find, vacation rentals are a great way to get extra room for the family and save money by cooking and eating in.

Day 1 - Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The Shard

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The Shard

Tower of London

The moat area is now green grass.

We said goodbye to Iceland and flew to London.

The girls learned how to navigate "The Tube". City Mapper" is an amazing app!

Inside Tower of London

What are YOU looking at?

White Tower inside is the reason for the name "Tower of London".

Lots of armories inside White Tower.

More armory...

Dragon made of various armory pieces.

We were supposed to make mad faces. M's face doesn't look so mad.

Marching of the Guards.

Nice view with Tower Bridge in the background.

Located on the north bank of Thames River, The Tower of London has been besieged several times, and has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, a prison & place of torture, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. It was fun to walk around the castle and admire the architecture, look at the impressive armory collection, see the various torture devices, and observe the guards marching. Great way to start our visit of London! The Crown Jewel of England is also stored here, but the line was so ridiculously long that we decided to skip it.

Tower Bridge

Great view of Tower Bridge from outside Tower of London.

On Tower Bridge

The climb up the stairs of the tower is a good workout.

The views from above are actually from the two sky bridges that connect the two towers.

Nice views right down River Thames.

The see-through floor is a bit scary.

Nice view of The Shard.

One side of the sky bridge has a mirror above the see-through floor.

Taking a picture of the mirror.

Three brave souls.

Going back down the stairs now.

Coming out of the Tower of London, visitors immediately get a great view of the Tower Bridge, which is just a few minutes away by foot. The of the bridge is quite nice on the walk to the tower. The view from the top of the tower is great, you can look down the Thames river and see all the major landmarks of London. The glass floor on certain parts of the tower was cool, and one of the two towers even has a mirror ceiling above the glass floor, which makes for cool pictures.

Voyagers tips: With London pass or pre-purchased tickets, you can walk right up to the queue without stopping by the ticket office. Up on the tower, there are small camera peep-holes for taking nice pictures. As for the glass floor sections, people tend to queue up at the beginning of it; go pass them to the end of the glass floor for less crowds and better pictures.

The Shard

Tallest building in London

360 glass wall view

Looking down River Thames.

Trying to remember the name of each bridge.

Open top makes this a windy place. There's a lower level with similar views but no wind.

Enjoyed some gelato up there.

Our "picnic" up on the Shard.

Looking straight up to the open sky.

Tower Bridge looks so short fromhere.

The BAO Borough restaurant... I was craving Taiwanese food... This place was overpriced and only the traditional bao tasted good, the rest wasn't that great.

This beef rice dish with raw egg yoke in the middle was interesting.

Aptly named, as the glass sides and open tops make the surfaces of the buildings look like shards of glass. Standing at 1,016-feet tall, it is the tallest building in London, and you get an awesome view from the top. The open top gives it an airy and windy feel at the top, and the 360-degree view along with the artificial-grass floor and bars / ice cream stands makes it an inviting place to chill and enjoy the view up there. See how many buildings you recognize from up there.

Voyagers tips: Go on a clear day for better views. We heard about possible long lines here but only waited for about 5 minutes when we went late in the afternoon. It’s included in London Pass. There are two separate floors for people to enjoy the view. Enjoy some alcoholic drinks or gelato while you’re up there.

Day 3 - Westminster abbey, south bank, millennium bridge

westminster abbey

south bank & millennium bridge

westminster abbey

Very grand on both sides of the abbey

Is that... superman???

Can you read this?

Britain’s oldest door. A couldn’t get it open, and we forgot to bring some WD-40 to help it.

Megan got quite comfortable at this spot, wished she could just sit here and read all day.

This guy with a bagpipe can be heard from far away. He’s also in many London YouTube videos you’ll see.

Westminster Abbey - One of the most notable churches in England, full of history. And yes, Prince Williams and Princess Kate Middleton got married here.

south bank & millennium bridge

We ran into Ben Murdock from Stryker and his family on Westminster Bridge, right by Big Ben. Yes, Ben at Big Ben!!! What are the odds???

Big Ben - Under construction until 2021

Everything Shrek!

How would you like to stare at Shrek every morning while drinking coffee?

Fun fact - The Millennium Bridge is the only pedestrian-only bridge in London.

The Millennium Bridge connects Tate Modern to St. Paul's Cathedral.

South bank is a lively place, it’s fun to just walk down along the River Thames. The Shrek store, street performers, London Eye, Shakespear’s Globe, many eateries… The walk from Westminster Bridge to Millennium Bridge was fun. We saved London Eye and Shakespear’s Globe for another day.

Day 5 - windsor castle, stonehenge, salisbury cathedral

windsor castle

stonehenge

salisbury cathedral

We read online that Stonehenge could be tricky to get to, so we decided to hire a private tour guide. The most popular tour packages included Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and either Bath or Salisbury Cathedral.

Voyager tips: The private tour was indeed a convenient luxury, but our day still felt rushed. In hindsight, we should’ve definitely skipped pub lunch and just grabbed food to eat in the car.

windsor castle

Windsor Castle is still the second home of Queen Elizabeth, it’s where she goes to find reprieve. It’s grand and constantly under construction. No pictures allowed inside the buildings, unfortunately, but you can see how the royalty used to live in the state apartments. This is one of two places where you can see changing of the guards; the other one is at Buckingham Palace, which is much more crowded.

Stonehenge

Before the stonehenge, there was woodhenge. This was a place of worship.

Woodhenge is in a form of a circle, original wood columns are replaced by concrete columns now. There's a shape of a small grave in the center, likely a child sacrificed to a god.

A local bar has a miniature version of stonehenge in front. Now people can visit stonehenge without the huge hassle. :)

Stopped by a pub for lunch, and for the pub experience.

Look at the size of the donuts compared to the size of my fist!

She caught the gingerbread man.

In around 4,500 B.C., people used to roll the massive stones by moving these wooden columns from the back to the front, over and over again, for many miles.

Let's see if A can pull the stone by herself.

Replicates of the huts these people used to live in.

Still amazing to see...

The "heel stone" is off to the side.

Stonehenge - Still a great mystery. It is an ancient burial ground built over 4,000 years. Precisely how they built this without modern tools or even wheels is still a mystery. It’s made of sandstones and bluestones, and the bluestones are from areas over 200 miles away! People love gathering here for summer solstice every year. Before stonehenge, there was woodhenge. Whereas stonehenge is a burial ground, woodhenge is believed to be a place of worship, although there is a body burried in the center of woodhenge, believed to be a child sacrificed to the gods.

salisbury cathedral

The Magna Carta, the best preserved of the four copies still available today.

The oldest working clock in England.

Salisbury Cathedral has England’s tallest church spire since 1549. This grand cathedral that houses the world’s oldest working clock and the best surviving of the four original copies of Magna Carta.

Day 6 - Science museum & harrods

science museum

harrods

science museum

Cool museum, but not enjoyable when it's so packed.

All kinds of flying devices from the beginning to today.

We tried to take the tube to Harrods and saw this scene at the entrance of the tube station. The blond lady's facial expression says it all!

Walked by the V&A Museum, an impressive building. We didn't go in though.

It rained hard on this day, so we had the brilliant idea of spending our time indoors in the Science Museum. Apparently, half of London had the same idea. The museum was so jam packed it was hard to move around, much less find available science stations. The 3D movie “A beautiful planet” that was included with the London Pass was the highlight of our visit. The rest of visit was pretty bad, truth be told. We got out of there after the movie.

The rain must’ve pushed everyone into the tube; we tried taking the tube to Harrod’s, but the entry to the tube station was so crowded that we decided to just walk in the rain instead. It was nice to get away from the crowd for just a little bit. We passed by the V&A Museum but didn’t go in.

harrod’s

Arrived at Harrods

Went straight to the Toy department.

I think they're too old for these rocking horses. Good thing they're skinny.

No, it doesn't fit in our luggage.

Harrod’s, the famous mall in the center of London. It contains 1.1 million square feet of retail space and 330 departments. We aren’t into luxury brand jewelry or accessories, so we went straight to… where else, the toy department! It was a fun stop for the kids before we headed home.

Day 7 - london eye, shakespear’s globe, kensington & buckingham palace, trafalgar & leicester square, covent garden

london eye

shakespear’s globe

borough market

kensington palace

buckingham palace

trafalgar square

leicester square

China Town

covent garden

This was definitely a jam-packed, fun-filled day, big improvement over the bad time at the Science Museum.

Voyagers tips: Black cabs helped us shorten inter-city commute time substantially, which allowed us to spend more time sightseeing. They were much cheaper than we thought, actually good deals for a family of four. I’d suggest using black cabs for inter-city transportation and using the tube or Uber to go out of town. Just know that with Uber, you sometimes have to wait a while, and be reachable at your Uber-registered phone number, as the driver may need to call you up to coordinate pickup points.

london eye

We picked the earliest time slot of the day to avoid long queue, and it worked!

Voyagers tips: Purchase London Eye tickets in advance and just let them scan the barcodes on your phone at the entry, you can avoid a long ticket-purchase line this way. You only need to pre-book a couple of days in advance, so make sure you pick a day with good weather. The line was indeed shorter when they first open; we waited no more than 10 minutes. The queue moves pretty quick; the bottleneck is actually the security checkpoint, not the capacity of the Ferris wheel.

shakespear’s globe theater

Heading down to the meeting spot.

Almost all the materials are just like the original theater, same for the way it's built.

The painted ceiling meant to be the sky of the stage.

Three levels of seating. Thatch roof is a fire hazard but was used to reflect original theater.

Actors started warming up for their rehearsal. The way they warm up their vocal chords sound very bizarre.

The tour continues outside due to rehearsal inside. Millennium bridge in the background.

This is the place of the original theater just a few blocks down the river bank. Now it's just a plaque and a marker on the ground.

This is a replica of the theater Shakespeare used for his play, although the original location was a few blocks down the river bank. It’s very interesting to see how different the olden-day theaters and plays were compared to today. Our tour guide did a great job painting the picture for us on how the theater was used. Definitely worth a visit.

Voyagers tips: Reserve your ticket for a time slot ahead of time. We didn’t do this and were lucky that we got the last four available tickets for the tour when we showed up. The people behind us had to wait another 30min for the next tour. The tour lasts about an hour, and you cannot tour the theater without a tour guide, since this theater is very much an operational theater.

Borough Market

A very popular spot

These are English muffins?? Much thicker than the ones back home.

Nice hangout place.

This paella stand is super popular.

Be ready to fight the crowd.

Borough Market is the oldest food market in London, dating back to at least the 12th centuries. It’s still thriving today, a hugely popular lunch spot. A great stop for the food market experience.

Voyager tips: Expect long lines in the summer, and don’t show up for dinner, as they close at 5pm except Fridays (6pm).

kensington palace

Beautiful Kensington Garden.

Princess Diana wore this dress in several occasions.

I can see Megan in this dress. Might have trouble getting through the door in this though.

Grand staircase.

Kensington Palace

This area is probably the most manicured part of Hyde Park.

Kensington Palace, the home of Prince Williams and Kate Middleton’s home. There is a lot of royal family history here that I wouldn’t pretend to remember. It’s located on the west end of Hyde Park and has a nice garden next to it. It’s not as grand as Buckingham Palace, of course, but is still a worthwhile stop. Lots of history on display for the history and royal family buffs.

Voyagers tips: Combine this palace visit with the rest of Hyde Park, as this is inside Hyde Park on the western end.

Buckingham Palace

Hanging out with the royal family... Megan is now bff with the queen.

Our own princesses.

The Garden Cafe in the back of the palace is actually quite nice.

Fruit scone and Profiterole... sounds like the name of a drug. And my cappuccino, of course.

M says their grass is just slightly nicer than our backyard grass. 😤

Nice garden too.

The creepy eye on the tree seems to stare at you when you walk by.

The black cab saved us precious time, and the driver told us about all the landmarks we drove by. It's not nearly as expensive as we thought, actually a great deal for a family of four.

Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the queen. This palace is significantly more grand than other palaces like Windsor Castle or Kensington Palace, and is fit for a queen (or king). No pictures are allowed inside, so we just got some fun pictures after the inside tour was over.

Voyagers tips: Pre-book tickets for the time slot you want well in advance, this place is understandably very popular. No backpacks allowed unless you want to carry it with your hand on the side of your body, not on your shoulder. They’re ridiculously strict about this throughout the tour. There are many tourist attractions around here so it’s easy to combine this visit with other sites. Take the black taxi to get from site to site.

Trafalgar Square, Leicester square, Chinatown and covent garden

Arrived at Trafalgar Square by the famous black taxi.

It was a challenge climbing up to the statue.

Four massive lions surround the statue.

This is a popular spot for protests. People were protesting for Kashmir when we were there.

Nice fountains there also.

Leicester Square is smaller, a more relaxed hangout place with restaurants, artists and street performers.

This artist was very good.

Chinatown is just a few minutes walk from Leicester Square.

We picked this restaurant to satisfy our Chinese food craving.

The dim sum here was very tasty... but quite over-priced.

Hello Kitty pastry?

The House of Spells has more Harry Potter items than the Harry Potter store next to Platform 9 3/4.

My friends had to educate me on this Iron Throne.

Battle of the wizards.

There is a Din Tai Fung right next to Covent Garden. Too bad we just had dinner.

Covent Garden was still quite busy even after the open market closed. Lots of restaurants here.

Big open space for street performers at Covent Garden. This performer was very talented also.

Trafalgar Square - A large square where people hang out by the statue and the fountains. This is also a popular place for protests; there was one happening when we were there.

Leicester Square - A popular square where many street performers are artists hang out. There are also lots of restaurants and shops around here. It’s also just a few minutes walk away from Chinatown.

Chinatown - Relatively small in size, it’s nonetheless a nice place to grab some Chinese food. Most restaurants here are Cantonese-style restaurants.

Covent Garden - A posh neighborhood with many theater, entertainment and food choices. We got there late and the open market was already closed, but there were still lots of people hanging out at restaurants and being entertained by street performers.

Voyagers’ tips: Get away from the center of Chinatown to find restaurants with better value. Din Tai Fung near Covent Garden is a good alternative.

DAY 8 - hyde park & harry potter platform 9 3/4

hyde park

platform 9 3/4 (harry potter platform)

fish & chips

hyde park

We wanted to try out the double-decker bus. It was quite comfortable. Traffic was fine on this day but was bad on another day.

The Marble Arch, a famous landmark at the north-east corner of Hyde Park. Also a busy traffic intersection with tube station and bus stops.

Crazy A didn't wear long sleeve shirt inside her rain jacket on this cold rainy day, had to borrow my jacket.

Enjoying the view.

This was an unique tree, we had fun with it.

Inside the tree leaves.

Lots of ducks and swans, all looking to be fed.

Found an ideal tree stump for jumping pictures. We love jumping pictures!

Time for our next stop.

Hyde Park is a nice big park to the left of the city center, bordering Buckingham Palace on its right side. It’s very well maintained and is a relaxing way to enjoy a few hours of your time. It was a bit cold and rainy when we went, unfortunately, but we still enjoyed it.

harry potter platform 9 3/4

This is the magical picture they take for you. You can take your own picture or buy theirs for $10.

We didn't want to wait in the queue, so this was the best picture we got of the girls.

Even the store next to the platform has a queue.

Platform 9 3/4 is located inside King’s Cross train station. It’s actually situated outside the real platform area so you don’t need train tickets to get here.

Voyagers tips: The normal queue is ridiculously long, over an hour wait when we got there. There’s even a queue to get into the store! We didn’t realize you can buy a VIP pass for $15 to get to the front of the picture taking line, and it comes with a professional photo they take for you, plus you don’t need to wait in the stores line. $15 for over an hour of your family vacation time back, it’s a steal! Wish we knew about it.

fish & chips

Fish & chips and also meat & liver pie and scampi. Our eyes were bigger than our stomach.

A small casual place near Kilburn station specializing in fish & chips.

The food tasted sooooo good! Haddock was definitely better than the cod.

The portions are very generous.

A trip to England is not complete without some fish & chips! This is a small fish & chips place by Kilburn station near our apartment, mainly for take-out orders, but the lady working there was super nice and was happy to give us everything we needed to eat there. She even told us the stories of her and her kids and showed us pictures of all her kids all grown up. We waited a bit as the fish and chips were freshly fried while we were there. It was super tasty!

Day 9 - hop-on, hop-off bus

Took the bus to the station for hop-on hop-off bus.

After some confusion on temporary closures and route changes due to ongoing protests, we had to transfer buses and finally got onto the bus we wanted.

The buses were super crowded, probably due to partial closures and it being on weekends. The bus couldn't handle these people waiting to get in.

We got lucky with good seats on upper deck after a while.

Our London Passes included one day of hop-on hop-off bus ride, so we went for it. Luck wasn’t on our side, as there were moving protests in the city that affected the available routes of the buses. Traffic was absolutely atrocious, and the road closures changed throughout the day depending on where the protesters moved to, so no one knew which buses were being cancelled and which ones rerouted. We transferred to a good bus and slowly moved to good spots on the upper deck to enjoy the rest of the tour. It does drive by most of the main landmarks and the experience ended up being pleasant, but not something I would pay for or recommend if you have to pay separately for it.

Day 11 - oxford

University Church of Mary the Virgin - Can climb up the tower for a great view of Oxford.

The stairway up the Church of Virgin Mary tower is very tight! And it’s the same way up and down.

The Covered Market in Oxford has been there for hundreds of years and is still a popular market with eateries, shops and groceries.

Harry Potter mini cakes.

Christ Church College - One of many colleges at Oxford. It's very prestigious - 13 prime ministers are alums of this college!

The Hogwarts great hall - Where are Harry and Hermione? This was the great hall at Christ Church that Hogwarts dining hall was modeled after.

The Grand Staircase in Christ Church is right outside of the great hall and appears in several HP movies.

A massive courtyard in Christ Church.

The Bridge of Sighs, a landmark in Oxford.

New College is beautiful, certainly worth a visit. A wonders how long it can stay as "new college". I suppose it's not very new anymore...

The gate to the courtyard at New College.

The courtyard of New College.

The cloister in New College. Cloister means an enclosed garden. New vocabulary for us.

This is the tree where Malfoy jumped off and turned into a ferret in Goblet of Fire. The sign says "Do not climb".

The architecture is a beautiful backdrop for pictures.

Finally got to experience afternoon tea before we leave England!

The Quod is a nice restaurant with a beautiful patio and serves up great afternoon tea.

The food was great, but it was a bit too much sweet desserts for us. And the bees started swarming around our sweets. M did not like the bees.

The Grand Cafe, the oldest coffee house in all of England.

Oxford is known for punting -- Pushing a stick against the river bed to move the boat forward.

Most tourists hire a professional to do the hard work of punting, but what's the fun in that?

Punting was harder than it looked. Ivan got the hang of it towards the end but his left sleeve was completely drenched.

The university is the oldest one in all English-speaking regions, and also the setting for many Harry Potter scenes. This was a great day trip from London; visiting this town is like going back centuries in time, the architecture is amazing. And punting was fun but harder than it looks! Maybe our girls will come here to study someday? One can always dream... Next stop - Paris!

Voyagers tips: You can take the train (~1 hr) or the bus (1hr 40min) from London to Oxford. The train is faster but you need to pre-determine the specific train you want to get on, but the bus is more flexible as it comes every 15 minutes and you can hop on any one you want. Kids under 12 are free on the Oxford Tube buses we took, another plus. Map out your route first, Oxford is very doable on foot. One thing we found out the hard way: The visitors entrance to Christ Church is on St. Aldate’s St, not on High Street. Lastly, to get into New College, walk through New College Ln past the Bridge of Sighs. The map apps show you where the colleges are but not the visitors entrance, and there’s only one visitors entrance per college.