Saturday, June 4, 2011 @ 10:00 PM in 2011 London
We just wrapped up our first day in London! Eric arrived around 10:30am and I arrived around 12:30pm. We met up at the airport and exchanged some money and got sim cards for our phones. After that, we jumped on the Underground and headed to our hotel to check in. After heading the wrong direction for a block or two, we turned around and made it to the hotel and checked in just fine.
After we checked into the hotel, we decided to go for a little walk and check out Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. It was amazing the amount of people that were there having picnics, playing soccer, or relaxing in the sun. The entire park was crammed full of people. We went into the Serpent Gallery at the park where we saw some really strange art, mostly videos playing to strange music. After that we headed toward Shepherd Market where we wanted to get some beer and fish n chips.
In Shepherd Market, we first stopped at Ye Grapes and grabbed a pint. I had a Spitfire Kentish Ale. The beers are served between room temperature and what you would normally expect in the USA. The beers are definitely different but still good. After having our pint there, we headed to The Kings Arms for another pint and for dinner. I had a Strongbow hard cider and Eric had a Guinness. We both got fish n chips that came with peas but forgot to take a picture of it.
After eating we headed to Harrods to check out the giant department store. After walking around we finally stumbled on the electronics department and then the sporting goods areas. The store is huge and has just about everything you can imagine, including a "Millionaire Gallery" where they had memorabilia from movies and other events for sale. Pretty much everything there was extremely expensive.
From there, we started heading home and came across another pub called The Bunch of Grapes where I had a Greene King IPA and Eric had a Greene King London Glory. After that we walked roughly toward our hotel just exploring and came across some local eateries and ended up getting some gelato. We also went into a grocery store across from our hotel on the way back so Eric could pick up a few cokes and then we came back to get ready for bed.
All in all we felt pretty good the first day. The jet lag didn't seem to bother us much and the weather was perfect. We got to see a few sights and have a few beers. Tomorrow we start the day with a bike tour along the River Thames.
Teaser photos:
Posted from: England