I've been back for a bit more than a week and after getting back into a routine, getting my vacation pictures on the internet for family and friends, I finally get a chance to write a trip report for all who like me, might use it as a guide to planning their own trip to London, or just to be taken back to London, even if just in a small way.

First, let me say that I think I found the ultimate comfortable shoes, Joseph Siebel. I don't know if anyone else has even mentioned these shoes on Fodor's before, but I bought them at Nordstrom, they cost $99 and are worth every single little penny!! My feet never hurt and I walked and walked and walked in London!

Second, if anyone is interested in seeing the pictures, they are posted on Webshots, there's a total of 3 albums, marked Part 1, 2 and 3. http://community.webshots.com/user/lyb1021

I flew United from San Francisco non stop to Heathrow on Saturday early afternoon. Luckily nothing exciting to report regarding the flight, very uneventful.

The flight got to London right on time and I was met my JustAirports.com right outside customes. I somehow had missed the ATM machines around custom and did ask the driver where the nearest ATM was in the terminal and did tell him that I needed it to pay him. He told me not to worry about it that he would make a stop in Earl's Court where I was staying. He did find a ATM and waited for me while I got money. He was very pleasant and pointed out different sights to me on our way from the airport.

I stayed at the Amsterdam Hotel, it is conveniently located about a couple of minutes from the Earl's Court Underground Station so that was extremely convenient. It's on a residential street, yet plenty of restaurants nearby which was very good for me since I was there alone for the first four days and the last day of my vacation. I was very happy with the hotel and would definitely stay there again.

Day 1 / Sunday - Though I got to the hotel at 8:30am and my room obviously wasn't ready, they told me to go ahead and get some coffee/tea from the breakfast room if I wanted to and they would see when they might be able to have my room ready. Since it was so early Sunday morning, there wasn't much open, so I decided to take them up on the tea and took it outside in their back courtyard to take it all in -- I was actually in London. I had been planning and wanting to go to the UK for many, many years and in those first few hours in London, it was hard for me to believe that I was actually there! I sat on the swing in their courtyard, drank my hot tea, read and was just so happy to be IN London. Within an hour, around 9:30am, they came to tell me that my room was ready! After I settled in a bit and regroup, my 10am, I set out on my adventure.

The hotel was at the most a mile away from the nearest stop for the Big Bus, so I set off walking, which after being on a plane for 10 hours, it felt so good to be walking and looking around. I got on the bus and for the first 20 minutes or so, I had the bus all to myself. My own driver and my own guide, it was rather fun. We passed by Notting Hill, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, etc.. I was trying to soak it all in, but sometimes it was hard for me to believe that it was all real. Eventually, I saw Big Ben and the House of Parliament, and I swear, I had to blink and shake my head to make sure that this wasn't a video or a dream but it was real!!!

Eventually, I got off near Buckingham Palace and peeked inside the gates, of course, and walked down The Mall to Trafalgar Square. After looking around and more walking, I took the bus back around, I had finally done their entire route and walked to my hotel.

I was so tired, I think that by now I had been up close to 30 hours. So I just grabbed some food at a grocery store near the hotel and just ate in my room. And before I knew it I had falled asleep.

Day 2/Monday,

Today I went to the Tower of London and took the subway for the first time. I bought the 7 day pass and at 17 pounds it was definitely worth it!

I really enjoyed the Tower of London and was enjoying the cooler weather, it wasn't raining, but it was great walking weather. Though, I did hope for some blue skies, which by early afternoon, I was happy to see.

I spent quite a bit of time walking around and soaking in the history of the Tower, it's amazing to think of everything that has happened all around you when walking there.

I then went to the Tower Bridge, and though I had every intention of walking across, it was getting windy and cool and decided that I didn't need to walk across. Actually, I started wondering why I would anyway.

Afterwards, I took the tube to rafalgar Square where a visiting Irish man tried to pick me up. I have to say, he was direct, "Do you ever go off with strange men?", he asked, No, I said, "How about just a glass of wine" he said, Thank you but no thank
you, I said. I really had no interest in wasting my time with some strange man I met in Trafalgar Square, I was busy enjoying London. Also, I had set up a time for my parents to see me on the Trafalgar Square webcam. Unfortunately, I stood at the wrong lamp post and they didn't see me. Though I have to say that my friends did enjoy the fact that I stood by a lamp post for over 15 minutes, I had to endure quite a few naughty jokes.

By then there were blue skies, though still a little cool, I think it's the mid to high 60's. At least I was able to take pictures with blue skies in the background as opposed to boring white skies. I walked around some more and eventually took the subway back to the hotel.

For dinner, I ate at a Portuguese
chicken restaurant called Nanno's right around the corner from the hotel. I asked for HOT, and boy did I get HOT?!?!? I'm glad I had taken my anti-acid pill!!!

Day 3 / Tuesday

I had a full day. I can't even think of how many miles I must have walked and thank God I had a digital camera, because I think that on that day along, I took over 150 shots!!!

First, I went to Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms, which is underground and left as it was on the last day of the Blitz.

After that, I went to the House of Parliament, since they were not in
session, I was able to go to inside the House of Common and the House of
Lord. I've watched the House of Common
on TV when they all argue and boo each other, it was pretty amazing to be right there. I stood right behind the seat that Tony Blair sits on. I touched the back of that seat, do you think I have his DNA on my hands?

Afterwards, I went across to Wesminster Abbey. I didn't think I'd spend that much time there, but I spent about 4 hours. I took so many pictures in the garden area and as I came back inside the Abbey, the choir was practicing, since I couldn't video tape them, I must confess that I still did turn on my camera to the video mode and at least taped the choir singing. It's nice to have the recording of the choir, though I have a black screen when I listen to it. Luckily I'll remember the moment that I sat on the pew very peacefully and listened to them.

By the time I left, it was after 4pm, I decided to walk over to the London Eye. By then it had gotten very warm, and I decided to ignore Weight Watchers and had a very good and
kind of big soft vanilla ice cream cone, it was worth every calorie! But to make up for it, I continued
on and walked some more. I went across the Millenium Bridge. I must admit that in the middle of walking on the bridge, I realized that I was giggling out loud. I was so happy and ecstatic to be in London, walking around all these sites that I had heard, seen and read about. I had to stop myself from skipping like a little kid.
I continued walking and walking and back I was near Trafalgar Square. Now,
even though it was about 5:30 or so, I decided to find "Murder One" a mystery book store I had read about on Charing Cross Street. I walked and walked and walked up the street. It was filled with people!

Oh, as I was walking, I crossed over one street to the next via a little square and I thought it smelled really foul. I looked to my left and there was a public urinal, I can't imagine how bad it must have been inside if the the smell was coming through that strongly.

I found the store, and many books by Donna Leon, which are difficult to get in the States, and a few other books by British authors that looked interesting. Now, bear in mind, that all along, I had been doing some shopping here and there, and now, I had 10 books to carry, granted I bought paperbacks, but still, the plastic bag handles were starting to cut through my fingers and my day wasn't over.

I took the subway back to the hotel, which by then I'd grown to really love. I wish we had a subway here in Sacramento where I live, it would make commuting to work so much easier and faster!

By the time I got back to hotel, I was exhausted, so I decided to stop and grab food at the grocery store again and eat in my room. I don't think I had energy to sit in a restaurant and think about what to order.

Day 4 / Wednesday,

Today, my friend was coming in. She had encountered some delays with her flight and wasn't scheduled to get to the hotel until about 1pm, so I went off and enjoyed the morning on my own.

I took the subway to Regent's Park. I walked all over the park and took pictures of little boats on the lake and flowers, MANY flowers. Then
around 2pm, it was time for me to get going and meet my friend at
Harrod's. We met at Starbucks. Thank you to all of you who suggested it Starbucks as a meeting point, it was perfect and easy to find. My friend was already there, but had only been there for about 15 minutes.

We were both rather hungry, but for some reason, none of the places at Harrods really looked appetizing to us. We spent only maybe 15 minutes at Harrods and then decided to go out and find a place to eat. Many of you had mentioned Harvey Nichols to me, so we went there and up to the restaurants and ate there. I can't remember the name of the restaurant we chose, but it was good and it gave me more energy to continue on and after her long flight, she was happy to eat something else than airplane food.

We then went on to Hyde Park, giving her the opportunity to stretch her legs and I had wanted to see the park as well. By the way, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, it must have been in the mid to high 70's. We did go and see the new Princess Diana memorial fountain or more like a water feature. Everyone was dipping their feet in the water and the idea sounded good to us as well. The water was cool and it did feel GOOD!

Then we kept walking and crossed over to Kensington Gardens where after
walking for quite a while we saw a small crowd. As we got closer we
realized that we were by Kensington Palace. The crowd was there because the day before was the 7th anniversary of Diana's death and people were putting flowers and pictures and all sorts of things about Diana on the gate. There were quite a few people that you could tell were MAJOR Diana fans. It was rather interesting to see and read everything posted.

Then we walked some more, took the subway back to the hotel and had a light lunch at a pub, King's Head, near the hotel.

Day 5 / Thursday,

Thursday was another long day! First we went to Buckingham Palace at 10:15am, and went through about 10 rooms, only the public rooms. We didn't get to see the Queen's bedroom. After the tour which ended around noon, we went off to see the Royal Mews, the stables where they keep all those carriages that they take for ceremonies, like the wedding,
etc... Afterwards, we were hungry and hot. It had gotten in the high 70's, and humid, so it was getting a little too hot for what we had planned, clothes wise.

We had lunch at a Pub and I had fish & chips, frankly, I didn't think there weren't that good, but I survived.

After that, we took the subway over to Covent Garden and looked through some of the shops. Again the heat and
humidity was actually getting to both of us, so we found a place to sit
and have a iced latte. Then we walked around some more and went to our
meeting spot for yet another webcam. Unfortunately, again, we messed it up, again, I messed it up and we were about 5 feet away from where the camera pointed to, actually, it turned out, we were under the camera. But at least while we were "posing" for the webcam, we got to have a nice cold beer at Porters and enjoy watching people go by and simply relax and enjoy being in London.

Afterwards we walked again! and this time went to the London Eye. There were two other people with us and we took turns taking pictures of each other every now and then. You do get a great view from up above, and the sun was setting, so we got some great pictures and it was really nice to see the city as the sun was setting.

But our day wasn't over, carrying yet more packages (I did my part to help the British economy), we walked over to Waterloo Train station because we wanted to check out the times for the train for Saturday, when we planned to go to Oxford. On the way over though, we saw a restaurant that looked good and had dinner. It was called "The Slug and Lettuce", it's near the Waterloo station. The food was really good or we were very hungry! After dinner we went to the train station, checked out the train times to Oxford
took the subway back to the hotel and collapsed.

Your trip report sounds almost as good as mine! I was in London the exact same dates as you were. I too had been planning this trip for a long time, years in fact, and had a WONDERFUL time. I met my parents there and we stayed the week. It was everything I expected x10!!

Day 6 / Friday,

By now, the weather was in the 80's, at least, plus humidity! What is this?!?!? It's supposed to be cool here! But luckily my ankles didn't swelled up like they did in Italy the previous year, so I was grateful. But living in California, I'm not used to humidity and I start being a whiny Californian when I have to deal with humidity. But I'm on vacation in London, I can deal with it.

On Friday, we started off by going to Little Venice. Little Venice has some gorgeous homes and some brightly painted houseboats, there weren't many people there and it was really enjoyable.
We walked along the Regent's canal from Little Venice all the way to the Camdem Market. As we started our walk from Little Venice, the first area was very nice but then a portion of the walk was not so nice, unless you like graffiti and a bit of a stench. But we kept on walking and then got back to another area with VERY nice homes, huge homes overlooking the canal.
It was definitely hot by then and I was getting hungry, needed to go to the restroom and couldn't stand having my calves sweat!!! Yes, my calves were sweating, leaving me no choice but to make impromptu capri pants by rolling up my pants. It was quite a sight that my friend had to capture on a picture! Hey, I didn't care, I needed some more air!

From Camdem Market, we took the Water Bus back to Little Venice and then the subway to Notting Hill, where we walked through all the markets on Portabello Road. We weren't sure if there would be a lot of merchants on Friday afternoon, but there sure were. There were lots of antiques and miscellaneous, fruits, vegetables and stinky fish.

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready to go see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was a really fun play and The huge car flying above the stage was great. We both enjoyed it but were surprised to see cotton candy and popcorn sold at the theater and ice cream sold inside the actual theater during the intermission. We assume the foods being sold was because of the play being so family oriented.

We hadn't had time to have dinner before the play, but didn't want to eat near the theater and be on the subway around 11pm, so we headed back to Earl's Court and had dinner at Zizzi's, an Italian restaurant near the hotel. It was very good!

Day 7 / Saturday,

Today, we went to Oxford. We took the train at 10am and this was my first time ever being on a train. I really grew to love this mass transportation...what can I say, I grew up in California! Within an hour we were in Oxford.

Oxford was amazing, I think I've used the word amazing quite a few times in my report, but that's how I felt about London and the surroundings, amazing!

We walked all over Oxford, probably spent a large portion of our time at the Christ Church College and walking on the path next to the Thames River, and exploring other colleges. Before we knew it the day was almost over, 6pm!! How did it happen? There were so many other places to explore that I think I could easily spend one more day, at least, in Oxford.

When we got back to London, it had gotten even hotte. There was no wind and it was probably 85 degrees, plus humidity. Because we were tired and hot, when we set off for dinner, we were very boring. My friend had really liked the food at Zizzi's and she suggested we go back again, so we did. I didn't regret it because I had a different meal than I had the evening before, and it was also very good.

Then we went back to the hotel so that my friend could pack since she was leaving the next day to meet her husband in Paris, for a few days vacation before they continued on to Brussels, where he's from.

We slept with the windows wide open, the sheers pulled aside so that we could get as much air as possible in the room.

Day 8 / Sunday & Day 9 / Departure Day,

I went along with my friend to Victoria Station, she went off on the Eurostar to Paris and I took the train to Hampton Court.

I loved Hampton Court, I have a fascination with Henry VIII, so it was great for me to be in the Palace where he spent so much time, where his son was christened, etc... The grounds of Hampton Court were so beautiful, I spent probably more time walking around the grounds and taking pictures than I did inside. I even went through the maze made of hedges, though at some point I thought I'd never get out. Finally, I heard a wife tell her husband that he was great with directions and he was in charge. I looked at them and told them I was following them. Yeah, I got out! I had been in that stupid maze for about 20 minutes, I felt kind of dumb. I did go through all the rooms, such as Henry's private quarters, the Queen's Quarters, the Chapel, etc... I had gotten there around 10:30am was back in London at 4pm.

I had emailed my parents that I would give the Covent Garden webcam one more time, and this time were successful. My mother even printed out the screenshots from my "appearance", so I'll be able to add them to my London album.

I then had the challenge of packing everything. As I said, I did quite a bit of shopping, so much so, that I had to buy a duffle bag in Oxford, because I knew that there was no way I could fit everything in my suitcase.

On Monday, my very last day, my plane wasn't leaving until 2:45pm. I took a leisurely walk around the residential neighborhoods of Earl's Court and took it all in, reliving everything I had done the previous week.

JustAirports.com picked up right on time, actually about 5 minutes early and off to Heathrow I went.

As the title of thread said, I LOVED LONDON! I felt very much at home there and will definitely go back. What a great city!!! I didn't do everything I wanted to do, such as the changing of the guards and the museums, but I still checked off most of the things I had on my list.

Thank you to all of you who gave me suggestions, whether or not you know you did, since I got ideas from others' trip reports, the "list of things to do in London", and so many other threads!

Now, I get to relive my trip all over again when I start putting my photo album together.

Cole,

Hey, maybe we were next to each other at some location and didn't know it.

Isn't London wonderful?!?!? I definitely want to explore the rest of the country and spend more time in London!

lyb,

Thanks for sharing your Loos of London tour. I loved it!

I echo your attitude toward London, and (although I tend to squeese more in) particularly your site seeing by yourself reminded me of good times.

Keith

Keith,

Glad you enjoyed the "loos" Every time I turned on my camera while in the loo and took the picture, if there were someone next to me, I couldn't help but laugh to myself as to what they were thinking...What is she doing in there ??? Especially when I had to take a flash!

Thanks so much for the great report! I am in love with London too. It's my favorite place and I have been there 6 times (I just can't get enough of it). This June, we finally stayed long enough to travel around more of England, Scotland, and Wales, which was wonderful (of course, we spent the first 3 days of the trip in London!).

I've never seen popcorn or cotton candy sold at the theatre, but I have seen ice cream sold inside the theatre during intermission at every show I have seen in London. I was very surprised the first time I saw that too!

Thanks for your recap. I found myself laughing at some of your comments thinking the same exact thing. Also, Joseph Seibel shoes are awesome. I am already looking for a new pair of sandals to take on our Med Cruise next May.

Thanks again for sharing.

lyb, fabulous! I'm heading out to fly right now (Ivan is past and left glorious weather in his wake - can't believe the power it still had this far north, those poor folks down south, ugh) but when I get back I'll finish reading.

Thanks for sharing your wonderfully written trip report. It brings back memories from my own trip last year.

>>Joseph Seibel shoes are awesome<<

Since I've come back I keep trying to find reasons to wear them, but since they're casual, it's been difficult at work! Joseph Seibel are definitely the shoes, especially traveling shoes for me!

Welcome back, Lyb, you brought back memories of my times in London.

Great trip report, great pictures.

It is nice to hear that I am not the only one who travels alone to London and loves it!

lyb

Great trip report. Welcome to the London fan club!. Your comment on how you felt at home there is exactly how I feel about London. I will never get tired of my favorite city. I will be there again in a matter of weeks. Can't wait!