TRAVEL: How to spend a day in London
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| The National Gallery |
Going to a big city can be daunting, trying to see as much of it as you can in one day is equally so. That said, I recently rose to the challenge and tried to see as much of London as I could in less than 10 hours, accompanied by my boyfriend Dan. The day started with an 8am train that would arrive into London Euston for 10:30 am. The main focus for our day was The British Museum as Dan had always wanted to visit. After spending a substantial amount of time (over two hours!) in the museum, we ventured to Pizza Express for our lunch. As expected, we were stung by London prices and over priced potato sides. Nevertheless, the pizza was perfect – as ever.
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| Nelsons Column |
Although the British Museum was our prime destination, we I had jotted down some key places of interest that I wanted to tick off my mental checklist. Although I have previously visited London on a handful of occasions, and seen the key sightseeing spots, I wanted to live like a tourist for the day.
Our next destination after Lunch was Covent Garden. I’d had my heart set on visiting the Magnum pop up shop, yet despite asking around and being misinformed that the store had closed (it hadn’t), I couldn’t help but feel an ice cream shaped hole from my day. I instead opted for a Tesco bought Magnum and set for our next destination – Trafalgar Square. Whilst in Trafalgar square we were able to check off Nelson’s column from our list, and if it's of interest to you, you are also able to check out The National Gallery here too. Having already visited this previously, we instead took a brisk stroll towards Embankment, passing the changing of the guards on our way.
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| The British Museum |
After taking a stroll along the Thames, we took a walk to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben before jumping on the tube again. We found ourselves with a lot more extra time in the day than we'd initially anticipated so decided to take a trip to the Natural History Museum. Not only is this building absolutely beautiful, but I'm a Geography geek so spent a little too long in the earthquakes and volcanoes exhibition. We also visited The Science Museum which is directly behind The Natural History Museum. Admittedly we were less impressed by the exhibits in here but seeing as both museums were free, we can't complain.
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| Natural History Museum |
The last part of our day was spent mooching around Shoreditch, Oxford Street and taking a walk through Carnaby Street before finally heading back to London Euston for our return train home. I was pleasantly surprised by how much of London I could see in less than 10 hours but it certainly can be done!
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| Carnaby Street |
One thing I would highly recommend, if you are going to try and see London in a day is to get yourselves a day travel card. We’d bought ours for an extra £3 each on top of our train ticket and it meant that you had unlimited bus and tube transport within a select number of zones. Being fairly familiar with the London Underground system, it meant that we saved time and got between our destinations quicker. That said, a lot of our day trip was spent walking and it is fairly easy to get between London landmarks on foot, though this is less enjoyable with the dreary British weather.
Have you visited London lately? Where do you recommend?
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