London 2023 - Day 1 / London

Steps today: 22 753 / 15km

Yeah! back in London again (7th visit)! Let the fun times begin!

Our flight arrived so early that by 7:30 AM we were already out of the airport and on the Tube to the hotel. Thankfully, my Oyster Cards (public transportation pass) still worked and we had enough money left on them so we didn't have to lose time filling them up...  however now a days, you can just tap your credit card on public transportation in London so we really didn't need the Oysters.

I also had no issues with the SIM card I bought before leaving (my phone doesn't have E-sim). What a better option! It cost me about 35$ for 16GB, and I don't think I used more than 4 or 5GB for the entire trip.  Roaming with my own provider would have cost me something like 185$ for a half gig per day. 

I did however have problems connecting on multiple occasions throughout this entire trip! I have never had such spotty service on any vacation. Frank (who did stay with his provider) also had the same issues, as did a friend of mine who travelled with an E-Sim.  Who knew England was so lousy in this regard!!!

We arrived at the hotel by 8:30AM and predictably the room wasn't ready so we dumped the bags and started our day.

First on my agenda: St Paul's Cathedral. There is a building behind it where on a clear day you can get a really interesting shot of the dome, but the sky was not blue enough at that moment for my liking. Ah well.  

There was also a roof-top terrace near by that I have never seen which also offers great views. It was closed. Ah well again.

From there, we just walked and wandered - getting reacquainted with the city.  

Leadenhall Market is always nice to walk through...

... and I love the financial district - especially this shot!  Looks to me like there is room for another skyscraper!

This warning sign not to climb the Lloyd's building made me laugh. You know the sign is there because people are doing it! ha ha!

By about 10:30 we were walking by the Tower of London (no plans to visit, been there - done that) and walked across Tower Bridge.

I always liked the view from that Bridge

Around 11:30 it was time to sit and take a load off. We went to Barrowboy and Banker for a drink, but were so comfortable sitting down that we waited for the kitchen to open and stayed for lunch.

Next was the Old Operating theater Museum which was tucked up in an old attic accessible via a a steep and narrow circular staircase. If you can make it up, the effort is worth it. Lots of interesting displays!

The Old Operating Theater itself was quite impressive, and also confirms that there MUST be another way up!

After this, around 1:30, we strolled through the Borough Market. I wanted to get some colourful pictures of the food stalls to load into my jigsaw puzzle program, but it was too crowded that I didn't even SEE a stall! it was all heads and elbows. Not a nice visit this time.

We decided then to head back to the hotel to check in, unpack, and Frank needed a restorative power nap.  Neither one of us slept on the plane, but I was running on so much adrenaline that I didn't feel tired at all.

The room was nice. We were overall satisfied with a few minor irritations, like the bathroom was so small you had to sort of skootch around the sink to sit on the toilet. Annoying! (I wish I had taken a picture). No hooks near the door to hang our jackets....  little things like that. Our biggest complaint were the cars racing (drag racing by the sounds of all the downshifting) at night on the weekends. It woke us up a lot, but that's out of the hotel's control.

Around 4 ish, we headed our for supper and ended up at Caffé Concerto. It's a chain, and I have been to a few of their locations around town on previous vacations, but this time I feel like new ones have opened up ALLL OVVVEEER and we ended up in one almost every other day. 

I love them, the menu is BIG, there is something on there for every meal in any mood - and the vibe is excellent. My usual no-resto-repeat vacation rule was out the window on this trip and I didn't mind one bit.

We had been up for about 36 hours by now, so even if I was not feeling the fatigue, I forced myself to call an end to they day. By 7PM I was tucked up in bed, watching a bit of TV before lights out on Day One. 

Cute statue spotted today:

Day One Map: