England Day 1 – Arrival in London

My two daughters graduated college this year, and since they’d never been to England, we decided to celebrate with a girls’ trip. I’d never gotten a chance to do something like this with them before, so I was really excited. And it lived up to our expectations!

We arrived on May 14, after an overnight flight from Orlando > New York City > London. We took the Heathrow Express train into the city, and of course got pictures with the Paddington Bear statue at the same-named station. Then the girls got their first Tube experience, and after a bit of trouble with walking directions, we made it to our hotel. It was nothing fancy this time, but so well-situated: Premier Inn Bankside Southwark. Literally spitting distance from Borough Market.

After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we had some time to kill so we kicked they day off right with a full English breakfast. On a lark we went to Bill’s London Bridge restaurant, and it was really good. Nothing super special, but everything was delicious. The girls even tried the black pudding, but didn’t like it, so I ended up with three 😉

After breakfast, we checked into one of the rooms (the other wasn’t ready) and had a short nap. Then I escorted (dragged) my daughters all over. We went by the original Globe Theatre location, the newer replica Globe, across the Millennium Wave Bridge, and up to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was the first time I’d seen the cathedra, other than just the dome on the skyline.

Then we walked to Leadenhall Market, through the financial district, over to St. Dunstan’s in the East, by the Tower Hill station to see the old Roman wall of Londinium, and returned across the Thames via Tower Bridge.

We topped it off with a delicious early dinner at Agora, a Greek restaurant just outside .

My phone registered 18,609 steps / 7.3 miles.