Hello London! Day 1 recap

London was incredible.  I have to break up again into several posts...too much for one post.  Enjoy the ride....

1.  On Friday, I did a bit of work, met some delivery guys at my apartment for delivery of my chairs (reading area is done!), and then went to the airport early because I was so excited to get there.  The anticipation was killing me.

2.  No issues getting to the airport.  Took the tram with my suitcase and then got on the train to Schipol.  It's amazing how easy it is.  Going to IAH is always such a hassle - Schipol is so easy from my apartment (hint, hint).

3.  After arriving, I grabbed the Heathrow Express to Paddington station and then from there a quick cab to Hilton Hyde Park.  I did the cab because I really don't trust subways with suitcases.  Paris is almost impossible with luggage....way too many stairs for this little girl.  I don't pack that heavy, but it's still too much if there's more than 10 stairs at any point in the trip.  Plus, now I can say I road in a famous London cab.  I wasn't super impressed...pretty much like any other cab ride I've taken.  A semi rude cabby with the smell of last night's regret.  However, it was super convenient from the station.

4.  The Hilton Hyde Park was just what I needed.  Functional, convenient to the tube, quiet and clean.  The area isn't the best...it looked a tad shady outside the hotel, however, the Queensway station was literally right next door on the Central line so I never spent more than 1 minute outside the hotel at night.  I got a single room, so it was about the size of a walk-in closet, but I hardly spent any time there, so perfect. 

5.  I got to the hotel around 7, so I dropped my bag and ran down to the tube.  I got an Oyster card first thing because I know I'll be going back and they are super easy to use.  It's a pay as you go system like they have in the Netherlands (Chipkaart here).  The nice thing about the Oyster card is that it will never let you pay more than an all day pass, which essentially means your card is an all day pass if you go all day.  Bad news was they didn't take my European chip debit card, which meant I had to pull out cash each time to top up the card.  No big deal, but it scared me as that was one of the first purchases I made and I got concerned I would need to pull out cash for everything.  Thankfully that was the only place I had an issue with, except the second Hilton for work (annoying). 

6.  I jumped out at Oxford Circus because I read online that Oxford Street had its Christmas lights up.  I was really excited and this is what I saw when I got out:

Complete with the famous double decker red buses.  I will say it was a bit overwhelming...I felt like Farmer Brown goes to Town.  I walked too slow, stared at my map constantly and was on censory overload.  It was well worth it, but I think if I could do it again, I would have gotten out a quieter famous tube station.  Anyways, since I hadn't planned on sight seeing much on Friday, I took my time.  I shopped a bit...found the best department store ever:  Liberty.  Such cute stuff and not your typical tourist stuff either.  I'm not a huge shopper, but I had a ton of fun in that store.

7.  After the madness along Oxford, I walked down Regent Street, which is similar, except more people.  The lights on Regent were not on yet...I think they light them up tonight actually.  Anyways, I walked straight into the madness at Picadilly Circus.  I've never been to New York Times Square, so this was definitely crazy to me:

There were people everywhere.  I didn't linger long, mostly because I couldn't find a place to linger.  I found a place just off Picadilly to grab a quick bite to eat (don't judge me - this is a judgment free blog.  It was a Whole Foods.  After 2.5 months of the Albert Heijn, it was so great.  It was easy and they had a place to just observe the madness while eating a healthy meal.  I know I should have had fish and chips, but I was so excited to see a familiar place with signs in English that I couldn't help myself.  And I figured there would be other meals.  Also, it's a bit tough traveling by yourself when you are a tad overwhelmed....I was lucky to find something that reminded me of home and it helped me get my bearings.)

8.  During the meal, I made plans for my next move.  It was about 9 and considering transportation didn't take that long to get me back to my hotel, I figured I had about an hour before I would need to crash.  I went to the tube at Picadilly and grabbed the next one to Westminister.  Here is the reason I should have done this first:

The first thing you see coming out of the Westminister tube (if you take the right exit or get lucky like I did) is the straight up view of Big Ben.  That's more like it for me.  I enjoyed seeing it at night.  I really enjoyed seeing the London Eye from across the Thames and the Parliament buildings lit up.  Westminister Abbey also looked really neat at night.  It was busy in the area but for some reason felt quiet and relaxed.  I did linger here quite a bit...watched the river and enjoyed the night.  It felt almost warm (from what I'm used to) and it was a great night.  I headed back to the hotel after that so I could get an early start to the next day.

Day 2 up next!