Good morning from London! On my first day back in this wonderful city, I shared an eventful day with both local and visiting friends. I landed at Heathrow around 9:30, made my way through border control, retrieved my luggage (while enjoying free wifi, thank you Heathrow), and headed out to the Underground. Two tips coming into Heathrow: passport control is relatively streamlined and efficient, but certainly more intensive than entering many other European cities. Also, getting a ticket at the tube station is pretty chaotic, as some people are simply figuring it out for the first time on the spot. After some patience in waiting for my time at the ticket automat, I really enjoyed my ride in from Heathrow on the Piccadilly ride. The train fills up quickly, but then again, if you don’t do crowds well, I’m not sure you should return to central London.
I alighted at Russell Square, where it was a short walk to my hotel in Cartwright Gardens. Check in wasn’t until later, so I dropped off my bags and headed out to visit King’s Cross station. It’s really quite incredible how many train stations London has – King’s Cross, Euston, Liverpool, Victoria, St. Pancras, etc.
After some wandering by three of those train stations, I met a friend for lunch at Vapiano Soho and more walking around the Leicester Square area. Their food was delicious, and it was lovely to catch up over freshly made pizza and pasta. Not to worry, I will soon have fish and chips!
The evening featured a night out in central London at bars and pubs around Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. It was a fun night, and it also inspired one of my travel companions’ new addiction to the Swedish, flavored cider, Kopparberg. We also had drinks in a Mary Poppins bag-like bar (aka strangely never ending) named Waxy O’Connors – what a name!
More to come soon about London. Also, this was typed out on the go, please excuse any typing errors!
Read about the other days of my trip below:
- My holiday travel preview: Florida, Stockholm, London
- Utlandssvensk i Sverige: I Uppsala Igen [Back to Uppsala, Sweden]
- Uttlandsvensk i Stockholm: Gamla Stan, Djurgården, Riddarholmen
- #StockholmsJul: Ljus och dekorationer runt stan [Christmas in Stockholm City]
- A return traveler’s guide to London: Day 2
- A return traveler’s guide to London: New Year’s Eve
- A return traveler’s guide to London: Day 3
- A return traveler’s guide to London: Last Day
anchored & adrift 
Have fun! When do you return to DC?
Great read 😃. Hope you had/are having a fantastic time and if you do return to our fair shores again (hopefully) have a look up at an Oyster card for the underground. Just ask one of the attendants. ‘Touch and go’ at the barrier and you can top it up online. I’m sure you picked this up and whilst it may take some of the fun out of it, think about that extra drinking and eating time you could gain in Soho 😃. Happy Travels 🇬🇧
Hi Octopodasales! Thanks so much for reading my post. Yes, the Oyster cards are absolutely useful- I’ve alternated with getting one or just using off-peak day passes, depending on how long I visit. Those also work quite well for me- getting them early in the AM means no line and then always being able to just go rather than waiting. This was my fifth time in London! Would you suggest always getting an Oyster card? Also, I’m all about extra drinking and eating time 🙂
Obviously it depends how much to you visit but as I do most weeks, its invalubale to me. Peoples opinions will differ on this (especially the locals 😉) but unless you have a good knowledge of the stops (I was’nt patient enough to que so used the machines) I found that I was buying zones that I did’nt need. The Oyster card just charges you for what you use and as it’s a touch pad at the gates, you can catch that tube which has just come in 😃 (more drinking time!). Theres no expiration date on them either so if you can recommend you put £10 on it, put it with your passport and it will be ready to go when you visit us 😉.
Dan