The past days have been overcast and rainy so we were pleasantly surprised to see the sun shining as we stepped out of the hotel on our 4^th day in London. It was a great day to stay outdoors but we first had some must do errands that we had to attend to.

First stop for me was the laundomat. Since we were to leave for Paris early the next day and didn’t want to lug dirty laundry around, we planned to do the laundry a day before departure. I have not tried doing laundry at a Laundromat so it was quite an experience for me. Just like any other first time experience, I was a bit anxious where and how to start. Best way to start is to ask for directions and so I did just that. There are two options- you can leave your laundry and just pick it up later or you can do it yourself. For the latter, you pay by the weight (7 pounds). If you choose to do it yourself, you buy soap (5p), insert coins into the washing machine (4 pounds) and then insert coins into the dryer (20p for each run; I had to do 5-6 runs). It took me almost an hour to finish the laundry from wash to dry.

While I was doing this, Gabby was also doing his own set of errands. First stop for him is to print out our Easybus tickets to the airport the next day. Since we were to take off from Luton Airport, which is around an hour from central London, we had to find a cheap way to get there. Good thing that there is Easybus (also affiliated with Easyjet and Easyhotels).

After printing tickets, Gabby went off to meet our friend Nicky to leave some stuff behind. Since we purchased some stuff (primarily books and cards), we decided to leave these so that we don’t have to lug these around throughout the trip. We would still go back to London before heading to Manila anyway so it made a lot of sense.

Gabby & I met up at the Greenpark Station. From here we walked along one of the Royal Parks, Greenpark to get to Buckingham Palace. Since the sun was beautifully shining, people lounged at the park, sat on the grass and enjoyed the outdoors. Runners also abound to take advantage of the perfect weather (I was a bit envious since I have not run since we got here). Trees and shrubberies at the park already had the autumn glow, with leaves in varying shades of orange.

At Buckingham Palace, we were welcomed by the sight of hundreds of people who also went there to witness the changing of the guards which was scheduled at 11:15AM. Since I am a short girl, I had difficulty viewing the ceremonies since most of the tourists were way taller than I am. But with patience. I was able to squeeze myself closer to the gates and finally get a good spot where I can shoot photos. I even got to take a video of the guards playing Star Wars!

After Buckingham, Gabby and I decided to just explore the nearby area of Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Soho and the British Museum for the rest of the day. But before this, we had to head off to West End to purchase our theatre tickets.

We decided to take advantage of the last minute, half-priced tickets for plays. We got balcony seats for Monty Python’s Spamalot. The seats came with a meal deal for a total of 25 pounds each. Not bad since tickets usually went out for 35 pounds up if you purchase online.

After getting our tickets, we just wandered around the area, checked out the quaint street shops and then had lunch. Lunch was not so great at the Sun Tavern, a traditional English pub. We enjoyed the drinks (apple and pear cider) but the food was so so. Fish & Co fish and chips was way better than the one we had.

Then it was back to wandering around again before heading to the British Museum.

We had been really tired from all the walking around during the previous day. When we woke up today, Mench and I told ourselves that we’d take a slower pace, seeing enough sights but not leaving us too tired at the end of the day. After all, it’s just our third day, and we have 3 more weeks to go!

The day started out with terrible weather, with an overcast sky and light rain. We met Nicky and Vane at the Tube and set out to see the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge. After taking pictures of the tower, we set out for a hearty brunch at Browns, a great restaurant over by the docks of the River Thames.

After our brunch, the weather was slowly starting to get better, so we decided to walk our way by the docks towards the nearby sights. We happened to pass by the Design Museum, and although we didn’t enter the exhibits (it had an entrance fee), we went to the Design Museum shop selling design-inspired souvenirs and everyday items. We couldn’t help ourselves, Mench bought a couple of postcards and a perpetual calendar while I bought a couple of design-oriented books.

After that, we continued walking by the riverside. We passed London City Hall, Hay’s Galleria, the old London Bridge, The Golden Hinde (Sir Francis Drake’s galleon), the Clink Prison Museum (though we didn’t bother dropping by), the Globe Shakespeare Theatre, and finally the Tate Modern. Tate was on our pledge , and it was a free museum so we decided to make it one of the sights of our trip. However, as we started going by the galleries, we realized that we’re not very good at art appreciation – so we quit fooling ourselves and headed straight for Tate Modern’s souvenir shop! Finally, something we could appreciate – a few knick-knacks that we can take home!

From Tate Modern, we crossed the Millenium bridge, a pedestrian-only bridge over the River Thames that took us right to St. Paul’s cathedral. I learned an interesting piece of trivia from Nicky – no building in London may be taller than the very tip of the cathedral. That explains the lack of very high-rise buildings, even in the City of London which serves as its downtown area and financial district.

After seeing the cathedral, we decided that we’ve had enough of historic sights. We took the Tube to Knightsbridge station which put us promptly in front of the famous Harrods department store.

If you are into serious retail therapy this is the place to go to. Owned by the Al Fayed family, this “department store”, if you can even call it that, screams luxe. It houses rooms filled with shoes, bags, perfumes, apparel, furniture and jewelry. But what really drew us in are the wonderful food halls. Each hall is divided into several food categories. We first entered the fresh food area where our mouth watered from the smell of cured meat, cheeses, fresh seafood, etc. There, you can just order wine, choose your fare, have the staff cook and prepare it and just feast away at one of the counters.

Next stop for us is the confectionary hall. Gabs went wild just being surrounded by rows and rows of chocolates and candies. Every kind, color and shape was up for the picking and he could not decide which to sample. You can just buy chocolate by 100 grams or buy these in nice packages. This is a great stop for people looking for gifts and goodies for Christmas. As early as October, they already have Christmas hampers and gift packs available for people starting their holiday shopping early.

Final stop at Harrods is the famous Laduree. This fancy sweet shop is home to exquisitely crafted cakes and pastries but especially made famous by their delectable macarons. If you like anything nice and pretty, you will definitely love this place with its pastel colored walls and shabby chic like interiors. The goodies come in really nice take away boxes (they even have several designs of the boxes, making you want to buy more to collect these!). They also have gift boxes tied with your choice of dainty bows and ribbons.

Since the line for dining in Laduree is quite long, we just had our yummy finds for take out and decided to sit at “EAT”, a chain of snack bars in London to have our fix. It was a good break for us after all the walking. We learned that we really had to take time to stop and re-energize ourselves during the day so as not to get too burnt out during the trip.

After eating our chocolates and macarons, we decided to head to Oxford Street to check out the shops. From luxurious at Harrods, Oxford offered more affordable choices with its line of chain stores. H&M, Mango, Zara, Debenhams, Top Shop and Marks & Spencers’ flagship store are just a handful of the many brands available in this place. Since most of the shops are available back home, we just decided to check out those that are not yet found in one of our many malls. We went into H&M and just bought a couple of bags and gifts for our friend, Vane who was celebrating her birthday the next day.

Good thing that we decided early on that this trip is not really a shop all you want trip. Otherwise, we would’ve have been out of money at this point with all the tempting finds in this retail district. We decided that we will primarily purchase design-related materials or really unique finds. But of course since we are still tourists, we had to drop by one of the many souvenir shops to buy a frame, mug and some postcards to add to our collection of things from our travels.

After walking along Oxford, we headed towards Bond St. where we were supposed to meet up with our friends for dinner. We had dinner at a really nice Thai place. We were with 4 other Filipino couples, including our friends Nicky & Vane. We had a pad thai, green curry chicken and prawn pomelo plus- tada- rice! It was yummy and spicy, perfect for the cold weather. We also had yummy wine!

After dinner, we decided to just go back to the hotel. Originally we wanted to go to a pub or do the laundry but decided to just take it easy and just look at the nice stuff we bought for the day. With all of the maintenance happening on the underground, we had to take alternative and more creative routes to get to our hotel. So we ended up having to transfer thrice to different lines. We didn’t mind it at all as it was a great opportunity to check out more stations and walk off our heavy dinner.

We got home at around 10PM but were not as tired as the day before. Pacing really pays off!

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