Posted by Karbo
For the latter half of our stay in London, we used the London Pass to visit a number of attractions that require an entry fee. We purchased the 3-day pass for £69.30 each and ended up visiting the following attractions (shown with their original admission prices):
1) Tower of London - £19.50pp
2) Thames River Cruise - £17.00pp
3) Kensington Palace - £15.00pp
4) Westminster Abbey - £18.00pp
5) St. Paul's Cathedral - £15.50pp
6) Hampton Court Palace - £16.00pp
With the pass we saved approximately $100 CAD for the both of us. The pass also lets you skip the lineup at a number of attractions and is very convenient. We recommend it!
1) Tower of London - £19.50pp
2) Thames River Cruise - £17.00pp
3) Kensington Palace - £15.00pp
4) Westminster Abbey - £18.00pp
5) St. Paul's Cathedral - £15.50pp
6) Hampton Court Palace - £16.00pp
With the pass we saved approximately $100 CAD for the both of us. The pass also lets you skip the lineup at a number of attractions and is very convenient. We recommend it!
On the 1st we woke up bright and early to visit the Tower of London. We joined a walking tour led by a very entertaining Yeoman Warder named Dave. To be a Yeoman Warder, you have to serve at least 22 years, with an honourable record, in the armed forces. That's no small feat!
After spending the morning at the Tower, we took a Thames River Cruise down to Westminster and walked to Kensington Palace.
As Kensington Palace sits on the edge of Hyde Park, we walked right into the park when we exited the palace. Hyde Park is one of the eight Royal Parks in London and is just gorgeous. We noticed that there are a lot of waterfowl and they all looked very plump and well fed.
On the 2nd, we went to Westminster Abbey. The Abbey has more than a thousand years of history and has been the setting of every royal coronation since 1066. Some of the tombs and memorials we saw included: Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, George Frederic Handel, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary ('Bloody Mary'), and countless others. Finally, my English Lit and Music History courses came in handy!
Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the Abbey so we don't have any pictures to show of the interior.
Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the Abbey so we don't have any pictures to show of the interior.
After the Abbey, we made our way to Regency Cafe, which I had randomly picked out from Yelp. Once inside, we saw that the cafe had been featured in a Vogue photo shoot as well as the movies, Layer Cake and Brighton Rock! While we were there, a television crew was also filming at the same time.
After lunch we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. St.Paul's is London's Cathedral and while it also has a lot of history, feels very different from Westminster Abbey. Compared to Westminster Abbey, the current Cathedral "only" has around 300 years of history.
At the Cathedral, we climbed all 528 steps to the top of the dome. At the mid-level is the Whispering Gallery, which is so named because a whisper on one side of the wall can be heard 100 feet away. We tried it out and it worked! On our way back down the choir began singing and it was very beautiful.
Note: If you don't want to pay admission at Westminster Abbey or St.Paul's Cathedral, you can join them for prayers or evensong free of charge.
At the Cathedral, we climbed all 528 steps to the top of the dome. At the mid-level is the Whispering Gallery, which is so named because a whisper on one side of the wall can be heard 100 feet away. We tried it out and it worked! On our way back down the choir began singing and it was very beautiful.
Note: If you don't want to pay admission at Westminster Abbey or St.Paul's Cathedral, you can join them for prayers or evensong free of charge.
That night, Jason made chicken noodle soup. It was his first stab at home cooking on the trip and I think he did pretty well!
On the 3rd we woke up early to have breakfast at Pizza East with Rob, who has special 50% off privileges. Unfortunately, en route Rob realized that they weren't open for breakfast! We ended up eating at a random cafe (where Jason tried 'black pudding' for the first time) before taking the train to Hampton Court Palace.
After we returned from Hampton Court, we met at Pizza East for dinner with Rob and Maxine, a friend of ours from Vancouver who had packed up and moved to London 2 years ago. (Yes, the original plan was to have breakfast AND dinner at Pizza East. It's 50% off!) It was our last evening in London and we had a lot of fun just relaxing and being with friends.
Next up - Stonehenge and Bath!