Fascinating London – Day 1

This is the seventh post in a series about our first European vacation. We booked a repositioning cruise aboard the Celebrity Apex, which would depart from Barcelona, Spain, sail west through the Straits of Gibraltar, stopping in Portugal, first Lisbon then two nights in Porto, with a final stop in La Coruña, Spain, before disembarkation in Southampton, England. Check out La Coruña and the Best Meal at Sea.

Southampton to London

Sadly, our Spain and Portugal cruise had come to an end, but we were excited for our first visit to the U.K. and spending two days in London. But first we had to get off the Celebrity Apex in Southampton, England. During the sea day between La Coruña and Southampton British immigration officers magically appeared on board and performed face-to-face passport checks, presumably also checking our U.K. ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization). Those five minutes of our lives likely ensured a smooth entry into England today.

Southampton is about 75 miles southwest of central London, and there are a few options to make the journey. You can take a taxi or Uber to the Southampton train station, then a train into London, and then a taxi/Uber/walk to wherever you’re going in London. It’s cost effective but felt like a lot to manage with all our luggage.

There are also buses that will get you to various locations in London, some of which may even be close to your hotel, unless it’s in the “congestion zone”, where our Covent Garden hotel was. Still, this can be cost effective, but again, it felt like a lot. You can also try to get a taxi or Uber from the cruise terminal, which is more costly and a potentially unreliable option, the latter based on the comments we’d seen in our research.

We chose the more convenient and more expensive option of reserving a car service. Britannia Chauffeurs won our business based on reviews, price and availability. The nearly 2-hour drive would cost £200, which was $250 at the time. The driver contacted us on WhatsApp the day before – we did have wifi on the ship – to confirm our timing and where to meet that morning. 

With our luggage gone from outside our room the night before, we needed only bring our carry-ons off the ship, and after a short wait in the ship’s Retreat lounge, our group was led to one of the ship’s exits. Once in the cruise terminal, we quickly found one piece of luggage where it was supposed to be, and after a few minutes’ panic, spotted our other bag in the nearby unidentified luggage area; the tag had fallen off.

We exchanged messages with the driver via WhatsApp once again, and about ten minutes later were loaded up and heading for central London. Because it was Sunday morning, traffic was relatively light and we pulled up next to Page8 Covent Garden 1 hour and 45 minutes later. Our driver, Nicholas, was delightful, and helped us get our bags into the hotel.

The Page8 is centrally located across Charing Cross Road from the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. The lobby has a coffee shop from which you can take away or sit down and order.  An extremely friendly staff member checked us and took our bags, promising to have them brought up to the room once it was ready. All told, after disembarking the ship in Southampton at 8:30AM, we managed to step out of our Covent Garden hotel at 11 AM, ready to explore London.

Exploring London

London just oozes with history, which sounds trite given everything we’ve described about our time in Spain and Portugal. It simply may be that as Americans, we seemingly learn more about British history in school. The other really cool thing was the familiarity of the names and locations from books, movies, and television. Thank you, James Bond, Harry Potter, Monty Python, Robin Hood, Ted Lasso, Sherlock Holmes, Love Actually, and countless other sources of stuff that has filled our brains these many years.

As we alluded to before, the great thing about the Page8 – Covent Garden, is the location. I mean, the coffee shop and the staff were great, and the room was fine – they did have our luggage waiting in our room by the time we returned — but the hotel is smack dab in the middle of everything. It sits along the edge of Covent Garden, which includes the West End, loads of shopping and restaurants, and Westminster, a much larger area in central London that includes so many well-known landmarks. 

From our hotel we stepped into Westminster by crossing the street, Charing Cross Road (thanks, Harry Potter) to be specific, and around the front of the National Gallery, which is a grand art museum with impressive columns and a domed roof. Directly in front of the museum sits Trafalgar Square, boasting Nelson’s Column, a tall granite column topped by a statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson, the British commander who led the fleet to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars. The column is guarded at its base by four majestic bronze lions and flanked by two fountains.

From Trafalgar Square, we picked our way across a few short zebra crossings (crosswalks, for we Americans) to Whitehall. This street makes you feel like you‘re standing in the midst of a living history book. On the opposite side of Whitehall stands the Old War Office, an imposing building with pale stone walls, grand arched windows, and a stately facade that housed Britain’s wartime strategists and military leaders from 1857 to 1964. It also served as MI6 in the recent James Bond Film, Skyfall. 

Immediately on our right are the Horse Guards. In front of the Household Cavalry Museum and parade ground are members of the Household Cavalry, who sit astride their horses, completely motionless in their gleaming helmets and polished boots. There are numerous statues in the middle of Whitehall between the Old War Office and Horse Guards as well, including a few equestrian statues, and the Cenotaph, Britain’s principal memorial of the 20th century wars.

Continuing down Whitehall, we came upon the entrance to Downing Street, blocked by tall wrought-iron security gates, and guarded by armed police. At the far end, though not visible from here is 10 Downing Street, the residence of the UK Prime Minister. While many scenes from the film Love Actually were filmed around London, the one at 10 Downing Street was not.

The arched entrance to King Charles Street is one block farther down Whitehall, and at the far end of King Charles Street lies the entrance to the Churchill War Rooms, an underground bunker complex that served as the British government’s command center during World War II, especially during the blitz.

We then proceeded to Parliament Square and after crossing over Parliament Street, we stood one block from Westminster Bridge and the River Thames. Upon its banks stands the Palace of Westminster, an iconic London landmark. It was as if Clark Griswold himself was shouting in my ear, “Look kids, there’s Big Ben, and there’s Parliament!” If you’ve not seen National Lampoon’s European Vacation, many apologies for the unknown reference. The Elizabeth Tower rises at the north end of the palace, and Big Ben is the great bell held within the clock tower.  It’s not the clock or the tower.

The palace also holds both chambers of the Houses of Parliament, with the central lobby connecting the two. At the south end of this UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Victoria Tower. Originally constructed beginning in the 11th century, much of what we see today was constructed in the 19th century after the Great Fire of 1834 destroyed most of the medieval complex. Westminster Hall is the only large surviving piece of the original construction.

Not to be out done, directly across Abingdon Street from the palace are two more UNESCO World Heritage Sites, St. Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey. As it was Sunday, both were closed to visitors. On the same side of the street and across Abingdon Street Gardens from Westminster Abbey is the Jewel Tower, built around 1365 to store royal treasures and documents initially for King Edward III.  It is considered part of the Palace of Westminster, but survived the Great Fire.

More importantly for the two of us now hungry and caffeine-starved tourists, the Tower Cafe sits on the ground floor of the Jewel Tower. Without enough time available for a proper afternoon tea, for $15, we were happy to take away a scone with clotted cream and jam, and cups of tea and coffee, and sat at a table in the stone-paved courtyard in front. The scone was tasty, and my first impression of clotted cream was that it’s like really sweet butter.

Appropriately fed, we headed back out to Abingdon Street, past both Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s Church toward Parliament Square Garden, in which stand a number of historically significant statues such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, as well as Abraham Lincoln, a gift from the United States. We’d read in advance about the unexpected presence of a U.S. President’s statue standing in London, and this particular one seemed like a good choice.

Next up, we wanted to see Buckingham Palace, the primary residence of the British monarch, King Charles at the time of our visit. This was a 15 minute walk toward and through St James Park, though you can go along Birdcage Walk, the street that runs along the park. However, we wanted to check out the 57 acre Royal Park.

A popular place for locals and tourists alike, the park is bisected by a wildlife filled lake with small islands on either end. There are plenty of benches and shade, if you just want to take a load off and people (or duck or goose) watch.

We eventually emerged from the park and after turning right, approached the Australia Gate, one of three Dominion gates at Buckingham Palace, serving as decorative entrances that are part of the Queen Victoria Memorial located in the roundabout in front of the palace.

Centered in the roundabout is the memorial itself, with its marble base and gilded bronze statue called Winged Victory. Queen Victoria sits enthroned facing The Mall, London’s grand tree-lined ceremonial avenue that stretches all the way back to Trafalgar Square. The Constitution Hill Memorial Garden borders the roundabout, and was in full bloom, covered in brilliantly colored tulips. 

We approached the main gates of Buckingham Palace, behind which the palace guard stood their ground. Though it wasn’t time for the changing of the guard, we did catch three guards marching off to do whatever it is they do when they’re not guarding the palace. Because it was April, the palace was not open for tours.

After staring at the imposing palace facade as well as the guards for a while, we headed out through the Canada gate into and then out of Green Park until we found Sts James Palace, a Tudor in red brick affair that was built in the early 16th century. This palace was the residence of the British Monarch for nearly 200 years until Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace. While Buckingham Palace is open to the London public for summer tours, St James is generally not.

We headed up Sts James Street toward Piccadilly, and stopped in to Venchi Chocolate and Gelato Shop to ensure we could pick up gifts for the kids, and specifically chocolate from yet another country for Rachel. Of course, Venchi is fancy Italian chocolate, and it turns out there’s a store in a bougie shopping mall near home. Still, it’s the thought that counts, and we did buy the chocolate in England.

At this point, we were ready for lunch (lots of steps = hungry) and had also wanted to stop at Fortnum and Mason, an iconic British department store known for its gourmet food items, teas, hampers, and customer service. Friends of ours who visit London always buy biscuits and tea sets and ship them home to the U.S. There turned out to be a Fortnum and Mason just down Piccadilly from where we were, so we headed over and grabbed a seat in the Parlour for lunch. 

The Parlour has a variety of breakfast and lunch items, as well as a huge dessert and ice cream menu.  Rona had vividly colored scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and a chicken caesar salad for me.  London is not cheap, especially in comparison to Spain and Portugal. This tasty lunch set us back $69, but now was the time for spending more money. My only regret is not having tried any of the uniquely British ice cream treats, like a Knickerbocker Glory. minus the raspberry.

There is definitely a lot to see on multiple floors at Fortnum and Mason, from luxury foods, insanely priced housewares and so forth, but in the end, we bought $100 worth of biscuits, including some gluten free for Rachel, teas, and Christmas coffee from their clearance section. Yes, we do like a bargain, especially given what everything else cost. I did spot some nifty Cat in Hat Mighty Mugs designed by Rory Dobner… for more than I was willing to spend.

We carried it all upstairs to the concierge department where a lovely woman took our information and packed up all our goodies for shipment home.  That cost $25, but would arrive home safe and sound within five days. We were now ready for the 15 minute walk back to the hotel to check out our room and rest up a bit. Naturally, it started to rain. It is England.

Walking on Fumes

For dinner that Sunday evening, we had wanted to try a proper English Sunday Roast. After a bit of online research, we chose Lamb & Flag in Covent Garden, a historic London pub dating back to at least 1833, though there has been a pub in that same location as far back as 1772. If this place was good enough for Charles Dickens to frequent, it was good enough for us. It is highly suggested you make reservations well ahead of time, so we had done so about two weeks prior. 

From our hotel, it was a five minute walk past West End theaters, then along New Row, a charming pedestrian-only street that feels very “late 19th century”. We went in and were directed upstairs to a bar and seating area. At 6 PM on a Sunday, the waiter delivered the sad news that they had already sold out of some of the beef roast, but I was able to secure the roast corn fed chicken supreme from the same menu, while Rona went old school, and ordered a cheeseburger.

The chicken supreme was hearty and delicious, served with roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing, parsnip and carrots, a pumpkin and swede mash, as well as Yorkshire pudding and gravy. The same could not be said for the cheeseburger, which was kind of dry, though the chips were decent and the beer was solid.

A family from Florida sat at the table beside us and we struck up a conversation. They had not previously eaten at the Lamb & Flag, but they had a mostly ambivalent feeling about dining in England in general. Our experience so far was a bit better than that. With drinks, this meal cost $81, plus gratuity. In London, 10-15% is customary for good service, whereas in Spain and Portugal, 5-10% is generous for exceptional service.

On our way back to the hotel that evening, we stopped for some gelato on New Row at La Gelatiera. It was fairly enormous, entirely delicious and nutritious, but also set us back $9.50. The exchange rate from the Great British Pound to U.S. dollars was not in our favor this trip. Many of the cafes on New Row have some seating outside, as did La Gelatiera, so we took a seat and tried our best to make a dent in that gelato. Bellies and brains full of food and historic sights, respectively, we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Looking back, this was a lot in one day. What and where has been your busiest day of touring somewhere new?