{"id":1311,"date":"2024-09-09T00:34:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T00:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2024-09-26T17:37:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T17:37:24","slug":"rise-shine-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/?p=1311","title":{"rendered":"Rise & Shine London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We made it! Flight from Seattle to London was uneventful – no real turbulence which is awesome since I tend to be just a bit of a nervous flier. So hello and good morning London!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cheerio! I actually never once heard anyone say this in London or really any of the phrases I for some reason associate with London \u2013 which honestly was a bit disappointing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon landing in London, we had prearranged a driver with Twelve Transfer who was scheduled to swoop us up and then take us on a tour of the highlights of London, with time for photos where possible, then drop us at our hotel \u2013 London Bridge, London Tower, St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, Big Ben as well as potentially London Eye and\/or The Shard view.  Unfortunately, due to our later arrival and the scheduled 2024 Champions League final international soccer match happening \u2013 this all added up to drive-by touring rather than leisurely stopping to view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun fact? \u00a0We likely got the one driver in London who was not actually FROM London, and in fact, did not seem to be much a fan OF London.\u00a0 Our driver, Petar, was originally from Serbia, then moved to Venezuela where he learned Spanish, then resettled in London at his wife\u2019s request. He gave us an ok drive with some basic facts as we went though and he tried to get us some photo stops but with so many streets closed off for the game and extra crowds in town, we ended up with a lot more driving video than actual photos.\u00a0 We did a drive on Tower Bridge, drive by of the Tower of London and saw The Shard from afar.\u00a0 To our driver\u2019s credit, he tried but what we essentially paid for at this point was just airport pickup and drop off at our hotel, St. Ermins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Ermins looked lovely from the outside, especially with all the lights once it was darker \u2013 our room was small and overlooked the rooftop next door \u2013 not a super amazing view for sure.\u00a0 We rested up a bit, hit the cocktail hour for a glass of champagne then set out to try and see the sights we couldn\u2019t see on our drive.\u00a0 St. \u00a0Ermins was only a few blocks from Buckingham Palace as well as other sightseeing locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First stop was Buckingham Palace \u2013 we were after hours so the gates were closed and I was a bit underwhelmed \u2013 not sure what I expected.\u00a0 Perhaps I was holding images of the Royal Guard in mind (which were not there as gates were closed) or perhaps it was smaller and less grand than I anticipated but regardless, the gardens and grounds were lovely, the gilded gates and the \u201cpalace\u2019 were stately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After some meandering there, we started to our next wandering sightseeing walking along The Mall and going through St. James Park.\u00a0 Of course, we saw the iconic red telephone booths scattered about as we did our sightseeing.\u00a0 Westminster Parliament and Big Ben area was teeming with people and it was difficult to get a full photo without the extras.\u00a0 We ended up at the bridge across the Thames, where we saw The London Eye and Westminster Bridge from the Westminster side.\u00a0 After a long day of travel and walking we started back to the hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, we HAD to have fish & chips while we were there because, well, London! \u00a0So we found this pub down a little street, St. Stephens Tavern, that offered the pub fare and indulged \u2013 or well *I* did.\u00a0 My husband isn\u2019t quite so keen on cooked fish and prefers his raw.\u00a0 That said, he did try my lovely battered fish and actually quite enjoyed them so proof that, when done right, it can change your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time to sleep for our early-ish call in the morning to hop the bus to the Port for our Cruise!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We made it! Flight from Seattle to London was uneventful – no real turbulence which is awesome since I tend to be just a bit of a nervous flier. So hello and good morning London! cheerio! I actually never once heard anyone say this in London or really any of the phrases I for some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,22],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures","tag-london","tag-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_7572-1-1-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radtraveladventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}