On April 18th, the day had finally arrived. All the anticipation was finally over. The planning of the trip and the saving of money was all about to be put to use. We started planning this UK Trip back in July of last year. I usually like to save as much of my planned leave (PL) as possible, but most recently I feel the urge to venture to new places and plan more life experiences, because in the end, that’s what matters. I very much needed this down time after the immense hustle and bustle of work life. Traveling gives me the chance to slow down and enjoy life.
So April 18th arrived, I was going to go into work so I wouldn’t have to take an extra day of PL time. If I go in for 4 hours then it counts as a whole day. I took everything I needed for my trip and then at 12:00 I took the train straight from work to go to the airport, a quick 10 minute ride. But let’s be honest, I was already in vacation mode all morning.
Our airline of choice is typically Norwegian when we travel to Europe, they offer awesome prices however, they charge you for everything. So what we normally do is go to Subway, make some sandwiches and take them with us. Then if there is something else that we want, we just purchase there on the flight, its just a few dollars. You can pre-order food if you wish, but its like $45 vs a $6 sub…..so we go with the sub… SIMPLE and budget friendly!
Everything was seamless, we got on the flight and prepared for the 9 hour flight to Gatwick Airport in London. On these flights, I can never sleep, I try but it’s hard to get comfortable. And from the time zone we travel from, we always lose time. This time we lost 5 hours. Our bodies were thinking that it was 1 AM when we landed, however, the day had just started in London. Oh what to do, what to do……do we sleep or do we go about our day and sightsee as much as we can? What do you typically do? Or what would you do? We will continue this conversation in a little bit, but check out this travel tip in London:
Normally hotel check-in time is around 3 pm but we landed at 6 AM. One thing we always do is to try to stay at hotels that offer luggage storage so that if our room is not ready, then we can store the luggage and come back later when we are able to check-in.
However, we as a group decided to see if a room was available for us because we all needed a nap. And if you are like me, if you don’t get sleep, then you are pretty miserable. Nobody wants to be around that. Well, that is pretty much me and its okay, it happens. Lack of sleep is one of my triggers for my disease so I make sure I sleep when I am able too. Sleep makes me happy and most importantly, functional. Luckily, the others in my group were on the same page as me. We got to the hotel and we got lucky, our rooms were available within 30 minutes of our arrival, which was at 10:30 AM, hours before actual check-in time. We also did not suffer any early check-in fees that can sometimes occur. We quickly got settled in the room and took the sweetest nap EVER. It was supposed to only be an 1-hour nap but turned into a 3-hour nap. Hey, the body needs what the body needs.
The Hotel
We stayed at the Point A Hotel in Shoreditch, very cool hotel, with awesome customer service. Everyone was very welcoming and incredibly accommodating. The rooms are quite compact, but offer efficient use of space, very comfortable beds and linens and awesome room lighting where you can change the color and intensity of the lighting. I really liked this hotel, but you can check out this hotel and others by clicking the following link: http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-8986557-10437075
So I digress, after our 3 hour nap, we woke up, freshened up and headed for city exploration. We had one more person to add to this party, but she was flying from NYC and her flight got delayed so we went for lunch and awaited her arrival. We wanted to stay close to the hotel, so that’s what we did. This hotel was close to Downtown London and about a 25 minute walk to Tower Bridge. We found an awesome place called Shoryu, which is a Japanese restaurant that had some really delicious food. Check out the pictures of the yumminess that we had.
In the plaza where this was, there was also several other places to choose from that offered very different cuisines, so there was really something for everyone.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel because the 4th person was supposed to arrive soon. We waited for about another 45 minutes and she finally arrived. She wasn’t able to get much rest either, with her transatlantic flight being delayed by 4 hours she was awake for over 24 hours too, so good news….we got to rest some more. Because, lets be honest, it is difficult to enjoy anything when you are tired.
After we got some rest, it was REALLY time to explore London so what was supposed to be a 25-minute walk to the Tower Bridge turned into over an hour, because Downtown London has such amazing architecture and buildings that we had to take pictures of it all. It was a very cool walk. Every turn we took from the roads, was a new sight to see. It was pretty incredible. We even got to take the red phone booth picture that everyone takes when they visit London. Cliché I know, but who cares! We only live once right? Check out our pictures below, aren’t we adorable?
We saw the Gherkin Building, which is a building that is shaped like a pickle
We saw The Leadenhall Market which looked like a vintage market set in a modern city
Finally we got to the Tower Bridge from afar and began walking towards it, and WOW what a site it was. We strategically walked there as the sun was setting and it was a picture perfect way to end a long day of travel. I remember always looking at pictures of the Tower Bridge and finally getting to see it, was an experience. Back in the day growing up, you always heard about London Bridge, but it doesn’t even compare to the Tower Bridge. London Bridge is just like any bridge, nothing really special. It did offer a great view of the Tower Bridge and the Shard at night. We walked in a big circle that night.
The Perfect ending to an awesome first day in London! CHEERS
