Adventures in Europe – London {Day 1}

Today was our first day of exploring London.

We had breakfast in the lovely breakfast area in our hotel, overlooking a quiet street and a park. After breakfast we walked to the tourist centre at Euston station to activate the youth discount on Miss S’s Oyster card.

Now we were ready to begin!

The girls were so excited to travel on the double decker bus. Our first stop was Trafalgar Square.

After admiring Lord Nelson and the lions for a while, we walked across to Waterstones to browse the books. We decided to buy sandwiches for lunch, so we visited the local Tesco to buy all we needed for a picnic lunch.

We walked under Admiralty Arch, past the statue of Captain James Cook and down The Mall to St. James’ Park and found a lovely spot to have our picnic.

Then it was time to see the main attraction – Buckingham Palace.

After we had taken a lot of photos, we walked back through St. James’ Park along the river.

We made our way across Horse Guards Parade. This is where Trooping The Colour takes place every year to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday.

This lead us out to Whitehall. We said hello to the soldiers and horses on guard then made our way to Victoria Embankment.

We walked past the London Eye towards Big Ben.

We had time in our schedule for a visit on the London Eye, but the weather did not co-operate. It was raining and cloudy, so we decided to take a walk along the river behind the Houses of Parliament.

We crossed Lambeth Bridge and the girls spent a lovely half an hour playing in the park at Victoria Tower Gardens. I took the opportunity to take a few more photos of the Houses of Parliament.

Next on the list was the National Gallery. This is a free gallery and you are allowed to take photographs (with no flash).

Once we had finished looking at the masterpieces, we all had a look in the gift shop. The gallery was then closing, so we wandered through Piccadilly Circus on our way to dinner.

We finished the day at Jamie’s Italian. There was a great choice of rustic dishes for both us and the girls. We had a lovely meal before making our way back to the hotel via the tube.

Have you ever visited London? Where was your favorite place to go?