Hi there,
When you like to travel, in my opinion, there are places that are mandatory to visit, one of them is London. I hadn’t gone until now because I had time to travel for a month to visit entire countries (or as much as possible) and for London, I only needed a few days. Also, because the belief that it is a very expensive city made me give priority to other places.
In January we found a flight and a hotel at a good price, and we took 5 days.
We started to make the planning of the things that we would visit, and the first thing is that you must use public transport since the city is very big. I like to walk everywhere, but there are places where the distances do not allow it. We organized the city into 5 zones, and we would visit one a day.
I do not advertise as I do not charge for it, but I have to highlight the London’s Visitors Hotel for the excellent attention, customer service and cleanliness of the rooms. Since it was cheap for London, we expected the worst. Fortunately, it was wonderful.
The first thing you notice is that this is a true first world. The people are very polite and super cordial, the opposite of what I am used to in Spain. Then everything is super clean. When the sidewalks in Valencia are littered with cigarette butts or dog poop, the sidewalks of London are a joy to look at and walk on.
We bought the metro card that is also used for the bus and the first day we went to The City where the financial heart of the city is located, and a large part of its buildings have been built in the last ten years. This modern part of the English capital is home to the London Forex Market, where some $637 billion worth of shares are traded every day, higher than the markets in New York, Tokyo and Singapore combined.
It is here that the original pre-Roman settlement of the city was located, and from where it spread to the London we know today. It is an independent area of the city with its own rulers and traditions. In addition, it is a tax haven for banks.
In the area we visited the London Museum, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London (outside), the Tower Bridge, among others. Diego had already entered the Tower of London when he was there for the first time; I decided not to enter because the ticket cost more than 40 euros and because you had to enter with a guide and a group, something I hate.
That day we had lunch at the Borough Market. For me it is the best option to eat in these markets because it is the cheapest and it gives you the opportunity to try many things. As there is not much English gastronomy, we tried food from different countries. For 7 or 8 euros you had a good plate of food. Every day we made the route coincide to have lunch in markets and at night, we had dinner near the hotel.
The next day we went to the Bloombury and North London areas. We decided to always go by bus from that day on because that way we were seeing things along the way, which is impossible with the metro. The first thing we did was go see the change of the guard at Buckingham Palace and it’s something I don’t recommend because there are too many people, and you can’t see anything.
Keep in mind that in winter in London it is night at four in the afternoon; Besides, it’s very cold. Therefore, we made the most of daylight hours to walk around and then at four o’clock we started to see museums that were open until six in the evening.
Another wonderful thing is that all the museums are free, another sign that this is a first world country and that the English have brains.
The following days we visited Westminster, Hyde Park, West End and Covent Garden. London has very extensive and excellently maintained parks, and it is evident that the locals make the most of them. Therefore, even though it is a very gray city due to the climate that it has almost all year round, having so many green areas greatly improves the panorama.
As we had the return flight in the afternoon, we left the Notting Hill area for the last day as it was the closest to the hotel. We walked through Portobello Road, and I have to say that Notting Hill is an area where you want to live because of the tranquility and because the houses are beautiful.
In short, I think London is a “must” when you want to make a career as a traveler. It is a beautiful city, and I was delighted with how friendly and polite the people are. Even if it’s expensive and it’s colder, I wouldn’t think twice about moving there. It is an expensive city, and this is something important to take into account for those of us who are dedicated to traveling; to give you an example, in London in four and a half days I spent the same as in Mexico in a whole month.