Day 2: I should have used that Harry Potter joke today instead…
It would have been perfectly fitting, considering we started our day out with a little magic at Platform 9 3/4. And by magic, I mean that heavenly brain stimulating substance we all know as caffeine.
Time/Location: August 23, 2014 – London, England (Day 2)
Agenda:
- Platform 9 3/4
- British Museum
- Lunch w/ Hare Krishna
- Borough Market
- Tate Modern
- London Eye, Westminster Bridge
- Dinner @ Troubadour
- Picadilly Train Station
Platform 9 3/4
IF YOU ARE A HARRY POTTER FAN GO HERE. IF YOU ARE NOT A HARRY POTTER FAN…STILL GO HERE. There’s a trolley going into the platform (if you’re a wizard), or you can pretend you got rejected as a Muggle. A couple of workers from the Harry Potter shop next door set you up with scarves in the colors of your favorite house, wands and HP glasses, and even your own owl. You can battle it out with your friends, push happily towards school, or any other combination of fantastic fun poses you can think of. Tip: Come early, there’s a line that zigzags near the photo op, and continues out the door of King’s Cross station. It’s chilly outside, so you don’t want to wait too long there!
British Museum
This place is huge! It’s a bit of a maze to walk through all of the exhibits. Even though there is a sort of path based on geography and time, there are also many side rooms that lead off into more rooms or loops that get confusing to follow. It is absolutely fascinating going through the ridiculous amount of history in Europe. All things that we learned about between elementary school until our graduation into the real world, were basically there in some form or other. It was more comprehensive of a history than any other museum I had visited before. A and I spent a few hours here, and still did not make it to the bottom floor. The British Museum definitely requires a day to at least see everything (not even comprehensively). A must see, and the best part is that it’s free!
Lunch w/ Hare Krishna
On our stroll towards Borough Market, we passed by a University campus and ran into a food cart run by some folks from Hare Krishna. It was a really interesting idea where they took “ugly” produce that couldn’t be sold, cooked it, and gave out food for free (or pay what you want). We had a smorgasbord type curry over rice and had to share a plate because there was just too much food!
Borough Market
A wonderful little collection of stalls selling all sorts of delicious food. It’s slightly hidden underneath/behind a bridge, but just follow your nose when you get near and you can’t go wrong!
- Karaway – ginger thins, carroway seed roll
- Sausage on a stick
- Kappacasein – raclette on baby potatoes with pickles
- Nana Fanny’s – salt beef
Tate Modern
Modern/contemporary art museums tend to be hit or miss for me, and I would say this one was both.
London Eye, Westminster Bridge
Tips from our tour guide – book your ticket online and early, and make sure to allot 30 min time at least for the full circle. It was a bit expensive for our tastes (we had hopped on a similar attraction in Singapore and decided it wouldn’t be worth a second go)
Dinner @ Troubadour
We came here at the recommendation of the hostel we were staying at. It’s a nice place with a good variety of food (mostly British) and live music downstairs. We didn’t get to experience any of the fun, but we did have a nice meal before running off to our next city.
Picadilly Train Station
This was our first time actually using a train station in the UK. Pretty standard stuff, but here are some things we learned:
- There is a post box near the entrance (to the outside world) if you need to do any last minute posting
- There’s an extensive food court + grocery area so don’t worry about being hungry
- If you booked tickets online, you can pick them up at the kiosks outside the booking counters
- Gate number may not show up until a few minutes before your train is expected to leave.
Overall, a nice wrap to our London adventures :). We hopped on a train to Bath and made our way to the Bath YMCA.