Experience the NFL UK Invasion – Day 1 Exploring London
This adventure started 10 months earlier. The Seattle Seahawks were selected to play an NFL UK game in London (that’s American football, y’all) on my husband’s birthday, which is coincidentally the day before Peggy’s birthday. We were sold on family trip – the sisters, my husband, and our mother.
Sister side note (ssn) – I cannot emphasize how exciting this announcement was! For years I was so jealous of those teams that got selected for NFL UK (even though the teams don’t necessarily love it). But then suddenly it was us! There was no question we were going! We love our Seahawks AND we love to travel! Go Hawks!
Mom and Peggy flew in a few days early and hit up Scotland. This is one of my biggest regrets, not making that trip with them. Guess I’ll have to go do that now! She will fill you in on that adventure later, because this is all London, all day!!
Our Accommodations
We stayed in an Airbnb, which we loved, but our mother hated. If you are an American traveling to London and decide to Airbnb it, you must go with the understanding of the difference between American and European living. The beds were smaller, the home was old (but clean), wonky radiator hisses, no tv or coffee maker, and the shower was a big old tub with a handheld shower nozzle. It was fine, but it doesn’t always suit your style.
ssn – the Airbnb was not in an ideal “tourist” part of town but at the time we booked it there were 7 of us going and it was difficult to find accommodations for that many people. Sadly, it did not have A/C and the nights were warm, and we couldn’t sleep with the windows open because there was a bar next door broadcasting a soccer game (European football) and it was LOUD. The bar was called The Dog & The Truck, how cute (and perfectly British) is that?? Truth be told if we weren’t so extremely tired, we would have dragged our arses down to that bar and joined the festivities!
Our Favorite Morning Ritual
That said, up early with just a tad of jetlag, the sisters ventured out for a walk before anyone else arose. We found the most delightful coffee shop. Fresh pasties and coffee, and everything you would really imagine a bakery in London looking like. Exmouth Coffee Company also had an Egg Royale, which was comparable to our eggs benedict, only with salmon, and it was amazing. Little tiny hole in the wall, was a stellar find on our first morning.
Let the Experience Begin
We had one must do: The Barrowboy and Banker bar. It was listed as the NFL UK “home bar” for Seahawks fans. And we turned up in droves. Seahawks fans travel well. It was super fun to see hometown fans. We even ran into a lady from our small hometown! And had our very first English pint (well, we being the sisters and my mom, my husband had been stationed in England when he was in the Air Force thirty years prior. That’s right THIRTY YEARS PRIOR – this fact becomes very important later on).
So after our Pint and checking in with the Hawks, we moved on to the Hop On Hop Off Bus. We were ready for our first tour of London, trying to find our bearings.
ssn – we had purchased the London City Pass which comes with the Hop On Hop Off tour and 80 other attractions including the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. This is a great way to see the sights and get around a new city. Plus you can purchase ahead of time and use the app on your phone without having to carry around maps and tickets!
Hop On Hop Off Tour
In complete awe of the architecture and history, we rode for a good long while. Highlights included the Tower of London and crossing the Tower and London Bridges. Look kids: Big Ben, House of Parliament (no, it never got old).
Pub Crawl
Walking, History and Literature
We had booked an afternoon Pub Crawl walking tour of London. This was a great experience. We made stops at four separate pubs. All were fantastic, and learned a lot of history of The City of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, a lot about the great fire and the rebuilding of London, about the architecture, Shakespeare, and fabulous tidbits of history. We also passed 12 Grimmauld Place (Sirius Black’s Family house, and home of The Order of the Phoenix), which made me downright giddy.
The Pubs
If you are a fan of beers and bars, we went to some of the coolest pubs! The Black Friar, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, The Knights Templar and ended at The Ship Tavern; all soaked in history, claiming plenty of famous poets and writers among their guest list.
ssn – not being a fan of beers, I enjoyed the classic British Gin & Tonic. They are so much better than in the states, seriously. So many gins to try and the tonic is just better! And hey, the Queen drinks one every day, right? So I should too!
This is a walking tour, the walk itself is about 2 miles (our mom did great), but it includes stops in between for beers at the pubs, so even if you aren’t in peak physical condition, this tour is totally doable and gets our recommendation as a fun side adventure. Knowing we had a big game day ahead of us, this was the last of our adventures for the day, until we discovered dinner!
ssn – this tour focused on history with some literary stories woven in, but there are lots of great tours focused around pubs with other themes if history isn’t your thing, just check out sites like Trip Advisor. We really wanted to do one of the Jack the Ripper tours but just ran out of time.
Covent Garden
Covent Garden was wall to wall people, great energy, and just where we wanted to spend our first full night in London.
We were swayed to Nag’s Head (because, well, London, and Nag’s Head, seemed perfect), and had a split table between the fish and chips and the meat pies, and giggled over the meat pie liquor.
It was fabulous, we got to sit upstairs a little away from the action to the benefit of mom, who had a very long day.
It was amazing, and we probably could have stayed all night in this neighborhood and bar hopped. Instead we Uber hopped back to our AirBnB to dream of our NFL UK game and a Seahawks win.
ssn – just a little comment about the Uber and taxi drivers in London – they all felt so safe. Even though traffic was crazy and hectic, there was a noticeable lack of accidents, no running of red lights and they were courteous of pedestrians.
See related posts for more London adventures:
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