After an amazing NFL UK Game Day, our last day in London features well-known attractions. We had priorities such as The Changing of the Guard, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Millennium Bridge and an impromptu pub crawl.

Even after a very late night at the NFL UK game, we were up and out early. We had moved out of the AirBnB and into a chain hotel for the sake of our mum (we are in England, we have a mum now). Mum needed a soft cushy bed, and we needed her well-rested and ready to tackle the day.

The Changing of the Guard

The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is pretty much a “must do” in England for tourists. Check times and schedules here.

However, allow us to give you a few options to consider for this endeavor.

Option 1

One, show up early, get a coveted spot right on the fence line, and stand there for-freaking-ever. To make this work, you should be exceptionally social, because everyone loves to talk and share stories, but its fun to chat it up with other tourists from weird places.

Option 2

The Changing of the Guard starts across the pavilion where the incoming guards align to march to the palace. They get in formation, then they march, and the marching band plays. So, option number two, get there not quite as early, and line the main walkway towards the palace and actually see the procession and the band from a much better view.

Now, you will not see the pomp and circumstance of the inspections and the changing of the guard. But honestly, the parade is the fun part. The rest got old after about ten minutes. Plus, the guard band plays some killer music, not old English depressing dirges.

ssn – I swear they were playing Havana-ooh-na-na!

Our Conclusion

We opted to line the gate, met some really fun people also on vacation. But when the band started playing, we regretted our decision. We lasted less than 10 minutes at the gate before declaring a “whelp, now I’ve seen it” attitude and headed out to enjoy the rest of the day.

The pomp and circumstance was awesome! I am glad we did it, but it carried on a little too long for those of us with a city to conquer. The area around the palace is beautiful, and we loved our walkabout.

Hyde Park

We headed over to Hyde park for a little nature. We had seen it from the Hop On/Hop Off, but we were looking for the Serpentine Pavilion. Peggy’s work company had built it, and we thought if we came all the way across the pond, we should have a gander. Yes, being in London means I can talk like that: pond. . .gander. . .whatevs, I’m practically British now. Hyde Park is beautiful, and a lovely place for a stroll. We tried to relax and take it all in, but really, we had a city to conquer, and off we went.

Red Lion Pub Lunch

Quick pop in to another pub, The Red Lion just around the bend from Westminster for some more fish and chips, and hand pies with pie liquor (cue giggles).

Wandering

And then a bit of a walk down the block.  Around the Westminster grounds are notable historical figures, and I loved that they included Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the statues. AND AND AND!! OMG, I got to see an actual street musician playing bagpipes in a kilt!  Don’t even try to understand why this was to thrilling, just know that it was.

Westminster Abbey

Next stop Westminster Abbey.  Our Hop On Hop Off included Westminster Abbey admission.  And it was Spectacular. Do not ever skip the Abbey!  Which really, doesn’t that make you just start singing How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?  It should! Maria is NOT an asset to the Abbey…and I believe we made that reference almost as many times at “Look, Kids, Big Ben, Parliament” (No, it never does get old).

Westminster was amazing. You cannot take pictures inside, but you do get headphones. The entire place, and history, is narrated to you as you wander. The stained glass is breathtaking, and centuries and centuries of old dead guys are buried everywhere (17 monarchs, and plenty of historical Brits).

AND, I got to see the artists burial and memorial areas, and there is a head stone for Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and the Bronte Sisters, so I was dying ever so slightly inside. The entire church is just mind-blowing! The history, the artistry, it was amazing!

ssn – Westminster Abbey was by far my favorite excursion. It was so incredibly beautiful, I was awestruck and so moved that I genuinely teared up.

Birthday Pub Crawl

Back to the hotel for a brief nap.  Then our adventure takes a dark and twisted turn as we hit the town to celebrate Peggy’s birthday.

Yes, that’s right, it’s once again another sister trip for Peggy’s birthday.  Sense a theme? Oh, yes, let’s go celebrate Peggy, AGAIN <insert eye roll>. And this means English bar hopping. YAY for bar hopping in foreign countries.

Peggy had just one more “gotta” on her London list:  The Millennium Bridge.

For my fellow nerds out there, this is where the Death Eaters attacked muggles in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And this is also, once again, where my sister decides to risk MY precious life with another bridge crossing.  Luckily, I know, and I hope you all understand, there are absolutely no sharks in the Thames River. I’m pretty sure.

So, at least the paleolithic shark attack would be averted. . . this time.

Patti’s Obsession

Oh, and speaking of Paleolithic. . .As we pull up the Millennium Bridge on Google, I see it!…my new mission in life. The Paleolithic Insemination of the Royal Womb.  What is this, you might ask yourself? That’s what I asked myself, that’s what I asked my compadres. What is this glorious landmark?  We must find this! The click on Google revealed no helpful information. The picture is un-recognizable. A Google search is no help.

We climb the steps, and we walk, and suddenly we pass the dot on Google maps.  We back track, and NOTHING. There is nothing but a man on a bench. Is HE the Paliolithic Insemination of a Royal Womb? We ask. We are sure he thinks we are nuts, and he denies any knowledge, which means, of course it must be HIM, silly man, acting like he doesn’t know.

Our sleuthiness (Sleuth, not Slut, this is not just about Peggy) is failing. We cannot find this. . . it is dead ass in front of the City of London School, according to Google. And yet there is nothing there.  

ssn – “Which Brigsh ish it?” hahaha.

We decide it is best to just cross the bridge.  And do it right quick, before the Death Eaters show up.  We get to the South Bank, we bask riverside with ale at Founders Arms Pub.

Founders Arms

After a nice ale, the conclusion is that the lights on either side of the City of London School clearly look like giant sperm, so that must be it.  However, I am unfulfilled, and now we must drink away the despair.  

This is a great place in London to grab a few pints, or some G&Ts (that’s Gin and Tonic, for you non-Brits).  London has amazing pubs, these people know how to create ambiance for drinking.  

ssn – we are definitely pub people, not club people! So this was the perfect birthday crawl…seeing the south bank sights at night while finding the cutest, quaintest English Pubs.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

We absolutely must stop at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  This is actually a remodel a few meters off of the original Globe. This was Shakespeare Summer theatre, as we learned the Black Theatre was his winter production home during our other pub crawl.

Upstairs, we decided to just peek inside at the bar, Swan, and were so enamored that we figure we must stay for at least one pint! Big, long wooden tables, with tree stumps for seats.  It has been agreed upon that this is one of the best places we have ever been drinking. It was beautiful!

But following our one and done, theory, we know that our next stop simply must be The Anchor.  We had seen this on our Thames River cruise. The oldest pub in London.

The Anchor

And my new favorite bar in the entire world.  A main bar, a secondary bar down a few steps, several smaller, more personal rooms, a set of stairs leading up to balcony drinking.

Room upon room, all with different levels of coziness, or jovial group settings.  And the absolute best G&T of my life, a strawberry cream gin and tonic. It was heaven! And I loved it. And I need to move in! 

We strolled through city streets and alleys, captivated by the British feel.

The city was pretty much shutting down. But we stumbled upon a few smaller, more off-the-beaten track kind of home town pubs.  Including one with a side outdoor courtyard area. One last drink and then our night was sadly drawing to a close as places started shutting down, and our London night life closed down.

Hop a taxi, back to the hotel, as we prepare to leave for Iceland the next day.  

London, we loved you, we found warmth in the hazy fog, and an old world charm amongst the modern day city life!  

Dear Anchor, please save us a seat at the bar, we will return!

Continue the journey or go back and catch up on our other London adventures:

• NFL UK Experience – Exploring London Day 1
• NFL UK Experience – Game Day
• Iceland Day 1

Author’s note: 

It just occurred to me that I never resolved the mystery for our fine readers. The Paleolithic Insemination of the Royale Womb is actually located in a cavern UNDER the City of London School.  That’s right, you have to go in through the Thames River, into this cave accessible only at low tide, and in there you will find just about this close to nothing. So much so of nothing, that as of the writing of this blog, it is no longer shown on Google Maps.  Artist Jaime Miranda of Peru conceived this in 2016, you can see a video of it here:  https://vimeo.com/179070043

Sister side note (ssn) – and Where Peggy gets Pete Carroll’s attention

Wake up!  It’s Seahawks Game Day!  If you haven’t read our Day 1 NFL UK experience, find it is here. We had to be out to Wembley Stadium by 4:00, and we had lots of exploring to do. We decided that we will take The Tube to the game, Pat reminds us (multiple times, haha) that we must Mind the Gap.

An Early Start

We headed out for our morning walk to our new favorite place on the planet, the Exmouth Coffee Company. More pastries and avocado toast to try.

ssn – the coffee is not quite ordered like American coffee. Definitely much smaller portions and terms like Long Black (similar to an Americano) or White Coffee – and it’s either milk or cream, no half-n-half. Luckily, I love a Flat White because that was available everywhere. Why is coffee always better on vacation?

We took coffee back to wake our fellow travelers so we could get on with today’s plan. We were going to experience the city from a new and differing perspective with the Thames River Boat Tour.  This came as part of our London City Pass. Pat and I had done the Chicago Architecture Boat tour and absolutely loved it, so I was very excited for this one. 

Thames River Tour

It was rather damp outside, in a very Londonesque hazy, drizzly way.  This really made for the best experience of a city tour to feel the classic London greyness, but damn glad that it wasn’t like this on our walking tour the day before!  Now, unlike the walking tour, this one wasn’t about the beer, but they did have a bar and we couldn’t pass up mimosas!

ssn – we were the first ones in line and we started a trend, soon almost everyone was drinking them!

We grabbed some indoor seating at the front of the boat, and away we cruised.

This was a fascinating look at the city! We passed the Tower bridge, the Millennium Bridge, saw the Shakespeare Globe theater, The London Eye, Parliament and plenty of notable historical sites from the river view.

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Tower of London

We docked not far from the Tower of London, which would be stop number two.  And this is where the rain starts to pick up, and we were pretty soaked.  Mom grabbed a seat at the nearest café to wait out the rain, while the rest of us checkout the Tower of London. Turns out it is not actually much of a tower as it is a fort.

My dream of being a modern day Rapunzel was put to death. But I quickly recovered when the first thing I saw was the sign pointing the way to the “Torture at the Tower”. Giddy may be the best word to describe the next 10 minutes. I have new plans of Full Global Domination that include owning my own Rack and my own Scavengers Daughter (because really, having my own Iron Maiden is pretty much a given at this point, right?).

The Tower is also where the royal jewels are kept, and I am not referring to Harry <batting my eyes, longingly>. I’m talking about the Queen’s crown and other major historically significant pieces from the royal collection.  We took a bypass on this due to an incredibly long line to get inside, and our time constraints.  I have to be honest, I have no regrets about skipping this.  The Tower was pretty dang cool from a historical perspective. Even more so when we discovered the Beefeaters, you know, the guys from the gin bottle!  They are actual people!  I have proof.

That Was All Before Lunch

We headed to lunch, only to discover that my much coveted The Walrus and The Carpenter Alice in Wonderland themed pub was closed.  While this was a bummer, we ended up at The Hydrant, which was a cool firehouse themed pub.

I have to say, I absolutely loved that the pubs all had themes, and they were so well executed and designed.  It was a cool part of our London experience seeing all the differing pubs, laughing at the VERY English names, and loving the well thought out interiors.

The city was also impressively supportive of American Football, so many businesses were supporting the 12^th man, and they really seemed to catch the fever of the tourists. Luckily, The Hydrant was in walking distance to the tube station because it was now time to head north towards Wembley for our big game, Seahawks vs Raiders!

NFL UK Experience

Minding the Gap, we hit the tube with all the many football fans to head for pre-game festivities.  It was amazing to see all the people decked out for the game, especially all the Europeans who wore their own favorite team colors.  In the US, when you go to the game, people usually only dress in the teams that are playing.  Not in England, people were all out for whomever their favorite team was, just to throw that support out there.  So, we were surrounded by Dolphins, and Packers, and Falcons

ssn – and Lions and Bengals and Bears, oh my.

And the comradery of the crowd was incredible, everyone just gathered together to have a great time at a game.  They put together a huge NFL UK tailgate area, with food vendors, games, beer stations, and souvenir stands. And more rain.

Game Time!

The game was awesome (we won), our seats were awesome (center of the end zone, front row behind some equipment), the crowd was awesome. It was an amazing experience all around, and I am so glad we did this.  Plus it was our mother’s first NFL game.  Although she is a big Seahawks fans, she doesn’t go to the games. Mostly this is because crowds and conflicts make her nervous. This was a great initiation in a friendly supportive crowd environment, without angry confrontations over which team is best.  England is definitely one of the friendliest places we have traveled.

ssn – the absolute highlight of my life was when we (Patti) yelled to Pete Carroll (my absolute crush and future husband) as he walked past and he waved to us. I was as giddy as Patti was with the torture devices. Oh, and Ciara walked right past us and she was stunning!!

Now, getting out of Wembley was a nightmare, with not enough transportation for all the revelers. I only mention this for those readers who might one day venture there for a Futbol match. Be prepared to spend two hours trying to get back to London in a packed train car. .  . and MIND THE GAP!!!

Check out NFL UK Experience – Day 3 here.

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).

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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).

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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:

• NFL UK Experience – Game Day
• NFL UK Experience – More from London