London - Afternoon Tea at the Goring, The Shard & The Tower of London

If you're visiting England, you've got to get afternoon tea, and we decided to go to the Goring Hotel for ours (if it's good enough for Kate Middleton then it's good enough for us). 

Feast your eyes on this tasty tower of loveliness. 

The waitresses were so attentive, as soon as I finished my cup of tea they were there pouring more. As soon as we finished one plate they were there trying to give us more (included in the price too!). We were so stuffed afterwards. The girls next to us ordered another plate of sandwiches, I don't know how they fit them in!

The next day we went to the Shard, I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was pretty expensive but if you're going to be a tourist you may as well do it properly. 

The view was good, especially on the highest viewing platform. 

Then it was off to the Tower of London.

We made a wish at traitors gate, there were lots of Yeomen (Beefeaters) about the place, and ravens. 

Kim said this guard wasn't real... I said I'm pretty sure he was... he was. 

The highlight of the trip was the crown jewels. Although they didn't allow photography... so began my sneaky photography...

This one was especially difficult to take as there was a guard right next to us.

I thought poor Henry here might be having a spot of wishful thinking in his armour... dream on. 

I did like the ravens though. 

If you'd like to see the previous part of our trip to London, click here.

London - Kings Cross, Buckingham Palace, Camden Market & Covent Garden

We went to Kings Cross to get a photo at platform 9 and 3/4 but the queue was so loooooooonnng and we we had stuff to do so we skipped that. 

Then it was off to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace - it was awful! By far the worst thing we did all trip. 

You guys - the pushing, the shoving, the foreign languages everywhere, the rude police officers. It was so hard to see anything and my dear travel companion is 5ft so it was even worse for her. 

So off to Covent Garden it was and I for one was glad!

It was so nice to browse casually and see the street performers. And then we got some Paella. 

Then it was time for Camden Market. There are some weird people there chums, very strange indeed but Kim got some bargains. 

If you'd like to see the previous part of our trip to London, click here.

London - Globe, St Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square & Fish & Chips

My dear travel companion fancied a tour of the Globe; I however wasn't so bothered as the Globe is just a replica of the original Shakespeare's Globe but we went anyway and... it was closed for tours. Oh well. 

And then we went to see St Paul's Cathedral... from the outside cuz I'm not bloody paying to go and see a church. Churches should be free and I resent having to pay. St Peter's Basillica in Rome was free to enter in the Vatican so the Church of England's gotta be high if they think I'm paying them. Would I make a voluntary contribution? Absolutely. Would I pay £16.50 for a ticket? Hellllllll no. 

Then it was off to Trafalgar Square, sadly absent of pigeons... now I know what you're thinking, they're vermin. I know, I know. But they're also really sweet and when I was a little girl I absolutely adored feeding the pigeons little crumbs and having them land on me. It was charming. 

Which is why I made it my duty to feed any pigeons I saw whilst I was eating food to preserve the spirit of Trafalgar! 

I got the impression my travel companion (American - so this also may explain it?) was tired when I explained the battle of Trafalgar and Nelson to her and the epic battle at sea on the boats because she asked if Trafalgar Square was the location of said battle. It was not. And so we called it a day and went for fish and chips and Fish Central. Yum :)

If you'd like to see the previous part of our trip to London, click here. 

London - Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Pub & River Cruise

We booked a tour of the houses of parliament but we turned up a little late (oops!) so we had to wait til the next tour. In the mean time Kim and I had a wander around the outside of Westminster Abbey. It was busy busy... to be honest I didn't even recognise it. 

Then it was time for our tour with... you guessed it - no photos. Sigh. We went all round the House of Lords and the House of Commons (which was my favourite place). We had a snooty tour guide who moved slowly, thought a lot of herself and looked disapprovingly at other tour guides - when a different tour guide corrected her I thought she'd claw his face off. You weren't allowed to swear in the House of Commons apparently, it's one of the rules for the MPs. I made sure to swear lots before we left the room. 

Also in our tour group we were treated to a rude Scottish couple who tried to 'shush' me before the tour had even started (errr, excuse me?!) to which I replied that they should probably go in front of us because I would be talking whenever I wanted to, which they declined lol. They then preceded to loudly answered every comment and rhetorical question the guide made and hold everyone up because one of them couldn't walk very quickly... so... they were pleasant company.

Then we walked down the river a bit more in the sun for a pub lunch. 

The Mayflower is the oldest pub on the Thames which is based where the ship the Mayflower (you know, the one with the Pilgrims?) set sail. 

Then we went on a Thames river cruise, which was very nice in the good weather. If you'd like to see the first part of our trip to London click here.

London - London Eye & London Dungeons

I went to meet my lovely friend Kim in London on Monday, it was £70+ return on the train so I decided to say eff that and go for the £9 return Megabus which only took an hour more each way and actually ended up arriving half an hour early each way. The only draw back was that to get in early enough to meet Kim at the airport it looked like this outside when I got up and I felt like death. 

But I made it there in one piece and we got down to some serious tourist-ing, I was being my traditional holiday-nazi self and I made a strict schedule complete with plastic wallet with my name on... oh yes. 

It's Easter time so the crowds were heaving everywhere we went, we decided on the London Dungeons first. There was no photography so unfortunately you only have a view of the gift shop but it was ok, despite smelling of that fake smoke stuff. It'd probably be more enjoyable for children if I'm honest but it was something different and the actors were funny and good. 

By the time we left the Dungeons the crowd had dispersed for the most part and everything was lit up which was very pretty. 

And we got a great view on the London Eye, if you go and your visit allows it, definitely go after dark. 

Apparently if the London Eye is full the owners can make £15,000 every half hour! 

Fruit Tea

I tried fruit tea today that I got free in the post. 

It wasn't great, don't be fooled by it's delicious smell; it tastes like lipgloss. Every now and then I see people drink it and think, oh Hayley, you should really try fruit tea again, give it another chance, it's healthy. 

I did not even attempt the green tea that was also in the freebie pack!