When we landed in misty conditions at Gatwick airport after a 9-hour flight and soon the Gatwick Express train took us to London in 30 minutes, while we gaped at the English countryside. Homes, flats, duplexes (they all had chimneys), victory gardens, and rolling landscape. Once at Victoria Station we queued up in the taxi line anticipating one of the gregarious London taxi drivers. He at once asked where we were from and whether we had been here before. When we answered no, he replied, “Well, I’ll give you a little tour along the way (he did not deviate from the most direct route).
After checking in to the Grafton Hotel on Tottenham Court Road with massive jet lag, we ventured out using the wonderful underground trains, or ‘tube’. Our first stop was the Tower of London built in the late 10th century by William the Conqueror. Inside the central tower held an astounding display of armor, artifacts, and costumes dating back 500 to 800 years. Pistols, lances, rifles, swords, cannons, blunderbusses, knives, mail, and many other items of long passed civilizations. We spent a few hours in the Tower before moving on to Tower Bridge, which was an engineering marvel of it’s time of construction in 1894. We were quickly ‘losing it’ from the jet lag and ventured back to our hotel, where a bottle of champagne and a single red rose awaited us (for Valentine’s day). It was late afternoon and we couldn’t stay awake so we hit the hay.
The second day we got up early and had breakfast in the hotel, a very nice buffet including eggs, bacon, cheeses, pastry, baked tomatoes, blackcurrant preserves, strawberries, and honey, with delicious coffee and tea. Then down to the station at Warren Street to the tube and our destination: the shopping district. At Piccadilly Circus we window shopped for a while. We worked our way up Old and New Bond streets to Oxford, with stops in Fortnum and Mason, Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, and, of course, Harrods’s, which was very crowded. You do have to remember that when crossing London streets, the cars are driving on the opposite side from U. S. streets and I did almost step in front of a London taxi coming at me from the right, as I was looking left. That night we rode the Jack-the-Ripper tour, a truly gruesome and interesting excursion with a suitably creepy tour guide. After the tour, the bus deposited us at Trafalgar square and we made our way back to the Grafton.
The next morning we signed up for a trip to Windsor Castle, but first rode the tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral, an Anglican church built in the late 1600’s by Sir Christopher Wren. The cathedral opened to a very large sanctuary that was dazzling in its construction. Extremely high ceilings of incredibly detailed artwork depicting scenes of the old and new Testaments kept us mesmerized. We spent maybe an hour looking over the monuments, memorials, and numerous other shrines. We went back to the tube and quickly arrived at Westminster station, locale of Parliament and Big Ben. Turning left we crossed Westminster Bridge to get a better view of Parliament and the towers. Fighting the wind, and the 40 deg. F temperature, we made our way to Westminster Abbey, a little smaller than St. Paul’s but no less beautiful. We passed close enough to peer through the security gates at Number 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Minister. Westminster Abbey was quite crowded.
The time to catch the Windsor bus tour was near so we zipped back (yes, the tube) to the Grafton and prepared to embark. Windsor Castle, some miles out of town toward Heathrow Airport, was the stereotypical castle, quite a site even from a distance because of its size. On the way to Hampton Court, we passed Runnymede the location where King John was persuaded to sign the Magna Carta. Hampton Court, a large mansion used by many English monarchs as far back as Henry VIII, also designed by Sir Christopher Wren. We went back to the hotel, and a good night’s sleep.
The fourth day we got up and were first in line for breakfast. After getting our luggage down to the lobby, the doorman hailed a taxi. True to form, the taxi driver kept the conversation going during the quick and safe ride from the hotel to Victoria Station. Our trip from the Grafton to Gatwick was so quick we really didn’t have time to enjoy our last hours in England. We were soon on the plane, down the runway, and it was almost over. Ten hours later we were back home and it all seemed like a dream.
Thus, after only four days in London, we were back in the U. S., and had seen the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament, Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, Number 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Harrods, Piccadilly Circus, Jack-the-Ripper sights, Hampton Court, Runnymede, and Buckingham Palace.
My advice would be to allow as much time as you can on your first visit, and include all of the above tourist sights, in addition to Stratford on Avon (Shakespeare), Stonehenge, and the British Museum.