Travelin' Thursday - London, England

Next stop was London, England! We flew Ryan Air from Dublin to London which I don't recommend unless it's just for a weekend trip. The flight itself was about $16 (USD) or something awesome like that, BUT they charge for your bags by weight!! AH! That is obviously bad news when you're on a 3 month vacay. We didn't know that beforehand, and the tickets ended up being super expensive. Sebastien tried to make his bag lighter by wearing 5 sweaters, 2 belts, 2 pairs of pants, & packing as much as he could into our backpack, but it didn't make much difference in the price. Plus he was uncomfortable the whole time! Haha.

Our hostel here was really neat. (Palmer's Lodge) It was in an old house & our room had about 12 double beds set up loft-style. Breakfast & internet were free, plus there was a place to lock away our stuff when we were out! I highly recommend this place.

Of course everyone knows to bring a converter when you travel, but here my straightener got extremely HOT & burned my hair - sad! So please excuse any crazy hair in these pictures :)

There are of course the staples of London:

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey (at night!)

Tower Bridge & the Tower of London

Some people don't know that London Bridge is not this beautiful bridge to the left. This bridge is called the Tower Bridge. London Bridge is not pretty or picture-worthy at all!!

This castle is awesome & has quite a history! I have been twice now & highly recommend going & getting a tour!!

London Eye

This is a really neat way to see the entire city. I didn't do it on this trip, but I have before. If you like getting the big picture, this is for you!

Buckingham Palace & the Changing of the guard

We decided not to do this on this trip to London. If it's your first time, go for it!

One of my FAVORITE things that we decided to do was a tour through viator.com  We both really enjoyed it. We went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, & Bath on a coach all in one day. I actually could have done without Windsor Castle, but Stonehenge & Bath were really great!!

Stonehenge

Ok so everyone knows Stonehenge is awesome, but I didn't expect it to be right in the middle of nowhere! I also liked the our tour guide mentioned the theory that aliens had something to do with this! I know my Momma would agree with that too!

Bath

The actual town of Bath is really not too impressive, but the baths are great! If I have to be honest, the baths in Budapest are better, but the ruins here are really neat & the audio tour was very interesting. I loved learning about how they brought in the heated water to heat the floors & to bathe. It didn't smell awesome, but that was easy to overlook!

This part was pretty cool too - after visiting the bath house, we went into a ballroom where we saw this - the fountain of youth!! The water to this fountain is natural from the spring that leads to the bath. It's clean enough to drink, so everyone is our group got a cup full! It was awwwwwwwful. UGH! I couldn't even finish it, which is why I continue to get older every year!

Overall, London is really great. I would go just to hear their accents!! But of course there are many other gems too. I left out a lot of stuff, so please don't think this is all London has to offer. I hear the shopping at Portobello Market is awesome - another reason for me to go back! 

**London Tidbit: Remember that the Pound is kickin' the Dollar's butt!! Everything will be more expensive in London.