Tessa's Travels: London: 25/4 to 27/4

I wouldn't have been happy to have lived in Ireland for 9 months and not have been to London. I've heard many mixed reactions to the city but was determined to go and find my own. With such a short stay, we tried to make full use of our time, going straight from the airport to a bike tour, again with Fat Tire. This tour wasn't as good as Barcelona since we didn't really cover that much of the city and had a massive group, but was still fun and we got really great ideas for what to do with the rest of our time. We saw Big Ben, Hyde Park, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, the Buckingham Palace, the Winston Churchill Museum, Number 10 Downing Street, the London Marathon, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and Trafalger Square. Fun fact about Big Ben: Big Ben isn't actually the name of the clock, it's the name of the biggest bell in the clock tower. I know, shocking! The Churchill Museum was in the bomb shelter where Great Britain planned their WWII strategies and was spectacularly done, with most untouched since the War. They had audio guides that explained what each room was used for and so on. Part of the museum that was my favourite was super interactive just about Churchill: there was touch screens everywhere to learn more about him as a person and politician. Another highlight was finding Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station (for those not in the know, that's the platform Harry Potter and co use to get to Hogwart's). They had a trolley halfway in the wall- it was very impressive and fun. London served host to fantastic Indian food! Surprisingly, I was incredibly disappointed by their subway system! It was outrageously expensive compared to everywhere else I've lived in and traveled to, didn't have that many stops in the city center, and was poorly marked. But other than that, London was pretty good and about what I was expecting: another big city with sites to see.