London

So I went to London. It went something like this: I could either layover in Turkey and arrive at 2:30 am on Shabbat or layover in Russia and arrive at 4:30 am on Shabbat...or I could layover in London and arrive at 5:30 am on Thursday.

Given Israel's lack of transportation on Shabbat, in addition to the difficulty in checking into a hotel or hostel, choosing London wasn't a hard choice. Turkey, Russia...I'll visit you guys later.

I'd never been to Europe, unless you could the 1-hour layover in Vienna 4 years ago on my way to Jerusalem. Most people wouldn't count that, but hey, they stamped my passport. It was the first stamp of many in my now almost-full passport.

So I definitely count it. Just like I count my 3-hour layover in Japan on my way to Taiwan as visiting Japan.

Anyway. This time the layover was 11 hours, so I left the airport and went out to explore the city.

For those of you who want to do this later: there is a luggage drop at the airport after you get out of passport control. Since my bags were checked through to Israel, I just had my carryon and my backpack, so I checked my carryon at the luggage drop. It cost 8 pounds for up to 24 hours, and I don't think there's a weight or size limit (although it has to fit on the xray machine). They take your luggage and give you a tag, and then you pay when you get back.

I had a couple of friends that lived in London and, armed with their suggestions and a map of the bus and subway routes of the city (and a nice tourist book and map from the airport terminal, provided free from some cell phone company or something), I set off to explore London.

I took the Heathrow Connect train to Paddington

and then I took a double-decker bus to St. Paul's Cathedral. 

I was surprised (even though I had heard that there was a pretty big Arab population in London) to see a whole section of town in Arabic. It was like Chinatown, except it was Arabtown.

And now, friends, I want you to pretend like you are on a double-decker bus in the middle of downtown London, looking out the window. And this is what you'd see:

I love the streets and the buildings. They have such character.

This one's just for you, Kaitlyn. I was relieved to see that Texas has their own embassy in London.

Wasn't that a fun bus tour of London? My coworker Breta suggested that I take one of the public busses that drives past most of the touristy spots so I can see them all and then ride it back and get on and off when I want. You have to pay each time you get back on the bus, but it's only about 2 pounds instead of the 40 pounds that a "hop on hop off" tour bust costs. And for those that want to know, busses 15 and 23 from Paddington Station drive past most of the major tourist spots along the bus routes.

At St. Patrick's cathedral, however, I got off the bus and started walking. My route looked something like this: purple = train from the airport, pink = bus, blue = walking, and yellow = subway.

St. Paul's cathedral is quite beautiful, but quite expensive. If you aren't going to a worship service, it costs 16 pounds to get in!!

Of course I had to get the iconic phone booth picture

For some reason this sign made me laugh. A lot.

The I walked over the bridge (Millenium Bridge, I think) and had some great views of the historical Tower Bridge.

Doesn't this picture just look it should be in sepia?

I thought so. :)

This is looking back over Millenium Bridge at St. Paul's Cathedral.

I love colored doors. Aren't they cute?

Since this was a "see everything and spend no money" tour of London, I just walked past everything. Above is Globe Theater, which was near and dear to the Shakespearean part of my heart. Hamlet, I thought about you when I walked past this thing.

St. Paul's again and Millenium Bridge.

Then I walked along the Thames River. There is a beautiful little river path with cute shops, an awesome graffiti skate park, and some weird carnival thing next to the London Eye.

I've become really intrigued by graffiti the past little while. This was a random skate park in the middle of the shops and the river walk.

Hello, London!

After crossing the Thames again I walked past Parliament and Big Ben and then meandered over to Westminster Abbey to attend evensong. It is also expensive to get into Westminster Abbey but it is free to go in to worship services. Unfortunately for me Wednesday night is the only night they don't have evensong. They have a spoken service instead. And as sad as I was to not get to hear the cathedral choir at Westminster, there was no way I was going to pass up an opportunity to get inside for free, especially since I got there at 5, right in time for the service. So I went to a 30 minute sermon at Westminster.

After Westminster I walked through some of the parks in London: St. James Park and Green Park, with a quick stop by Buckingham Palace, and then through Hyde Park to get to the subway.

Hello, Buckingham Palace!

There were pigeons everywhere. They just kind of sat there until you walked through the middle of them, and then they awkwardly waddled out of the way. If I had bread with me they probably all would have followed me anywhere. I kind of felt like I was on Mary Poppins.

 

Buckingham Palace

 

At this point I had been awake about 30 hours. I got a little sleep on the plane (in my excellent exit-row window seat!) but I had kept my contacts in so I couldn't see very straight. I didn't realize it until I looked at all of my pictures and they were all crooked! I couldn't take a straight one for the life of me! I fixed most of them, but I left this one in to give all of you a laugh...

A gate into Hyde Park

 

I took the subway back to Paddington station. I could have walked but I wanted to try out the subway system in London. But ouch! It cost like 5 dollars to ride the subway! I like the DC metro more and more every day.

Umm, yeah. I fell in love with this subway station. Isn't it charming?

 The consensus: London was great. Awesome, really. I think I could get used to this layover in cool cities thing. And the best part? The layover in London was the icing on the cake for my incredibly messed up sleep schedule, and I didn't have jet lag. At all. It's a miracle that I wholly attribute to London. Thanks, London.