London, England - September 2015

The view of London from our room.

London, what could I possibly write about London that hasn't been said a hundred times before? Probably not much really, but don't worry that wont stop me crapping on for awhile! We found ourselves in London for the first time for around 5 days last September on our way to and from Glasgow and our walk on the West Highland Way. Seeing that I'd dragged Sam to the other side of the world to walk through the Scottish Highlands for a couple of weeks I figured that for the sake of my marriage I'd better splurge a bit on our stay in London, so I booked us into the Shangri-La at The Shard, we were hardly going to be roughing it, but more on that later. 

Very, very flash digs, but I'll get back to this at the end of the post.

My pre-conceived idea of London was of a grey, damp, conservative city. I didn't go over with high expectations really, I figured that Sam would do a bit of shopping and we could check out a couple of museums and spend a bit of time getting sorted for the West Highland Way. Yeah you might say I underestimated London a little, as it turned out I've never enjoyed my time in a major city more, five days was nowhere near enough, we could of stayed for months and still been happy. Now don't forget this is coming from a bloke who normally likes nothing better than big skies and open spaces, so to be raving about a city is a little out of character. 

We explored up towards Tower Bridge on our first afternoon in town, the South Bank Precinct was a nice easy introduction to London.

Arriving into the welcoming embrace of the Shangri La was a pretty soft way to ease ourselves into a new city. With the Shard being situated in the South Bank Precinct we were able to explore a lot of the more popular sites either on foot or within a reasonably priced taxi ride away. Arriving after our long flight from Melbourne, and keen to keep jet lag at bay, we headed out to explore a little in the late afternoon. The foyer of the Shangri La opens out about twenty feet from the escalators for London Bridge Station, the pedestrian passages of the station letting us easily access the Queens Walk on the South Bank of the Thames. Once on the walkway above the river we meandered our way  along towards Tower Bridge, even the balmy September weather this afternoon was making us feel at home, by the look of it the locals were enjoying the weather as well judging by the amount of punters at the pop up restaurants near Tower Bridge. After grabbing an early dinner we wandered our way back to The Shard and settled into our room to watch our first sun set over London, yeah life was hard!

On the Queens Walk along the South Bank of The Thames.

Sunsets were a feature of our stay in London, now that's probably not a sentence that is used to often.

Our second day in London started with the best breakfast that I've ever had, the fresh strawberries, blackberries and blue berries with yogurt being a highlight for me, oh yeah and while eating it we watched a small cruise ship navigate its way up the Thames far below us, docking just before London Bridge. Feeling very satisfied after breakfast we jumped into a taxi and headed out to Kensington and the Natural History Museum. We arrived nice and early which was just as well as this place gets really busy, with free admission (although a donation is appreciated) this place is a must see I reckon, even more so if you have some kids in tow, even without any ankle biters with us we really enjoyed our visit (this really enjoyable stuff is going to get boring very quickly isn't it). By late morning with the crowds starting to pour in and the queues starting to get fairly long we headed out onto Cromwell Road and made our way to somewhere that Sam had been looking forward to, Harrods. Now I'm not going to bullshit you and say that I really enjoyed my time wandering around Harrods, but it was definitely more interesting for me than a visit to Chadstone (but then again a visit to the dentist has more appeal to me than a visit to Chadstone!). One thing to note if visiting Harrods on a day out in London is that you are not allowed to wear a back back inside the store, you have to carry it in your hands which isn't the most comfortable way to get around.

The Natural History Museum, it wasn't busy yet.

The Natural History Museum is a must see, especially if you have kids in tow.

The grand building on the left is Harrods, apparently they sell stuff.

After Harrods it was back out to Cromwell Road and we headed off in the direction of Buckingham Palace, London was already becoming a roll call of famous sites, it seemed like almost every time we turned a corner there was another world famous attraction. On our walk down to Buckingham Palace we passed through Hyde Park Corner and checked out the Australian and the New Zealand War memorials there, near Wellington Arch. After taking the obligatory shot of Buckingham Palace we continued on through St James Park where Sam had her first ever squirrel encounter, suitably chuffed after our encounter with the furry critter (hey, we don't have any in Australia) we made our way to the Thames and crossed over on Westminster Bridge. The South Bank of the Thames was a heaving mass of humanity on this beautiful afternoon, the crowds in the vicinity of the London Eye were particularly thick, after making our way past the London Eye the crowds thinned out to a manageable level as we made our way along towards Tate Modern. Like the Natural History Museum, Tate Modern is a must see I reckon, the former power station with its brutalist architecture housing a vast array of thought provocking modern art. Like the National History Museum admission is fee but a donation is definitely appreciated, we timed our visit fairly well again turning up late in the afternoon as most people were heading home for the day and with the museum open until 10pm on a Friday we had plenty of time to check everything out. It was two fairly tired antipodeans that eventually emerged from Tate Modern into the early London evening, wondering along the Thames back to our flash digs we continued to pass a roll call of famous sites, Millennium Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe, Southwark Cathedral, hmmm you get the idea.

The Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

A Squirrel in St James Park, a bit of a novelty for us antipodeans.

There was even a few sand sculptures on the banks of The Thames.

Tate Modern, this place is awesome!

Picasso, at Tate Modern.

These girls seemed more interested in their phones than what was on offer at Tate Modern.

Our third day in London started with a short stroll in the rain over to the Borough Market to check out the diverse food on offer, the crocodile and the kangaroo making me think that I was back home. After a poke around the markets we jumped into a taxi and made the short trip over to the National Gallery. Once again free entry with a donation appreciated, the National Gallery offers a stunning range of world class art and like the other big attraction in town it pays to go early or late, luckily we were there early enough to avoid the biggest crowds and were able to wonder around checking out a who's who of famous artists without large crowds. Walking around the cavernous halls of the National Gallery was like bringing history to life, and that's coming from a feral like me, Van Gogh, Renoir, Michelangelo, Monet...even I knew that I was witnessing something special.

Borough market was only a couple of minutes walk from our hotel.

I'd go for the roo....medium rare.

The cavernous halls of the National Gallery.

Van Gogh.

Just you and me and Claude Monet!

Even some of the public spaces in the National Gallery were interesting.

The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square.

Leaving the National Gallery we meandered our way up Charing Cross Road to Soho. Maybe because it's still got some rough edges but Soho was the highlight of London for me, the little book shops, cafes and bars, along with a little bit of rock and roll history meant that I was never bored. After checking out the shops in Carnaby Street we headed to the Photographer's Gallery, once again free entry except for visiting exhibitions, now the Photographer's Gallery isn't in the same league as some of the more famous museums and galleries in London but it still worth checking out if you find yourself in Soho, I was particularly happy to see the late (now) great Lemmy from Motorhead featuring in a couple of the photos. After a late lunch at the cafe at massive Foyles Bookshop (how good would it be to have a bookshop like this in Melbourne!) we headed back to base via Coventry Gardens.

Wandering up to Soho.

The Photographers Gallery in Soho is worth checking out.

Vale Lemmy.

There are plenty of quirky little shops to check out around Soho.

And a fair bit rock and roll interest as well.

Day four we took it a little easier, organising a few things for our up coming walk in Scotland. We still managed to head over to Piccadilly Circus before strolling up Shaftesbury Avenue and then to Leicester Square and Stanford's Book Shop. Stamford's sells travel literature, maps and guides, the perfect spot for the feral walker to spend an hour or so dreaming of future adventures, eventually we left Stamford's although now our luggage would be a few kilograms heavier for the rest of the trip! After checking out crowds of tourist in Covent Garden Piazza we once again crossed the Thames and meandered our way back to the Shard on The Queens Walk, London still looking beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

Piccadilly Circus.

Covent Garden.

Heading back along South Bank to our hotel, Shakespeare's Globe.

That's our hotel.

On our last day in London we headed along The Queens Walk back towards Tower Bridge and then crossed the Thames to check out the Tower of London, the crowds stopped us from going in on this occasion so I guess we'll have to go back again someday. With an afternoon transfer coming up we headed back to the Shard early to pack up and check out, enjoying a high tea in Aqua at The Shard, yeah I was totally out of my depth but hey, you only live once!

The Tower of London.

Tower Bridge.

In the ye olde days the Tower of London had some pretty serious security.

One of the surprises for me was the amount of modern architecture in London.

Alright, lets talk accommodation, like I've already mentioned we stayed at the rather flash Shangri La at The Shard. This is probably the best hotel that I've ever stayed in, while the rooms are very flash the best thing about the hotel is the view over London, with the hotel being near the top of the highest building in Western Europe the views as you would imagine, are extensive. The rooms at The Shard feature floor to ceiling windows, so you can take in the view of London from the comfort of the bed, the shower, the bath, or even the crapper, interestingly at night you can also quite easily see into the same windows of all the rooms around you, so if you're a bit on the shy side make sure you close your blinds even though you're up in the clouds! The other notable thing about the Shangri La was the bathrooms, the toilet was the most high tech arrangement that I've ever had the pleasure to park my fat arse on, with more controls than a car I was still finding new features on the crapper after five days. Like I mentioned earlier on, the breakfast at The Shangri La was the best that I've ever had, the freshness and the quality of the food was not something that I really expected in the middle of London. We also had some drinks in Gong up near the top of The Shard, we hadn't booked but they made room for us when told that we were staying at the hotel, we didn't have dinner the hotel but we did partake in High Tea on our last day and it was frightfully nice....and expensive, probably the only thing that I wouldn't do again if I happen to be lucky enough to frequent the hotel again.

Alright, lets have a look at The Shangri La at The Shard.

The bathroom featured a flat screen TV inside the mirror in the bath room, when the telly was off it's indistinguishable in the mirror.

The view from the bath wasn't bad either, although its best if you're not shy.

It was amazing to sleep with the curtains open and wake during the night to this view.

The Dirt.

Well what's the dirt on London? As I've already said we loved it over there, the only thing I'd do different next time would be to head over after we've won The Ashes in England not just after we'd lost them! With a bit of time up your sleeve it would be possible to see a lot of London on the cheap using the tube and shanks pony, with only limited time we generally taxied out to an attraction in the morning and then meandered our way back to the hotel by nightfall on foot. We were extremely lucky with the weather I suppose, having only one morning of light rain on our stay which helped make our walking around more enjoyable. The most pleasant surprise for me was Soho, I really enjoyed the somewhat laid back vibe about the place, in fact if we don't stay at the Shangri La next time we are in London then I'd definitely look at staying in Soho somewhere. Alright what's the dirt on Shangri La at The Shard, well this is really a lifestyles of the rich and shameless kind of place, having said that I've stayed in plenty of places over the years that I think have been over rated and over priced, I didn't think that at the Shangri La though, the view alone is almost worth the price I reckon, and then there is the awesomely comfy bed and flash room, yeah it was expensive but for a special occasion it was worth it in my opinion. 

Our bathroom was home to the most hi tech toilet that I've ever parked my bum on.

My plumber mates in Australia wold be having nightmares trying to install this.

It's even got its own extraction system, I can think of a few long drops that I've used over the years that I wish had  this feature!

This is the view from the public toilet near reception, yeah I felt a bit weird taking photos in a public toilet.