We went for fifteen days. We got lucky. First week the weather was mild; not too cold not too hot. The second week, however, the temperature shot up by at least five degrees. I had mini heat strokes on two days. Hydration! Keep drinking! Water, sports drinks, coconut water. Bring hand towels to wipe away the sweats. Apparently, air conditioning was not a thing in London. The Tower of London was insufferable. They had fans only! Combined with a million tourists, I couldn't breathe!
Look at the amount of people on London Bridge! This was at one end. We didn’t even try to cross because of the crowd.
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| London Bridge |
The British Museum: In addition to tourists, schoolchildren on field trips were everywhere. Everyone crowded at the Egyptian exhibits and the Rosetta Stone. It was so stuffy! I should've taken a closer photo of the sword. I forgot the name. Was someone compensating for something?
Westminster Abbey: Speaking of over-tourism, we were almost pushed off the sidewalks at Westminster Abbey. So we gave up going inside the Abbey and other important places such as Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben, etc. I guess we'd just have to go back to London again. Was there a season where there were no tourists in UK? On our way to the Abbey, we saw a statue of President Lincoln!
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| US President Abraham Lincoln |
The Shard and The Gherkin: what strange names for buildings in London, but they were great landscape backdrops at many angles.
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| On the way to Borough Market |
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| The Shard |
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| The Gherkin |
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| Beautiful alleyway |
Sights of London:
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| Original Globe Playhouse |
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| The Monument |
Natural History Museum: beautiful inside and out.
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| Gold leaf dragon |
St. Paul’s Cathedral: choir service at 5pm and free entry! We sat up close to the choir stand. What a wonderful experience. The Cathedral was grand!
Our least favorite: Wren Library in Trinity College, Cambridge University. Uppity and snooty. No air conditioning and no fans, yet they claimed students were working in the Library so they limited the amount of visitors. I didn't believe the excuse. How could they maintain old leather-bound books in a stuffy room without temperature control? Those books were national treasures; if even one page were damaged due to humidity, that would be horrible. Oh, and the Library was blocked off; visitors could step in less than a quarter of the Library. Basically if they really hated tourists, simply close the whole Library off. Do not offer half-assed view.