5 Nights in London

Around a year and a half ago I booked my boyfriend and I tickets to see his all-time favourite (and first live) musical, Hamilton. The initial idea was that it would be a long weekend but due to a wedding and the fact my boyfriend had never been to London properly before, we decided to spend five nights in big city.

Here’s my trip report on what went on, along with some thoughts and comments on various different aspects.

Saturday 30th June 2018

From past experience I know that London planes can often accumulate delays and so I wanted us to get an early flight to ensure any delays wouldn’t make us (okay, mostly me…) panic about cutting it close for Hamilton. We got a 9:15am flight from Belfast International to London Luton. Overall the flight was absolutely grand and we made it off the plane and at the Bus stop for around 11am. We then got the shuttle bus from the airport to Luton Airport Parkway, then the train from Parkway to London St Pancras, and finally the Victoria line underground to Pimlico. [I booked our tickets for the shuttle bus and train in advance through the Trainline and it cost £16.87 for two adults]

We stayed in the Best Western Corona, which was about a two minute walk from Pimlico underground. This one I booked through a site called “AMOMA”, which I’d heard mixed things about however personally we did not have any issues. The hotel was nice enough, clean room with a comfortable bed, multiple towels, shampoo & body wash, TV and tea/coffee facilities. No fridge however, which given the heat meant to cold water on demand – there was a fan for the room however which was greatly appreciated in the 30 degree heat! We also had breakfast iincluded with the hotel booking deal. There was a good selection each day with fruit, pastries, bread, yogurt and cooked breakfast (bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, veg) alongside various tea/coffees and the option to have white/brown bread toast. The female staff during breakfast were also absolutely lovely – as were almost all of the staff in the hotel!

We opted for early check in (£10) in order to just be able to lie down – between the wedding the night before and the 7am start we just needed a sit/lie down for a bit. After chilling in the hotel for a bit we headed off to explore the area around us – essentially the area near Victoria Station. We found a Nandos and had the excellent idea of stopping there for a late lunch. After wondering around a bit, finding the Victoria Palace Theatre for a few hours time and getting sweaty in the heat we chose to go back to the hotel and freshen up.

Now it was time for the main moment – Hamilton. The advice given by Ticketmaster is that you arrive an hour before the show starts, so for evening performances that is 6:30pm, however the theatre opens from 6pm. We arrived at the theatre for 6pm to find a line of people round the corner of the theatre but it didn’t take long to make it to the front of the queue. They checked my bag and then my ID, booking reference and payment card before giving us our tickets and allowing us into the theatre. We were there early so it was nice not to panic but I think I’d still follow the guidelines of arriving 45-60 minutes before. I believe they allowed us into our seats around 6:45pm and finally after a year and a half of waiting we were in the room where it happened! We were sat in the Grand section, Row C, seats 8&9. High up but a good view of everything going on. The stage itself was quite high so I imagine it might have been difficult to see absolutely everything that happened from the stalls but can’t comment for sure. The show itself was absolutely amazing – even my hard to please boyfriend agreed. Would highly recommend if you get the chance that you take it and go see it – even if rap isn’t necessarily your thing.

After the show we grabbed a quick McDonalds from Victoria Station and then headed back to the hotel to eat it and chill before heading to bed.

Sunday 1st July 2018

Today was all about sightseeing – a quick flick around the famous sights of London to show the city off to my boyfriend. We hopped on the underground to Green Park – the underground nowadays is so easy to use thanks to contactless and it can work out to be cheaper due to the fact your journeys are capped. To get around London on the underground my boyfriend and I used a contactless bank card and Apple Pay, for both it was just a case of touching the card/top of my phone to the yellow card readers on entry and exit. We wandered through Green Park until we reached Buckingham Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial. There were a lot of people and police about with rumours that the Queen was heading out – however her flag was not flying so we knew she wasn’t there, so we chose to get a few snaps and then continue on.

Next we wandered through St James’s Park past the Guard’s Museum & Churchill War Rooms and along to Westminster Abbey, unfortunately because it was a Sunday it wasn’t open for viewing – worth noting if you’re planning on going to see it. After we wandered past the Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament, what should have been Big Ben (kind of a sad sight if I’m honest), 10 Downing Street (Quote from the boyfriend: “Not worth the detour”) and the Horse Guards on our way to Trafalgar Square. After this we headed to the holy grail that is Primark (the one near Tottenham Court Road station), I am a big Primark fan anyway but this store was amazing – solely because everything was laid out nicely and with enough space around it. They even have a specifically themed area full of all their Harry Potter items!

After a peruse in Primark we headed off to Embankment and had a lovely walk along the river Thames stopping in the Thirsty Bear for a drink, some chips and a bit of a refuel away from the scorching sun – we were very fortunate to have 26-30 degree heat whilst visiting. After this we wandered along to the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, before wandering across the Millennium bridge to get the beautiful reveal of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Two sites for film fans – the Millennium bridge is the bridge the death eaters destroy at the beginning of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince and St. Paul’s is from the Feed the Birds montage in Mary Poppins.  By this stage we had been wandering about for around 6 hours and so headed back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out to dinner at TGI Friday’s in Leicester Square.

Monday 2nd July 2018 

Today was mostly about Harry Potter – we are big Harry Potter fans in our household and my boyfriend is also a fan. After breakfast we actually headed back out towards St Paul’s to go to the Guildhall Art Gallery in order to see the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre – it was interesting but something I think you only really need to see once (it also only took us around 15 minutes to wander through the area but admission was free so no complaints here). After we headed out towards China town for an explore and then went to the House of Minalima for their 12pm opening. The House of Minalima is a hidden gem for Harry Potter film fans. It is a “showcase of fifteen years of creative collaboration of graphic design duo Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, founders of MinaLima”, in other words you get to see cool artwork and original props/first drafts of props that were designed and used within the Harry Potter universe (Fantastic Beasts included). You don’t need to book this before you go but at busier times they do implement a queuing system, so if you want to look around head to the till and ask for a slot in the next available tour – which lasts 30 minutes and the first one starts at 12:15pm.

After this we grabbed some ice cream from Udderlicious to chill out before heading to catch a train to the Studio Tour. The Harry Potter Studio Tour is amazing – it houses props, costumes, sets, secrets all from the filming of Harry Potter and really immerses you into the world of Harry Potter. I won’t say too much as I don’t want to spoil it but I’ll go through the basics and if you’ve any questions just let me know.

• In all honesty you need to dedicate a minimum of 3 hours to wandering around the tour – yes there is that much to see
• You absolutely HAVE TO book your tickets before you go, you cannot get them once you arrive
• Getting to the tour via public transport is super easy. Firstly you get the overground train from London Euston to Watford Junction, but there are two trains you can take – a quicker one that takes 20 minutes and a longer one that takes around an hour. Don’t do what I did and misread the board, end up on the longer train and spend the entire journey panicking about whether or not you’re going to make your time slot!
• Once you walk out of Watford Junction there is a little circle of bus stops and you head for the one with the Harry Potter posters. The bus costs £2.50pp return.
• It’s advised you arrive at the tour 30 minutes before as there is bag check and security
• Take your pictures, take your time, ask the staff questions and just enjoy it!

After a long Harry Potter filled day we headed to Pizza Express in Leicester Square for dinner, the food was nice but the seating is not the best spaces.

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 

Today we headed to the British Museum. My boyfriend is a little bit obsessed with history and culture but in particular anything Egyptian – so obviously we had to pay a visit to the Rosetta Stone. The museum itself is huge. I remember going before and it being freezing, however this time around that was not the case, worth bearing in mind if you’re heading there yourself, water is a must! I would say we managed to see around 65-70% of the museum in 6 hours. After working up an appetite we headed to Bella Italia (again in Leicester Square) for dinner, the food was nice enough but the actual restaurant wasn’t the cleanest which made for a not so nice environment. We decided to treat ourselves in the evening and headed to the Odeon Luxe Haymarket to see Ocean’s 8. I really enjoyed the film – Sandra Bullock and a lot of girl power even for a robbery, yes please, but unfortunately the experience was not so good. The recliner seats were a plus, the cinema was cosy (only rows A-E with 6 seats in each row), the surround sound was great, but unfortunately the company was not. We had two people beside us who had no interest in the film but proceeded to stay there anyway – I mean they were on Facebook, Insta, checking out the football and even on Facetime. I honestly do not understand why people feel the need to do this – if you’re not interest just leave, don’t ruin the experience for those around you!

Wednesday 4th July 2018 

Today we headed off to the Tower of London, somewhere I had never been before. We booked our tickets in advance because it was cheaper to do so [£22.70 for an adult], and made it to the Tower within the first hour of opening. There were 9 main areas to explore along with a few others in between. We headed for the Crown Jewels first as I expected they’d get busier throughout the day and then we went on to explore the other areas around us. The overall setting though slightly sinister is rather beautiful and they have created a great flow throughout the exhibits that minimises crowd bottlenecks. We also stopped in the Armouries Cafe for a break and a bite to eat – it had a great selection of sandwiches, salads, pastries, cakes, hot food, healthier snacks, kids meals, cold drinks and hot drinks and most importantly a lot of indoor seating. We took our time to wander around the exhibits at our own pace and enjoyed the sunshine and the views of Tower Bridge. The only thing we didn’t do that I definitely would do if I went again is the walking tour with a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) – it’s free but we just didn’t manage to fit it in whilst we were there. For dinner this evening I left the choice up to my boyfriend and clearly TGI’s Jack Daniels sauce made an impression on him because he chose to go back to TGI Fridays.

Thursday 5th July 2018 

Home time. Our plan should have been simple: chill morning packing up, leave bags in hotel luggage storage, go chill in Covent Garden, collect bags, get Gatwick Express to Gatwick, lunch in airport and flight home. Unfortunately we managed to time our visit with power cuts and signal failures and so all the trains from Victoria were cancelled. We ended up getting the underground to Blackfrairs, and then the train from Blackfrairs to Gatwick. We basically had to run to our gate and I genuinely thought we were gonna miss our flight. Fortunately after a very stressful airport experience we made our plane and made it back to Northern Ireland safe and sound.

 

Summary 

• Although it doesn’t seem like a lot, 5 nights in London gives plenty of time to get an overview of London in all it’s Glory
• My boyfriend is still one of the harder people to impress/please but there were a fair few things in London that he thought were “pretty cool”
• No matter how much planning you do – everything isn’t going to always go to plan
• Contactless has made getting the underground so much easier
• The Harry Potter Studio Tours never gets old
• London is still worth a visit

 

So that’s that. Is London on your bucketlist? Do you feel we did a good job at getting a broad overview of London or did we miss out your favourite? Let me know in the comments below, I look forward to hearing about them!