April 13, 2014

An American in London, Part 2

The next morning dawned bright and early, but we were ready to go (if you need to catch up on this London trip, read Part 1 and Part 1.5, kay?). We scheduled a free walking tour for the early afternoon, so the ladies and I decided to start our morning with breakfast and a trip through King's Cross Station. Ahhhhhhh, Harry Potter!!!!

Yes, I am slightly obsessed. Yes, I made them go with me. No, I did not take the studio tour on this particular trip, but I totally plan to go back for it. Yes, I am a nerd. I'm ok with that.

Left 2 photos: Kings Cross Station, with Harry Potter memorabilia
Center 2 photos: Platform 9 ¾ shop
Right 2 photos: The underground stop, King's Cross St.Pancras

Well, for those of you who want to visit Platform 9 ¾, lemme give you a tip. The underground stop called "King's Cross St. Pancras" is not the place you wanna be. In the pic above, you can see that station on the right, and then the station you actually want to be at is on the left. Both are called King's Cross, but one is the underground and the other is a regular train station.

Luckily, they are right next to each other! So we took the underground, then walked outside to the right one. And then we took our picture in front of the Platform 9 ¾ shop, whoohoo!

Yep, nerd status achieved.

ANYWAY.

From there, we decided to find where our walking tour would meet and have breakfast. Of course, we left plenty of time for shenanigans along the way…

Phone booth shenanigans 

We managed to find a great little restaurant near Covent Garden called Maxwell's. The food was great, and so was the coffee. That's all I really need in a restaurant! Plus the interior was super cute, bonus. I highly recommend.



If you someday decide to take the Sandeman's Free Walking Tour of London, this restaurant is within a block or so of the meet up point. Perfect spot to eat and not feel rushed. We really enjoyed the tour, it was a great way to see much of the city and work off the Eggs Benedict I ate for breakfast.

Our guide was hilarious, with lots of anecdotes and stories to share. He was also knowledgable enough to answer all the questions thrown his way. Please remember, the guides on free tours work for tips only, so don't be a stooge, TIP YOUR GUIDE!

Here are just some of the sights we saw, and learned about:









We also managed to sneak in one picture together, after offering to take a picture for someone else. This is key, people. If you want someone to snap your pic, take theirs first. Also, be careful handing your camera, cell phone, etc. over to anyone. You wouldn't want them to simply run away with it. Ask for pics at your own risk…

Hanging out in front of Big Ben, or as Boo-Dah-Washy
would say "That Thing"! 

Our group split up a little after the tour, as we all had friends in London we were trying to meet up with. Sadly, without internet and calling on my phone in a foreign country, I never quite caught up with mine! Instead, Boo-Dah-Washy and I wandered London for the remainder of the day.

I'll be back soon to tell you all about the rest of it… Until then, happy travelling!





Thanks for reading, everyone!
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