We left the evening of Thursday, February the 16th and arrived at our hostel in Paddington around 11:30pm. Quite the rush to get there - considering we didn't really know how to after we got off the airplane :) (these things just make for good stories later!)
The next day we walked for a straight six hours, whew! Totally worth it - we saw everything!
Tower Bridge
Walking across!
Tower Castle - we didn't end up going in, but this is where the crown jewels are
a little tourist shot (it had to be done)
London Fashion Week's venue! this was exciting to come across and very cool we were in London during fashion week
the London Eye
at the tip top!
story behind this picture: we were looking around for a good 10 minutes for someone who looked like they weren't too busy to take our picture.
plan of action: find a nice family and offer to take their photo - then they will have to return the favor!
after accomplishing this the nice father of the family took ours, and not just one - six pictures, each time stepping more and more close to us (instead of just using the zoom button). it was hysterical (we're all laughing in this picture)- and much appreciated!
Westminster Abbey
while walking through the park to see Buckingham Palace i looked up and saw this. i stopped dead in my tracks and yelled, "RUN!"
worth it.
we aren't sure who they are or what their purpose is, but they're on post cards so they're important!
Buckingham Palace
this guard looked to be about the age of 15
That sums up day one! Our little feetsies were ready for a break after all that walking. We got a bite to eat and had a casual night in Paddington.
The next day we walked to the Notting Hill Market. It's blocks and blocks and blocks, filled with everything: music, jewelry, clothing, trinkets, art work, food, the list goes on!
see the bottom painting - how appropriate!
great band!
tea cups :]
after the market we took the bus to Trafalgar Sqaure where we visited the National Gallery (located right behind where I was standing to take this picture)
our hostel! it was really great actually, very clean and we got a full English breakfast every morning!
The story below appears to be a bit lengthy, but I guarantee it is worth your time :)
The next city on our agenda was Munich. Our flight was at about 9:30 on Sunday morning, so we had to wake up at 6am and be out of the hostel by 6:30am. We planned to get back to Gatwick Airport the same way we had come - take the tube to London Victoria and from there the train to the airport - all about an hours time.
Upon arrival to the tube station we discovered it was in fact closed until 7am. We really didn't have a lot of time to waste so we went and asked a couple of different cab drivers if they would take us to Gatwick for 50 pounds, all the cash we had. They both pretty much laughed at us and said the going rate was 90 pounds. To wait for the tube it was.
The tube finally came around 7:15. The line we were supposed to go on was under construction so we had to switch lines halfway through. We finally reached London Victoria and bought an express train ticket to the airport. This cost extra and turned out to be not so express. I really think it only cut about five minutes off our travel time.
Alright, so we finally arrive to Gatwick at 8:30am, run to British Airways and start to check ourselves in through the kiosks. Well, attempt. They weren't working so we got in line to talk to someone at the counter. While waiting an employee came over to us and the conversation went like this:
Employee: Have you guys checked in yet?
Us: No, we tried to but it isn't working.
Employee: Oh, where are you guys flying to?
Us: Munich!
Employee: We don't fly to Munich.
(a moment of silence)
Me: It says British Airways... Katie, doesn't your itinerary say British Airways? (she printed off confirmation letters and I had everything written out)
Katie: Yeah it does
(hands letter to worker)
Employee: You're at the wrong airport. You're supposed to be at London Heathrow.
Oh. My. Gosh. Was this a joke? My heart sank to my feet and I could definitely feel my eyes welling up (the girls later said I looked in extreme need of a hug).
Katie: What? There is no way we're going to make it, our flight is in an hour! (mind you Heathrow is 50 minutes away from Gatwick)
Employee: *very calm* Why don't you follow me over here to the ticket counter and we will figure this out for you guys.
Thank god for that employee. I think the only reason I was calm was because he was! We went to the ticket counter where another nice employee helped us figure things out and purchase a new ticket for 12:30pm from Heathrow. Not ideal to buy a new ticket, but we paid about 1/4 of the usual going rate and were lucky enough to still be able to fly out that day! Things definitely could have been worse. It also made us feel better that three other groups around us did the exact same thing.
Our next step was to purchase a bus ticket to get to Heathrow, where we arrived with plenty of time to kill before our flight to Munich! It didn't take long for us to start making jokes about what we'd done. This is definitely a mistake that only happens once! Although our itineraries both said British Airways, we all just assumed we were flying out of the same airport we'd flew in to, even though it clearly said LHR (London Heathrow).
Excellent young traveler story, don't you think? Considering how much work it took us to get to Munich, it sure is great we all LOVED it!
Embracement of the trip: being able to laugh at yourself :]
Post on Germany soon to come!
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