We ended my romp around the United Kingdom in London where Nancy and I stayed at the London House Hotel located in Bayswater. Although this hotel wasn’t as cheap as our 20GBP a night Travelodge hotels, it was still within my budget and it was a really nice hotel for the price. I would definitely recommend it to people traveling to London on an average budget. Our rooms were very comfortable, the shower was awesome and the front desk was constantly helpful. A subway station was also easily located around the corner and not hard to navigate to.

Of course, we spent the first and second day hitting up all the tourist-y fun stuff. We arrived in London from Cambridge late in the afternoon and figured that the one super-touristy thing we could do was The London Eye since it was opened later than most. As anticipated, one ride in the Eye was extremely expensive although the view was pretty spectacular. Though perhaps I wouldn’t recommend it to most travelers on a budget.

On our second full day there, we found an open double-decker bus tour, which is a must for first-timers like me. It was an easy way to get around to see all the main sights. We stopped at the Tower of London and spent a couple of hours poking around within the castle. Definitely an interesting place to see some of London’s older history. We also stopped to look at Cleopatra’s Eye by the Thames River and of course, Buckingham Palace.

London was very much a city and reminded me of many other cities I’ve been to. It was quite a contrast from all the other places we went to during my trip. Still, I am interested in going back and exploring the city a little deeper. On the third day, we went to the Tate Britain Museum, a smaller museum but stock full of art of different variety. Pilbeam showed me Camden Market aka Camden Lock, an area with open markets and famous for its goth stores. The best thing about the market was discovering the hidden stalls that had artists and crafters selling their own handmade and unique creations. It’s a great place to find cheap accessories too in which I bought many!  Continue reading →