London baby!
My flight itinerary was booked in such a crazy way I had to look at it twice to believe it. But it only lasted another few seconds to see the chance in it: a full day in London „for free“ (not completely, but the travel cost was highly low). I actually had to be where I would be picked up some 24 hours after my departure only.
So I previously asked friends, checked websites, studied city maps, to make my schedule for this lovely day. Which I followed through, amazingly, no mishaps at all.
My first stop, after taking the Tube / Underground (wiki) from Heathrow to the city center of London. My first stop was meant to be Covent Garden. But I was so curious and suddenly felt the freedom of doing whatever I feel like this day, rather than having to follow a tight/business schedule, like when I normally travel (which has been for business only in the past years).
So I jumped up at „Hyde Park“ station and went up the escalator. To happily smile and stand „wie bestellt und nicht abgeholt“ in front of the park´s entrance. It was chilly and there wasn´t anything to do there I figured out. And yes, it looked like when I last had been here in 2012.
Quickly asked someone to take a silly tourist photo for my to upload on facebook and instagram right away. The funny thing was, that he wanted to convince me to take a photo in front of the „Underground“ sign next to the tube entrance. While I wanted a photo of me in front of the red typical telephone booth (wiki) :).
I then went back down and travelled on to Covent Garden station, from where I strolled through the lovely Apple market, the beautiful and interesting artist´s and actors St. Paul´s church (I just realize the name now – not to be confused with the St. Paul´s cathedral which I have a connection go > see my June travels for photos from there). Guess I was meant to go shopping here (when friends recommended the area) but had no focus on that.
From there I decided I want to have a look at the water, once bein in London, the Thames river. The weather was not nice, it was grey and fresh, but so much better than the weather report had forecasted, rain. So all very well. And I had free time, for the entire day I could do whatever I wanted to. No appointments I had made, noone waiting for my in the office, to call or elsewhere, lovely.
The river view wasn´t too exciting due to the grey darkish weather, but hey, „I was there“. Went back to Covent Garden, passing on to 7 Dials, which also had been my map and recommendation from a friend. Well, it was nice, but empty, (again: grey and fresh,) and I do not have any money for shopping, so it wasn´t too interesting for me. But what is interesting about this neighbourhood is that it really has wonderful shops, I love to follow the borrow´s Instagram account (7 Dials).
From there I took the tube again to my next destination for the day…
Here are my photos for this portion of the lovely day in London
