[Back In Time] London Vacation - Day 3: Sore Feet

The third day started similarly to the previous one. Again, I woke up early and began to figure out where we were going to go. Now, however, our horizons have grown a bit, because the Day D came. Finally, we were planning on using our six-day London Pass. Incl. 40-pound transport credit on the Oyster Card, which we used for the previous days, London Pass cost us 175 pounds each. It is a lot of money, but due to the entry amount of the attractions included, it pays off. And it's up to you how much. My main goal was to cover the most famous monuments and attractions. Thanks to that, we were over 175 pounds for entrances after two days (I think at least). I'll speak about London Pass a bit more in the different post including a list of all the entries we used.

We visited a lot of monuments this day. Our goal was the London Bridge Station, which is very close to a lot of them and we wanted to see everything! Compared to the previous day, we traveled a little less on the public transport because it is only four stops from North Greenwich.

We set off earlier, so the streets were almost empty. We first wanted to see Shakespeare's Globe. A replica of the original Shakespeare's Theater. It was opened earlier than other monuments. The theater is farther from London Bridge then we expected. Much closer to it is the Millennium Bridge. You can know it from Harry Potter. In one episode the Death Eaters destroyed it.

There was already a smaller queue. But we didn't have to do anything. We just let the cashier scan our London Pass and go in. A commented tour was also included. It had to start in about twenty minutes. Fortunately, there is also a museum that you can explore during your free time. In addition, you can return to it at any time during the day and continue the tour. Just need a ticket.

Our guide was a senior man who's pronunciation was just perfect. Probably because English was not his native language and thus lacked the typical British accent. And one good news for the Czechs. In the eight days, it was the only monument that thought about us, and you could read some interesting things about the theater even in the Czech language while on tour.

The Globe also deserves its own post, so I just add a tasting again:

Another stop of our journey was St. Paul's Cathedral, which looked at us as we crossed the Millennium Bridge. But its disadvantage is that you can't take pictures inside, so you'll have to settle for a few photos from the ground and the view. Players can at least remember the Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.

Another view is upstairs on the dome, but there was such a long queue that we didn't go there. This view was enough. As it is in such buildings, most of the time you have been going up on a terribly narrow spiral staircase, where, at high temperatures and a large number of people, the air didn't move. You could get chilled in the crypt. But we just went through because we were already hungry.

When we entered the street where McDonald's was, which is probably the cheapest way of eating in London, we saw various film props ready to shoot an unknown film. Someone from the passers-by said that it could be Man in Black, but I didn't find any clue on the Internet to confirm it. So we have a nice collection of photos perfect for scaring the hypersensitive mothers. It looked like after a terrorist attack.

At the British fast food, I really hate that they are forcing you sugar-free lemonades. They're disgusting. Never drink Sprite, It's a complete disaster. In both Fanta and Coca-Cola, you can notice artificial sweeteners, but it's not that terrible. However, nothing is better than normal sugar. But if you want it, you will have to pay for it.

I don't quite understand the sense of limiting sugar in drinks in fast foods like McDonald's. Unhealthy food will be unhealthy anyway, and some nonsugar lemonade won't save it. In general, however, I can say that you won't enjoy McDonald's food in London. The sweet-sour sauce tastes different (worse), nuggets taste differently (worse), only the fries remain the same, and they don't have a chicken burger. Instead, they have something with a mayonnaise... The only plus was a banana shake. I just took it on my way, and it was great. Except for a paper straw that will dissolve in your mouth after a while and you can't drink from it.

From the cathedral, we reached the river and walked past it toward Tower Bridge. The big ship in the photo is HMS Belfast. We visited it later that day.

Tower of London itself stands in front of Tower Bridge. We had access to that, and we could even skip the queue. We could do that in the cathedral also. Besides, I forgot to mention that in most of the historical monuments they will check your backpack if you don't have an AK 47 in it or so and somewhere you even have to go through the control frame.

Lions were welcoming us near the entrance, and there are more creatures made from wire mesh across the Tower. Or at least that material reminds wire mesh. Well, don't they look alive?

After coming in, we were pleasantly surprised. Some medieval festival took place there, where we could watch all the crafts at that time. There you were an armorer, a blacksmith, mintage, dancing, and kids could try a lot of activities. It wouldn't be a great medieval festival if there were no crossbow and bow shooting. There was also a knight fight. Besides, you can look at it yourself at VIDEO.

There are several different exhibitions in the Tower, and if you want to go through it all honestly, it can take you all day. We didn't get to see coronation jewels because it had a terribly long queue. Instead, there was no queue to the White Tower, even though there was quite a solid collection of armor. But one has learned that a long queue doesn't mean that there is something awesome at the end of it. We've stood one like that, and it wasn't worth it. Which one? You'll have to wait for it for another post.

We could go to the view on Tower Bridge, but due to the long queue, we didn't and just looked out over the city.

So Londonish... Skyscrapers right next to historic buildings.

We stayed on the river for a while because we finally got to HMS Belfast. Cruiser, which served from 1938 to 1963. I don't know when ships expire, but it comes to me that this one lasted for a long time. After paying the admission, you can explore the whole ship. It was fun!

That we have gone through quite a lot? But it's still not over. The cheapest monument we visited this day was Golden Hind. The Francis Drake's flagship, which is parked between buildings (because of this and the number of people I didn't get a good photo). The ship was really tiny, and we had to crouch in its insides. It was a short but nice tour.

From the penultimate attraction, I have no digital photo taken. The attraction I say because it was such an experience tour of the old London Bridge, which ended with a haunted adventure. The attraction is called The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs. First of all, we have been waiting a long time in a queue. They preferred people who bought the tickets personally and not through the London Pass. Because of it, a group of about four total bitches was in our tour group. They were noisy, they were annoying, and one would have driven the bullet through their heads.

First, they turned on a short film about the history of London Bridge. If you remember such a bridge with houses on it from some historic movie, it's it. But it burned down in 1666. Like the Globe. Now there is a normal, boring bridge in its place.

After the movie, they let us in. A mysterious monk welcomed us. He told us about the bridge and sent us to a room that served as a museum. Here we spent about ten minutes. Then we could finally go on. In the dark corridors, something has sometimes fallen upon us. We also saw the interpretation of the rebellion that conquered London, the innkeeper, priest, etc. All of them had period clothes and played their part really well. Sometimes they asked us to cooperate. The main target of attention was the four bitches.

This part of the tour ended with a photo shoot where we were supposed to "choke" our partner. Well, it was lame. We'd prefer not to do it. Then they asked us several times whether we had epilepsy or some other disease or pregnancy. If so, we couldn't go on to London Tombs.

First, they locked us into a narrow room with benches, where they gave us more instructions in the horror movie style. Then the film ended, and we waited for what was going to happen. Nothing has happened for a long time. Then one of the actors sent us to the would-be elevator. We were about twelve. The elevator, of course, began to shake as if it were going down. After leaving the floor, we had to make a train, holding each other's shoulders, and going through a haunted maze.

When we went as one big centipede, nobody scared us at all. It was worse after we split. We walked through various scary rooms that looked like from horror. The light blinked uncomfortably, so the ghosts could move unnoticed. I watched each mannequin and examined whether it was alive or not. Most of them were not, but when some of them moved I was scared. The worst experience was when I walked around a dark corner from which a man suddenly went out, and at the end when someone started to chase me with a chainsaw. Or at least with its sounds.

A spooky expedition ended in the souvenir shop, and before you came in, a sign told you not to forget to pick up your embarrassing photo. We went to collect it. It was too late when we noticed it cost 7 pounds. So we've bought a bad photo of us in the pamphlet book against our wills.

Right across the street, there was a pub, and because we weren't in any yet, we went to it. They offered a discount of about 25% after visiting the London Bridge Experience. My fiance got a beer, I got a cider, and then we had some starter. It was hummus and toast. Hummus was a bit sour to my taste, but otherwise, it was a good snack. Cider was also not bad. And even though we didn't have many drinks and food, we paid even after the discount quite a bit. At least we learned that we don't have to give a tip. Some percentage is automatically in price. They call it Services. Most restaurants have it mentioned on the menu, but if you don't know it, you don't even look for it. Thanks to this ignorance, it cost us more than it should.

After a day of walking, we were completely exhausted, and we barely lift up our feet, but we still wanted to see the view from Shard. Shard is the largest skyscraper in the UK and the fourth in Europe. It's the high pointed building you could see on some previous photos.

Again, we had to stand in the queue. Then they let us go through the control frame and photographed us again. But now we didn't buy the photo.

One elevator was up to floor 33. The elevator went so fast you felt the pressure in your ears. Then we moved to another. It brought us up to floor 68 (I don't remember the numbers, so maybe I'm kidding). And that was not the end. Well, you could have a look from here. The difference between this and the above view probably that this one was completely roofed. If you look at the top, walls are not touching each other.

So when we climbed the stairs to about 72th floor (there is also an elevator), we got to the highest available prospect, it is not all covered so it may rain in there. But we were disappointed that there was a bar on the top and people were sitting around the windows, so you couldn't really enjoy it, let alone face the glass. The other drawback was that the sun was already quite low and shone in such a way that on one side you couldn't take a picture at all, and the others were terribly reflected. However, the view was breathtaking, and it was worth the 30 pounds (we had it in the London Pass). To look at the places where you were that day from a height was priceless. Only those photos are worthless. Reflections everywhere.

Then we got into the public transport, and at home, we fell on the bed and slept that no shot from the cannon would wake us up. I had blisters on my feet, so it was clear that we would have to relax the next day.