With our tourist credentials vetted, we decided to venture outwards, to locations a little more off the beaten paths. Consulting AirBnB’s list of things to do, we made a tentative itinerary.

After eating a breakfast of yogurt and granola, we took a series of trains to the Barbican, which is a brutalist-style complex in the City of London, not dissimilar to the original plans for Minneapolis’s Riverside Plaza.

From there, we took the Highwalk (an open air skyway) to the Museum of London to brush up on our local history. The museum is situated on the street “London Wall” and is adjacent to ruins of the wall built around the Roman city Londinium.

From there, we took the underground to the Whitechapel neighborhood for lunch at a Pakistani restaurant. Surrounding the Royal Hospital, this neighborhood clearly had a love of food- all kinds of middle-eastern cuisine, bakeries, and dessert shops lined the road.

Our next destination was a mile walk to the Hackney City Farm, a small farm containing a garden, several goats, two donkeys, some geese, a paddling of ducks (most white, and one gray), a cat, and two very large pigs and a litter of piglets. We came with only 10 minutes left, but they let us in with the pigs and gave us a little leeway (Thanks Frank!)

Our target for the evening was to see a show at the Arcola Theatre. They offer a pay what you can service. We hung out at the space long enough to get our tickets, and were told to come back before 8.

With a few hours to kill, we wandered to the nearby Draught’s Board Game Cafe, who stole my business idea. We tried out several new (to us) games: Kamisado and Machi Koro. With time running out, we returned to the Arcola to see Love Bombs & Apples, a four-part one man show. I don’t care to summarize it, other than to say that I was thoroughly impressed.

The night wasn’t over yet, though. Jessie and I ventured back to Draught to make the most of the cover charge we paid earlier, and finished the night there. A few trains later, we are back at our AirBnB, preparing for tomorrow’s adventure. My bet would be good food and museums, but the blisters on our feet may try to argue with us on that point.

London | Day 1

We made it! Three in-flight meals, one viewing of Toy Story 3, eight uncomfortable sleeping positions, two hours of sleep, one layover in Frankfurt, and here we are!

Upon landing, we got our transit cards and hopped on a long Underground ride to our Airbnb which is … small (photo later), but works great for us! We unpacked a bit and then took the Underground to Leicester Square, where we stopped at a pub named Salisbury to grab a dinner of Sunday Roast, Pot Pie, and two pints.

Ended up sitting next to a gentleman who, after multiple approaches from strangers, we realized must be a politician of some kind. Listened in on his conversations with constituents as we finished our food.

Ray took me on a cursory tour of the Westminster area – saw Trafalgar Square, the Clock Tower, the gates to Westminster, the Horse Guards Parade …

Being beyond exhausted, we embarked for home, intending to do some planning for day two while waiting to Skype with my parents, but ended up falling asleep. A half-hour late for our call (sorry, mom!) we made a quick check in with the folks before crashing for the night.

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London | Day 2

This morning it was pouring rain. Stepping out the door we got soaked, RomCom-style by a passing car whizzing through a puddle. Ray graciously let me use the umbrella our Airbnb host provided us, but we decided it’d be a good investment to get another one just in case.

We took the Underground to our 10AM tour (that’s 4AM at home so we needed to grab a coffee …) which met outside of the Apple Store – handy since we didn’t bring UK power adapters!

Our tour was focused, we found out, on the “royal” parts of the city, so we saw the Covent Garden market (formerly Convent Garden – where the nuns grew food for the royal court … later home of the prostitution capital of the world), the monument to Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (one-armed, one-eyed, war-fighting, Napoleon-defeating wunderkind), the Mall (rhymes with “pal” – gates to the royal compound), Prince Charles’ home, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and Westminster Abby. We even got to see some of the royal guard exercising their horses.

 

 

 

 

The sun finally came out as we made our way to nearby pub “Slug & Lettuce” with some other folks on our tour (including a couple from Melbourne, a couple from Connecticut, and a woman from Minneapolis!). Fish & Chips, Bangers & Mash, and 2 Pints later we made our way past the Tower of London and over Tower Bridge to take a walk along the South Bank.

We stumbled (literally) onto a cobblestone pedestrian street, walked along the wharf, checked out the old Operating Theater, and accidentally found this tiny display of ancient ruins in the back of Southwark Cathedral (we may or may not have gone through the back door).

Stopped off at The Anchor, a pub with a sordid history including, so they say, being home to plague pits back in the day.

I then fulfilled my theater-kid duty by peeking inside Shakespeare’s The Globe. We were going to try to get “groundling” seats but everything was sold out.

We then crossed the Millennium Bridge back to the north bank and walked around St. Paul’s Cathedral to our Underground stop which we took to Hyde park. Most of the park was closed as they are constructing a venue of some kind for a summer concert series, but we were able to catch a quick nap in the Rose Garden.

Grabbed some sandwiches and beer (Summit?!) from a deli and came back to our (tiny) space for dinner and Game of Thrones.

Hullo friends and family! We’ve set up this blog in an attempt to keep y’all posted on our whereabouts and adventures without flooding social media for those uninterested 🙂 Check back often for updates!

So, it is 6:40PM on Saturday, June 17. Our flight was supposed to be taking off right about now. Upon arrival at the airport (thanks, Alex!) and a speedy run through security, we made our way to our gate. Making sure our life-in-two-carry-on’s would fit in the suggested carry-on size, we looked up to see that our flight is 2 hours delayed … which means we’ll miss our connection in Frankfurt. So, on the bright side, we may get an unplanned night in Germany!

Travel wouldn’t be an adventure if it weren’t for unexpected surprises. So, here we are, enjoying our last few hours in Minneapolis and sending you all our love!