London–Paris. Part 1. London. Oct, 2014

We had been preparing for our London–Paris trip for a long time. After all, these destinations are far away for us, and there was quite a lot to organize and prepare. The trip was planned to celebrate my milestone birthday. As always after a trip like this, we came home with a sea of impressions. And while the memories are still fresh enough to put everything in order, I’d like to share some of the brightest moments of our journey. So, let’s start from the beginning...

Day 1

London greeted us with rain. And yes, it also said goodbye to us with rain :) But a vacation is a vacation, whatever the weather, so we managed to see and visit everything we had planned. To immediately immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of London, we headed to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, located on Baker Street (where else could it be?) The museum is small, but occupies three floors. We wandered through the rooms where Sherlock Holmes, with the help of Dr. Watson, once solved complicated crimes, while Mrs. Hudson never forgot to look after the two gentlemen

And in the evening, we explored Hampstead, one of London’s most prestigious neighbourhoods, also known for its charming pubs and restaurants

Day 2

Visiting the famous Tower of London took us quite a while. After all, this ancient fortress is one of London’s main symbols and one of the largest medieval castles in Great Britain.

Throughout its history, dating back to 1066, the Tower has served many purposes. It has been a fortress, a grim prison, a place of execution, a mint, an observatory, a royal residence, and even a zoo.

We explored all the different parts of the Tower, admired the royal crowns (which are still used by members of the royal family), and even saw the largest diamond in the world!!! We also met the Tower’s most famous residents — the ravens. According to legend, if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the British Empire will fall...

Today, the Tower is open to tourists, while families of the Tower’s guards live on the grounds. Guarding the Tower is a very prestigious duty, and becoming a Tower Guard requires passing an extremely strict selection process and meeting numerous requirements...

The entire area around the Tower was decorated with red poppies. Each poppy symbolized the life of a soldier who died in the First World War.

And here is the famous Tower Bridge

Day 3

We did a lot of walking. How beautiful Regent’s Park is on an early autumn morning

But London is a big city, and there’s no way to manage everything on foot. That’s when the buses come to the rescue. Especially when you urgently need to get to Buckingham Palace in time to watch the Changing of the Guard. And here comes the mounted guard, ready to go

And here we are, standing in a huge crowd of people just as eager to witness this famous spectacle

We couldn’t get very close. After all, security was pretty serious :) But we did manage to catch a glimpse through the fence of the guard taking up his post

Then we headed to Trafalgar Square, the central square of the city, home to the National Gallery, as well as numerous street performers

And here is London’s main symbol — Big Ben, the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament

And here is the Houses of Parliament itself, along with Richard on horseback — the very same Richard known as the “Lionheart.” And directly opposite Parliament stands the beautiful Westminster Abbey

And of course, the famous London Eye

After finishing our visits to London’s historical and cultural sights, we headed out for a little shopping. In fact, shopping in London wasn’t really part of our plans, but there were two stores we definitely wanted to visit.

The first was the toy store Hamleys. It is the oldest toy store in the world. Five floors filled with an enormous number of fascinating toys. We were very impressed!

The second store was Fortnum & Mason. They say this is where Her Majesty buys her tea. What an incredibly beautiful store! And of course, we bought some tea too

Day 4

When visiting London, it is simply a must to go to Windsor and visit Windsor Castle. After all, this ancient royal castle, which is more than 900 years old, is still a royal residence. It is where the Queen spends her weekends and welcomes high-ranking guests...

Our visit happened to coincide with the Changing of the Guard. We were lucky enough to visit the State Apartments and admire the castle’s beautiful and lavish interiors, as well as the world’s most famous dollhouse — Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. Of course, photography inside was not allowed...

The grounds of the castle are home to St. George’s Chapel. The chapel is famous for its extraordinary Gothic architecture. It contains the tombs of monarchs and is also the spiritual home of the Order of the Garter.

After walking around to our hearts’ content in the very same places where the Queen had walked, we also explored the area around Windsor Castle and came across the famous “crooked little house” — the Crooked House of Windsor. It is a small restaurant. Its menu didn’t particularly impress us, but we couldn’t resist taking a photo by the entrance. Somehow, it’s hard to tell from the photo that the house is crooked, but it really is!

Then we made a quick round of the shops... and, by the way, there were some really lovely little shops in the area.

Then we headed over to see Eton College, a private school for boys. The college is almost 600 years old, and throughout its history, many famous children from prestigious and privileged English families have studied there. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the college was already closed to tourists, but we did manage to get a photo of the entrance.

And with that, our visit to Windsor came to an end. The train was waiting for us at the station. We were heading back to London, and the next morning another journey and another train awaited us.

The train to Paris...

But that’s a story for another time...