After months of endless talking and dreaming and planning, our big Europe trip to go walk the Camino de Santiago is finally here! First stop, London, England!
Our initial plan was to fly into Paris, spend a few days recovering from the jetlag, and then begin walking the Camino from St. Jean Pied-de-Port. As the trip drew nearer, however, we grew more and more anxious to leave, and we moved our flight up by nearly a week, flying into London instead.
London was a happenstance stop, for us. We decided that we wanted to spend our extra days in Amsterdam, and flying into London to catch the train to Amsterdam was the most affordable route. We had initially planned on grabbing a hotel near the airport, sleeping off the long flight, and then catching the first train out. A quick Google search of the train station location, however, told us we would want to spend at least a little time in London. St. Pancras International Station, which we depart from, is adjacent to King’s Cross Station for domestic trains. And King’s Cross is where Platform 9¾, of Harry Potter fame, is located. It is also walking distance to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Essentially, everything we would have wanted to do in London was right there. We booked a hotel across the street from the train station instead, and decided to add London to our trip.
It was a long trip into London, so we didn’t expect to have much energy for sightseeing, and we went into our time here with as few expectations as possible, trying to hold the mindset of “we’ll see what we see.” And, as it turned out, with less than 48 hours in London, and running on about 3 hours of cumulative sleep over the course of 3 days, we were able to see a surprising amount.
We arrived in London exhauted and glad to be off the flight. Both girls slept for the entire flight, but neither Sandra nor I got much sleep. We were struggling to keep our eyes open and wanted nothing more than to check into our hotel and take a nap. Somehow, stepping off the subway and into King’s Cross Station, we both instantly energized. We couldn’t wait to do some sightseeing.
Buckingham Palace
The first thing we decided to do was to casually begin walking toward Buckingham Palace, which was approximately an hour’s walk from our hotel. We figured we would break the walk up with stops for coffee and food, and we enjoyed cappuccinos and the best pizza ever at a little Italian restaurant with an outdoor patio across the street from a small green space where Addie got the chance to run and stretch her legs.
Quiet side streets quickly turned into a congestion of pedestrians once we reached Piccadilly Circus and began following Piccadilly Road toward the palace. We struggled to navigate through the crowds with our bulky double stroller, and in our overtired state, the busy area was as exhausting as it was exciting. Pubs, restaurants, theater, tourist shops, and street performers all vied for attention amongst a cacophony of colours and music and endless traffic.
It seemed like forever before this area gave way to gardens with the palace just beyond.
We had talked about visiting Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, but had been too eager to wait, so we simply visited and took a few photos. We wanted photos of the girls in front of Buckingham Palace but they were less enthused…
Our Accidental Adventure
When we were finished visiting Buckingham Palace, we decided that we didn’t want to fight the crowds along Piccadilly Road again, and so we tried to navigate our way back to the hotel using side streets. It was only when we didn’t see our hotel after an hour of walking that it occurred to us that we might have been lost.
I don’t know exactly where we walked. I know we walked through Covent Gardens, which had been on my list of neighbourhoods that I wanted to explore, and then we found ourselves by the river, at a tube station with a wifi connection, disovering that we were quite off track, and still had a long walk back to our hotel.
We only briefly entertained the idea of taking the tube back to King’s Cross Station. We’ve found the stations here to be largely inaccessible. King’s Cross Station had a convoluted series of elevators that we had needed to take with our stroller, and the other station that we found ourselves at had a large staircase and an escalator, neither of which were good options with the stroller.
As we walked back toward our hotel, though, we got to walk along the river, and we checked out the London Eye, and Big Ben. We also found a small playground for Addie.
We were a little too tired to fully enjoy the long walk back to our hotel, but it gave us a good chance to explore part of London by foot.
Platform 9¾
Our plan for this morning was to get up and visit the famous Harry Potter Platform 9¾, where Harry disappears through a brick wall to board the train to Hogwarts. We had seen a large queue when we’d first arrived, and so we decided to go early in the morning. Platform 9¾ is just outside of the Harry Potter shop, and staff help stage and shoot photos starting at 8:00 a.m.
Despite our exhaustion, we all woke up early on our own. Addie got up, took one look outside, and exclaimed, “That dang sun is awake! Go to sleep, sun! Don’t be awake when I’m trying to sleep.” But regardless, we were awake.
It meant we were at Platform 9¾ early enough that we were second in line, which was actually a disservice to us, because we didn’t know what we were doing. We noticed that the photos cost 10£, and so Sandra and I took one photo together, which we begrudgingly paid for, before overhearing the people behind us ask to take photos on their personal phones. You have the choice to buy the photographer’s photos or take your own. We got back in line and we took our own fun photos.
Our Eurail Confusion
After Platform 9¾, we went across to the international station to book our train to Amsterdam. We hoped to leave around lunch time, and could not figure out how to reserve seats through the Eurail app (which is not the most user friendly). We found out that we should have booked seats a few days in advance, which we are still confused about because we’re told that our trains out of Amsterdam don’t require any pre-booking at all. At any rate, we were out of luck for the train, unless we wanted to pay an arm and a leg, so we booked our London hotel for a second night and kept exploring, this time with a slightly slower pace, as jet lag caught up to us all (except Eloise, who happily slept all day, no doubt planning to continue our sleepless stretch tonight).
Regent’s Canal
Since we had more time in London, the one other place I wanted to go, based on my very cursery Google search of the area, was Word on the Water, a little floating bookstore on Regent’s Canal. It was only a 10-minute walk, so we headed over after lunch. We didn’t spend long exploring the area, as we were all in need of some rest, but we enjoyed the casual energy of the area: little kids riding scooters, while adults browsed books and listened to jazz music. The bookstore itself had a great selection of really interesting-sounding books, and I might have come home with ten if not for the fact that we need to carry all of our possessions in a backpack for the next couple months.
Tomorrow morning, we head to Amsterdam (this time we have the tickets in hand), and while we really enjoyed our time in London, we are excited to be continuing on. London, however, was the perfect way to kick off this adventure of ours.
following you day by day. So much fun!
Thanks for the great description of your first two days on your ambitious journey. Having been to London a few times I relived a few memories of my own. Looking forward to being along with you and your family as you fulfil your dream
Just stumbled across your blog this morning. Love your writing style. Realistic, frank and always upbeat. Keep that cup of yours half full as you continue your journey.