London as a Solo Traveler

The school year is different in the United Kingdom, and after my family headed back to the United States to go back to work and school, I still had a month off. In December, I had spent time in England, France, and Italy. I had visited multiple different cities, and quite honestly, I needed a bit of a break from traveling out of the country.

Throughout all of my traveling in December, I had grown to absolutely love being in London. In the United Kingdom, a lot of people think London is overrated. I think London is magical, and I will use any excuse I can to travel to London. So, the weekend before my courses started back up, I decided to take a long weekend trip down to London and do the things that I hadn't had the chance to when I had been there previously.

January 20th:

My day started bright and early with a 6 hour coach ride that left at 7 AM. You can get a direct train from Hull to London, but it's significantly less expensive to take a coach (I'm talking $7 for a coach vs. $80 for a train ticket). Everything else I had planned for the day started in the afternoon, so I wasn't really in any rush to get into London. Plus, if you take the coach, you get to ride over the Humber Bridge and see the sunrise - which is my favorite part of the journey.

I arrived in London around 1-ish and headed to the hostel I was staying at to check in and drop off my bag. The hostel I was staying at this go round was just outside of Hyde Park, so I got to take the scenic route from the Underground station to the hostel. After dropping my things off, I headed to the Barbican Centre to see the Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel exhibit that was currently on display there. The exhibit was beautiful, and so was the Barbican Center, which I had never been to before.

Afterwards, I headed to the British Museum because it was decently close to where I was and I'd heard good things. I'll be honest, the layout of the museum was a bit confusing and a lot of the artifacts on display were not British and were, in fact, stolen from other countries. The outside of the building looks like what you'd imagine a typical museum looking like, but the inside was sleek and modern.

After the museum, I had one other mission: visit Fortnum & Mason to replace Cam's cheeseknives. When visiting London in December, Cam had bought a set of cheeseknives from Fortnum & Mason. Unfortunately, Cam had forgotten to put the cheeseknives in his checked bag and packed them in his carry on. When we went through airport security to go to Paris, the knives had to go.

One of my favorite things to do throughout my travels is walking to see what I can see. I passed Chinatown and some beautiful light displays on the way to Fortnum & Mason. Apparently Cam had gotten the last set of those cheeseknives, because Fortnum & Mason stopped carrying them. But I was able to eat at one of the Fortnum & Mason cafes before heading back to the hostel.

January 21st:

Originally on the 21st I planned on going to the British Science Museum and walking through the park to get there. The museum opened at 10, so I left the hostel at 9 so that I would have time to grab a coffee and enjoy the early morning London air. Fun fact: 9-ish on Saturday's is when everybody brings their dogs to the park, and I haven't seen my dog in months, so I take any opportunity I can to see dogs happy and playing.

It was a stunningly beautiful morning. I walked through the park on the way to the museum and saw the Prince Albert Memorial, which was almost blinding because of how it was reflecting the sunlight. Near the memorial was a sign pointing towards the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and that's when my plans began to shift. I switched off my GPS and headed towards the memorial fountain. I passed a lot of ducks, swans, and geese - some of which were swarming a lady for the bread she was feeding them. I finally got to the fountain, which was really beautiful and peaceful, and had to decide where to go from there.

I was having such a good time exploring the park that I decided to stay for a while and maybe go to the museum later. I followed random trails around watching swans nap in the sun and dogs play with their friends. Before I knew it, I was in Kensington Palace Gardens, walking the edge of the huge swan-filled pond. There was a group of swans sitting near the top of the pond that were messing with each other (because swans are actually really mean), and me and a few other people stopped to watch them - including a guy on a bike.

One of the swans got out of the water and walked up to the guy on the bike and bit him. Then, as the guy on the bike was trying to flee, the swan continued to try and bite him. It was hilarious to watch a swan try to eat a bike.

Because I was literally at Kensington Palace, I decided to ditch the science museum and tour Kensington Palace instead. You got an audio guide that lead you through the different rooms and told you about the history of the palace. Afterwards, you can go view the new Princess Diana statue and roam around the palace gardens. It was a really cool tour - learning about all the history and Queen Victoria. It was also cool to see the Princess Diana statue, which is fairly new to the palace gardens.

After my tour of the palace, I got a quick snack at the cafe there and headed to the real reason I wanted to come down to London: Hamilton tickets were only $100 for floor seats at the Victoria Palace Theatre. I've seen Hamilton before. It was still new, had just come to the DPAC, I was about to turn 17, and tickets were definitely more than $100. I got to the theatre early to get a Playbook and a glass of Prosecco before heading to my (floor) seat to enjoy the show.

If you plan on seeing a play based around American history in the United Kingdom, there's something you should know. They will change lines and lyrics so non-Americans will know what is happening. Honestly, if I hadn't listened to the soundtrack or seen Hamilton before, I might not have caught it. But I did think it was funny that some iconic lines had to be changed around for context. Don't worry - it didn't ruin the experience.

After Hamilton, I was ready to eat. Fortunately for me, Victoria Market Hall was a two minute walk away and if there's one thing I love about Europe it's their dedication to food halls. I headed up to the rooftop bar to enjoy an Aperol Spritz and watch the city beneath me before I grabbed some tacos for dinner. After dinner, I headed back to the hostel for an early night in.

January 22nd:

January 22nd I was up bright and early because I was off to a changing of the guard tour. This was one of the things that, unfortunately, my family and I didn't get to see when we were in London. I decided to book a tour to see the changing because I knew this was the way to optimize my viewing time of everything. I think this tour cost around $25, and it was worth every penny.

We got a bit of a lesson as we began our trek to where the ceremony begins. Our tour guide explained to us the meanings of the different outfits and feathers, which guards were on duty today, and where the other royal guards were at the time. We got to see the band and guards up close before we headed off towards Buckingham Palace to see more of the ceremony, with a quick pitstop to see where two guards were on patrol, and we learned that these two guards would be the last to change.

Pro tip: don't stand right up on the gates at Buckingham Palace, you're going to miss everything. What you'll see is the two sets of royal guards standing and staring at each other for 30 minutes, and who wants to see that? My tour group set off to the next stop in our journey; where the now-off-duty guards were coming. We, again, got to see the guards up close and personal. I recorded pretty much everything and there are videos of it on the photos page of the blog - I would recommend checking it out.

After our tour disbanded, I went to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (because when in London, right?) before I grabbed a snack in the park and headed to my next activity - a canal ride from Little Venice to Camden Market. We passed expensive stone mansions, a river that flower over a bridge above us, gardens, and finally, after 40 minutes, we arrived in Camden Market. I've been to Camden Market before, and I really enjoyed it. I spent part of my afternoon window shopping and exploring the area, eating good food, and finally, getting a tattoo to commemorate my time studying abroad.

After my time in Camden, I headed back into central London to go see one of the best sights their is: Tower Bridge lit up at night. I'm not saying you should walk around London at night alone - especially in the dark. I stayed in well lit areas that were very close to the central roads. To wrap up my night, I took a ride on Uber Boat - nowhere in particular, just because I wanted to and I could - before hurrying back to my hostel before the Underground closed for the night.

January 23rd:

Today was my last day in London, and I had booked a tour of the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios that started at 8. I was about 20 minutes away via tube and had two bags to drop off, so I rushed across town, dropped my bags off, and headed to Victoria Coach Station to head to the studios.

My tour group was the first of the day, and the studios was mostly empty except for us. We got to see the real sets and props used during the Harry Potter films, see some of the animations used, artboards, and see how they really filed quidditch. There was a space where you could get pictures of you done playing quidditch at Hogwarts or a mugshot for Azkaban. There were also demonstrations on how they were able to have so many letters come through the door at once in the first film and how the invisibility cloak worked.

There were multiple parts to the studios, with the first ending in a chance to try butterbeer and explore the greenhouse, the Burrow, the knight bus, and number 4 Privet Drive. The second part of the tour focused more on special and technical effects. We got to see Buckbeak, multiple different monsters and creatures that were created for the movies (including gross shriveled Voldemort), and how they did the makeup for the goblins.

Afterwards, you were lead to Diagon Alley, where you could see the wand and robe shops, Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, and Harry Potter's wanted posters. Diagon Alley lead to collections of storyboards, art work, models, and replicas. There were beautiful scenes of Hogwarts and the Black Lake at sunrise, Hermione's Yule Ball dress, and magical creatures frolicking and being magical. But the end of the tour was the best part.

You ended the tour with the model of Hogwarts that was used for filming sweeping close ups in the Harry Potter movies. There were guides explaining which parts of the castle were used in which movie, what was added later, and how long it all took to build. The tallest point of the castle was 8 meters tall and took months to build. They explained that when it was snowing at Hogwarts they dusted tiny salt granules along the entire castle, but had to film quickly so that it didn't corrode their hard work.

This was definitely the best part of the whole experience, and afterwards they let you out into the gift shop where you could buy wizarding candy or your house merch. Beside the gift shop was a restaurant and a cafe where I ate lunch before it was time to get back onto the coach and head back to central London.

I think it's important to note that, though the Warner Studios Tour is cool, it pales in comparison to Universal Studios. However, if you are coming to the United Kingdom just for a Harry Potter centered trip, I would recommend also visiting Edinburgh in Scotland, which has a very Harry Potter aesthetic.

Once I was back in central London, I picked up my bags and headed to King's Cross Station to catch the next train back to Hull, which was leaving 10 minutes after I arrived at the station. I was back in Hull by the evening.

All in all, I really enjoyed my trip to London - I always enjoy London, though. Though my days were loosely planned, which is not something I typically enjoy, I had a fun time exploring the city and checking a few more tourist destinations off my list.

In order: Entrance Ticket to the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour; Me in Gringotts; Hamilton Playbill and Prosecco; Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria Memorial at Changing of the Guards; Turkish Lamps in Camden Market; Tower Bridge at Night; Princess Diana Memorial Fountain; Me at Kensington Palace; London at Sunrise