London, Thursday

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Good evening!

Today was a long day, because it was the last day we had the London Pass and we wanted to take advantage of the last few things we cared to use it for. The weather called for no rain (hallelujah!) so we had breakfast and left around 8:30 for Windsor Castle.

The London Pass got us free travel there, so we hopped on a train and got there just in time to see lovely blue skies. The castle was incredible – Taylor especially enjoyed seeing it. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, so it’s hard to tell you what it was like, but I’m sure Google can assist if you’re interested. The most fascinating thing about it all is trying to imagine how they built this kind of thing back in 1070, without any of the machinery or materials we have today. It’s mind-blowing.

After we left there, we picked up a pack of cards (the local item we buy from every place we visit) and headed into London again to go to the British Museum. We didn’t look into this museum much beforehand, so we were very overwhelmed upon arriving and seeing how much stuff they had on display. There were five floors and more to see than you could in a week. We saw in the guide map a “1-hour visit” guide so we followed that to hit the main parts. Neither of us are huge museum people, but some of it was still interesting! It might’ve been more so if there weren’t school groups of kids trying to fill out handouts for class and running all over the place. We may be re-thinking this kid thing.

We picked up a quick lunch at Pret-a-Manger, a Starbucks type café that seems to be on every corner, and then headed to the zoo! Not expecting much from the zoo was a good idea. It’s hard to say what it would be like in the summer, but a lot of animals seemed to be off display so there wasn’t that much to see. We did see lions, meerkats, sleeping tigers, and a few others that made it a worthwhile trip though.

By the end of that, our feet were killing us, and it was getting to be dinnertime so we rode the bus and underground back to the hotel and had free dinner in the lounge.

We spent a little time tonight calculating what all we’ve done through the London Pass to see if it’s been worth it for us, and even though we’ve hardly checked much off the list of things it would’ve gotten us free access to, we’ve saved a couple hundred bucks by getting them! We used Taylor’s travel points to get them, about $300 for both of us, and with all we’ve seen we would’ve spent around $500. It has also caused us to see a lot of things we may have turned down had it not been prepaid for. So, if you plan to visit London for the first time and want to spend three days in central London seeing the sights, we highly recommend it!

Tomorrow we plan to do a few last things on our list that are free without the Pass and to take it easy after walking so much today. We’re so thankful to have had a whole sunny day to enjoy! Maybe we could live here after all. I was beginning to doubt if I could handle rain and clouds every day.

Off to kick my feet up. Love y’all!

Michelle & Taylor