London Calling
London Calling
by Suzanne Axt
I recently visited London, England for the first time, and it was a great experience. Basically, it was a stopover from the States on my way to another destination, so I crammed in as many tourist attractions in a day and a half as I could! I mean, how often are you going to be in London?
I had only one night to stay and chose a quaint hotel in Piccadilly Circus. This area is really bustling with activity and filled with restaurants, shops, pubs, and street performers in Leicester Square. Just be warned as with any busy city area, there will be pickpockets, and you need to be aware of your surroundings. I do highly recommend searching out an authentic English pub for a brew and traditional English food. I found such a place with its wooden panel décor complete with fireplace and ordered a chicken mushroom pie with chips (i.e., French fries) that were to die for!
Take a walk past historic Trafalgar Square 
with its ornate buildings and Nelson’s Column over to St. James’s Park to feed the ducks and enjoy the shade of trees and smell of grass. There are plenty of photo opportunities along the way. I was delighted to see that there was outdoor seating scattered around the park, so you basically always had somewhere to sit.
Don’t miss the changing of the guards at the Guards Memorial on the east side of the park. There were armed soldiers dressed in camouflage uniforms to keep the crowds back while the traditionally dressed guards in their red jackets and bearskin hats changed shifts. It was very crowded but worth the experience. Then a stroll over to Buckingham Palace for some more photos. No Royal sightings, however.
Another tourist attraction, Big Ben, was unfortunately in scaffolding so it was hard to see it in all its glory. All in all it was a great day and a half of cramming in as many London sights as I could, complete with souvenir T-shirt!
Photos credits by: londoncitybreak.com and the writer’s own photo.
