A Three-Day London Itinerary

Travel notes

We decided to make the most of the Easter holiday with a three-day escape to London 🙂 For anyone unfamiliar with it, Easter celebrates the Christian belief that Jesus rose on the third day after his crucifixion. Traditions include giving chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs, baking special Easter breads at home, painting boiled eggs, lighting candles and saying prayers.

We planned our London visit for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It worked out beautifully, and we saw so much. We booked two nights at the Tune Hotel in Canary Wharf, written as 'Carnaby Wharf' in my original notes. It was a lovely, reasonably priced hotel. The room was small, but clean and very modern. Size didn't matter much because we would be out all day anyway. I would certainly recommend it.

This itinerary lets you see quite a lot of London. We left home at 7 am on Friday and took a train from Cambridge railway station to London King's Cross, arriving about 50 minutes later. Journey times vary: some Cambridge–King's Cross trains take an hour and 25 minutes, others 48 minutes. It depends on the stops.

Day 1. From King's Cross, we took the Underground to Oxford Circus on Oxford Street and walked to Simit Sarayı, our planned breakfast stop. Yes, Simit Sarayı had opened in London too 🙂 After breakfast, we strolled along Oxford Street, passing Brown Hart Gardens and Marble Arch. Then we boarded a famous double-decker bus and, of course, sat upstairs! There were also open-top sightseeing buses. We were quoted £30 per person for two days of unlimited hop-on, hop-off travel, but thought that was too much and decided walking would be better. We got off at Oxford Circus, walked towards Regent Street and browsed some shops, including Hamleys. That toy shop makes you want to be a child again 🙂 We looked around the Apple Store, which my notes called Apple's largest, then walked to Soho. Between Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus, Soho is an old immigrant neighbourhood with Chinese, French, Italian and Greek restaurants, and an entertainment district with many gay bars and nightclubs. From Carnaby Street and Berwick Street, we walked towards the British Museum, passing the Dominion Theatre. Then we reached what I rather bluntly thought of as Britain's museum of plunder 🙂 It was huge, with extraordinary works brought from all over the world; my original notes called it the world's oldest museum. We continued towards Piccadilly Circus and on to Covent Garden Market, a lovely, lively place with T-shirts, jewellery, performances and street food. To get to the London Eye, we headed towards Leicester Square and reached Waterloo station, passing the IMAX on foot. Jubilee Gardens is a good spot for photographs of the Eye and Big Ben. We walked along the lively Thames waterfront, with its cafés and restaurants, then rode the Eye. I think tickets were £21 each, or £19.35 online. Described in my notes as Europe's tallest observation wheel, it had particularly beautiful night views. We thoroughly enjoyed it, then returned to our hotel in Canary Wharf to end the first day.

Day 2. We arrived in Southwark by Underground via London Bridge and walked beneath the famous Shard, described in my notes as Europe's tallest building. It was so impressive that my neck hurt from looking up 🙂 We went to The Breakfast Club, whose Soho queue we had laughed at earlier. This Southwark branch was wonderful: both the food and the staff deserved ten out of ten. Across the road was Borough Market, extremely busy and full of deli foods and street-food stalls. After enjoying the market, we walked towards Tower Bridge. There it was, magnificent against a beautiful view, a structure that seemed to embody Britain's royal grandeur. Opposite stood the charming, leaning City Hall, with the Tower of London across the way and office towers completing the skyline. There were wonderful photo opportunities. We then took the DLR to Greenwich, home of the famous Prime Meridian. My explanation at the time was that it was there because the British had devised the meridians. Greenwich was also a lovely district, with wonderful views over London. We returned to Tower Bridge to see it at night, when it was beautiful in a different way. From London Bridge, we took the Underground to Leicester Square. The streets were lively with performances and entertainment; we had a great time. We couldn't finish the evening without a pub, so we went into one on Leicester Square. The British certainly love their pubs 🙂 Then it was back to the hotel at the end of day two.

Day 3. We wanted to catch the famous ceremony at Buckingham Palace, which my notes scheduled from 11:30 am until noon, so we went to Green Park. To be honest, the ceremony didn't do much for me: it was crowded and difficult to see what the soldiers were doing. Most of it happened in front of the palace, and between the people and the railings we saw very little. We walked through lovely, peaceful St James's Park, then visited Downing Street and took photographs. Along the way is Horse Guards, where mounted soldiers stand guard and visitors take pictures with them. From Westminster Underground station, our walking route took us towards Baker Street and past Madame Tussauds, where the queue was unbelievable 🙂 We sat for a while in Regent's Park, then continued to Camden Market. You simply have to see this unusual place. It felt as though all the world's most interesting people had gathered there! Amy Winehouse once had a home here and loved Camden. You can find everything from piercings and tattoos to jewellery, biker clothes and boots, and all sorts of unconventional things. I loved how different it was. The market was enormous, with just about anything you could imagine. Naturally, we had to try the street food. There were stalls from many countries; as we had missed Turkish cooking, we chose chicken skewers and rice. But there wasn't much Turkish food. Two stalls were selling minced-meat wraps that I had never even seen in Turkey and calling them Turkish food. With so many lovely dishes of ours to choose from, why those? 🙂 We spent a long time there, decided we didn't want to go anywhere else, and headed home.

Think of this as an introductory post; more detailed accounts of each place will follow 🙂 I hope it gives you some idea of a route. A map—or the navigation on the smartphones most of us now carry—makes getting around much easier, so I recommend using one. See you in the next instalments!

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