Outside Westminster Abbey
The first day in London was all about exploring. Sara and Ronnie’s flat is two blocks from Buckingham Palace so we tried to see as much as we could in the general vicinity. First stop was Westminster Abbey.
This was a pretty incredible thing to do first. Seeing 700 years worth of headstones, and standing in a room that had held royal coronations certainly gets you to appreciate London’s history in a hurry. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside, but the website has some decent shots and a floor plan. The opulence of some of the tombs was incredible.
From there, we did lots of walking around. Picadilly Circus was pretty cool and is basically like London’s Times Square. Oxford Street is like any major avenue in NY..high end shopping mixed with chains like H&M and Gap. The Horse Guards Stable…does not have a NY equivalent.
After seeing some of the main roads, we walked to Trafalgar Square, then walked along Hyde Park to look at some of the artwork and catch the sunset with several hundred birds. Although we only saw a few major sights the first day, we walked 6 – 7 miles so it really helped me get a sense of the city.
We caught pre-dinner drinks at an underground bar called Cellar Door. The entrance was on the street and looked like an awning/stairs that would be for a subway stop, but instead led to a tiny bar. It was decorated like a brothel, the bartenders were dressed up formally like a speakeasy, and the waitresses had goth angel wings. Hard to pin down the genre, but my Old Fashioned was absurdly strong, which is all that matters. They also had unexpectedly good popcorn.
For dinner we went to 32 Queen Street – a high-end gastropub. Between the pig cheek, haddock and venison, I 
got the chance to try lots of new food. The most interesting thing was a lupin bean. It looked like a lima bean but tasted like saganaki. Why wouldn’t the bar serve beans that taste like cheese?
After dinner, we headed downstairs to a private bar and had dessert and another round. As we were paying the bill, the following exchange happened:
Drunk Guy: Where are you from?
Sara: I live in London but am from New York.
DG: Well if you live in New York, why don’t you?
Sara: That makes no sense, I don’t live in New York.
DG: Just because you live there, doesn’t mean you can act like this! What the hell is wrong with you people?! Have some manners!!!
He was then restrained by our waiter. And they say Europe has a drinking problem?
All in all, it was a solid first day. I’m putting most of my pictures on Facebook since WordPress takes awhile to upload, but below are some of my favorites.
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