London: ONE NIGHT ONLY

I was concerned when I found out our schedule only allowed for one night in London. After figuring out the Pounds --> USD conversion rate though, it was for the best.

Day 1 - morning

Arrive, run, do all the Westminster things.

Already in Europe, we were able to take an early morning flight and arrive in London (Gatwick) with just enough time to make it through customs (damn you #Brexit), onto the high-speed train and (literally) running through the streets of London in what we hoped was the right direction to arrive at Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards.

Note: check the schedule online to make sure the ceremony is happening while you're there!

We then spent some time with our selfie-stick in The Mall before walking through beautiful St. James's Park, over/ past St. James's Lake, and to Westminster Abbey. You can tour the church as well as the Palace of Westminster.

From there, we walked to Big Ben and along the River Thames to Whitehall Gardens. (We did not go to the London Eye, because #nonewfriends but you can see it across the river from here).

Day 1 - afternoon

Still carrying backpacks...

At Whitehall Gardens, you're close to #TrafalgarSquare and tons of food options. We stumbled into this adorable Italian café, Spaghetti House on Haymarket (that we later learned is a chain, oops), and actually had delicious pizza & pasta (#carbs).

Now for my nerdy boyfriend's favorite part - we got tickets to Winston Churchill's War Rooms, and learned all we could ever want to learn about Winny in WW2.

Then more walking: back through Trafalgar Square, around the Seven Dials, through Neal's Yard (which you should go to during the day for outdoor restaurant seating & some shopping), and finally to the bars!

Go to The Alchemist. This bar was awesome. The menu is setup like the periodic table (S.O. to my 9th grade chem teacher), it feels like you're in Harry Potter, and the drinks are bomb.

Day 1 - evening

Yup, it's still day 1.

Nice and tipsy from the dry-iced drinks... we walked through Piccadilly Circus (not a circus) and to Kingly Court. This place was packed (and it was a school night, crazy Brits).

Also, go to Cahoots. You need a reservation and a treasure map to get in - it's a speakeasy that did slightly too good of a job looking closed from the front, so go around through Kingly Court to get to the unmarked entrance.

Then find any *pub* and order fish & chips to go with your not-so-cold beer.

Ready for bed! We stayed at the Sheraton Grand on #Piccadilly - basically sharing a room with the Queen of England.

Note: if we had another night we definitely would have gone to a theatre! It's the posh thing to do.

Day 2

More eating, walking, and Harry Potter references

Super early wake up call and ride on the #underground to get to our reservation at Duck & Waffle! Breakfast was unreal delicious, along with the view of the City of London. Then we walked through Leadenhall Market (@HarryPotter) and were basically the first ones into the Tower of London, where we spent a few hours with our headphone-tour-guide (highly recommend).

Right outside is the Tower Bridge, which is much nicer than the London Bridge you'll get to later on today. Then Borough Market (my favorite part of London) for lunch and buying fudge for the trip home. Now you'll see the (for some reason) famous London Bridge.

Keep walking ... to the massive St. Paul's Cathedral ... and then to Chinatown.

Finally, now that you're British, time for tea! Afternoon tea menus range from 12 to 80 pounds (which converts to like 900 USD) ... The Wolseley was near our hotel but there are plenty of options!

Reverse running through London streets --> high-speed train, etc.

FYI, 26 miles is about 42 kilometers.