Halloween at London!

Only four days to visit London.
Here are our experiences..

 

Arrival

We have just returned from Majorca, when Laura and our new friends Ivan and Alessandra decide to organize a new journey together;
we decide for London.
Book a flight with Ryanair (80€ each one) and hotels on www.activehotel.com (hotel Piccolino 165£ 3 nights with breakfast room, payment at check-out).
Saturday, October 30
Airport Turin, we consign the reservation and execute check-in.
In flight we buy train tickets for stansted express saving 3pounds each compared to the purchase in London (cost £21 or 32€).
From Stansted the train starts every 15/30 minutes.
On arrival at Liverpool Street we descend and take the tube (weekend ticket) and here's Paddington where the hotel is located (Zone 1).
The area is strategic, only 300 meters far there's the nearest underground station Lancaster Gate (red line) and Paddington (yellow line and green), the bus stop No. 15 and 23 and finally the railway station of Paddington .
The hotel is clean, private bathroom, TV and electric teapot!
We leave immediately (there's the sun!) and go to the market at Camden Town, where there is Camden High Street crowded street, full of punks and darks; clothes shops of all kinds, stalls in all streets and an environment of social centre on our way.
It's fun to observe people that looks extravagant.
Later we go to Oxford Street the most commercial street in London, then to Soho (full of very expensive and characteristic restaurants), and finally across the luxurious Regent Street until we get to Piccadilly Circus.
The roads are very crowded and many anticipate the feast of Halloween, in fact there are several "devils" or the more bizarre monsters shooting in the streets. Pubs and discos organise masked parties and I want to get in the scrum but we are all destroyed. Without realising that we did several kilometers returning at hotel.

Full Day!

Breakfast and away! We go to Buckingham Palace, passing from Green Park and, what a bad luck, no changing of the guard; patience! Move from St James's Park where squirrels and ducks are everywhere unharmed. The park is very beautiful, in my opinion the best.
A few steps away, we arrive at Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament where there is also the famous Big Ben.
From Westminster Pier we take the ferry (the City Cruises to £8.20, there are more economic also) and we navigate the Thames to Greenwich where there is the Old Royal Naval College (World Heritage), Greenwich Park, the clipper Cutty Sark dated 1869 (on board is rebuilt the life on a merchant ship at the time), and the marketplace of handcrafts of Greenwich.
Along the Thames is impossible not to photograph the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London (a fascinating place full of history but from around 32euro!). Unfortunately, there is a long queue to be done in both these places, and in the individual museums, four days enough just to savor London, but not to see it well.
After visiting Notting Hill we dine in a restaurant, and suddenly masked children come! Sweets or tricks?
The owner takes them roughly and leads them out! It's really Halloween.

Wax face!

We try again, this time changing of the guard is there.
The police rides either by foot or on horseback, and seek to control the crowd.
We only hear notes of the march (that we hear really far) and soldiers advancing towards the palace. Ceremony lasted almost an hour but there's too many people and we do not see much of it.
We head to Trafalgar Square where there is a column in honor of Horatio Nelson, take some pictures and move to Covent Garden where shooting for the covered market. Here is full of actors and street jugglers, the British like to stop and become involved in the game.
We have lunch in a pub and take the famous "Doubledecker" that will lead us to Paddington, passing we look at the St.Paul 's cathedral (now in restoration).
After 17.00 we go to Madame Tassaud's (if you enter the first ticket costs £21, we will pay £13) taking photos with the various stars and moving on the path of darkness where among the various monsters of wax hide real actors who seek to frighten you. We have big fun!
At the exit we must do the photo with the statue of Sherlock Holmes placed in Baker Street in front of his own museum and close to Madame Tussaud's.
Going back to Covent Garden for dinner. Here is full of locals and we believe pubs are the best value for money.
A couple of beers and excellent fish and chips in English style. At the exit two steps and there are still people in masks! It's the third day that they go around masked, but when will they end?
We head towards Leicester Square and even here there are various PRs with signs advertising the various musicals; in London they are a bit everywhere.
Let's return to Piccadilly Circus and his walkabout of people, this area of the City is a total chaos in the evening.

Coming back to Italy

We pay rooms and leave the suitcases in hotel, next destination: Harrods.
Shooting all over the building for access to No.1, apart from the usher that opens the door, we have access to the Egyptian style part of mall that is wonderful.
Prices are dizziness, from Armani beds to small plush figures they are astonishing! Seven floors as the seven deadly sins, too chick for our tastes. We make a quick trip to London Trocadero. Al lower floor there are all gifts, souvenirs, tea shops, and a candy shop of all tastes and sizes . Upstairs the virtual game room, and all for music.
Last lunch, again in a Pub and travel between metro and train to arrive in time to check-in.
The return will be ok, the mood is low because we were beginning to enjoy London when, you will not even notice it, we are already in Italy.
Four days are not so much for London but, who knows, maybe one day we'll enjoy again fish and chips!