London's Iconic Sights
- jillaripa
- Jan 16, 2025
- 5 min read
I certainly haven't traveled everywhere, but I’ve traveled enough to know that the memorable things happen on the way to and from the places you’re supposed to see. So, while I was excited to see all the London-y stuff, all those iconic images sort of lived under the surface in my brain. And then we started exploring. And wow, was I blown away. We were in London for seven days, and as always, Hector had researched all of these places and sort of divided them up into sections so that we had plenty of meandering time shouldered in with our iconic sight-seeing time. I'll give you a little insight into each of our discovery days so you have some ideas of how you might break up your future trip to London and get a chance to have discoveries of your own.
Sight-Seeing Day 1
We might’ve clocked something like fifteen miles or more on this day, so we were glad we wore our walking shoes! We took off from our place in Soho and headed first to the National Portrait Gallery, which I highly recommend doing. It’s free! I found some stories about women in history that I’d love to work into a future play or two. Pardon me while I let the wheels in my brain turn.... Just outside the gallery, we stepped into Trafalgar Square where we had the most wonderful photo opportunities. It’s beautiful and vibrant there! A great place to slow down and take it all in. That’s the moment I thought, “wow. We’re really here.” Such a special moment of gratefulness.
After that we headed over to the ever-popular Big Ben, which is actually housed in the Elizabeth Tower at the north end of The Houses of Parliament. Big Ben was obviously impressive and fun to capture photos in front of, but surrounding it were just as many historical and awe-inspiring buildings. We enjoyed standing outside the gates there and listening to a man playing the bagpipes. There’s something about the bagpipes that is just so cool! From there we wandered down to the other side of The Houses of Parliament where we stood on a bridge over the river Thames and took more photos. I call this series, “trying to keep my hair out of my face. The saga.” It’s those imperfect photos that carry the most fun memories.
Westminster Abbey was next on our list, and as we walked up we saw a big line of what looked like very important people filing in. I'm still not sure exactly what was happening, but we felt like we were witnessing something special. And just seeing the church from the outside was an amazing experience. We stared at it for a long time and couldn’t seem to take enough pictures. We planned on heading to the London Eye and even taking a ride, but we had walked and walked, so we decided to just get pictures of it from the Westminster bridge, and then we stopped on a side street and explored a bit. We loved those little side street walks. Honestly, who knows what important buildings we saw, but we had such a great time walking through it all during the lovely fall season.
Soon, we found Buckingham Palace, which was a fun sight to visit. It helped that we were there in off-season during October and could jump right up to the gates and get photos. We noticed off to the side of the palace, there were these large gates into St. James Park, so we headed through the gates and began what was just an absolute highlight. That park is a must-see sight in London. I don’t know how it happened, but the leaves fell in such a beautifully orderly way there. They were just fluttering down with the most gorgeous hues and at the most peaceful pace. We meandered through that park for a while, amazed at how safe and peaceful it felt. What a treasure.
We ended the day by walking over to The George, which was one of the pubs from our first-day tour. It is across the street from The Royal Courts of Justice, which was also a wonderful building to see. That may seem like a lot for one day, but many of them are close to each other, and seeing them all on the same day should be very doable with plenty of time left over for exploring the unexpected.
Sight-Seeing Day 2
We spent time on this day visiting various markets as well, but I’ll talk about those in a later post. On this day we focused on spending some time in Bread Street, which is an area surrounding St. Paul’s Cathedral. We were glad we gave this area some time, as it was one of the most memorable locations with many interesting side streets and pubs. It was near the Blackfriars area, and that is one of the best areas for meandering. Tours are great in this area because it has so much Shakespearean history, World War II history, and even some Medieval fun facts. (Well, the facts are more...dark, than “fun,” but you get the idea). Even as we walked away from Bread Street, we kept turning around to get pictures of St Paul’s Cathedral, as it is was imposing and impressive from many places in the city. There was so much to see in this area, and it provided a great place for slowing down and hanging out.
Sight-Seeing Day 3
On our last day of sight-seeing, we took a long walk along the Thames, and we noticed such a beautifully interesting mixture of historical and modern architecture. We could also see the London Bridge from various angles as we approached it, making it even more exciting to see it once we got close. I cannot really express to you how amazing and massive that bridge was. I mean, I had heard of it and was excited to see it, but it was more than I even expected. We smiled in wonder as we walked across it, gazing up at the enormous height of it and soaking in the beautiful blue skies as a rare treat in the background. The Tower of London stood nearby, and although we didn't go inside it, we thoroughly enjoyed walking around it, thinking about what life must've been like in the days when they built it. From there we wandered over to Oxford Street for some fun window shopping. They had a Zara on every corner, so if that store draws you in like it does me--beware! This day provided us some great last views of the city since it was our final day there, and we gave ourselves plenty of time for any last unexpected London adventures.
A few sight-seeing tips:
You have to be very strategic about using the restroom as they aren’t always as available as they are in the US.
Strap on your walking shoes because you are going to walk!
Take all the pictures and enjoy the silly ones.
Live in the unexpected moments when you turn down the wrong street or your map is stuck loading.
We will not soon forget our time in wonderful London!
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