London - Going back as 2012 visit was awesome
2013 – As we liked London during our 2012 visit and we got again access to very cheap Eurostar tickets due to a promotion, we decided to go once more for Christmas shopping in London.
We started our day by visiting Nothing Hill, known from the movie with Hugh Grant. Often we like to visit film locations. Here we saw the famous blue door. There is a huge market with antiquities and we enjoyed wandering around and looking at several curiosities. You can also find some drinks and food on the market.
From the market we continued our walk next to the river, where we came across the free Tate Modern museum which we paid a visit. After about 30 minutes we left again, with once again a confirmation that we are not museum people. We prefer the action, the hiking, the nature, but art museums are just not our thing.
From there we wandered around and came across the M&M’S World Store which we really enjoyed. Selecting some exclusive colors from the infinity tubes. But be aware, when you open the tube it comes in big volumes, so you bag quickly fills up, and so is the bill.
We reserved our tickets for Madame Tussauds and we enjoyed this visit. It quite impressive to see how realistic some statues are. You know they are not real, but still it’s nice to get so close to the famous people, some already dead for quite some time, but anyway. If you visit London and you have the time, don’t hesitate and book your tickets.
The next day we spent to The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. As tennis laymen we decided to book a tour and we did not regret this decision. We really recommend this visit. We got there by bus, which stopped right in front of the venue. I think we easily spent several hours visiting the different courts, press room, rooms of fame and many more. Also the guided tour was worth the money.
We stayed in this budget hotel in 2013 and we would not do it again. We selected it because it was quite convenient close to the London Tube, but as we booked with booking.com we overlooked there is a Holiday Inn Express which is cheaper and even closer to the metro. The room is above a pub and you can expect loud music till 23 PM. As we only came back to our room by that time, this was not really a problem. There is a very basic breakfast served in the pub in the morning. The room was not fancy, but we survived. Looking back at the reviews in 2018 it seems to went down drastically. When we were there in 2013, it was still OK.
London - Cheap Eurostar tickets
2012 – As we got access to cheap Eurostar tickets, we decided to go and explore London.
To be completed…
Doubletree by Hilton London Ealing
We received a room on the renovated floor so it was very nice. It had all amenities we needed like an Espresso machine with cups. We scored this room at a very cheap rate due to a promotion on booking.com. Later on the price I saw for this hotel was always much higher. It’s around the corner for the metro, so very convenient for a city trip and still affordable. We didn’t take breakfast and went for a local breakfast near the metro station where locals are taking it as well. We prefer this above an intercontinental breakfast.
Being on the 5th floor we had no problem with the music they play in the dancing rooms down stairs. We had some drinks in the bar while overlooking some business parties going on. That was rather impressive, as most attendances want to drink as much as possible as fast as possible.