London: Westminster to Greenwich

This is the moment you have been waiting for: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Parliament Building, the Guards, the London Eye, and the Thames! This is my third day in London and the day I spent explore the Westminster area of London as well as Greenwich.

I really wanted this to be my first day in London. I wanted to see Big Ben and the Changing of the Guard right away, but the ceremony actually doesn’t happen everyday. It only occurs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Considering I arrived Monday afternoon, I was just going to have to wait until Wednesday. And sure, I could have still made my way over to Westminster and done the walking tour I wanted to do and take the boat to Greenwich like I did, but it felt more time efficient to do that on the same day as Changing of the Guard to prevent so much back and forth.

Now you may be wondering why Greenwich is being grouped into a post with Big Ben. That is because if you want to see the very best of the city by boat, then you need to take the Uber boat from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. There are also a few things to do in Greenwich that don’t take all day so it was the perfect pair with my morning in Westminster. Here is the very best of London in my third day in the city.

The Changing of the Guard was to take place at 11 am. As it turns out you should be there quite early. I was there around 10:45am, and I was still able to catch the parade, but I did not have a great view of the actual ceremony taking place within the gates. If I really had cared that much I would have been there earlier, but I also wanted to do my walking tour of Westminster before the ceremony so that I could take the boat to Greenwich and I could get lunch at the market while having enough daylight to explore. It was getting dark around 4pm here.

For another day, I didn’t get going as early to head to Westminster as I would have liked to due to the jet lag and staying up maybe a little too late the night before. I got to Westminster around 9:30am after a 10 min walk from Wombat’s City Hostel to Tower of London and a 20 minute metro ride from Tower of London to Westminster. Exiting the metro station (which there are a few I just so happened to choose this one) I was met instantly with a view of the Parliament Building and Big Ben. It was insane because I had not expected it at all.

Before starting my Rick Steve’s audio tour of Westminster, I walked across Westminster Bridge to the other side of the river where I could get a better view of Big Ben, the Parliament Building, and the bridge. Yes, I learned about this spot on TikTok, but it is totally worth it. Then you get to walk back across the river with Big Ben is your line of sight and the London Eye to the right. As I crossed the river once more as I put in my headphones and began my Rick Steve’s tour.

The “Westminster Walk” was about a 40 minute walking tour from Westminster Bridge to Trafalgar Square. Starting at the bridge gives you a great view of Big Ben and the Halls of Parliament. Now, did you know that Bid Ben isn’t the name of the tower, but rather the bell inside the tower that chimes each hour? I hope I didn’t just ruin London for you. The clock tower was built as the north tower of the Parliament Building in the mid 1800s. While this is now where elected officials rule London in the House of Commons, in its early days it was a palace where the royal family ruled. Today the monarch may not enter the House of Commons when in session. The things you learn from Rick Steves!

Next Rick had me turning my gaze to the other side of the river to look at the London Eye, which in fact is NOT a ferris wheel. It was built at the start of the millennium is celebration and now is a key piece of the London skyline. Tourists visit the London Eye for great views of the city, which I am sure it has, but I didn’t want to pay the 40 pounds to go in just for the view so I settled for the free options to see the skyline, which you can read about in my first day in London.

After walking back down the bridge towards the pier I came across the Statue of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. It represents the Romanization of the Celts on the island and Boadicea who revolted against the Romans. Sadly her story did not have a happy ending.

I walked a bit further past Big Ben and where I came out of the tube, to where there is Parliament Square. In all honestly I had a really hard time figuring out what I was looking at here because there was a lot going on with all the people and fences walling spaces in. Somewhere in here is the Westminster Abbey, which I never had the chance to really see. I didn’t plan on visiting because I didn’t want to pay for tickets, but then I learned they also had a free eveningsong, but it just never worked out with my plans to visit, so that is on the list for my next visit to London. While St. Paul’s cathedral was beautiful and has significances as the head of the Church of England in London, Westminster Abbey has significance with the royal family and in history. Since 1066 this is where the royal monarchs have there coronation, so you have at some point seen clips or images of the interior. This is also where many monarchs are buried as well.

There are few more significant places in this square like the Winston Churchill statue and the Church of St. Margaret’s, but again, I couldn’t really tell where they were, so I continued on with the tour to the right down Whitehall or Parliament Street. This is where all the most important political buildings sit. For this reason you may also see groups protesting issues. This day it just so happened to be they were protesting Brexit and wanting to rejoin the European Union. A little ways down the street after taking in the towering building I came across the cenotaph, which I would completely have looked over if I was walking on my own, but because Rick Steves was guiding me I stopped to learn about it. It is a memorial to all those who lost their lives in both of the world wars. You’ll see many people stopping here to honor those who died and it is actually quite powerful.

After walking down the street a bit further and crossing the street I came across #10 Downing Street which is blocked off by high fences and security. This is where the Prime Minister and his/her family lives. The first prime minster lived here in the 1700s when Britain first started electing a prime minister. Now here is what I found to be the most interesting about this. These heavy duty gates only exist because of the IRA attack in the late 1900s. That seems so late to include such security, but the times are always changing. I didn’t linger long here because there were some interesting people hanging out and approaching people so I pretty much just briefly looked down and then did a wide walk around to continue on my way.

The next stop was the Banqueting House of Whitehall Palace. This Palace dates back to the time of Henry VIII as the party house, but this specific part was built in the early 1600s and influenced the Georgian style of many London buildings. A bit further down the street on the left was the Horse Guards. This felt like a bit of a tourist trap to me. I didn’t quite get into it the way many other people there did. I didn’t need the picture with the horse. To me that honestly felt a bit cruel to the horse that essentially just stands there with a person on its back and can’t move. Its significance made sense in olden times as the cavalry guarded this main entrance to the mall, but now I had a hard time seeing its significance other than tradition, which is a theme throughout Westminster.

I finished up the walking tour by walking to Trafalgar Square, the big square in front of the National Gallery. I will admit it is a bit of a nuisance trying to get from White Hall to the actual square as there are so many roads to cross. In the middle of the square lies a column topped with Admiral Horatio Nelson who defended Britain against Napoleon. What stands out most is the lions, which are a symbol of England, that sit at the base of the column.

Now for anyone wanting to do this same walking tour, this would be the perfect time to check out the Christmas market at the top of the stairs or to visit the National Gallery. I did not do either in this moment because I wanted to make the Changing of the Guard at 11 am and it was already almost 10:30 am. I walked down the mall along St. James park for about 15 minutes and then I saw the crowd for the ceremony. This is when I realized I should have been there earlier, so I didn’t even bother trying to get to the front, because there were things starting.

It started with the police who walked down the mall riding horses. Next came the Irish guard and their pipes. I won’t lie. I did get a little emotional because there are a few different guards and I just so happened to come to the one the Irish guard was playing their pipes at. Sometimes the universe gives you these moments to remind you of the things you love and that they matter most. After a while the new guards came. This is the point I got lost because I could not see anything within the gates. I know I saw the guards that were there leave and there were some people moving around inside the gates. Then another band came from St. James Park, the Band of the Scots Guard, and they definitely played pink pony club at some point. I found it to be quite funny. I was here for about an hour as the bands didn’t leave until about 11:45 am.

I needed to get back to Westminster Pier to take the Uber boat to Greenwich, so I decided I would walk through St. James park on the way back since this was one of the places I wanted to go. The park is not only one of the biggest parks in London, but it is also the most significant with its title as a royal park. It was started by King Henry VIII as a place to keep he royal deer and eventually grew into the park it is today and now it is home to pelicans as well as has numerous gardens and monuments.

Buckingham Palace was on one side and I needed to get to the other so I pretty much walked the entire thing taking in the fall leaves and sunshine. It was a beautiful fall day. It was quite busy since the Changing of the Guard had just finished and I did get a kick out of some of many tourists getting excited about the squirrels (like seriously I have at least 10 at a time in my yard back home in Minnesota), but it still was quite enjoyable. It was nice to take a break from London’s city setting to experience some nature.

When I got to the pier I went up to the stall for Uber boat tickets, but they were closed, which I assume is a seasonal thing. I bought my ticket online and was able to make the next one that was just leaving in a few minutes at 12:40 pm. The ride to Greenwich was going to be about 50 minutes. It really wasn’t that far, but the boat stopped quite often to pick people up and drop them off. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these boats were covered. I don’t know why but I had it in my mind that I would have to dress really warm because I would be going on a boat, but of course it makes sense these boats would have an interior, because London is really rainy and gets quite cold in the winter, so they would need to be able to use the boats during these times.

The boat gave me many great views of Big Ben as well as Tower Bridge by water. It was definitely worth it, even though it did cost me more than taking the metro or bus would be. I got to Greenwich around 1:30pm and I was hungry so I went straight to the Greenwich market which was just a few minutes walk from the pier. This actually ended up being my favorite market I went to in London. It was smaller and much less busy than the others but had great food options! After doing a few laps to decide what I wanted, I finally landed on getting Momos, a Nepalese dumpling. I got a mix between the meat and vegetable ones and had them topped with the signature sauce. The guy selling them to me asked me how spicy I wanted them and I told him I like spicy, but I know that my spicy is probably different than your spicy, so he made them as medium spicy for me as he could which was just perfect. I grabbed a sparking water from another stand and sat on the ledge at the entrance to eat my lunch. It was amazing!!

Afterwards I walked around to see what other vendors were at the market. I didn’t need to buy anything, but I liked seeing what other trinkets and crafts people were selling. I ended up chatting with a woman crocheting as I am just getting into crocheting. She gave me lots of great advice, like don’t start with a scarf, which sadly I did do! They just take a while to see your work pay off.

Next I headed to Greenwich park to see the prime meridian. I did not pay to visit the observatory where you could see the fancy line. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but I was trying to stick to a budget. Instead I walked up the hill and went through the gate in front of the observatory to see the less fancy line, but it did what it needed to do. I saw the prime meridian. Wow.

Yeah it actually wasn’t as spectacular as I thought, but I really just wanted to say I saw the prime meridian. It is the reason that when figuring our time zones there is the +(# of hours) GMT. That stands for Greenwich Meridian Time! Now it was about 3:15 pm and I wasn’t sure what else to do. The market and prime meridian were all I had planned in Greenwich, but I wasn’t ready to go back yet, so I checked for availability at the free Maritime Museum and was able to get a slot for 3:30 pm. I headed down the hill then and walked around the beautiful pillars of the building which passed enough time until then.

It turns out they weren’t very strict about the entrance time as there was no one checking and I could just enter and walk around. I obviously did not have enough time to see the entire museum because it closed at 5 pm which gave me about 1 1/2 hours there. I started with the audio guide following it from room to room, but I was spending way too much time in each room to see all that I wanted to see.

I went to the Voyagers room on the ground floor. I had to skip the gallery because it was closed which was a bit sad because that was the one room I really did want to see. I then went up to the first floor to the Sea Things Gallery and then Pacific Encounters which I found to be really interesting. We don’t learn much about colonialism in the Pacific in the United States, so I actually listened and read in depth in this exhibit when I should probably have been skimming. I then went to the Atlantic World Gallery, but this one I skimmed since this was the colonialism I had learned about. Then I began to skip things because I really wanted to go to the Tudors & Stuarts room before leaving, because what interests me most is history. I don’t care about the mechanics and science of maritime. I care about the history and the cultural impact. I wish from the start I had just gone to the exhibits that interested me, because I completely ran out of time.

I probably should have just planned the whole thing differently. I didn’t even think the Maritime museum would be something that would interest me and only decided to go because it was something to do. If I had done things differently I would have planned as much time for it as I did the other museums I visited in London. Three hours seems to be the perfect amount of time for a museum.

Once it hit 5 pm, there was nothing to do in Greenwich. Things were closing and I was not hungry for dinner yet, so I took the train back to my hostel. It took me about 45 minutes to get back accounting for the walk to the station, the time on the train, and the 11 minute walk from Shadwell to the hostel.

I quite easily found ways to spend my evening. After chilling out at the hostel for a bit, I walked a bit north towards Aldgate to get fish’n’chips at Jack the Chipper. I wanted to go because I really wanted fish’n’chips, I wanted to go somewhere close by, and I loved the name. I didn’t have any expectations, but it ended up being some of the best fish’n’chips I have ever had. Granted, I have only had them really in Ireland, which the chips here could never beat Ireland’s, but the fish was so good. That also could be because I ordered the cod bites and I really like them in their smaller form (there is more breading). Anyway I loved this place so much that I even came back with my roommates on our last night in London.

After dinner I got ready at the hostel to check out a stock market bar in Angel. This bar, called 411, does stock market nights on Wednesdays where the price goes up and down depending on demand. My roommates and I were really excited to go, but it ended up being a bit of a disappointment.

First of all everyone there was a college student, so we felt a bit old for the place as we were all in our early to mid 20s. Second of all, the drinks were still a bit pricey, which is fine, because you know what you are getting yourself into in London, but the drinks were really watered down. They were not strong at all, so we end up buying quite a bit, which is how they get you! We thought about going to another bar, but in the end just ended up back at the hostel, because we couldn’t really find anything else near by. It still was fun to participate in the stock market bar even if it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting.

At this point you are probably wondering how I managed to have such a busy day. I am not sure how I did as much as I did in London. In the end I honestly was a bit sleep deprived, but it was completely worth it. I was really starting to like London at this point in the trip. I was admitting to others that it was growing on me. I am not sure if it was the historical Westminster, the boat, or the great food I had that day, but I was liking London quite a bit. It definitely helps making friends too! This day really shaped the experience I consider to be my London trip.

Stay tuned for my fourth day in London, The Museums! If you haven’t checked out my previous days of the trip, please visit my United Kingdom page to read more about my time in London.