London is very well known for its museums. While there are a lot of great museums that are quite expensive to visit like the Tower of London and the Churchill War Rooms, there are a lot of amazing free museums as well. I didn’t take advantage of these free museums enough. I obviously visited the British Museum and got to check out the Maritime Museum the day before, but there is also the National Gallery and the British Library, which I wanted to visit but couldn’t find the time to, as well as the Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, the Science Museum, and the Victoria & Arthur Museum, which I have seen a lot of great things about.
On this day I planned two museums. It maybe wasn’t the best plan because that was a lot of time standing around which really got to me, but it made sense with the other things I wanted to see. I started the morning at the Churchill War Rooms because I wanted the most time there. Now this is in Westminster and the British Museum is closer to Camden, but I wanted to see the sights in between, so it was the perfect walk. I really wanted to check out Covent Gardens. I also had a show planned in the Westend to see SIX the Musical in the evening so the walk there from the British museum was worked out well because then I could back track and visit Chinatown for dinner and Picadilly Circus before my show. It was an intense day for sure, but also one of my favorite days in London.
Like I said, I started my day at the Churchill War Rooms. This time I actually slept great and felt well rested when I got up early so that I could be there at 9:30 am. I made one little mistake though. I had been eating granola bars for breakfast and I forgot one on my way out. I knew the museum had a cafe, but it was pretty much towards the end of the museum and nothing there was appealing to me so I didn’t eat anything until after the museum. And keep in mind, I spent 3 hours here.
When entering you have the chance to purchase a guidebook. I did not because these tickets were a bit pricey and included an audio guide, so I just opted for the audio guide, which was really great! Each room had a few different recordings to go with them and some even focused on the specific people the room was relevant to, so I learned a lot about the different people who worked here with Churchill.
The way the museum was laid our was actually quite nice because it began touring some of the rooms and then about halfway through in the big open space in the middle of the rooms was the Churchill museum all about Churchill’s life. I spent over an hour just in this room, which is why you really need to plan either your whole morning or afternoon here. It was really good too. Oftentimes I find myself zoning out in museums, in a way of I read the text, but I am not processing anything. I was taking in every single thing here. Churchill lived an interesting life. Did you know he painted?
After the museum was the most interesting of the War Rooms. Maybe I should give you a bit of details on these rooms first. The Churchill War Rooms were the headquarters of the British during World War II. These rooms were not built for the intended purpose of war though. While many reinforcements were put into the structure of this basement, it still would easily have fallen to any bombing. The location was chosen because of its close proximity to #10 Downing Street where the Prime Minister lived. There was always something happening in these room. Most people who worked here also had their own chambers where they would sleep and work, including Churchill’s family. These were the kinds of things I saw on the second half of the tour.
They saved the best for last on this tour. The last few rooms included the map room and Churchill’s chambers. The map room operated 24/7. It was the room of utmost importance because this is where every move and attack by the enemy was documented. This was the room of Wing Commander John Heagerty for the entirety of the war. It was a huge room with many different maps. The interesting thing about this room is they had to have the lights so bright for looking at the maps that the workers had to wear special glasses in the room. Right next door to the map room was Churchill’s chamber, which were the biggest of the bedrooms. That is because this was also his office and well, he had a lot of work to do.
I had arrived at the War Rooms right when they opened at 9:30 am as that is when I bought my tickets for. When I got to this last room it was 12:40 pm. By the time I had checked out the gift shop (I bought a Christmas present for my dad here) and found my way out it was nearing 1 pm. Three to four hours seems to be the right amount of time to plan for the War Rooms.
Afterwards I was really hungry! I was planning to get lunch in Covent Gardens, but I absolutely could not wait. Instead I walked to Trafalgar Square the way I did before, which made me think maybe I should have waited to do my walking tour until that day, but that’s ok. Once I got to Trafalgar Square, I went up to the Christmas market to get food. I wasn’t exactly in a Christmas mood because this was the nicest day it had been there, with a temperature in the 60s (F) and the sun was shining. It felt like September, not Christmas season.
I wanted food though, so I got in line at a stall that supposedly had Christmas fries which sounded really good because it was fries topped with cranberries, turkey, and other foods from the season. They sadly were out of fries so I had to get fries from another stand that did not have any toppings that sounded as appetizing. Well, they had curry fries, but I could not betray my Irish curry chips like that, so I got the Northern Fries which was cheese, gravy, and onions. It was kind of bland though and the cheese was like nacho cheese which I don’t like that much because it tastes quite fake to me, but it was food, which I needed!
After enjoying some food on the steps to the National Gallery on a beautiful fall day I continued my walk further north towards Covent Gardens. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Covent Gardens, but it just didn’t feel very obvious that I was there. I thought everything was going to look so cute, but it was just another London neighborhood only until I got to Neal’s Yard. This corner of the neighborhood was so cute with its colorful and decorated streets.
After walking through Neal’s Yard, which is very touristy now, I explored the rest of the streets. Now, while I was not hungry after eating a whole bowl of fries, I had come across and Ole & Steen’s. This whole trip I had been wanting to go to one and the timing just wasn’t right. I felt like this was my chance since I only had one more day left in London after this and what better way to enjoy it then on the streets of Covent Gardens. I went inside and got a Cardamom Bun togo.
I think I need to explain the significance of this place and the Cardamom Bun. My last name is Steen, which is a not very common name. It is Norwegian, but it is most likely a newer Norwegian last name. You should also know that I am a baker and have my own little baking business where I sell Scandinavian and European baked goods. My favorite thing to make and sell is a Cardamom Roll. It felt like fate that I needed to get a Cardamom Bun from a bakery with my name. It turns out their rolls are so much better than mine!
Now I was really full, but I felt warm and fuzzy inside from the Cardamom. I had just a bit further to go until I would arrive at the British Museum and wow were my feet killing me. It was probably not very smart of me to wear my Doc Martens, but I had been wearing my sambas the last few days and have discovered they don’t actually have a lot of support. I thought the Docs had a thicker sole so they might be more comfortable for standing around at museums, but I honestly think in the end they were worse. A lesson was learned about shoe choices on this trip. I must be getting old(er) because a few years ago I never had so many problems with my shoe choices.
I arrived a few minutes before 2:30 pm which was my entrance time. The museum closes at 5 pm, so it wasn’t too much time there, but with everything I wanted to do on this trip I thought 2 1/2 hours would be just enough to see the highlights. People say you can spend days here so I knew no matter how much time I spent there I wouldn’t see everything I wanted to, so I just went with prioritizing. To help me with this I used Rick Steves Audio Tour that is a little over an hour and covers the highlights including the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek rooms. Of course these ended up taking me way longer than that because I would stop every time there was a bench open and waste 10 minutes on my phone. I was really unhappy with the fact I did this, but I had to. My feet were killing me. I had never been this bad in a museum before, but I should have known I wouldn’t last two museums in a day. I have a maximum of 3 hours in a museum before my body hurts. I knew this, but I was just being a bit ambitious since I thought it would work best logistically.
I began my tour in the Great Court, which is the big hall you walk into when you enter the museum. This modern atrium is quite the contrast from the stone pillars of the exterior. This is the area you will find the bookstore, informational desks, cafe, and the entrances to all the wings of the museum. Not every room is easily accessible from it as you will have to walk through other rooms to get to the ones in the middle, which sounds confusing, but once you really get orientated with the map and the layout, it isn’t that bad.
The official tour starts in the Egyptian rooms on the left side of the museum. You are met instantly with the Rosetta Stone and multiple tour groups surrounding it. The Rosetta Stone dates back to 196 BC Egypt, but first made its appearance in Europe after it was discovered in 1799. You may recognize the name, but maybe not exactly what its purpose was. Have you ever heard about the language learning site, Rosetta Stone? It is named after this stone because of its role in helping to understand the ancient languages. It includes hieroglyphics, medieval Egyptian, and old Greek.
From here I took the way to the right, I would later come back to the left. To this side was the head of King Ramesses II from 1270 BC as well as the statues of Egyptian Gods depicted as animals. Then there was the Scarab that I actually didn’t get to see because it was on loan to New York. How ironic that it would be in America when I am in London. Then I went upstairs where there are more Egyptian rooms. These contained paintings, mummies, coffins and other artifacts related to Egyptian funerals like statuettes, the jars used for the organs, and even some cats which I couldn’t really find even though Rick Steves told me they were there. In these rooms is where I came across Ginger, a man who died 5,400 years ago, but was perfectly preserved. I actually felt kind of bad with how many people were taking pictures of him. I get the scientific and interesting piece of his body being preserved, but how sad for this man to be on display like this. Why can’t he just rest in peace?
After this I traced my steps back to the Rosetta Stone for the head and arm of a statue of Amenhotep from 1350 BC. I continued down the left to learn about the False Doors and the Sphinx Beards. I found the False Doors to be quite interesting because they aren’t real doors. They are just symbolic to let the soul through. After a few more stops I made it to the entrance of Assyria marked by the guards, the human-headed lions with wings. They are the symbol of Assyria. For the duration of the Assyrian Empire these hybrid guards protected the kings against evil spirits.
If you are unfamiliar with Assyria, which is quite possible, because I had to look it up just to be sure of the time and place. They are the ancient Semitic people from what we consider the Middle East today, specifically Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. They are from the time of Mesopotamia in the 14th-7th century BC. This empire is quite significant as our whole world stems from Mesopotamia.
When I entered I stepped into the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II. The Assyrian rooms are a bit smaller than the Egyptian, but the layout made them feel more immersive. This gallery of the 9th century BC palace was made up of the panels that marked what was the throne room. The tour walked me through the pictures of each panel, but I hate to admit I didn’t really follow, because I didn’t want to stand around. It is a great way to understand the life of the Assyrians though. I did start to follow along when I got to the Royal Lion Hunts, because I thought the fact that there were lions in the Middle East to be quite surprising. The depictions were also quite gory. It was just so different from anything I have followed in history.
After the lion hunt I headed to the Ancient Greece rooms. I definitely did not see everything. I really skimmed a lot of stuff which is sad because there are a lot of beautiful artifacts, but I kept to the tour so that I could still have a bit of time at the end to see the things I wanted to. I did enjoy the ceramics at the start of the Greek rooms. Seeing the fact that they had wine coolers was quite funny to me too. The thing that really struck me in these first few rooms were the vases like those in the movie Hercules! You know, like the dancers and back up singers on the vases. I found the connection really interesting as I finally had the background for this 8th century BC art style.
I wish I had more time to really explore these galleries but I had to make my way to the highlights of the Ancient Greece exhibits, the Nereid Monument and the Parthenon. I know, the Parthenon is supposed to be in Greece. I will get to that in a second. Lets start with the Nereid Monument. This is a depiction of ancient a Greek temples and the statues of sea nymphs called Nereids. Now to the Parthenon. It is not the actual Parthenon, that is in Greece. This exhibit is the statues and marble panels that decorate the famous landmark. First is the the relief panels of the Frieze from 450 BC. Rick Steves walked me through what was happening in some of the most important of the panels. Then I moved on to the Pediment sculptures on each end of the large gallery. These are depictions of the Gods and one even shows the birth of Athena.
At this point I had maybe half an hour left before they closed so I skimmed the last of the rooms I wanted to visit like medieval Europe and the stone Moai from Easter Island. Then they started the announcements to get people out and everyone began to leave, so I didn’t actually have half an hour. When I got out it was completely dark and I had 3 hours until my show in the Westend. I had two options: I could go back to the hostel to rest for a bit and then come back for dinner and my show, since I wanted to go to Chinatown for dinner, or I could just hang around until then. I ended up just finding spots to hang around until then because the metro would be about an hour there and back which meant if I wanted to do dinner, I would probably not even have an hour at the hostel, so I ended up getting some tea at a Thai tea place called Thai Cup for a bit to wake myself up. I also needed to charge my phone and rest my feet, so it was a much needed break. It also gave me a moment to plan out some of the logistics of getting to Ireland in a couple days.
Before heading to Chinatown for dinner, I stopped at Boots. Boots is essentially the UK/Ireland version of Walgreens, but better because it has good makeup, so many young women (and men) come to shop here. I just needed a nail file and allergy medication, because I don’t know what was in the air, but I was suffering. Its a big pharmacy so it took me way longer than it should have to find these things.
Then I finally made the walk to Chinatown which was back towards Trafalgar Square. I did a walk through and was already overwhelmed with all the choices in restaurants. How do you choose a Chinese restaurant out of a 100 Chinese restaurants? For me, choosing a Chinese restaurant is just deciding you want to get Chinese food that night so you go to one of the couple in town you like the best. Now here are a ton of good options, so how do you choose?
Chinatown has a lot of high end restaurants and hole in the wall restaurants. I immediately eliminated the high end places, because one I don’t have the money, and two I would feel a bit more weird about eating there alone. Then it came down to where did I feel the most comfortable. I don’t like when people stand at the doors and yell at you to come in. I never go for it. It makes me uncomfortable as an introvert. A lot of these restaurants had these really pushy people until I found one where the guy just let me look over the menu and was really sweet when I asked to make sure they had a bathroom and promised I would buy food. This was my place, Lotus Garden.
I wasn’t too terribly hungry so I ended up getting spring rolls and wonton soup. It was good. Maybe not the most amazing Asian food I ever had, but it was great and exactly what I wanted. I also got some Chinese tea with it (I am not sure how I slept that night.) Then I walked around the neighborhood getting the pictures I wanted with the fun lights in the night and headed for Picadilly Circus. For some reason I had it in my mind that my show was at 7:30 pm so I needed to leave the restaurant by 7 pm. It was at 8 pm so I had an hour to kill, which is good that I wanted to see Picadilly Circus, even if it was in the opposite direction of the show.
Picadilly Circus is supposed to be the Time Square of London. It was not that overwhelming. It was a cool neighborhood, but a part of the square was under construction and it was really raining, so it was not the experience I thought it would be. At least the rain meant there weren’t many people, so I could get sort of good pictures aside from the construction.
Then I started walking towards Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand. On the way I walked through Leicester Square where I noticed a lot of people gathering around. There was a Christmas market, but that is not what these people were here for. They all were trying to get a view of the front of the market, but it was fenced off, so they were trying to get up high to see the big screen or they were listening. This is when I discovered the London premiere of Stranger Things. I tried to get a view and only managed to see half of Joe Keery’s face on the big screen. Out of all the people from the cast, I am glad I got there when it was Steve.
Then I went to the theater for real. I got in line for the Grand Circle. I bought the cheapest tickets, which means I was in the top corner. It wasn’t the best spot as I had to slouch down and bend over to have a good view of the show, but I got used to it and it was worth it.
The show was amazing! I had looked at a few different shows for London, but ultimately settled on Six, because I had never seen it before and it seemed fitting, a show about the six wives of Henry VIII. If you have followed along with the rest of my London posts, then you know I love everything about this time period and history. The show wasn’t exactly historically accurate, but it had the same vibes of Hamilton, history in a fun and modern way to attract everyone. I wasn’t able to take many pictures or record until the last song, so you can enjoy the closing song. By the way, did I say it was amazing?
The show was only 80 minutes without any intermission. When it was over I found the nearest tube station and was on my way back to the hostel. I was definitely looking at when the show would be playing near me back home, because my mom would love it.
Back at the hostel I went down to the hostel bar again and spent the night singing karaoke with my new friends. Normally a day like this would exhaust me, yet I went to bed at 3 am after having one of the best days of my life (besides the aching feet). London had officially grown on me and I was really sad tomorrow as going to be my last day in London.
That is the end of my favorite day in London. I would highly recommend all of these stops, especially Six for those looking for a fun show in the city. Stay tuned for my last day in London, The Neighborhoods, where I visit Nottinghill and Camden.
The Journal of Wanderlust 