Day 6! I’ve been enjoying London… but I’ve actually bought my next plane ticket and leave Sunday! Any guesses where? 👀

Today was finally a day where no alarms were set!

My dad had a full free day from his study abroad teaching! So we woke up on the later side for breakfast (I didn’t think the breakfast was worth taking a picture of today… sorry 😅).

Now even though we woke up “late” we still had things planned for today since his schedule was wide open!

So after breakfast we headed to the Tube for a fun morning.

We walked out of the Tube station and arrived at our London Walks Tour, Hidden London! Before we left the US, my dad and I booked this tour for his free day, and we’re glad we did!

The tour guide and group were great! He had a lot of neat things to tell and show us and his comedic timing was hilarious! There were also some really friendly people from all over England and other parts of the world in our group too!

But while we were out on our walk, an abnormal thing happened… and it started to snow!!

I’m not sure if you can see it in the first picture but you can see it on my gloves! It ended up flurrying/snowing on and off for the entire day, which apparently is very rare in London!

A lot of the things our guide would point out were parts of buildings you’d normally see but wouldn’t necessarily know what it meant. And one of the ones he talked about was this buildings entryway which has the coat of arms for the guild of apothecaries (which has significance towards me since my Zeidie was a pharmacist)!

If you ever find yourself in London, I’d highly suggest this walk or any London Walks tours. They’re educational, funny, and a good way to learn more about the city!

After our walk, we went to a nearby pub called The Blackfriar and had a very nice lunch!

It of course was a safe haven away from the cold (since we’d been walking in it for almost 2 hours) but it also had a beautiful interior!

Now… it’s been awhile since I’ve said these words. But for lunch we both had CHEESE TOASTIES!

Well, cheese and chutney toasties. But still, very good! The chips were great as well and of course we got a pint to go along with it!

After lunch we got back on the Tube and made our way to just outside of Greenwich, where there’s a engineering feet waiting to be walked through.

Just inside this domed building, there’s a spiral staircase that leads to a tunnel that goes UNDERNEATH the River Thames!

This foot tunnel was open in 1902 and helped create easier access to crossing the Thames outside of their unreliable ferry.

As one of the oldest underwater walking tunnels, parts of it have needed repairs. Specifically this section that was hit with a bomb during WWII.

After exiting the tunnel, you’re met with a huge ship on the other side, which was the fastest clipper ship of its time!

We then took a hike through a beautiful park up to the observatory that overlooks all of Greenwich and a beautiful view of downtown London!

My dad loves this spot. Not only the amazing view, but this is the exact spot for Greenwich Standard Time (GMT)!

Since it was getting fairly cold outside and we’d been wandering about outdoors all day, we decided to make our way to have a quick look in the National Maritime museum.

We didn’t stay in this museum long, as neither of us were very interested in the contents (we were much more interested in the warmth).

So we made our way to the neighboring building The Queens House, which is now a very impressive art gallery!

After the art gallery it was time to head back to the hotel. So we walked through the center of the Old Royal Naval Academy (now the University of Greenwich) and got in line for a fun way to get home!

We decided to take the ferry back, which is something my dad really enjoys doing! I’ve also been known to take a ferry or two 😉 But this was such a great idea! It got really dark on our way down the river and all the skyscrapers were lit up making a spectacular sight!

The most spectacular part was the Tower Bridge was fully lit up!

We then caught the Tube the rest of the way back to the hotel and took a breather in the room since we had been out and about all day!

Eventually we got hungry and went down the street to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a couple of Chinese beers as well.

It was another long and full day here in London! Outside of it being VERY cold, it was very nice wandering the city more and exploring parts of the outskirts of London that my dad really enjoys!

There’s been a change of plans and I’ll be spending the rest of the week in London with my dad! We’ll see what other fun things we get up to before I head out to a MUCH warmer part of the world this Sunday 😁

See you tomorrow!

– Elie