London: How to Spend 24 Hours
Cramming in sights and meals over the course of a day in the English capital
My fiancée and I ran into a predicament in London. As the train pulled into the station we wondered, “How can you see a city of this magnitude in 24 hours?”
Spoiler alert: It’s not possible. But, it is possible to have an amazing time and walk away at least partially satisfied with the sites you’ve seen and the foods you’ve eaten.
When we were planning our trip to Europe, we came to the sober conclusion that we would only be able to see one or two places, so we concentrated all of our efforts on Amsterdam and planned to spend our whole three week trip there. At the time, it had been announced that US citizens would have to apply for individual visas for every single country they planned on visiting at least a week in advance, and that news tanked our ideas of a fun, romanticized backpacking trip, country-hopping across Europe.
However, we found out—after making the majority of our bookings—that the rules had changed, and we would not need special visas to travel between the countries. Our adventure was back on… Or, at least, whatever adventure we could fit in between our pre-booked Amsterdam hotels , which left us with few options.
Out of sheer luck and maybe a bit of skill, we were able to swing a few days in Berlin, and a single day in Paris followed by a single day in London. But that’s enough backstory. Here is how my fiancée and I chose to spend our day in London.
And the train rolled in
We arrived on a Eurostar train from Amsterdam in the afternoon, hopping off the coach and launching into the festivities. We had heard over the intercom during the train’s stop in Brussels that we should take extra caution for pickpockets and keep a close eye on our belongings. So, we decided that our first stop would be at the Aer store to pick up a sling bag.
We dropped off our big luggage at the hotel and spent our first bit of time marching through the streets of London, hopping on and off the tube and rounding the corner to the store. As someone who is quite bag-obsessed, I was having a field day in the store. But, I knew what we came for, and we grabbed it off the shelf, bought it, and headed back out.
We stopped to grab a bite at an Indian restaurant across the street and enjoyed some delicious food to refuel before we went to our first major site: The Paddington Store.
Now, the Paddington Store may not seem like an attraction to most, but to my fiancée (a Paddington superfan), Paddington station and the accompanying store were the top priority on the list for our London visit.
So, after a short tube ride, we strolled around the cavernous station to the very modest Paddington gift shop and had our picture made with a statue of Paddington bear. We browsed books and clothes and goodies of all kinds with the signature bear in his raincoat, hat and boots. And after spending much of our London budget on stuffed bears, we headed back to the hotel to rest from a long day of travel — after a quick dinner at a steakhouse nearby, of course.
A half-day marathon
The next day would be the true test of our resolve and ability to speed through London’s best attractions. Our train left for Paris in the early afternoon, which meant we only had until about one or two o’clock to squabble about London.
So, we scheduled a ride on the London Eye fairly early to start our day off after a stop at a bagel shop first thing in the morning.
But before the famous attractions, the next few hours would be spent on a mission — and I want to apologize to my fiancée in retrospect for the inconvenience this turned out to be. I wanted to visit the grave of Karl Marx, which I happened to know was located in London, where he lived in exile until his death. So, after putting it in the directions we hopped on the tube and rode out to the outskirts of the city, taking the rest of the trek on foot.
In the chill rain, we marched through a quiet, empty neighborhood, weaving through public housing apartments as the directions drove us around and around in circles trying to find the place. We grew a bit anxious hoping to make it back before our scheduled ride on the London Eye.
Eventually, after setting the directions aside and attempting to circumnavigate the area on our own, we found the entrance to the cemetery, and it was, of course, closed. But we weren’t ready to give up that easily. So, we hiked up a long and seemingly never-ending hill to the front entrance of the graveyard and waited for them to open in about 20 minutes. After working so hard to get out there, we were going to see this grave.
Ironically enough, when they opened, they charged admission! Marx would be rolling in his grave.
After another maze of a journey through the extensive grounds with countless famous deceased people and having paid our respects, we headed back to the tube station and jetted back off toward the city center.
Sightseeing from the sky
When we arrived at the London Eye, we got extremely lucky. We just so happened to be in the same pod as a family who had hired a tour guide to tell them about London, so as we circled high above the city, we were inadvertently shown where to look and told about the fascinating history of the many monuments that London has to offer.
We felt satisfied with our second-hand tour and decided that, for us, it would have to suffice as seeing those monuments, and we were able to clear up a large chunk of our day by viewing the big-name attractions from in the air instead of venturing across the city to reach them.
After disembarking from the famous London Eye, it started to rain — which was no problem, just a characteristic experience of the city that made it all the more authentic. Of course, I had left my umbrella in the hotel, so we just pressed on despite the light rain.
Paris-bound
With not too much time left before our train to Paris, we headed to the station to wait it out, and concluded our day in London by sharing drinks with a man who didn’t speak any English, but after some earnest attempts at improvised sign language, we managed to figure out he was thirsty and poured him some of our water. Funnily enough, without ever exchanging words it felt like we had a whole conversation as we all waited for our departures.
We boarded our next Eurostar after barely 24 hours in the Old Smoke and headed off to the City of Love for another 24 adventure that I’ll have to write about soon!
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