Guess who’s back? Back again? It’s me! And where I’m back to? London, of course! 🙂

Shockingly (for me and my typical blog-writing habits), I’m actually on my third day of a London trip and I’m just now getting around to my first blog post. Although it feels like I’m doing a little less than I normally do activity-wise, I’m still doing plenty to keep me busy, so I just haven’t made the time to start writing a post yet. Wild, I know! But never fear as my first post is here!

Now, as first days are often less busy, I don’t have as much to highlight (which will make for a shorter post – yay!), but I did get here early enough in the day for it to not be a total waste. Backing up though, why am I here again?? It should come as no surprise to any regular reader that another Doctor Who event prompted this trip, but I’ll write more about that in an upcoming post. Suffice it to say that the event is happening this weekend and that it gave me and my friend Felicity (one of my Doctor Who friends, who was part of the small group I came here with in September 2023) an excuse to come to the UK. As it’s been just over a year since my last trip, I was only too happy to come back to my favorite city! We’ve been trading potential plans back and forth for a few months now, so we came into the trip with some neat stuff planned. Again, more on that soon!

How about getting here? It’s Thursday night as I’m writing this (technically Friday morning, as it’s after midnight, but I digress) and we both arrived around mid-day on Tuesday. Felicity lives in the Chicago area, so we obviously weren’t going to be on the same flight, but it was pretty easy for us to choose itineraries that got us here within an hour of each other (her on American, me on Delta). Both of our flights were a bit ahead of schedule and she arrived first, so she made herself comfortable near baggage claim and I met her there ~45 minutes later. We both bought new carry-on bags from Quince and both decided to put them to the test by doing carry-on only for this trip, so we had no bags to pick up, making getting around the airport that much quicker (we’re changing locations a couple times on this trip, so having smaller bags will definitely make our lives easier). Let me rewind briefly to talk about the flight though!

Delta’s direct Mpls->London flight is currently on a later schedule, so my early afternoon London arrival meant that my flight left around 11 PM on Monday night. I ended up getting a Premium Select seat on a flight that had ~200 empty seats, so the travel process was pretty painless. Even though I just had a carry-on, I got to the airport at my normal time (security took all of 60 seconds, so Monday nights are obviously a good time to fly out of Mpls!), got some steps in, and chilled at the gate before boarding. It was really nice to not have a super-full flight, plus I managed to get some dozing in here and there, so I wasn’t a total zombie upon landing (it helped to have an open middle seat I could lay my pillow against). I debated trying to sleep right away, but knew that was unlikely to happen, so I still watched a movie and enjoyed some surprisingly tasty food before my doze(s). Check out some of the plane experience below!

I’ve had those little cheese biscuits on previous flights and they’re so good! My dinner (above) was a couscous, carrot, and chicken dish that actually had some nice spice, along with a little salad and tiramisu. Breakfast was two hot pastries (one sweet, one savory) and some fruit. I wasn’t that hungry for breakfast, but ate the fruit and most of one pastry. Overall, a nice eating experience!

I breezed through Passport Control (totally automated, as it has been the last couple of years) and met Felicity so we could catch the Elizabeth line into the city. I do want to note that there was one new component to my travel this time – I had to get an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) as that’s required for most UK visitors now. Details are available here – it’s a VERY easy process that just takes a couple of minutes, but you must complete it and get confirmation BEFORE you arrive in the UK (my confirmation email came within 1-2 minutes of completing the application). The current cost is £16 as of literally two days ago (it was £10 before that, which is what I paid) and you only have to complete it once every two years. This wasn’t even in place when I was last here barely a year ago, so keep it in mind for your next UK trip!

Because I had a good experience at the Premier Inn Hub Shoreditch last year, I suggested we start our trip here this time around (there are two other hotels in our near future though!), so that was our destination. It was definitely nice to have company on the journey into London as it helped to keep us both awake (though neither of us felt TOO zonked out after the long flight). If you remember from last year (but really, why would you?), the hotel is literally around the corner from an Overground station, so we had a very short walk to reach it after our train journey (and having smaller bags this time meant that it was easier to get down the stairs in the station and to walk to the hotel). My room will look pretty familiar from my several other Hub stays, but check it out below regardless. 🙂

Getting up a big escalator before reaching our hotel. Doesn’t Felicity look happy to be here??

Room 102 has proved to be perfectly fine!

After taking some time to get unpacked and settled, we decided to head out to see a bit of the area and walk around London. It was around 3 PM, so we didn’t have to stay up for too long and we both had a pretty good amount of energy, too. First up on the agenda was a late lunch/early dinner. The last thing I needed after sitting (and eating) on a plane was to eat a big meal, but I also knew that we’d be getting a good amount of steps in and that if I didn’t eat something then, I’d want something later in the evening, which would be annoying when I knew we’d both crash out early, so eat we did. Felicity found Williams Ale & Cider House online, so that became our destination. A pub felt like an appropriate way to start a UK trip, so we made the ten-minute or so walk to it and had a good meal – a sirloin steak sandwich for me, a club sandwich for her, and fries and and Scotch egg to share. Perfect!

Our Scotch egg was a bit dry, but still tasty. We both enjoyed our sandwiches and the fries passed the test, too.

Since we didn’t have anything planned and knew we wouldn’t be out late, we kept things simple and caught the tube towards one of my favorite spots, Trafalgar Square (and its environs). As always, I loved seeing a few of my favorite places and found it a great way to start this trip! And Felicity was happy to go along with it as she enjoys being here as much as I do. 🙂 We honestly didn’t do much, so there isn’t much to write about it, but we did stop by my usual haunts of Forbidden Planet and Fopp to do some light shopping and browsing and even managed to visit a new-to-me place that’s apparently been made somewhat famous by the Instagram crowd (see below). I found myself an ice cream cone, snapped some photos, got to see Trafalgar Square, and eassssssed into my first day in my favorite city. See for yourself below!

With its neat, colorful buildings, I can see why the folks on Instagram have made Neal’s Yard a popular photo stop!

And that put a bow on our first (half) day in London! As I said above, I’m now crashing on my third night here, so look for some catch-up posts on what else we’ve been up to soon, including Hidden London, Doctor Who, museums, and more. Oh my!