You ever have that feeling where you’ve been on your feet a lot and then you realize how nice it feels to sit down? That’s how I’m feeling right now, as I write this blog post. I’m in sunny Brighton in a small, cute hotel room, with a breeze coming in the window. Doesn’t that sound nice? I hope you weren’t wanting to read more about that though because I have to tell you about my first full day in London first!

As first full days go, this particular one was very nice. Not only did I fall asleep early the previous night (around 9 PM), but I slept pretty soundly and didn’t get up until around 7 AM. Glorious! And on top of that, I could see it was another sunny day in London-town, though there were a few more clouds than Tuesday. That didn’t stop me from taking a nice, four-mile walk while catching up on my podcasts though! I didn’t find as much to photograph on this walk, but it was still a great way to start my day.

With my walk done, I went back to the hotel, where Felicity was just finishing her breakfast. After I got ready, we were on our way to our first stop of the day, a Hidden London tour of Holborn. My enjoyment of these tours remains unabated (I did both the Aldwych and Baker Street tours on my last trip!) and it was pretty easy to convince Felicity to do Holborn on this trip as she’s done a couple herself (we did Down Street with a couple other friends in 2023). It’s so cool to learn about the different histories of these Underground stations and it turns out that part of the history of this one is tied to the now-closed Aldwych station I toured last year in that Aldwych was a one-stop station and its one stop was Holborn. So although Holborn remains a well-used station today, part of what we got to see on the tour was the old tunnel and platforms that were used for that one-station side-trip to Aldwych. Since I already saw the Aldwych side of that equation last year, it was fun to see Holborn this time! Some other notable callouts on this tour include the fact that (also like Aldwych), it’s been used as a filming location for documentaries, music videos, and even a small part of Superman IV. It was also used to test new Underground design aesthetics and was even home to a model railway club for a number of years. You never know what you’re going to learn when you do these tours, which is all the more reason to book them!

I guess the tour is a little less hidden when you see these photos, isn’t it? Don’t tell anyone I showed you. 🙂

I quite like the startled look on Felicity’s face! Perhaps she was reacting to the fact that we had to walk down 196 stairs to reach the first stop on our tour?

These are cool! On the left, it’s neat to see an older Holborn roundel that includes Kingsway (which helped travelers confirm where they were). On the right, it’s just odd to see two station names together like that!

Another couple of cool views! I always think it’s fun to see those “dead” tunnels as I enjoy the spooky vibe they give off. The picture on the right shows an intact signal-box, nearly all of which have been torn out over the years because they aren’t needed for modern signaling.

And that wrapped up another fun Hidden London tour! This one maybe didn’t feel quite as interesting to me, perhaps because I’d heard some of the Aldwych info last year. Still a great experience though. Kudos to our guides, Phil, Becky, and Anthony for their work!

Post-tour, we walked a great distance, around the corner and maybe even partway down the block, to hit the Shakespeare’s Head pub. At first, it was just going to be a potty stop, but since I hadn’t had breakfast and Felicity was ready for lunch, we decided to make a meal of it. I’m well aware that Wetherspoon’s (the hospitality conglomerate that operates the pub, along with many others) aren’t a generally loved brand of pubs here as they feel very cookie-cutter from a menu and service standpoint (indeed, we ordered everything via an app and only interacted with employees when they dropped it at our table) and the food isn’t spectacular, but I found my meal to be perfectly fine. As I hadn’t had breakfast, I decided to go for a breakfast-type meal of sausage, beans, and chips, while Felicity had a burger. No issues to report with either meal, but nothing to write home about either. What WAS good about this stop is that I randomly got to see my good friend Matt and his wife Tricia, who just so happen to be visiting the UK right now. We’ve known each other for something like 35 years from our childhood in Iowa and, although we actually all live in the Twin Cities these days, we never see each other, so when I saw on Facebook that they were in London, I connected with them and they ended up being pretty nearby, so they joined us for lunch. I wish I would have gotten a picture before we parted, but it was great to catch up with each other! Now we just have to do the same thing in the place we all actually live. 🙂

Felicity is excellent at planning things, so when we booked the tour of Holborn, she suggested visiting the British Museum afterwards as it’s really close. As I hadn’t been there since 2008, I was more than happy to pay it a return visit, so I booked tickets for it. Note that entry into the museum is free (though there is a £5 suggested donation), but it’s recommended to book tickets ahead of time to avoid a big line to get in. Matt and Tricia had been there right before meeting us and said it was really busy (which we later confirmed was true), so we were glad we had advance tickets!

If you aren’t familiar with the British Museum, go in knowing that it’s VAST. Not only is the building huge, but the collection within is also gigantic. In fact, its permanent collection has over eight million items, making it the largest such collection in the world. It also dates alllll the way back to 1753, making it the oldest public national museum as well. So it’s kind of a big deal! That said, it’s also kind of a big deal because it’s FULL of items from around the world, which may not sound unusual for a museum, but the British Museum is particularly known for keeping items from countries, even when those countries have asked them to be returned. Of course, it’s not as simple as just giving them back (though it should be!) because multiple British laws prevent museums from doing that (click here for a recent article that discusses this), but it feels like something has to give at some point, especially when reading about the history of how some of these items ended up there in the first place (stories like a British military or political leader seeing something they liked in another country a century or two ago and just taking it to bring back with them). I guess the positive side of this story is that it allows people like me to come to one place to see a huge amount of stuff, but hopefully something will change in the future that will allow some of these treasures to be returned.

As someone who is admittedly not an art expert, I’ll let the photos below tell the story of what I saw, since I mostly photographed things that caught my eye or looked interesting, rather than based on having a favorite artist or something. I saw all kinds of good stuff though – Egyptian mummies, automatons, Aztec art, and more. Lots to see here!

Loved the colors in designs in both of these!

I immediately remembered having seen these Aztec masks on my previous visit.

I love the blues in these Asian pieces!

The Egyptian artifacts are especially interesting!

Seeing skulls like this always gives me pause as I immediately think how wild it is that these were living, breathing humans once upon a time.

I have a similar reaction to mummies like these, knowing that human remains are inside them. Well, not the third one – that’s a mummified baboon!

The Sutton Hoo Helmet was found in England in 1939 and dates back to around 620 AD. The picture on the right is of a modern reconstruction that shows what it likely looked like all those centuries ago.

A big, blue dish and a small, colorful pendant.

The museum was actually closing while we were still walking through it, so we only spent a couple of hours walking through it. To be fair, that was enough time for me, but if you’re someone who’s really into museums, you’ll probably want to plan out exactly what you want to see because there’s sooooo much! For example, the Rosetta Stone also lives in the British Museum, but we didn’t even get to it!

From a cultured afternoon in the British Museum, we moved on to a chill, fun evening of drinks and catching up with my friend Charlie at a neat bar called The Broadcaster, right next to the old BBC Television Centre in White City. Charlie was out that way already, so we met her there and had a grand old time chatting and laughing! We didn’t remember to get a selfie with her, but it may not surprise you to learn I still have a few photos to represent our evening.

By the time we passed a few hours gabbing with Charlie, it was time to head back to the hotel. What a good day it was though! Check back soon for the update on our next day, which proved to be another fun, full one, including another museum, fun views, good food, and more friends. London, baby! 🙂