London, old and new

For those who love do-it-yourself, adventure-style travel, London is ideal. My boyfriend and I booked a flight with Go Fly, a low-cost English airline. Return flight price 80 euros. Recommended for anyone who wants to spend little. For my first ever flight it didn't go badly, apart from the plane being a bit small, about the size of a bus.

We landed at the airport. Bus, 2-3 hours to get to the centre. London is traffic personified. We got off. We searched for an Underground station, unfortunately on strike. One suitcase between two (like the song by Tiromancino) super heavy, carried by my boyfriend, obviously, all across Hyde Park. Little squirrels hopping about peacefully in the park. We reached the hotel. Imagine, we hadn't spent much and we settled for it. We often travel like this. We were on an adventure. Room 1 metre by 1 metre. Bathroom with a spider. Bed dirty with chocolate pudding, hairs on the pillow. Who cared. Exhausted as we were, we threw ourselves onto the bed. For the record, it was 10 pm when we got to the hotel.

Up early, huge super-good breakfast with toast, jam, beans, eggs and everything you want. Off we go.. my advice is to prepare a little travel itinerary. There are so many things to see. The museums take up a lot of your time. So if you have 5-6 days it's better to organise yourself well. We visited much of the city, very beautiful, a mix of modern and ancient in constant contrast: you turn around and see the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben, and on the other side a huge ultra-modern Ferris wheel (the London Eye) all lit up on the Thames. Recommended on a sunny day.

Besides the city, I suggest you also go outside it. The Tube takes you everywhere, you just need a map of the lines and everything is sorted. I highly recommend Camden Town. I don't recommend Portobello Road, it didn't impress me at all. Very beautiful Big Ben at night and Tower Bridge, with a bit of luck you can see the moment it opens to let ships pass. The Tower of London, nice, more than anything distinctive, the guards are in uniform and live inside with some giant ravens. The jewels are very beautiful, but there's the usual queue problem... For the Changing of the Guard you also need patience, it's full of tourists, it happens on any sunny day at midday... nice, a bit long....

What struck me about London.. everything from the people to the squirrels.. people from every nation and madmen who throw themselves into the middle of the road to cross...

Anyway the best period is June-July. I had a week of sunshine. A tip.. the Tube closes at midnight. We found out at our own risk, we just made it without a ticket. From midnight to half past midnight they don't check tickets, you get into the Tube free... it's not a rule, it's just how it is,.... this is what we were told.....

I wish you a good trip and I hope I've been useful... Bye bye