Five sunny days in London

Taking advantage of a Ryanair offer, my boyfriend and I took a flight at 140 euros return for the two of us with a bag to check in for toiletries and the heavier things. We also booked the hotel for 4 nights (via the website), the Melbourne House Hotel, with a 10% discount if you paid on site in cash; on 23/9 we finally set off from Bergamo. The hotel turned out to be spot on: recently renovated, clean, with an abundant breakfast. The area is Pimlico; the hotel is a two-minute walk from the metro stop and 7/8 minutes from Victoria Station, where the Terravision buses departing from Stansted airport stop. In Bergamo we also bought the Terravision ticket for 14 pounds return from Stansted to Victoria Station. So, arriving at Victoria around 1 pm, we walked to the hotel; the area is quiet and clean.

Having left our suitcases, with the map found in the hotel we walked to Westminster Abbey (where all the Kings have been crowned, entry is paid) we ate a sandwich on the street from a baker and explored the area, seeing Big Ben, which is right behind, and the parliament. In the evening, dinner in the pub. It's worth eating in pubs; we had big fish & chips and chicken curry with two pints of beer and spent 25 pounds! 24/09 Thursday After waking up, mea culpa, an hour early because I hadn't set the clock, we went down for breakfast and, with a splendid sun never seen in London, we got the Oyster card "pay as you go" topped up with 20 pounds, and headed to Buckingham palace to visit it inside (it's visitable only 8 weeks a year when Her Majesty is away) so we took advantage of it. It was lovely to see where the Queen receives celebrities and to see the exhibition of her clothes.

We watched the changing of the guard at 11 (it lasts 40 minutes and there were really a lot of people) so I recommend arriving early if you want to take some decent photos. Having taken the metro we went to St Paul's Cathedral but it was closed; we walked over the Millennium bridge.. and ate a disgusting hot dog on the street by the Thames. I don't recommend eating hot dogs on the street: 7 euros for 2 hot dogs and a small bottle of water, it was cold and really unpleasant; better to rely on Pret a Manger or get a sandwich from the bakeries that make them fresh for little more. We headed to the Tower of London (17 pounds) but it's worth it; we saw the crown jewels and wandered around the fortress. We went past London Bridge but didn't go up it.

We had a snack at Nero coffee with hot tea and some delicious little cakes and, not yet tired… we took the metro and headed to the London Eye (16 pounds including the virtual 3d tour). What a spectacle at sunset.. when the parliament lights up and reflects in the Thames….what a thrill to go up to 135 metres. It's open until 9 pm. Exhausted, we went for dinner at the Cambodian restaurant near our hotel so as not to walk any further because we had truly run out of energy! 25/09 Friday A very abundant breakfast and then by metro to the British Museum (which opens at 10 and is free). We didn't take the audio guide, which costs 3.5 pounds, because we wanted to be free; anyway we'd been to Athens last year so we devoted more time to the Egyptian area and the mummies.

At 12 we went out and headed to Temple church, which those who have read "The Da Vinci Code" will remember the details of, and which is free but the opening hours are displayed outside because it isn't always open. After Temple church we ate at Pret a Manger (salad and a sandwich) and headed to the natural history museum, which contains the dinosaur skeletons and is great fun if you go with children. Then, tired, we strolled through Hyde park, saw the Peter Pan statue and had a snack with fruit lying on the grass sunbathing. It's strange to see Londoners dressed in jacket and tie walking very fast even in the metro; there's nobody in jeans, not even the girls, and then at 5 when they leave the offices they all go to the pub to drink a pint of beer together and they all stand outside the pubs chatting.

We went to Trafalgar square to take photos on the gigantic lions and then back to the hotel, shower, dinner at the Indian restaurant Pimlico Tandoori, very good, and by metro to Piccadilly; we wandered around Chinatown and Soho and afterwards we drank a lovely pint of London Pride (very good).

26/09 Saturday Sun again…and not even a cloud, how wonderful; I'd read that the last week of September was the rainiest of the year!! We discovered that the Victoria line was closed for the weekend….so Pimlico too…but bus 24 that leaves in front of the hotel took us as far as Victoria and we headed to Notting Hill for the Portobello road market; we ate Ghanaian food (really very good) at a stall for 14 euros for two and headed to Camden town for the other, very particular market; we took loads of photos, went into the Cyberdog, discovered that for 4 pounds you can eat food of all kinds sold at the various stalls and sit on Vespa scooters cut in half to eat while looking at the river.

We wanted to go to King's Cross to photograph platform 9 and ¾ (where Harry Potter goes in) but there were really a lot of people; we went back and forth on the metro also because the blue line was closed and we spent an hour between one line and another of the metro; in the end we didn't manage to photograph platform 9 and ¾ of the railway station, there's work in progress, and then the Oyster went mad and when we got off at Covent garden it wouldn't let us out any more but luckily they opened the doors for us. Exhausted from the kilometres walked around the various markets, shower and dinner at the pub in Victoria, for our last London evening. It isn't true that the pubs and bars close early as I'd read in other accounts; maybe it depends on the areas, we ordered after 9.30 pm and there were people at 10.30 pm still coming in to have dinner.

27/09 Sunday We got up slowly, packed our suitcases and, still with the sun to accompany us, headed to Piccadilly, then to Camden for lunch where we tasted Nigerian food. At 3 the Terravision coach left for Stansted and, on the way to Victoria coach station, we stopped at a pub on the street to drink our last London Pride, very good! Our flight was at 6.45 pm but the checks at Stansted were strict; we saw people shell out 30 pounds for excess weight or baggage not complying at the moment of boarding. We just put my bag in the trolley case and put our jackets on and luckily they let us through; anyway we left late. I do recommend checking the sizes and weight on the website because it can happen that they don't check you, but with us they were very strict.

I must say I really liked London; it's a multiethnic city and during the week there's certainly less crowding than at the weekend; we didn't get a drop of rain…we went around in short sleeves but caught colds from the temperature swings: in the metro there are 30 degrees, in the bars there's air conditioning and outside in the shade you needed a sweatshirt and in the sun it was too hot; anyway we were very lucky. As for the H1N1 flu, we had hand gel and disinfected our hands often and we didn't see anyone with masks; maybe the media exaggerate. I hope this helps; we skipped the shopping, we didn't go to Harrods nor to Carnaby street, but wandering the city we did