Pip, Pip. Cheerio, London!

After our 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to London, most of our first day was spent in a jet-lag induced fog. We arrived at five in the morning London time and after a speedy immigration and customs process we were off to our first adventure on the “tube,” London’s underground subway system. This proved to be quite simple (albeit more expensive than we’ve been used to) and we took our early-morning ride with all of our things.

It first dawned on us that we were in England when looking out of the window we saw our first house in a year. I know this might sound strange, but in Taiwan everyone lives in buildings. Even “houses” will take up 2-3 floors of a much larger apartment building. So, not only did we see our first western-style house in over a year, but it was the type you see in movies…tall, thin, brick and in a row of ones all similar to it with multiple chimneys on a charmingly curving street.

We were able to find our hotel with no problems, check in early (thankfully) and decided that we wanted to get to it so we wouldn’t fall asleep. If you know us, you know we tend to be stubborn and cheap and on trips like this that translates to us traversing long distances on foot. Thankfully, we also enjoy walking so this way of seeing a place has always agreed with us.


The first thing we noticed was how grand and how classic all of the buildings and architecture were. In terms of history, Taiwan and England are probably about as opposite as you can be. Taiwan is a young country (technically, it’s not even a country) and just went through their industrial revolution 10-15 years ago whereas England has been industrialized for more than 100 years now. All of the classical architecture in London seems to have a sense of permanence. It’s been here for at least 100 years and it’s going to be here for centuries more. Seeing buildings and the architectural details that go along with them was very pleasing to our eyes as there is not much to compare to it in America or in Taiwan.



We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the parliament buildings, the River Thames, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Here are some pictures:








After this, our feet thoroughly exhausted, we hopped on the train and went back to our hotel for a little break. As we had started so early it was only about two in the afternoon. Later we bought a picnic dinner from the supermarket down the street and walked to Regent’s Park which was nearby our hotel.

The other thing that has been really lovely about London is its’ parks. In Regent’s Park, we were amazed by how much space there was, how closely manicured the grass was and just how peaceful and quiet everything was. For a city of ten million people we spent much of the day wondering where all of them were. Or maybe it’s just perspective…after Taiwan it doesn’t feel crowded or busy. We had our dinner, looking out at a lake, enjoying the beautiful sunshine, clean air and scenery then called it an early day and went to bed for some much-welcomed sleep.