After three weeks in countries where the only English came after confused pauses, hearing everyone speaking (accented) English is both strange and a relief.
London is amazing. We got in last night and settled into our little apartment. It’s in northeastern London, near what the apartment owner (in a very strong London accent) called “the funky area”.
This morning we hit the streets and turned all our vouchers in for tickets. And then, as is tradition, we got on the hop on hop off bus. It was amazing. Mostly empty with amazing views of all the biggest sights. The only major thing we didn’t get to today was Buckingham Palace.
Unlike Paris, the architecture here is a mash of old and new. Glass skyscrapers are surrounded by brick and marble buildings.

We caught the bus at Trafalagar Square-

Nelson statue in the center of Trafalagar Square

Random blue chicken?

And rode around past the London Eye and a bunch of other pretty things before getting genuine fish and chips.

National Gallery

Afterwards we caught another bus out to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, which we’ll go into tomorrow. But those two are absolutely stunning. The Tower Bridge is a beautiful baby blue and the Tower of London is a medieval fortress dropped in the middle of a city.

London feels much more serious than Paris (the city we’ve visited of comparable size). There’s also a lack of mopeds/motorcycles, but hundreds of those distinctive red double deckers.

Bullet building

The shard

Our final activity of the day was riding the London Eye: a dream come true. It was beautiful.

View from the very top!

The first day in London was amazing and I can’t wait to see more.

Big Ben!