London 2022
At last we were able to go to London again. Two years and almost four months since the last time in March 2020, and now we were back. We loved every minute we could be in London and we were there for three weeks and two days. London is so enjoyable walking in, which we did pretty much all the time, especially in our favorite parks St James's Park and Green Park but also in other parks as Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Kew Gardens, Battersea Park, and many more. During the pandemic we dreamt of walking in St James's Park and Green Park, but also of riding the tube back and forth in different directions. May 24 2022 the Elizabeth Line was taken into service. Its color is purple and the moquette used on the trains is so beautiful. Hence there are many pictures of the Elizabeth Line.
We stayed in a hotel close to the airport and there were two options to get to central London, one being bus to Hounslow West and then the Piccadilly Line to central London. The other option was bus to Heathrow terminals 2 and 3 and then the Elizabeth Line to Paddington. It took more than an hour with the Piccadilly Line option and ca 50 minutes with the other alternative. As it was hot the last 10 days of our journey and the Elizabeth Line had airconditioning the choice was almost always this line. We also visited every station on the line, but Bond Street had not opened at the time. One of them was in Reading, which we visited with our good friend Stefan, who was in London for ca 10 days. We had a good burger at Gordon Ramsey's Street Burger restaurant.
As Five Guys has the best burgers in Europe we had a lot of meals in their locations across London. But this year we discovered a new restaurant in the south of London, Capital Kebab Restaurant. Their lamb kebab wraps were absolutely delicious and we went there quite a few times during the remainder of our journey. The kebab wraps can be seen in some of the pictures.
This year the Big Ben, formally known as Elizabeth Tower, was at last finished and the scaffolding removed. Work had been carried out on the tower, including straightening it up since it had started to lean a little bit. We are also friends of St Paul's Cathedral, which means we pay an annual fee to support the Cathedral and have free entrance to it whenever we like. We also had three boat trips on the Thames from Tower Hill to Greenwich, Greenwich to Westminster, and Woolwich to Embankment. Other highlights included the Sky Garden in the City of London, the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, London Pride, and Piccadilly Circus.
Length of Stay: Saturday 25 June-Tuesday 19 July 2022
Means of Transportation within Sweden: Mercedes V222
Means of Transportation from Sweden: British Airways from Stockholm
