I have to admit, that this wasn’t my first time I’ve been to London. And because of that, I did not visit most of the typical tourist stuff again. Okay, I did walk by some of the hotspots again, like the Knights Bridge, Westminster, Castle, Buckingham Palace or Soho district- but I did only that: walk by, look at the beautiful and old buildings, took some pictures and went on. So I don’t have more in detail tips for you here, but hopefully some of my pictures can give you a good overview (if you have never been to London but want some impressions)
In this blog entry, I will post some pictures and will write some impressions for each piece. Hope you enjoy!
The Stansted Express brought me to Liverpool station and from there I took the London underground train to Tower Hill. From there you have a nice view on London Tower. For me it was just a necessary stop on my way to the docklands. The docklands don’t have an underground station so I needed to take the DLR train, which starts at the Tower Gateway – a three minutes walk from Tower Hill.
The Tower Gateway looks like it was taken out of Balde Runner Movie or sth. I don’t know, but I often draw comparisons when I see something. Same with persons. It happens quiet often that I see a person and immediately think: This person reminds me on somebody else!
Anyway, Tower Gateway is the starting point of the DLR train. Its a normal train and not a subway. It connects the inner city with the docklands on the eastside.
Have you ever been to the ExCeL convention center in London? It is huuuge! Like a big shopping mall with many huge separated halls inside and a gangway in the middle with lots of restaurants and bars. And if you really need to get there fast: The London city airport is directly beneath it.
On the outside of ExCeL you will find the docklands and some nice walkways.
After arriving at ExCeL convention center and spending some time there I walked back along the dockside to my hotel. It is literally called “The Good Hotel” which was a fitting name. Just 10 minutes away from the convention center you have a great place to stay. I already posted some pictures in my other blog entries of it but here some more:
This was my hotel for three nights. In the background you can see the Emirates air train (which I didn’t use). The hotel is located ON the water. You have to go over a little bridge to enter it.
Inside, you will find a very modern and unique style:
The only confusing thing were the pathways between the rooms. everything looks so similar that it is easy to get a bit lost there.
The stuff consisted of a very young and helpful team. I had a good time at the bar in the evening, testing some different kinds of whisky 🙂 While the room was rather minimalistic and small it was also very clean and good enough for me. If you wanna go for breakfast or dinner there are some options outside the hotel. Just across from the hotel you can find a restaurant serving fish and chips, some other kind of fish or steak. On the side there are several smaller indian or asian restaurants and a few minutes away you can find a very good thai restaurant called Nakhon Thai!
So much for this part of the city. My next and last blog entry about my trip to London will show you some more typical tourist places like Westminster, Buckingham and the British museum.