After seeing how tired we were on Saturday night, we decided to take it easy on Sunday…although now that I look back on what we did, it seems that we stayed just as busy as usual! We slept in…or tried to, and researched a place for breakfast. We wanted to break out of the ‘toast and a banana’ routine for breakfast, so we went to Giraffe, the place we had those tasty desserts on day 3. We were happy to find that they had a vegetarian English breakfast, complete with toast, baked beans, mushrooms, vegetarian sausage, potato wedges, and avocado slices. Hands down, the best breakfast of our trip.
After our delicious (and hearty!) breakfast, we walked along the Thames to the City Cruises dock at the London Eye. We took the boat all the way to the Tower of London, where we stopped to pick up and drop off some folks, and onto Greenwich. My Aunt Becky had recommended Greenwich to us, plus I was looking for any way to stay on a boat for as long as possible, so we decided to give Greenwich a try. We’re so glad we did. On the way there, it was kind of like a boat tour of everything we’d done the day before, which was fun…
We arrived in Greenwich about an hour after leaving the London Eye, and we started out by wandering around a little bit – we saw the Cutty Sark (only from the outside), some cute Greenwich streets, and (accidentally) found the Greenwich Market. I got lasagna and Danny got stuffed eggplant from a lady who makes and sells fancy (and delicious!) vegan food from her booth at the market. We also came across some amazing looking desserts and lo and behold, they were ALL vegan. I died. We both got a slice of Victoria sponge cake and a treat for later – a peanut butter cupcake for me and a brownie for Danny.
As we ate our dessert, we walked around the Old Royal Naval College. We also took a tour of the Painted Hall, which was amazing – the ceiling alone took 19 years to paint. We also checked out the chapel across the way, which was neat, but not quite as show-stopping as the Great Hall.
We went back to the market real quick because I decided I wanted to buy a few scarves I had seen while wandering around earlier, and then we ran (literally) back to the boat so we could catch the 3:00pm boat back to the London Eye. This time, we rode on the top of the boat (on the way there we sat on the inside and only went outside when the boat stopped at the Tower of London), as it was much less crowded, and it seemed warmer as well.
We hurried back from Greenwich because in the morning we bought two tickets for the London Eye – one to be used before 4:30pm, and one to be used between 4:30pm and closing. We got on the Eye a little after 4pm, and spent the next thirty minutes oohing and aahing at London from the sky. The London Eye is expensive, but in my mind, it’s worth it. Especially the way we did it – two rides is only five pounds more than a single ride. And, I just realized that 90% of my London Eye pictures are of Big Ben/Houses of Parliament. Oops…
After our (first) trip on the London Eye, we walked to Trafalgar Square and finished seeing the National Portrait Gallery before they closed at 6pm. We stopped for a few pictures outside by the lions before walking to Pret-a-manger across the street for some sustenance – an avocado wrap for Danny and a berry smoothie for me. We ate/drank while walking down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace, and then cutting into St. James Park where we walked from bench to bench, enjoying that beautiful time of day right before the sun sets, as well as some little critters.
From St. James Park we walked by Buckingham Palace and into Green Park. Green Park was peaceful and quiet and felt so removed from the busyness that is London. I especially loved the tree-lined walkway that cut through the middle of the park.
We walked back the London Eye via St. James Park (I just can’t get enough of that place) and took our second ride of the day over London. We probably should have gotten on about 15 – 30 minutes earlier if we wanted to catch the sunset from the Eye, but it was lovely anyways. Not a lot of pictures to share because I discovered that I’m not skilled at getting clear photos at night, especially not from a glass capsule.
After the Eye, we ate the treats we’d saved from the Greenwich Market along the Southbank, and got back to our apartment by 9pm…quite early for us on this trip. We planned for the next day and hit the hay.
Day 5 was one of my very favorite days in London. Taking a boat to Greenwich and back was relaxing and a great way to see London, and learn along the way as well, as we had humorous and informative tour guides on both legs of the trip. We absolutely loved Greenwich and Danny promised me that someday we’d go back. Next time we’re in London, I might actually stay in Greenwich for part (or all!) of our trip, it was just that charming, and there’s so much to do there, too. And, of course, I love the London Eye. We had a fairly cloudy day, but hey, it’s London. And honestly, one of the best parts of the whole day was the food. From breakfast to lunch to all of the desserts and snacks in between, we really ate well. I’d do this day all over again tomorrow if I could.
Check out day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4 of our time in London, if you’d like.
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