Taking on the world: Part I - London Hop-on/Hop off bus and Shopping at Primark

Taking on the world: Part I - London Hop-on/Hop off bus and Shopping at Primark

London, London is my cit-tay! Ah, as we (my mom and I) rolled off our American Airlines flight from Charlotte directly to London Heathrow, we had officially landed in London. This was my second visit to the city, my first was back in 2012 during the Olympic Games.

First let me tell you, if you’ve never left the country be prepared for the dreaded customs line. Mile long lines of people, shuffling their luggage up and down roped off lines  to talk to boarder control. While I have never encountered a rude boarder control, bless them. Kind of a interesting job. 

Anyhoo I digress, so once we got through boarder patrol, we headed to Heathrow Express Train. I highly reccomend the Heathrow express if you are staying in the paddington area. Tickes were about 37 pounds per person round trip! I mean thats a steal! The train area is a lot less crowded than the underground, and a lot faster. The Heathrow express was super clean and almost looked brand spanking new (Wifi On-board, and option to upgrade to business class). It was a 15 minute ride from the airport to the paddington station. The paddington station reminds me of what grand central station would look like (never been there just saying). 

Paddington was about a 5 mintue walk (yes, with our two bags each) to our home for the next several days. We arrive at Point A hotel, and was greeted by two lovely front desk staff members. Luckily our room was available for early-early check in, as we had to come a day early due to the hurricane Florence back home. Point A was just as I remebered it from back in 2012. Back then it was called Tune Hotel, but just as clean, sleek and very basic. If you’re looking for a simple hotel definately check out Point A ( I love their slogan- The best place to start is Point A ).

Mom and I dropped off our bags, freshed up our lipstick and headed to the Hop-on/Hop-off bus location near the Marble Arch. We purchased a two-day pass which included a river-cruise, night tour but unfortatenly we only used 24 hours ha oops. The hop-on/hop-off bus is the best way to get aclemated to any new city that has this touristy bus. In london, there is a live tour guide, to which are typically pretty comical.

Be warned friends, as I’m writing this in 2018, there is a lot of roadwork and construction going on in London, so the bus ride was a bit longer than I remebered. It was still fun and exciting to see the beautiful sites with my mom as it was her first time.

To see the lovely adventures of the rest of our day... check out the video below.