Not too long ago, we decided to travel up North again to visit friends in London. Since we’ve never been outside of the capital, and we had long weekend ahead of us, a trip to the inland of England was on our agenda.

Scanning The Map.

I’ve always wanted to travel to Scotland, but time was too short to head up this far, so Nottingham caught out attention when scanning the map. An hour later, we were on our way. I always thought that distances in the UK are a lot greater but after only three hours of driving (we would have made it in two but getting out of London during rush hour put us a bit behind schedule), we reached our desired destination.

A Weekend In Nottingham.

Nottingham is a dynamic place with big-city aspirations, atmospheric historical sights, and a buzzing music and club scene thanks to the thriving student life.

Nottingham’s old city centre is a highlight and home to several important attractions like Nottingham’s Old Market Square (the largest in England btw). Nottingham Castle gives you an excellent view of the city and is notable for its bronze statues of Robin Hood. Numerous caves exist underneath Nottingham, including the spectacular Mortimer’s Hole located directly below the castle. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see this for whatever reason. I guess a little more research in advance would have been helpful. Then there’s also Highfields Park, a large park full of magnificent trees, exotic plants and a great place for outdoor activities like boating.

Nottingham was definitely an exciting weekend trip. Hopefully we’ll get to come here again – with nice weather (it was raining about 80% of the time we were there) to really enjoy all the sights.

Forever associated with the Robin Hood legend, Nottingham is a dynamic county capital with big-city aspirations, atmospheric historical sights, and a buzzing music and club scene.

There are lots of opportunities to experience something totally new. With dozens of trails around the city and county, exploring this heritage is a great deal, since it’s free!

Nottingham is one of the most popular weekend destinations in the United Kingdom.

There are many things that can be done in Nottingham, yet we decided to simply walk around this lovely city and enjoy the typical British way of living.

The red brick of Nottingsham’s building are really beautiful and definitely caught our camera-eye.

Nottingham is a thriving city in the heart of England and home to around 750.000 people. Still it has been named the eighth worst place to live in England…

I’ve been to London a couple of times already, nevertheless I see myself as the typical tourist; I’m still shocked with supermarket prices, I still find driving in a red double-decker bus totally cool, I have no idea how to re-load my Oyster card and I still find the underground system complete frightening…

Still, London is one of the greatest mega cities with an amazingly diverse culture scene. Including the outer suburbs, it’s one of the largest capitals in the world, therefore visiting for a weekend can give you a real headache, when thinking of all the things you’d like to do. Well, you just gotta lower your sights; relax and slow down a little. You need to realise that you won’t be able to see it all.

I’d like to give you a couple of tips (from tourist to tourist) for a great London experience:

Drop the tube and just walk: As I said, I think the underground in London is frightening. Sure, it’s also one of the most extensive and frequent underground systems in the world, but you’ll experience so much more just by strolling around. Of course it always depend where you are and were you want to go, but as a tourist, you’ll (mostly) stick around the main attractions anyway.

Stay off the main roads: As it is in every city, the main roads are always packed with people and traffic. This can be nerve racking, so stroll around the side streets and I guarantee that you’ll come across some great little shops, cafés, buildings, parks and so on. One of the best things about London are all the different neighbourhoods and how quickly you can move between areas of very different types.

Don’t stress: As said before, you won’t be able to see every bit of London. Rather than rushing from one sight tot he next, take your time to enjoy London’s neighbourhoods, because there’s nothing worse than being stressed on vacation.

Be a tourist: Don’t be embarrassed if you want to go to “touristy” things … that’s totally cool. During my first visit to London, I actually felt more touristy than ever before (partly because I’ve also never seen to many tourist on one spot in any other city before) and I didn’t like it at all. But during my second and third visit, I realised that it’s fine and even Londoners like doing touristy things from time to time.

Check out Where to Stay in London: The Ultimate Sightseeing Guide to complete your London experience.

The glass and steel structure of the Shard is 310 meters high with 95 floors. At night, a laser show will be projected from the building (I guess they copied Hong Kong’s Symphony of Lights), connecting it with other major landmarks of London.

The inauguration yesterday marked the completion of the exterior while work on the inside is expected to continue into 2013. Then it will be another great tourist attraction … but honestly, would you pay 25 Pounds for a lift up to the top? For Londoners this prize may not shock you but I think it’s a bloody rip off! Same with the Eye. But if you want to see London from above, face the fact that you’ll have to dig deep into your pocket.

But not everyone if fond of the buildings futuristic silhouette … Some even say that „the Shard has slashed the face of London“. What do you think?

The Shard is also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower. It’s an 87-storey skyscraper in London that forms part of the London Bridge Quarter development.

The Shard’s construction began in March 2009; it was topped out on 30 March 2012 and inaugurated on 5 July 2012. Practical completion was achieved in November 2012.

The bus also brings you to Paddington Station in London.

After settling in a bit, we started exploring the area. The area in the evening is completely quiet – no tourists at all, which is nice for a change since London is packed with visitors. We found an open Tesco supermarket, and decided to get something there. We simply didn’t want to spend time in restaurants since we only had 36 hours…

Strolling around the streets of London at night.

In the morning it was “hop, hop – out of bed”; a quick instant coffee and off we were. After walking a bit, we passed some people sleeping in card boards in quiet corners and realized that this is the true reality, even in a big first world country. Not everybody is a lucky one nowadays to have a roof over their head.

The Portobello Market (which as mentioned was just around the corner from our hotel) just started getting busier; merchants slowly arrived and  only  jet-lagged visitors were already there. Coffeehouses were open already and after walking up and down a little, we sat down for a breakfast in a very nice café with a Jamaican lady(boy) who served us.

One of many little shop at Portobello market, London.

Portobello Market really has something for everybody. We fell in love with an unusual table but with the limited baggage of 15 kg it was not meant to be :( The vibes were absolutely great but since we only had a limited time in the city, we continued by taxi to another spot, which is well-known yet mostly only visited by hardcore Beatles fans: Abbey Road footpath. The footpath on the cover of an Beatles album from 1969. If you happen to live in this area (and maybe even have to pass Abbey Road quite often), one needs to be very very patient … there’s always someone who wants to cross the footpath of Abbey Road and get a picture taken. Of course, we had to do the same :)

After done with this, we took the underground from St.John’s Wood to London Bridge and strolled along the River Thames towards Tower Bridge. We passed the HMS Belfast – a warship from WW2 – which is a museum nowadays, but is closed due to renovation. Anyway, as you probably know, Tower Bridge is one of the landmarks of London. In the vicinity of Tower Bridge are some of the most famous modern buildings in Europe. For example, architects Norman Fosters’ award wining construction, the 30 St. Mary Axe (also known as the “Egg” or “Gherkin”).

30 St. Mary Axe in London.

Tower Bridge in London.

We walked up to Liverpool Street station and continued further to Brick Lane with its multicultural cafes, restaurants, little shops and thrift stores. We came across some sort of huge warehouse, where food-stalls from around the world had their delicacies to offer; we decided to have some Ethiopian dish for late lunch. One  plate for 4 Pounds & it tasted absolutely delightful … even in London you do find some great food for little money.

A colorful ABC wall in London.

It was about 4pm when we decided that it was time for another bus trip to have a bit of a break without a great interruption. So we took the bus to London Bridge. From there we walked up to Tate Gallery, which is a pleasant stroll along the river where we passed the Replica ship of Sir Francis Drake. We crossed Millennium Bridge from Tate Gallery towards St. Paul’s Cathedral and walked upriver until Westminster Bridge. We left our the London Eye since the tickets were ridiculously expensive. By that time, we were already so exhausted, that we took a bus to High Street Kensington and walked through Kensington Garden towards our hotel … London’s parks are so beautiful and quiet, you almost feel like in the countryside. With a couple of snacks in our bags, we crashed into our room and stayed there until the next day.

London eye ferris wheel.

Early the next morning, we were already on our way back to the airport. In 36 hours we (clearly) didn’t get the change to see all of London’s sights. We left out Buckingham Palace, missed Westminster Abbey and didn’t see Downing Street … but all in all, it was an amazing trip and not seeing everything is good anyway because then we’ll simply have to come back again :)