TopTravelista

This is part 2 of Viva London a series of post on London. See the bottom for links to more posts.

Day two in London! Since I studied abroad in London in 1999 there have been several things that have changed that I wanted to check out, first the British Museum. The best thing about most museums in London is that they are free! (or request a small donation) The BM had a major Great Hall renovation in 2000. It looks amazing.  I loved all the natural light and the new space. We also check out the "borrowed" artifacts. Since we just went to the Greek Parthenon in Oct of 2012, It was interesting to see the best parts of the Parthenon in London and the story behind how it got there. The British Museum said they "saved" the artifacts but still refuse to give them back even with the new Acropolis Museum finished in 2009. Read more about it. You can spend hours at the British Museum but we had to leave around noon for lunch.

Travelmista at British Museum

Next up was the Borough Market for lunch! We travel by tube to the London Bridge tube stop and then made a bee line for the Kappacasein’s for the famous Grilled Cheese. Made with Montgomery cheddar, onions, leeks and garlic on Poilâne sourdough. Delicious! The cost was 5 pounds. You pay get a ticket and wait in the que for your toasted cheese sandwich. We also watched them making the Swiss raclette – a generous helping of melted Ogleshield on a pile of new potatoes, baby gherkins and pickled onions. Looked amazing too. Kappacasein is open on Thurs- Sat so make sure you plan ahead. The Borough Market website has a great interactive map. It honestly was the World's Best Grilled Cheese. And being from Wisconsin, I partly consider myself a connoisseur of Grilled Cheese or as the Brits called it Toasted Cheese Sandwich! How very British. 🙂

Love the Borough Market

Travelmista & the famous Kappacasein’s Grilled Cheese! Yum!

 

Then we made our way to the Millennium Bridge. Yet another thing that didn't exist back in 1999. We walked over the windy bridge and had a great view of the new building The Shard on our way to the Tate Modern gallery. The contemporary art gallery is located on the south bank in a converted power plant. They have well known artwork on display from Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne and so on. Make sure you have plenty of time for all the free museums in London. Then we walked down the south bank to the London Eye. The line was extremely long for the Eye so we decided to take a spin the next day.

 

Travlmista on Millennium Bridge in from of the Shard.

Look kids Big Ben & Parliament.

Amazing sunset!

Spinning the Eye

 

The sunset was amazing that night. We got great pictures of Big Ben and Parliament was we walked over the bridge. After a long day we decided to continue by window shopping at Harrods. We wandered around looking at this massive high end store that seemed to go on and on. The food courts are amazing and you can spend several hours/ days in this store. (Tube stop for Harrods is Knights Bridge) For dinner that night we went to Wagamama's.  It is a Japanese style restaurant. I loved this place back in 1999 but now I might be a little jaded having been to Japan and trying out several ramen noodle bars. But I still love Wagamama's too! Our final stop was walking around Covent Gardens and visiting the Transportation Museum Shop for some great gifts for family. They sell some great posters from vintage advertisements on the Tube. I now have a collection!

Travelista shopping at Harrods

Travelista at Wagamama's

 

Viva London Series

Viva London but skip Viva Forever- London Trip Report Day One

Viva London Best Grilled Cheese Forever- London Trip Report Day Two

Viva London 2 for 1 deals- London Trip Report Day Three

Viva London Orangery High Tea- London Trip Report Day Four