London: Day Three

One of the things Claudio most wanted to do in England was to visit the football stadium of a famous team, and in London we had the perfect opportunity to do this. On the morning of our third day in the city, we went on the tube up to Holloway Road station in the north of the city and walked the short distance to the Emirates Stadium, the home of Arsenal.

The stadium was huge and very impressive to see. I had enjoyed visiting Parc des Princes in Paris during my Year Abroad, but I swear the Emirates was even bigger and more imposing.

We went inside the shop, which sells all kinds of Arsenal merchandise, and discovered that it was possible to take a tour of the entire stadium for £20 per person. We decided to go for it, and I'm really glad we did, as it was such a unique experience and we practically had the place to ourselves.

During the tour we were able to see sights like the VIP box, the Diamond Club, the players' tunnel, the home and away dressing rooms, and the interview and press conference rooms, as well as the FA Cup and Community Shield trophies! 

We also had the chance to take some fun photos, which I couldn't resist buying afterwards!

I like football but I'm not a fanatic, and I'd never have had the idea of going to the stadium myself. So I'm really happy Claudio suggested it - it was such a fun and memorable experience!

On our way back into the city centre, we passed through King's Cross station, and stopped to have a look at Platform 9 3/4 and the Harry Potter shop next door. Nowadays if you want your photo taken there, you have to queue to get it taken by a professional photographer and then pay for it afterwards, so we didn't bother. I remember when I was younger, you could take as many photos there as you liked!

After lunch we took the tube to Tower Hill station, as we wanted to take a closer look at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge after seeing them on the boat trip the previous day . And we definitely weren't disappointed... 

When we came out of the tube station, the view of the Tower of London was just breathtaking. I'd only been there once before when I was very little, and I'd forgotten just how impressive it is. If I was writing my post about castles and palaces now rather than in September, it would certainly have a place in my top 10!

Close by, there was a great spot for taking pictures with Tower Bridge and the Shard.

Next it was time to visit Tower Bridge! We bought tickets to the museum, which meant we could climb up one of the towers and look at various exhibits about the bridge along the way. At the top, we could walk along a glass floor while crossing over to the other tower! 😲

The bridge is such an amazing landmark, and what makes it even better is that it's surrounded by many other amazing landmarks, like the Tower of London, the Gherkin, the Walkie Talkie, the Shard and City Hall. So we took plenty of photos there!

This was definitely one of my favourite parts of the entire trip. This area of the city is so stunning to look at, with its mix of old and new architecture. It really made me want to move to London!

The next place we visited was St. Paul's Cathedral. We had wanted to take one of the iconic red double-decker buses to get there, but trying to catch one turned out to be a lot harder than we expected, and in the end we had to admit defeat and take the tube!

I had actually never seen the cathedral up close before, so it was a new attraction for both of us. We didn't go inside, as the tickets were just too pricey at £20 each, and there were only 15 minutes left until closing time. Luckily, the building was amazing to look at from the outside, and we spent a while just contemplating it.

Afterwards we crossed over Millennium Bridge, which is famous for being destroyed in a scene from one of the Harry Potter movies.

On the other side of the bridge we found Shakespeare's Globe, as well as some cute Egyptian geese!

Lastly, Claudio wanted to take some more photos with the famous red phone boxes to show to his friends and family back in Chile.

All in all, it was an incredible day in an incredible city that we'll remember for a long time. 

The following day, we spent a last morning in London before travelling to Sweden. It would turn out to be one of those days where almost everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, but thankfully it all worked out okay in the end! I'll be writing about it very soon...

Read about London: Day One here, London: Day Two here and London: Day Four here!