LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Datumi: 01.07.2023 – 04.07.2023

RIX-LTN

01.07.2023: The first and main reason for this trip – the Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe concert at the world-famous Wembley Stadium in London. When I bought the concert tickets, I had absolutely no plans for this spring, so somehow the first half of 2023 has turned out to be pretty packed, both mentally and financially. Master’s degree – Structural Engineer certification – Patagonia – Rammstein – a new car – and now Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe in London. And we’re only halfway through the year. Not a bad schedule…
Once again, I’ve scraped together the last few crumbs of my remaining vacation days, and off we go! 🤘🏻

LE GAFFE HOTEL

01.07.2023: For the first time, a genuinely useful perk from Booking.com’s Genius Level 3. A free taxi from the airport to the hotel. Saved us some time and at least £25.
We’ve arrived a bit too early to check in, so let’s go find somewhere to eat. Quite by accident, we’ve ended up staying in what seems to be a pretty authentic British neighbourhood. Small, narrow streets winding up and down the hills, with those funny-looking black cabs so typical of the UK driving around. And the best part – not too many tourists.
We stop by the nearby New York Cafe, where we have a pretty delicious meal. Not exactly cheap, but I guess that’s what you can expect from London. We end up paying £51 for lunch (a really tasty one, to be fair).
The hotel room is tiny but cosy. Time to get some rest before the main event of the day at Wembley. We paid €470 for three nights at this hotel. Breakfast included too.

DEF LEPPARD & MÖTLEY CRÜE

01.07.2023: As soon as we step out of the Underground, it’s pretty obvious which way to go. The Wembley Stadium arch is already visible from a distance. And judging by the crowds heading towards the stadium, it’s clear we’re all here for the same reason.
The crowd management is excellent. There’s plenty of everything and, most importantly – enough for everyone. No queues at the entrance, no queues for beer, and best of all – no queues for the toilets either.
Beer is pretty expensive, as expected – £7.85, but what can you do? Today it’s time to switch off my inner cheapskate and just enjoy the concert.
Since it’s a long concert, everyone has assigned seats. Ours are directly opposite the stage, at the other end of the stadium. The artists themselves look like tiny dots from where we’re sitting, but the screens are huge and the sound reaches us just fine. And what a sound! Especially loud during Mötley Crüe, because Vince isn’t quite as strong vocally as he was back in the eighties, so they make up for it with a massive dose of drums and bass guitar. Either way, I absolutely love it.
Def Leppard’s singer Joe Elliott has clearly done a much better job of keeping himself in shape, and you can hear the difference immediately. The guy can actually sing live – and how! After all, a Brit performing at Wembley. Hard to imagine a better place to put on a show.
The 6 hours we spent at the stadium flew by without us even noticing. Was the concert quality outstanding in terms of sound, rather than the artists’ performances? Probably not. Did that bother us or stop us from enjoying it? Probably not either! Absolutely no regrets! Give us more concert tickets!
One thing though – next time Wembley should really sell tickets for the entire stadium floor as well. Even with around 60,000 people attending, it looked like the stadium was half-empty, because only half of the pitch was filled with seats. The other half was deliberately left completely empty. Why? No idea.

GREENWICH

02.07.2023: After yesterday’s intense concert and going to bed pretty late, we’re feeling a bit wrecked this morning. After breakfast, we go back to bed for a little more sleep and don’t manage to leave the hotel until around noon. No worries, we’re in no rush.
There’s some kind of street market stretching all the way along our little street. All sorts of interesting street food and bits and pieces for sale.
A combination of the Underground and train gets us to Greenwich Park in about 50 minutes, where the 0°0′0″ Prime Meridian divides the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. We couldn’t quite bring ourselves to pay £18 just to stand on the actual line, though. You can see it from a distance through the fence anyway. So that’s exactly what we do before moving on.
We accidentally stumble upon Greenwich Market. Once again, plenty of different street food options, and we decide to try some wraps. They looked a bit better than they actually tasted, but they were alright.

TOWER BRIDGE

02.07.2023: Back in the city centre, we start ticking off all the classic tourist attractions. First up – Tower Bridge. You can already see the bridge in all its glory from quite a distance. We make our way towards it along the riverside promenade. Before crossing the bridge, we grab an ice cream each and then walk over to the other side. Since I left my jumper behind at Wembley yesterday, I need to find a replacement today. H&M comes to the rescue.
We’re starting to feel pretty exhausted. We’ve already done quite a lot of walking, and yesterday’s adventures aren’t exactly helping with today’s energy levels either.
Today’s official sightseeing programme still includes the London Eye and Big Ben. Turns out Big Ben is no longer hiding behind scaffolding, but enjoying the view isn’t exactly easy with the enormous crowds of tourists everywhere. We quickly snap a couple of photos and get out of there. I swear, crowds like these can completely kill your interest in even the most famous landmarks in the world.

BRITISH MUSEUM

03.07.2023: We arrive at the museum about 10 minutes before opening, and the queue outside is already at least 200 metres long. Entry to all national museums in the UK is free, which obviously attracts huge crowds. Quite a few school groups too. Luckily, the queue moves really fast, and within 15 minutes we’re already inside.
As expected, the museum is absolutely enormous. Even if you spent just one second looking at each exhibit, I doubt there would be enough hours in a day to see everything. The exhibitions are spread across several floors and divided by geographical regions. We start with Asia, where China, Japan and Korea each have their own sections. I had pretty high expectations for Japan, hoping to see some samurai. There was one, but I was hoping for more.
What really caught my attention was Ancient Egyptian history and its artefacts. Mummies – both human and cat ones. Overall, the museum is definitely interesting, but as usual, towards the end of the second hour, I’ve pretty much reached my museum limit. So we grab some lunch at the museum café and get ready to move on.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

03.07.2023: We slowly make our way through Soho towards the royal residence – Buckingham Palace. Soho is currently absolutely covered in rainbow colours. I guess it’s Pride Month.
Quite a crowd has gathered by the golden palace gates. Across the courtyard, we can also spot two guards in their red uniforms and those huge, fluffy, bowl-shaped hats. The flag is flying, which I guess means the King is home. Didn’t manage to catch a glimpse of him this time, though.
Not much point standing around by the gates for too long, so we’ll head towards Westminster next, where the enormous Westminster Abbey is located. We’ll give Big Ben another chance too. Yesterday we practically sprinted past it.

BIG BEN

03.07.2023: Big Ben looks much better from the other side. Fewer tourists, and there’s even some grass where you can sit down and relax. We don’t stay too long, though. A few photos and off we go.
Today we’ve also got some bar hopping, or should I say pub tourism, on the agenda. The Brits really know how to create a great atmosphere in their pubs. Relaxed, laid-back, no pressure. Everyone sitting in their own little corner, chatting away and solving the world’s problems. The only thing missing for complete happiness would be slightly cheaper beer, but what can you do? It’s London, after all. Expect to pay around £6–7 for a pint. And coming all the way here just to drink water would be pretty stupid. Time to silence my inner cheapskate and go for it.
Slowly making our way towards Tower Bridge, we try out about 4 or 5 different pubs. Some are packed, others a bit quieter, but the interiors are pretty similar everywhere. Great vibes in all of them. The names are quite interesting too – Horseshoe, Blue Posts, The Sun Tavern, The Old Bell Tavern.
We wrap up our London adventures with a pint by the riverside and a view of what might just be the most London-looking landmark of them all – Tower Bridge.

LTN-RIX

04.07.2023: In the morning, we still manage to squeeze in a little sightseeing around this part of London. About 35 minutes from our hotel is the famous Abbey Road crossing, made famous by The Beatles’ 1969 album “Abbey Road”, with all four Beatles casually walking across the zebra crossing on the album cover. So, just to tick it off the list, we went there and crossed it ourselves. In reality, of course, it’s just a completely ordinary pedestrian crossing. Not even a little sign or anything. Just silly tourists annoying London’s already busy traffic by standing in the middle of the road taking selfies. We tried not to be those tourists.
We also make our way to Regent’s Park. An enormous park, where we basically just stop for a toilet break before heading to the bus that will take us to Luton Airport.
An hour on the road and we’re there. Everything at the airport goes really smoothly. Quite a lot of people around, but the flow through security is surprisingly efficient. For an airport that’s supposedly mainly used by low-cost airlines, there are plenty of shops and cafés. Not a bad airport to kill some time in.
And that’s the end of our little trip. Despite the fact that Vince from Mötley Crüe isn’t exactly at his vocal peak anymore, or that Wembley looked half-empty to 90% of the audience because of the strange seating arrangement, and even despite the fact that a pint of beer cost around €8, the concert was absolutely brilliant. The almost 8 hours we spent at the stadium flew by in no time. When the emotions are right, you can easily overlook quite a few imperfections.
Already back in Edinburgh, I realised that I really like that British atmosphere and the relaxed pub culture that spills out onto the streets. London’s pubs might not have been quite as packed with people as the ones in Scotland, but the overall feeling and attitude were exactly the same. The streets are narrow and obviously very old. Every now and then, somewhere between those little streets lined with old brick buildings, a skyscraper from the modern part of the city suddenly pops up in the background.
Would I definitely want to return to London? Probably not, but I wouldn’t mind coming back either. I’d actually be more interested in visiting another, slightly smaller city somewhere in the UK. Wales is still completely unexplored territory for me. Maybe Cardiff next time?
Either way, out of the two UK cities I’ve visited so far, Scotland’s Edinburgh definitely made a bigger impression on me than London. Looks like I’ll have to explore more!

Total trip costs
Transport costs (flights, public transport, etc.): ~270 EUR
Living expenses (accommodation, meals, etc.): ~610 EUR
Entertainment (entrance fees, souvenirs, etc.): ~580 EUR
Total costs: ~1,460 EUR
Total cost per person per day: 182 EUR