After taking a nap from our arrival, we headed into the city to hang out and wait for the fireworks at midnight. I was very hungry and so we left around 3pm to go to my favorite pizza place here called Franco Manca. The train ride was about an hour from the airport and then a short walk to the restaurant in a building near Victoria Station. Hunter knew the way because it was close to where he had worked when he studied abroad in London. The building had a cool LED light display I really enjoyed. Hunter and I ordered the meat special and the veggie special to share. It was delicious.
After eating I really wanted a milkshake for dessert, so we searched for a place to go. There was a Shake Shack nearby which we looked at, but decided we wanted something more local rather than a chain restaurant. We did a bit of Googling and found a place called Tinseltown which served milkshakes but also was a burger diner. We took the tube two short stops and arrived nearby at Oxford Circus. We were seated and looked at the menu. They have tons of different kinds to choose from and they all sound delicious. In the end, Hunter picked a Biscoff Cookie shake and I have one called the Ambassador which had Oreos and Ferrero Rocher chocolate in it. Both were quite good although the service was rather slow, but we didn't mind as we were realizing we had hours to kill before the midnight fireworks.
Pretty light display near where we ate dinner
More lights
Shakes
After enjoying our milkshakes we slowly headed towards where we wanted to watch the fireworks from. We made a stop at Piccadilly Circus to enjoy the lights and also looked around a huge H&M store that was still open. We were both quite tired and it was still about 5 hours till midnight, so we were trying to find ways to fill our time. We didn't find anything worth buying. We kept walking around and came across a Boots, which is like Walgreens, and got drinks and then sat for a bit at the Shaftesbury Memorial statue, a common place for people to hang out around. We watched the advertisements on the big screen and around 9:30 we left to go to Lambeth Bridge.
Hunter getting weird pictures of me again
Getting to Lambeth Bridge was quite the challenge as many areas were closed and only accessible to ticketed people. We looked at getting tickets, but they were sold out months ago. It wasn't that big of a deal because Hunter knew the bridge would also provide a great view and it was accessible to anyone. As we made our way there, we had to take a bunch of random streets, but we made it eventually. We worked our way through St James Park and the back streets of Westminster, passing Hunter's favorite fish and chips spot as we went. We still had about 2 hours to go so we crossed the bridge and found a convenience store to get some snacks and a drink at. We also found a bar that was open and used their bathroom. We headed back to the bridge and found a spot in the middle to watch the fireworks. Although the railings were packed we still had a good view of the London Eye and Parliament. We had one hour to go!
A quick view of the Eye on our way to the bridge
A view of the city looking southwest from Lambeth Bridge
There were many people on the bridge
The London Eye from Lambeth Bridge
Last 2019 selfie together!
The fireworks were very cool and it was a long show. Unfortunately with so many people who all wanted pictures/videos, it was hard to see over all the arms. I was able to watch through people's phones though and I thought that was funny. At one point I told a guy who was standing on the railing blocking everyone's view to sit back down which many people were thankful for. He was also taking a video of the whole thing with the worst cell phone camera ever - it just looked like a white blur. Some people eh!
And finally the fireworks!
I never knew how hard it would be to get firework pictures
Using night mode and Hunter's height, we managed to get some pretty cool photos though!
One of the best pictures we got!
Big Ben is still covered in scaffolding, as seen on the left, but a beautiful view nonetheless
First selfie of 2020
A clip of the fireworks I took
After watching the fireworks we headed with the masses to the tube stations. Hunter purposefully picked one away from the central displays but it was still very busy. We thought it would be extremely bad, but it was quite organized and we only had to wait about 7 minutes to get onto one of the trains. It was also free tonight to use transit so we saved some money! We rode it a few stops and made a transfer at Green Park to the Piccadilly line out to the airport. Surprisingly the train was partly full all the way out to the airport as it seemed quite a few travellers had gone in to see the fireworks. I wish public transit everywhere could be as excellent as it is here.
We made it back to the hotel around 1:30-2 am and it wasnt long before we were asleep. We did set an alarm for 8:30 so we could get our free hotel breakfast!
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