A Spontaneous trip to London: Emirates Air Line, London Bridge & Exploring the Southbank

I recently took a spontaneous trip down to London to visit one of my housemates from University. We didn't have much of a plan on what we were going to do before I got down there on Saturday afternoon. After grabbing a light lunch we decided to hop on the tube and start exploring!

It's been about 7 years since I last went sightseeing in London so I was pretty excited. I thought I'd put together a mini trip report on what we got up to, to show it is possible to enjoy an afternoon in the capital with no prior planning! 

Emirates Air Line

Our first stop was the Emirates Air Line, which is a cable car that takes you over the River Thames. We caught it from the Royal Docklands side over to North Greenwich, but you can also take it going the opposite way. The flight was a little shorter than we were expecting but still good fun and you get to see some fantastic views of the o2 and London skyline!

London Bridge

We then hopped back on the tube over to London Bridge, where we went for a wander around Borough Market and I took about a billion pictures of the Shard (not even exaggerating). You can get tickets to go up to the observation deck The View from the Shard, however on this occasion we were happy to chill at ground level.

The London Eye and Big Ben

We finished off the day with a walk along the Southbank (via a pitstop at Starbucks) towards the London Eye, which I'd never seen before.

It was starting to get a little late at this point so we decided to call it a day and head back to get ready for our night out. Even though I was only in London for a short time I really enjoyed my mini adventure!