Hey y’all! I’m back from my second trip this summer and
excited to share some pictures, favorites, and tips. My mom and sister and I
just got back from a 4-day trip to London, England. We had a wonderful time and
saw many new and old things and tried things we had never done before. We had
been to London about 9 years ago, but wanted to visit again and experience
things differently. Although it is tourist season in Europe, I did not expect
there to be so many people! Now I’ll give you the highlights of our trip and
the things we enjoyed the most and that are worth it to see. I also cannot for
the life of me decide how to write this post, so I’ll just list the things we
did (along with pictures)!
Victoria & Albert Museum
This was the first thing we did when we got into the city.
It was a nice place to visit both because it was free and because it had a lot
to look at! There are so many different levels and halls and exhibitions. Our
favorites were the jewelry, theatre, and fashion exhibits. We didn’t even get
to see everything, but we were hungry so we left early.
Dale Chihuly chandelier
Da Vinci's notebook
Ginger Roger's and Fred Astaire's outfits
Antique wedding dress and veil
Antique Dior
Harrods and the Tube
After we left the museum we started walking toward a popular
bakery/café called Patisserie Valerie. We were going to have tea there, but it
was too busy for us to wait when we got there. Harrods was just a few blocks up
the street from this café so we walked up there. We went into the Food Hall in
the store to get a snack and a drink. It was packed in there! We got our stuff
and skedaddled out of there! Next thing was riding the tube. If you are going
to be in London for more than a day, I recommend purchasing an Oyster card at
any Underground station. Basically, an Oyster card is a subway/bus ticket that
you load money onto and you just swipe to ride either. It ends up saving you
money in the long run and is really handy instead of having little pieces of
paper floating around your pockets or bags. The tube (subway) is a really fast
way of getting around the city and is relatively easy as long as you know where
you want to go and have a map of the tube lines readily available.
Nandos and the London Eye
On our first evening in London we ate at a popular chain
restaurant called Nandos. They serve Portuguese style chicken and sides. Since
there were only 3 of us on this trip we were able to only purchase 2 entrees to
split between us. You can order the chicken plain and add a sauce from the
condiment bar or order your chicken with sauce. Either way, all of the chicken
is marinated in a peri-peri sauce. I thought it was good and would eat there
again. After eating dinner, we went to the London Eye. This was the one thing
my sister really wanted to do and despite my mom being afraid of heights, we
did it! It was not cheap, but the views were really great.
Foyle’s Bookshop and Afternoon Tea
Since I am going to be an elementary school teacher someday
(hopefully K-2), I thought my souvenir should be practical and not rinky-dinky.
I LOVE children’s books and the bookstore we went into had a wonderful
selection of children’s literature! I had so much fun seeing all of the UK
books and I ended up getting two books (although I wish I could have gotten
more). The two I got were “Sir Lilypad” by Anne Kemp and Kay Thompson’s
“Eloise”. Each book is so wonderful and I love the illustrations in each. If
I’m buying a children’s book, I have to like the illustrations or I usually
won’t read it. After our quick trip to the bookstore, we got back on the tube
to go towards Kensington Palace. My one thing I really wanted to do in London
was have real afternoon tea. We decided to make reservations at The Orangery at
Kensington Palace. The atmosphere was so lovely and the china was really
beautiful. The tea itself was good, but the food was something to be desired.
The best things on the tiered tray were the scones and the Coronation Chicken
wrap. So The Orangery definitely gets points for atmosphere, but not so much
for the food. But nothing beats having tea in Prince Wills & Princess
Kate’s backyard! After we had tea we walked through Kensington gardens, which
are beautiful.
The Children's section of the bookstore
Tea at the Orangery
The Gardens at Kensington
The outside of the Orangery
The front of Kensington Palace
Fish & Chips and the Theatre
When in London, do as the Londoners do and have fish and
chips. What better place to have fish and chips than at Holme’s Fish &
Chips just down the street from Sherlock Holme’s house on Baker Street. The
fish and chips were delicious, but our jackets smelled like fried oil for
days…(not so good). After dinner, we walked to Regent’s Park for our evening
event. We saw our first broadway show, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, at the
Open Air Theatre in the park. First of all, Regent’s Park ais beautiful and so
is the theater. Once you go through the entrance there are leaves with twinkle
lights woven throughout. It made me feel like I was at Disney World or in the
tree house from Swiss Family Robinson. It was a beautiful! The show was
FANTASTIC and we loved everything about it! We highly, highly, highly recommend
it!
Sherlock's House
Holmes Fish & Chips
Regent's Park
We were excited to see the show!
Double-Decker Buses and Droves of People
On our last day in London we didn’t have anything planned as
we had done everything we wanted to do so we decided to use our Oyster cards
and take a ride around the city on a traditional red double-decker bus. This
was really fun and we got to see a lot of things without having to walk around
and worry about bumping into people. We did make a couple of stops on our bus
trip, 1) to see the Paddington Bear statue at Paddington Station…which does not
exist, 2) to climb on the giant lions at Trafalgar Square which we could not
climb up on for the life of us, and 3) to have lunch at Patisserie Valerie near
Foyle’s Bookshop. I had my first ever Eggs Benedict at the café and it was
delicious! My mom and sister both got a club sandwich and said it was delicious
and my mom got the “best raspberry tart she’s ever had.” After lunch we got
back on the bus and continued to ride around a little bit and saw lots of fancy
stores. We also saw Piccadilly Circus (there were no animals at this circus).
It kind of reminded of when you step on an ant hill and tons of ants come
pouring out because there were SOOO many people! We finally decided we were
done and took the last train from Liverpool Station back to the airport where
our hotel was. It was nice to relax and have free wifi again.
Visiting Big Ben
Breakfast at Costa (the UK version of Starbucks)
Ben's Cookies are a chain store and they have really good cookies!
I tried the Peanut Butter with Milk Chocolate :)
Bus tour pictures
The Ritz
Trafalgar Square
Piccadilly Circus
Selfridge's Department Store
Eggs Benedict (Toasted brioche bread, bacon(fried ham), two poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce)
Overall, our trip was wonderful and we got to see and
experience a lot of lovely things. I would recommend visiting London to anyone
if you get the chance. Make sure to check back shortly for more pictures of my last
trip this summer before going back to school!
