Destination #10: London, England
The minute we popped off the plane to London I was immediately giggly and excited. I just love how cute the English accents and mannerisms are. Truthfully, before the trip I hadn't singled out London as a must go place. But by the time we reached our cute boutique hotel literally right next to King's Cross Station I was absolutely taken with London! The first night there we spent time exploring the King's Cross area, and I was already asking Cliffton if he would like to move to London.
Every morning we were fortunate enough to have breakfast at Plum + Spilt Milk, a restaurant adjoining our hotel, the Great Northern Hotel. We spent our first full day exploring Borough Market. And even got a mid morning snack, a cheese and olive bread stick. Then we headed over the London Bridge! Which I made the mistake of thinking was the iconic looking Tower Bridge. Oppsy! We walked along the Thames River, then made our way to the Tower of London. The Tower was one of our favorite tourist attractions because there is so much history behind it! The tower dates all the way back to 1078 which is unbelievable! There are so many famous stories like the two York princes, the beheading of Anne Boleyn, and the imprisonment of Elizabeth I etc. etc. I feel like I've read all about it, so it felt amazing to walk through the halls, and on the grounds of all these historical events. After the tower, we had a late lunch at a yummy Indian restaurant, Dishoom. If you're ever in London, I think Dishoom is a must! We spent the afternoon wandered through Leadenhill Market, and the surrounding area, then had dinner at Poppies Fish & Chips.
The next day we made stops at Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, the National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square. Whew!!! It was quite a busy day! For dinner we met up with Cliffton’s friends at St. Christopher’s place in Soho for some Italian food. We always love meeting up with people, not only to catch up, but so that we can get a better sense of what it’s like to live in the cities we go to.
On Saturday, we went to Regent park for a run, and then headed to Soho to spend the day in retail therapy. We had lunch at a place called Bone Daddies, which had some great ramen! Then we wandered through Soho, Chinatown and the curiously numerous casinos. We ended the night at a bar called Spice of Life listening to some adorably cute British bands!
On Sunday, our friend Matt from Charlotte, NC met up with us in Covent Garden! It's so great to see a familiar face from home after so many days abroad! We visited the British museum together, St. Paul’s Cathedral (which is actually not Catholic, like I thought). And we loved Dishoom so much we brought Matt back with us! This time we went to the one at King’s Cross. Our last day in London, was spent crossing a few more things off the bucket list. We went to Harrods, the Churchill War Rooms, and last stop was Selfridges so that I could find some Zoeva makeup brushes.
This post kind of sounds like a laundry list. But, I guess we did actually do quite a fair amount of sightseeing. London actually turned out to be one of my favorite destinations because it felt so familiar. It almost felt like home, but with an extra flair of adorableness and quaint old world charm. I feel like London is underrated and overlooked compared with other European cities, probably because it's a tad bit similar to the American world we live in. And if you're going to go all the way out to Europe, you might as well chose something really culturally different. But, to me and Cliffton it had so much character, history and stories to offer. We will definitely be back!
