Two Days in London

I’m currently staying in central England for about six weeks with my step-sister Amanda, but at the start of July, our parents flew out to visit and take us sightseeing throughout London, Bath, and Bourton-on-the-Water. We spent eight days exploring new cities and all the food, sights and history they had to offer, and I’m so excited to share all about it here! Starting off the trip, we spent two full days adventuring through the city of London.

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WHERE WE STAYED

Plainly put, London is expensive. Like, comparable (if not even more expensive) than New England rent prices. Our search for affordable Airbnbs directly in the city was short, mainly because we couldn’t find anything under $500 per night. We ended up booking a roomy 1-bedroom flat right next to Queen’s Park station, just above Notting Hill, and the location turned out to be great! Five minutes walking to the station, 20 minutes walking to Notting Hill, and from there, the main sights of London weren’t too far away. The Queen’s Park area was a cute little gem, too–tons of restaurants and cafes, lots of pretty neighborhoods down side streets, and overall very easy to navigate. For cheaper accommodations that are still walkable and have great access to public transportation into the city, definitely look on the outskirts of London!

DAY ONE IN LONDON

On our first day in London, we kept it simple and just wandered around to different areas that looked interesting to us. We knew we wanted to go to the Portobello Road Market down in Notting Hill, so after our parents flew in, we got breakfast and headed south in the early afternoon. Along the way, we stopped at a cute restaurant and bar for some drinks. I had a Negroni. It was wonderful.

We made our way down to Portobello Road Market and shopped around, looking at all the different clothes, books, jewelry and other trinkets being sold. So much vintage clothing, so little space in my suitcase. I, naturally, got distracted by the vintage bookstands, and after much mulling over whether I should buy a small, leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre (which I’ve never read before, oops), my mom surprised me with it when we got back to our Airbnb. There was so much to see, and the food stalls there were incredible, too–from Indian to Italian to Thai to American, and quite literally everything in between. It was a great place to just meander around for a few hours as newcomers to the city.

After the market, we headed east toward Hyde Park–another easy 25 minute walk through the streets of greater London. Of course, we stumbled on a traditional pub along the way, and got some great beer and cider (you can read about all the places we stopped to eat and drink in detail here). Afterwards, we took a walk through Hyde Park, saw Kensington Palace, and made our way back toward our Airbnb. We stopped in Little Venice to eat dinner, which was about 20 minutes walking from our flat, and had an incredible meal outside next to the river.

DAY TWO IN LONDON

We had a Hop On Hop Off tour booked for our second day, and it was arguably my favorite non-food-related part of our time there. We got to one of the bus stops right before starting time, and from 9:00am onward, we rode around on the top of an open-air bus, listening to commentary on all the sights to see in London. It was truly such a cool way to see the city, no matter how touristy it felt. You’re able to hop off at any point to walk around and explore, and hop back on when you want to ride around to another spot, which gave us a little bit of guided freedom to check out whatever spots we thought were interesting.

Our ticket also included a river cruise, where we got to ride down the Thames on a huge river boat and hear more commentary about what we were seeing along either side of the water. We had a live tour guide on the cruise who was so personable and funny that it made the experience even better. We got to see famous sights like St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge and Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and so much more, all from the bus tour, river cruise, and just exploring different boroughs of London on foot.

Once we decided to hop off the tour for good, we walked around Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square looking for a pint and some bar food–well, we tried to walk around, but didn’t realize there was a 50th anniversary Pride parade happening literally all throughout that part of the city. It was such a fun surprise, albeit a little bit of a struggle to get to where we were going. If any of us were claustrophobic, it would have been a different story, but we squeezed our way down the streets of central London while dancing to the music blasting from the floats and live bands playing. After we passed the commotion, we found a couple more bars to drink at, and eventually made our way back to Paddington station to head toward our flat. We ended up getting dinner at a small restaurant on the main road by Queen’s Park station called Cafe Jack’s, had a great meal, and just barely missed the down-pouring of rain that surprised us during and after our dinner.

MY TWO PENCE:

Overall, London was a really cool place to visit and explore. It honestly felt just like New York or Boston, like most major cities do, but the number of historical buildings and monuments made it really worthwhile. I’d love to go back and check out more of the food in central London (there are a few spots I have in mind just from watching too many food & travel shows), so I’m sure I’ll visit again soon and do some more exploring.

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