London, England
Our second European adventure together brought us to London for a five-day weekend. The trip was a unique one as our main mission was to feel out a potential move across the pond. We spent our time processing what it would be like to live in this magical city as we wandered through the sights and tried to get off the beaten path whenever we could.
While tired from our sleepless night on the plane, and a rough experience during our layover in Iceland, finally arriving at our flat and seeing the iconic London sights helped us replace our exhaustion with excitement. It’s all we needed to get a second wind and step into adventure mode.
We spent the first half of our stay pretty close to our home base in the neighborhood of Pimlico. A lot of the city’s major tourist sights are in a relatively small area west of downtown. Our first destination was Buckingham Palace and then we made a loop through St. James Park to Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster just in time to hear Big Ben ring!
We made a point to walk along the south bank of the Thames on our search for dinner. It was perfect timing as the sun was setting across the river behind the Palace of Westminster. Also noteworthy this evening was the surprisingly mild weather which made for perfect strolling conditions!
After stumbling on a Mexican tapas place for dinner, we made our way with full bellies toward the London Eye. At this point, the sun was completely gone from the sky and you could see the lit-up skyline of downtown London across the river. How could we not take a ride up into the clear evening sky!? It ended up being a great way to acquaint ourselves with the city from above on our first day.
The next day we ventured off a bit further toward the hip and artsy neighborhood of Shoreditch. With quick stops at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, we continued on through the financial district to visit Whitechapel Gallery, one of the area’s many contemporary art galleries.
A short walk from the gallery is Brick Lane, an epicenter of south central Asian culture in the UK. Street signs read in both English and Bengali, and the bustling thoroughfare is lined with curry house after curry house, all with hosts outside the front door offering “special” discounts to unsuspecting passersby in hopes of securing their patronage. We stopped into a basement-level vintage shop with racks of raggedy clothing and a collection of dusty vinyls before caving in to a delicious dinner of curry chicken, butter chicken, samosas, and naan bread.
We made the journey back to our apartment to rest up for an exciting second half of the trip, which would be spent exploring some farther flung parts of the city.
The remainder of our long weekend in London saw us taking in some distinctive neighborhoods, visiting some famous museums, and even attending a proper West End musical!
Parsons Green is a quaint neighborhood an hour by train west of central London. The main draw for us was the subsection of the neighborhood termed lovingly by real estate agents as “Munster Village,” so-called because of its setting along the local main street, Munster Road. We saw pictures of Munster Village in the months leading up to our visit and we couldn’t help but see it for ourselves! It felt like the perfect neighborhood to acquaint ourselves with a quieter residential side of the city.
We were not disappointed. Munster Road is lined with cute shops and cafes, while all of the side streets off the main drag are dotted with historic home after historic home, all painted different colors, from baby blue to pastel yellow. This is where we truly started falling in love with the city! When we were hit with some hunger around lunchtime, we made our way to Café Plum, where we shared a chili-drenched baked potato, mango smoothie, and gingerbread cake.
It was also around this time that we started to become more comfortable with the bus system. It quickly became our preferred method of transportation, as it was relatively fast and allowed us to see more of the city as we traveled from destination to destination. We rode the bus to Kensington, where we made a quick stop at Atherstone Mews, one of the many rows of small repurposed stables scattered throughout London. The John Madejski Garden, situated in the central courtyard within the Victoria and Albert Museum, served as a calm and peaceful resting spot in the midday sun. On our way to leave this part of Kensington, a crêperie caught our eyes and lured us in.
Our favorite night of the trip was spent in Covent Garden, when we stumbled upon Neal’s Yard before making our way to the Cambridge Theatre for a presentation of Matilda the Musical. We had seen Neal’s Yard in pictures, quirkily decorated in a wide variety of colors and dotted with greenery and window boxes, but weren’t sure exactly where it was. Once we found it, we decided to grab some food at Homeslice, a specialty pizzeria right in off of the courtyard. The decision to grab dinner there was purely for convenience, but it ended up being some of the best pizza we’ve ever had! We ate outside, as there was no seating available, and were greeted with a rogue hailstorm, from which we took cover under a small overhang. Matilda was the surprise of the trip, having been somewhat of an afterthought. We were both absolutely blown away by the production quality and the level of skill so many of the young actors possessed. Songs from the musical were stuck in our heads for weeks.
On our last full day, we visited some more museums and explored some other parts of the city. While we both prefer modern art, we knew we couldn’t miss some of the masterpieces held within the walls of Tate Britain. After wandering for quite some time through the halls of the museum, we made our way to the dock on the Thames where a river taxi would pick us up and take us to Tate Modern. The short cruise was another interesting perspective from which to see the city, especially its myriad bridges. Now more in our element, we more slowly made our way through the galleries, taking in works by modern art greats like Picasso, Rothko, Hockney, Dali, Monet, and Pollock.
After lunch at Swan at the Globe (where Britt indulged in her first proper fish and chips), we strolled across Millennium Bridge and grabbed a train toward Little Venice. The neighborhood is set upon the confluence of three canals, along which many houseboats are docked, some of which permanently. There are even restaurant boats to pop into and enjoy scattered throughout the area. We enjoyed walking along the canals, but as the neighborhood is relatively small, we quickly set off for our next destination.
Notting Hill is one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in London, with tree-lined lanes and pristine, whitewashed Victorian homes. We were in town on a Saturday, which meant the weekly antique market along Portobello Road would be alive and kicking. The market lived up to expectations, providing us with our trip’s souvenir (an old print of the Palace of Westminster) and offering up some of the best crepes of the weekend. On our way back to our flat for the night, we took a bus that rode alongside the long edge of Hyde Park. Though we ran out of time to spend time in the park, this sufficed as a second choice.
The next morning we packed up our things and reluctantly bid farewell to the city that had hosted us so graciously for the past five days!
