Hi guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, the past couple of months have been crazy and now I'm finally back from London! It was an incredible trip - beautiful, busy and even a little stressful, but in a good way! 🙈 Being that it was both mine and my mom's first times to London, we loaded ourselves up with things to do and see every day we were there. Even being there for a week, we STILL didn't see and do everything that we wanted to! I totally underestimated not only the size of London but how much history it has as well. You could probably live there for a year and still miss out on a few of the big sights, restaurants, etc. But overall, we loved everything that we were able to do while we were there!

Here's a rundown of what we did during our stay!

Hotel:

My mom and I stayed at The Milestone Hotel during our week in London. Overlooking Kensington Gardens and Palace, the hotel was a short walk or bus ride to everything in the city that we wanted to see! Although the hotel is over 300 years old, it is still unbelievably beautiful, charming and quiet, which we loved. The service was without a doubt the best service that either of us had experienced. My favorite part was the turn down service that we would come back to every evening - one night we walked in to a plate of freshly made scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. 😍 It is worth a trip to London just to stay at The Milestone! 🙌🏼

Food/Drinks:

For the most part, we didn't eat out very much while we were in London. We ate breakfast at our hotel each morning, and little things like coffee and croissants at random cafes during our daily adventures around the city. That being said, we did still eat out two of the nights we were there, and both were delicious. 😍

- Zizzi: Delicious Italian food 🙌🏼 My mom got the lasagna and I got a margherita pizza - both were hot, extremely fresh and sooo flavorful. I would highly recommend it!

- Spaghetti House: Another Italian spot, equally as delicious as Zizzi, but with more of a selection. Here, we split the garlic bread and the polpettine e spaghetti (essentially just spaghetti and meatballs in a red wine and mushroom sauce). This was also incredible and I would recommend it as well!

- Chenestons: The main restaurant at our hotel, where we got breakfast each morning and a delicious three-course meal on our last night! My favorite dishes were the eggs benedict, chicken pot pie and of course, their scones. 😍

- Pret A Manger: This was by far my favorite coffee shop chain that I've seen anywhere I've traveled. There was one of these on almost every block in London, and for a good reason. They offer classic coffee shop treats like croissants, sandwiches and drinks, however their more unique items made them stand out to me. In the couple of times that we ate there during our stay, I tried everything from their coffee and freshly made juice, to prosciutto mac-n-cheese, to coconut chia seed yogurt with mango and pomegranate seeds. Everything was fresh, delicious, and fast, which made it easy for us while we were on the go. Now I just want to bring one of these to Colorado!

Activities:

- Kensington Palace: We did a self guided tour of Kensington Palace and absolutely loved it. We toured the King's and Queen's State Apartments, ballrooms, galleries, and then went to see the new Princess Diana Fashion exhibit at the end of our tour! In the Princess Diana exhibit, we got a chance to see all of the Princess' beautiful dresses and outfits, with photos and stories of each one.

- Kensington Gardens / Hyde Park: Right when we arrived, we decided to walk across the street and explore these beautiful parks. They were both beautiful and HUGE, you could spend a whole day walking through and seeing everything in each park. My favorite part was the Peter Pan statue in the corner of Kensington Gardens!

- Notting Hill: On our first full day in London, we decided to walk up to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. Although we hadn't previously been to any other London markets, we had heard from several locals that this was their favorite! The walk through Notting Hill to get to the market was one of the highlights of the trip for me - we had also just watched the movie Notting Hill the night before, so it was fun seeing the same sights from the movie! 🙈

- Oxford Street: For all of my fellow shoppers, this was the largest shopping area we found in London, besides Harrod's (the largest department store in the U.K.). We started off at the Marble Arch, and walked down Oxford Street, then turned at Oxford Circus to walk down to Piccadilly Circus. In these few blocks, there were hundreds of great stores, restaurants and hotels to check out. It's also a great place to people watch!

- Trafalgar Square: If you keep walking down from Piccadilly Circus, you run into Trafalgar Square! Here you can find The National Gallery, Nelson's Column and beautiful walk that leads straight down the street to Buckingham Palace. There were also lots and lots of wonderful shops, pubs, etc. down here as well.

- Warner Bros. Studios: I'm going to do a separate post on this, but we took a day tour to see Warner Bros. Studios, where they originally filmed all of the Harry Potter movies! I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd, so you can imagine how excited I was to do this. 🙈😂

- Buckingham Palace: Queen Elizabeth II's residence! Although it's guarded by gates and armed beefeaters (guards with the tall, black fuzzy hats), you can still get a good view and some great pictures of it. Although we opted out of doing this, you can buy a ticket to watch the Changing of the Guards ceremony each day. I've heard this is very cool to see, we just simply ran out of time on our trip though!

- Tower of London: We spent about 3 hours here, however we probably could have spend the entire day if we had the chance. We took a 60 minute long tour with a Yeoman Warder who resides there. He told us stories, recapped some of the most gruesome beheadings in the history of the tower, and even took us inside the chapel where King Henry VIII's most famous wife, Anne Boleyn, is buried. We then went to see the Crown Jewels, which was my favorite part of the tour. Inside, you can see crowns, clothes and jewelry from past monarchs, as well as Queen Elizabeth's crown - with its whopping 317 carat diamond. 😳

- Westminster Abbey: This was my favorite part of our entire trip! Learning about all of the coronations, royal weddings, and burials that had taken place at Westminster Abbey prior to arriving, made it very surreal to see in person. I believe it's one of the oldest, if not the oldest building in London. (Fun fact: look at the ground while you're walking around the church. We walked right over Charles Darwin's grave on our way inside! 🙈)

- Big Ben / Houses of Parliament: Probably the most well known part of London - this is where the clock tower, Big Ben resides next to the Houses of Parliament, on the bank of the Thames. It is also right across the street from Westminster Abbey!

- West End Show: On our last day in London, my mom and I decided to go see a show to celebrate! We went to see Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater near Trafalgar Square. As an avid theater-goer, I would have to say this was the best show I've ever seen. Although, be cautious of where your seats are when you're buying tickets! The theater layout creates some views that are blocked by the upper balcony/wooden beams. Be sure to ask about it before buying tickets!

Although we loaded ourselves up with things to do every day, we still missed out on some major things that we wanted to do! One week was a good amount of time, but still not long enough to see all of London. 😊 I will just have to plan a trip back so that I can check everything off of my list!