A London Weekend

Well my dear readers - we have come to the final post outlining my wonderful trip to the glorious United Kingdom and the trip was rounded out with a weekend in London! We caught the "fast" train from Cambridge into London and hopped off at Kings Cross Station and into the heat and busyness of the big city!

 

Our first stop was a bucket list item for me... it's also on my post about Forty Before Forty (which I need to update) and something I couldn't do the last time I was in London - The London Eye! My family and I were in London to close out 2015 and I couldn't quite make myself board the pods on the Eye and enjoy the views, but this time I knew it would be different. We made our way across the Thames, into the line and when our turn came, I hopped into our pod for a spin on the Eye!

I've never been great with heights and so - that's where my hesitation to take the spin in 2015 came from. I just couldn't quite find it in me to muster up the courage to get on but I am working on conquering this fear and I definitely did on the London Eye. The weather was stunning - blue skies without a single cloud and you could see for miles, especially once the Eye reached it's top height of 443 feet! And can I say - thank goodness those little pods have air conditioning because it was WARM in London! 

 

 

It takes about thirty minutes to make the full rotation around the Eye and I snapped plenty of pictures from every angle, ha-ha! We were in our pod with two other small groups and we'd each find little pockets for ourselves, spaced apart from everyone else and then pull down masks to say "cheese" and then snap them back into place! *sigh* What a world. We walked across the Thames once again - walking across the very bridge we stood on to ring in 2016 - and snapped some pictures of Westminster Abbey (Big Ben was still wrapped in scaffolding) before hailing a cab to Harrod's! 

 

Harrod's is a gigantic department store - it covers a 5 acre site which makes it the largest department store in Europe and has been at it's location in Brompton in some form since 1824, so it's definitely got some staying power! It has the usual things you'd find at a department store but also has high end brands and a world renowned food hall that has to be seen to be believed! We decided to be different and pulled up a seat at the Italian section of the Food Hall and had dinner on Friday night; my tortelloni was to die for, stuffed with ricotta and spinach, topped with a basil pesto.

 

After a quick route through the gift lounge - which has all the Harrods branded merchandise - we grabbed sweet treats and made our way toward Hyde Park. We spread out a blanket and had our treats in the beautiful gardens as the sun began to set and squirrels were frolicking in the grass... stealing plastic spoons and munching on errant slices of discarded bacon! I'm not kidding. There was a squirrel munching on a random slice of bacon - and he was delightful.

 

We decided to walk the almost two miles back to our hotel through Hyde Park, the Green Park and onward to Buckingham Palace before making our way down the Royals Mews (or Royal Mall) toward Trafalgar Square! The flag flying at Buckingham Palace indicated that the Queen was not in residence, so we snapped our pictures and continued on our way to the hotel as dusk settled into night.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and already - HOT. It was not a cool weekend in London by any means, but you can't let the weather keep you from exploring and so we set out to find a cab and head over toward Borough Market. We had a delicious brunch at a place called The Breakfast Club and everything was tasty and fun and good... until I stood up to leave and my foot got tangled in the bench and I gracefully fell in a heap in the floor. *smiles* I was perfectly fine - just super embarrassed. 

My Dad said after the fact "I didn't even know you hit the floor" and I said "exactly - that's how fast I jumped back up off the floor so fewer people would see me on the floor!" Ha-ha! It's true though.

 

After our brunch and my butt busting experience, we walked all through the Borough Market taking in the stalls selling vegetables, fruits, meats, teas, coffee, wine and spirits, candy, fudge, chocolate, baked goods... the lists go on and on and on! Borough Market has existed in one form or another since the 12th century and is the oldest food and goods market in London - so there you go! 

We explored and walked along the Thames for a good while - walking through some shops, the train station and pausing to people watch and take in the sights. We were able to see Tower Bridge (not London Bridge - as it's commonly mistaken) and the Tower of London across the river and then around 1:45 we turned our travels toward The Shard!

The Shard is a 72-story skyscraper that comes in at about 1,016 feet tall and we had a Peter Pan Tea booked at the Aqua Shard for the afternoon of Saturday, July 17th. We had temperature checks and then rode the elevator up to the 33rd floor where we were seated with views all around us and left to wait for our ship to - quite literally - come in. You see - all the tea treats arrived arranged on a pirate ship that "docked" alongside your table.

 

 

The Peter Pan Tea was downright delightful - there were little specialty breads shaped like toadstools, a fishy little "Hook" treat and a sausage roll... there were scones and jam and clotted cream served in treasure chests. The sweets were the best part, of course - there was a raspberry jelly with a gummy crocodile, a Tinkerbell cookie, a chocolate rolled cake bite and a coconut cake bite that was bright green! Everything was delicious (except maybe the Hook thing - because I don't like fish) but the rest was tasty and divine!

 

 

We caught a cab back to the hotel and relaxed while the heat of the afternoon and our full bellies wore off and then we spent the evening wandering Leicester Square; which is filled with sculptures from television and movies, and then wandered along through Covent Garden to take in the sights there as well. The flowers and archways of Covent Garden were my favorite as Leicester Square was very crowded and smelled a bit too much like alcohol, cigarettes and sweat for my taste. *smiles*

 

 

Since we weren't too hungry but didn't want to go to bed having eaten nothing since 2:30 in the afternoon, we made our way to the bar on the roof of our hotel where we had some Asian-inspired snacks and took in the views of the city as the sun set. It was a nice way to spend my final evening in the United Kingdom. 

Sunday morning we walked back over to Covent Garden for Brunch at The Ivy - I had delicious Fruit Topped Pancakes and something called a Shakerato; it was in a martini glass but didn't have anything stronger than espresso! It was a divine coffee drink and the perfect start to a long day indeed. We walked back to the hotel through Tragalgar Square, got my bags all packed up and headed to the Tube to ride out to Heathrow Airport and begin the journey home.

 

After a COVID swab with a negative result, I was able to check in for my flight, pop through security and sit at my gate for a bit before boarding my flight and winging my way toward the United States. It was an uneventful flight (the best kind) and a lovely ending to a two week bucket list trip filled with magical memories!