London Recap, part I

We’re home from our UK holiday! We had such a great time exploring London and then paying a quick visit to Scotland. Our little Z vacationed at my parents’ house while we were away and we missed her SO! But it was really nice for my husband and I to get away and explore on our own…which meant we could stay out late and then sleep in as late as we wanted – oh the luxury! We did a lot of touristy things like tour the Tower of London and see the Crown Jewels…we toured Westminster Abbey and Churchill War Rooms…we traveled on a Double Decker tour bus to see the sites…we visited the Tate Modern…we took a cruise down the River Thames…we toured Kensington Palace and surrounding gardens…we saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace…

But, we also really tried to just take in the city with eating at local pubs…picnicking in Hyde Park…taking the Underground everywhere we went…drinking Pimms Cocktails…enjoying the buzz of activity in Covent Garden…we even went and saw a movie one night(we saw Gatsby, not much else was playing). Obviously we did fashionable things too like visit Harrods…shop at Harvey Nichols…have tea at Selfridges and pop into every Zara in site to look for these shorts – no such luck, btw.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite photos with you today to recap the London portion of our trip. Later this week I will share photos of the amazing local food we tried and what restaurants we went to, and next week I’ll share our 36-hour jaunt to Scotland! I hope you enjoy…

The pomp and circumstance at the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace was like nothing we’ve seen (above photo, we were sitting on a huge wall overlooking the entire area).

Two things above: 1) The word choice difference b/w the US and UK kept us chuckling all week and 2) Single glass wine to-go: seriously the best idea ever, we found these in an M&S food mart.

We picnicked in the Rose Garden of Hyde Park and then walked around after…I loved that the park was so crowded on this beautiful and sunny London afternoon! I also loved that there were slingback chairs available to sit and relax!