London Town (x 2).
Warning: after reading these London Posts, you're going to end up speaking in a British accent & have the sudden urge to watch Notting Hill, Love Actually and every Harry Potter movie.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way...
I seriously loved SO much about our trip to London. First of all, the fact that we only dealt with accent-barriers and not language-barriers is just refreshing! We love our life in Germany, but being able to easily speak to and understand the people around you is ... just. awesome :) I am such a city girl at heart and loved exploring the different neighborhoods, restaurants and historical attractions that the city of London had to offer. I don't know how many times I told Jason that I'd be totally fine living there... if only the GBP to USD exchange rate was a little friendlier ;)
London Day 1 was a perfectly touristy day and seeing many of London's noteworthy sights in person was just the coolest thing. We spent day 2 in the Royal Borough of Kensington. First things first, we headed to breakfast in Notting Hill. EggBreak was an adorable spot for a bit of brekkie. It's basically a brownstone turned into a restaurant, so the feel of the place is casual, cozy, with a hint of rustic. The menu offered some typical English fare as well as some reworked classics. I had a spicy "McMuffin" ... and Jason continued along on his Eggs Benny addiction.
I was most excited to see all of the colorful flats located in Notting Hill so we walked through a couple of the neighborhoods known for their rainbow and pastel lined streets. They were picturesque x 1 million and I just couldn't get enough of them!
This set of pics was taken on a street called Lancaster Road.
From there we walked through the Portobello Market. It was super busy on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, but so worth it! It was a huge, very eclectic, street market that seemed to just keep going & going & going! There were loads of street vendors & food stands with fresh fruits/vegetables and delicious delicacies. And shops galore. You could find anything from antique tea pots to vintage furs, handmade items, souvenirs & trendy ensembles. We literally could have spent the entire day there just eating & shopping & eating & shopping!
After the market, we headed to King's Road in Chelsea. King's Road is a great street with lots of stores, pubs & restaurants. We strolled into a few shops, but tired feet [and thirsty tongues] won out and soon enough we popped in to a pub. It had big open windows and lots of couch seating areas that made for a perfect play spot for Asher while we all sipped on cold bevs.
Asher must have had a little case of FOMO from his experience of missing out on the river cruise yesterday...because he didn't take a single nap all.day.long. He was in a great, smiley mood, but just didn't want to sleep! He usually takes some really good stroller snoozes, so we were shocked. But as long as he was happy, we didn't mind. Late afternoon came & we had planned to meet up with our friend Callie. She is a former co-worker of Jason's and lives in London now! She helped us plan our weekend itinerary & recommended a great spot called The Bluebird for Happy Hour / early dinner. We met her & one of her friends there. The Bluebird has a huge outdoor patio and a beautiful indoor dining room. We sat outside because Asher just always does better outdoors, but I had to pop inside for some photos. If in Chelsea, definitely go! The food was great & so was the ambience!
We ordered drinks & dinner there before heading back to the hotel for the night. We didn't seem to grab any pics of the food, but we all had really tasty sandwiches & chips. Callie, it was SO good to see you and thanks again for ALL of your help in planning our weekend! I already want to come back...
We really needed an entire extra day (or week!) in London to do everything we wanted to, but we scheduled a Sunday afternoon flight home so we'd at least have some time to hit up another spot or 2. So we grabbed a quick breakfast and shopped around on Oxford Street. It's like the Michigan Avenue of London with lots of affordable as well as fancy stores. We didn't have a ton of time before we needed to head to the airport, so I took note of a few stores and plan to peruse their online offerings ;)
And that was that! Another fantastic family EuroTrip in the books. We're planning to make excellent use of the summer season and have lots of exciting travel coming up. Next weekend Asher and I are tagging along on Jason's work trip so we can spend some time in beautiful Portugal! We're looking forward to a beachy, Port wine filled weekend!
Embrace the Wilde,
lindsey
