Honeymoon part 1 - London calling!
This post is super late but better late than never! A few months ago the hubby and I returned from our belated honeymoon to London, Paris, Rome and Hong Kong. We had the most AMAZING time and I really wish our trip could have been longer!! First stop was London which I have wanted to go to since I was a kid and it didn't disappoint one bit. This is going to be a long post so if you're not into travel check back another day ;)
Please note: THIS IS A PICTURE HEAVY POST.
We left Sydney late and had a 4 hour stopover in Hong Kong for some breakfast and a stretch before our flight to London. It felt soooooo weird to only stopover in HK instead of staying! We had a typical Honkie breaky and then boarded the loooooooooooooong flight to London. I get airsick and I can't really handle more than 9 hours on a plane so the last 2-3 hours on the 12 hour flight were really hard. How on earth do people travel longhaul all the time??!
We landed in London at about 4pm in the afternoon and we were picked up at Heathrow by shared shuttle that I had organised via Viator. The driver was really efficient and knew all the back roads so we mostly avoided the terrible traffic and got to our apart/hotel in good time. They couldn't actually find our reservation at first but luckily it worked out phew! We stayed in Holborn at Citadines and the place was pretty decent. No pics but the room and bathroom were decent sized and there was a little kitchenette too which was very handy. We didn't cook but it was great to have more room! We grabbed dinner nearby and then crashed early.
We woke up bright and early the next morning for our first full day in London!! I was seriously like a kid on Xmas morning and I couldn't wait to head out. We bought our Oyster cards and went on our 1st ride on the tube to get to our 1st stop for the day - Borough Markets.
The hubby and I love our food and we could have stayed at Borough Markets all day because it was FREAKING AWESOME!!! Sooooooooooooooooo much amazing produce on offer in the one place. Why can't Sydney have something similar??! So much fresh fruit, meat, seafood, cheese, bread and cooked foods too.
Just looking through my pics makes me drool all over again! I wanted to try everything but some of the food highlights were a duck confit roll, freshly shucked oysters, paella and sweets.
Fish and chips were a high priority on the must eat list and you really can't not have it whilst in London! The fish was fresh and chips were crunchy and awesome soaked in vinegar and washed down with a glass bottle of coke.
As we were leaving Borough Markets we actually bumped into Aussie chef Luke Nguyen and he was so lovely to stop for a photo and a chat with us! He's one of my favourite Asian chefs and we'd been watching his France show right up to leaving for our honeymoon and we had a few of the places he mentioned on the show on our itinerary for Paris. Pretty sure he was scouting for his next TV show which will hopefully be released soon!
After eating until nearly bursting we headed out towards the Thames to explore and walk off our food coma. Don't be fooled by the blue skies because it was pretty darn cold!
I had originally wanted to get the London Pass so that we could get fast access to all the main attractions but it would have meant going to least 2-3 attractions per day to make it worthwhile so we didn't end up getting the pass. It worked out well so that we could just relax! We did the Tower Bridge experience which I really enjoyed - bridges are pretty darn awesome and it was great learning about the history of the bridge!
The views from the top of Tower Bridge were stunning and a great way to take in all the landmarks like the Shard, the HMS Belfast and City Hall.
We wanted to go to the Tower of London afterwards but the lines were waaaaaay too long so instead we headed to Regent and Oxford st to find some food. We stumbled across Hamley's Toy Store which is a HUGE toy store and the hubby loves toys so of course we explored the store. I love Lego so I had to get a photo with this cool Lego Beefeater and this adorable mini Chewy!! I was contemplating buying him and sending him home but decided against it at the last minute and now I seriously regret it.
Day 2 we headed out early again for the Tower of London! One of the places I enjoyed stopping off at for snacks was Pret a Manger for their ham, cheese and tomato croissant and a hot cup of tea. Seriously good on a cold morning and I think I had this for breakfast a few times lol.
The Tower of London!! I suck at explaining what historical landmarks are all about so read the history here. We got there about 20 minutes before it opened and we were 2nd in line which was fantastic because by the time the gates opened the line was 200m long!
My favourite part of exploring the Tower of London was definitely the Crown Jewels. The number of jaw-dropping and over the top crowns, swords, gowns in the collection is pretty darn amazing. You aren't allowed to take photos in there (unless you want to be told off and it ain't worth that) so pics from the outside of The Jewel House will have to suffice.
There was so much history that I could have spent the whole day exploring it more but I headed off at lunch for some girlie time with my girl Aysh! You can read all about our trip to WAH Nails and high tea in my post. We had an amazing time but before long we had to go our separate ways! D and I wanted Indian for dinner that night and Aysh had recommended a popular restaurant in Covent Garden but there was a huge wait so we went to Jamie Oliver's Union Jack's instead for some British classics. The food was awesome - loved my bangers and mash and summer Eton mess!
Day 3 was another early start for us as we headed out to Stonehenge and Bath for the day! I booked most of our shuttles and tours for our honeymoon through Viator and we did the independent Stonehenge and Bath tour so that we could spend a few hours in Bath exploring ourselves. The tour left from Victoria Coach Station at about 7:30am and it was such a great day!! The coach was comfy and the tour guide was hilarious and informative making the drive fun. Stonehenge was amazing and so so happy to have ticked it off the bucket list!! It's such a shame it's roped off now so you can't get up close and personal but still amazing.
We then headed to beautiful Bath to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring ourselves. My mum passed on her adoration of Jane Austen so I grew up reading all her novels. Pride & Prejudice is still one of my favourite novels and I watch the BBC mini series way too much (lake scene need I say more ahem). Bath was so picturesque and quaint I absolutely adored everything about it.
We stopped for a quick lunch at the The Bath Bun for a ploughmans lunch each before trekking to the Jane Austen Centre for the tour. The tour was a short talk before exploring the exhibit which wasn't really worth the price of £9 each but worth stopping off at the gift shop for some Jane Austen souvenirs. Unfortunately we didn't get time to enjoy devonshire tea at their tearoom which was something I had really hoped to do!
Bath was absolutely beautiful and I was so sad we only got to spend a short time there! The hubby didn't really enjoy it as much as I did but I am dying to go back. I'd definitely stay there for at least a weekend to enjoy everything they have to offer. We didn't even get time to see the Roman Baths!
The next day we headed we slept in and headed to posh Knightsbridge for our splurge meal for London at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental - you can read my post about Dinner here. No visit to London would be complete without a trip to Harrods so we popped by there for some browsing after lunch. If you've been there before you'll know how amazing but overwhelming it is there! I'd always heard that everything was ridiculously priced there and while most things were there were definitely affordable items and I did pick up a few gifts. All the shopping made us hungry because even though we were full we still managed to have afternoon tea at the ice cream parlour!
We spent our last day in London visiting Borough Markets one last time for a good English fry up and oysters before heading to see Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. We couldn't believe that there were SO many people and I think the beautiful weather that day helped. Just our luck that the day before we leave the weather is stunning!
I love the pic below because I think it sums up London in just one pic! We spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the main London landmarks on our wishlist before one last dinner in London.
I was sad to leave London but next stop - Paris on the Orient Express!
Please note: THIS IS A PICTURE HEAVY POST.
We left Sydney late and had a 4 hour stopover in Hong Kong for some breakfast and a stretch before our flight to London. It felt soooooo weird to only stopover in HK instead of staying! We had a typical Honkie breaky and then boarded the loooooooooooooong flight to London. I get airsick and I can't really handle more than 9 hours on a plane so the last 2-3 hours on the 12 hour flight were really hard. How on earth do people travel longhaul all the time??!
We landed in London at about 4pm in the afternoon and we were picked up at Heathrow by shared shuttle that I had organised via Viator. The driver was really efficient and knew all the back roads so we mostly avoided the terrible traffic and got to our apart/hotel in good time. They couldn't actually find our reservation at first but luckily it worked out phew! We stayed in Holborn at Citadines and the place was pretty decent. No pics but the room and bathroom were decent sized and there was a little kitchenette too which was very handy. We didn't cook but it was great to have more room! We grabbed dinner nearby and then crashed early.
We woke up bright and early the next morning for our first full day in London!! I was seriously like a kid on Xmas morning and I couldn't wait to head out. We bought our Oyster cards and went on our 1st ride on the tube to get to our 1st stop for the day - Borough Markets.
The hubby and I love our food and we could have stayed at Borough Markets all day because it was FREAKING AWESOME!!! Sooooooooooooooooo much amazing produce on offer in the one place. Why can't Sydney have something similar??! So much fresh fruit, meat, seafood, cheese, bread and cooked foods too.
Just looking through my pics makes me drool all over again! I wanted to try everything but some of the food highlights were a duck confit roll, freshly shucked oysters, paella and sweets.
Fish and chips were a high priority on the must eat list and you really can't not have it whilst in London! The fish was fresh and chips were crunchy and awesome soaked in vinegar and washed down with a glass bottle of coke.
As we were leaving Borough Markets we actually bumped into Aussie chef Luke Nguyen and he was so lovely to stop for a photo and a chat with us! He's one of my favourite Asian chefs and we'd been watching his France show right up to leaving for our honeymoon and we had a few of the places he mentioned on the show on our itinerary for Paris. Pretty sure he was scouting for his next TV show which will hopefully be released soon!
After eating until nearly bursting we headed out towards the Thames to explore and walk off our food coma. Don't be fooled by the blue skies because it was pretty darn cold!
I had originally wanted to get the London Pass so that we could get fast access to all the main attractions but it would have meant going to least 2-3 attractions per day to make it worthwhile so we didn't end up getting the pass. It worked out well so that we could just relax! We did the Tower Bridge experience which I really enjoyed - bridges are pretty darn awesome and it was great learning about the history of the bridge!
The views from the top of Tower Bridge were stunning and a great way to take in all the landmarks like the Shard, the HMS Belfast and City Hall.
We wanted to go to the Tower of London afterwards but the lines were waaaaaay too long so instead we headed to Regent and Oxford st to find some food. We stumbled across Hamley's Toy Store which is a HUGE toy store and the hubby loves toys so of course we explored the store. I love Lego so I had to get a photo with this cool Lego Beefeater and this adorable mini Chewy!! I was contemplating buying him and sending him home but decided against it at the last minute and now I seriously regret it.
Day 2 we headed out early again for the Tower of London! One of the places I enjoyed stopping off at for snacks was Pret a Manger for their ham, cheese and tomato croissant and a hot cup of tea. Seriously good on a cold morning and I think I had this for breakfast a few times lol.
The Tower of London!! I suck at explaining what historical landmarks are all about so read the history here. We got there about 20 minutes before it opened and we were 2nd in line which was fantastic because by the time the gates opened the line was 200m long!
My favourite part of exploring the Tower of London was definitely the Crown Jewels. The number of jaw-dropping and over the top crowns, swords, gowns in the collection is pretty darn amazing. You aren't allowed to take photos in there (unless you want to be told off and it ain't worth that) so pics from the outside of The Jewel House will have to suffice.
There was so much history that I could have spent the whole day exploring it more but I headed off at lunch for some girlie time with my girl Aysh! You can read all about our trip to WAH Nails and high tea in my post. We had an amazing time but before long we had to go our separate ways! D and I wanted Indian for dinner that night and Aysh had recommended a popular restaurant in Covent Garden but there was a huge wait so we went to Jamie Oliver's Union Jack's instead for some British classics. The food was awesome - loved my bangers and mash and summer Eton mess!
Day 3 was another early start for us as we headed out to Stonehenge and Bath for the day! I booked most of our shuttles and tours for our honeymoon through Viator and we did the independent Stonehenge and Bath tour so that we could spend a few hours in Bath exploring ourselves. The tour left from Victoria Coach Station at about 7:30am and it was such a great day!! The coach was comfy and the tour guide was hilarious and informative making the drive fun. Stonehenge was amazing and so so happy to have ticked it off the bucket list!! It's such a shame it's roped off now so you can't get up close and personal but still amazing.
We then headed to beautiful Bath to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring ourselves. My mum passed on her adoration of Jane Austen so I grew up reading all her novels. Pride & Prejudice is still one of my favourite novels and I watch the BBC mini series way too much (lake scene need I say more ahem). Bath was so picturesque and quaint I absolutely adored everything about it.
We stopped for a quick lunch at the The Bath Bun for a ploughmans lunch each before trekking to the Jane Austen Centre for the tour. The tour was a short talk before exploring the exhibit which wasn't really worth the price of £9 each but worth stopping off at the gift shop for some Jane Austen souvenirs. Unfortunately we didn't get time to enjoy devonshire tea at their tearoom which was something I had really hoped to do!
Bath was absolutely beautiful and I was so sad we only got to spend a short time there! The hubby didn't really enjoy it as much as I did but I am dying to go back. I'd definitely stay there for at least a weekend to enjoy everything they have to offer. We didn't even get time to see the Roman Baths!
The next day we headed we slept in and headed to posh Knightsbridge for our splurge meal for London at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental - you can read my post about Dinner here. No visit to London would be complete without a trip to Harrods so we popped by there for some browsing after lunch. If you've been there before you'll know how amazing but overwhelming it is there! I'd always heard that everything was ridiculously priced there and while most things were there were definitely affordable items and I did pick up a few gifts. All the shopping made us hungry because even though we were full we still managed to have afternoon tea at the ice cream parlour!
We spent our last day in London visiting Borough Markets one last time for a good English fry up and oysters before heading to see Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. We couldn't believe that there were SO many people and I think the beautiful weather that day helped. Just our luck that the day before we leave the weather is stunning!
I love the pic below because I think it sums up London in just one pic! We spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the main London landmarks on our wishlist before one last dinner in London.
I was sad to leave London but next stop - Paris on the Orient Express!
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I've only been to London once and only got to visit the main sights from outside as there's sooo much to see. I know being in Europe is no excuse, so I guess I'll have to go back sometime. Last year we got to visit Liverpool and Chester.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Pride and Prejudice BBC series fan myself, so I can totally relate to your drooling over Colin Firth's lake scene in breeches. Needless to say, I think the film with Keira Knightley should have never seen the light of day, as it was awful 90% of its running time.
That's what I found too - just SO much to see. We really had to limit what we saw! I'm so envious of you lucky people that live in Europe being so close. I bet Liverpool and Chester were lovely!
DeleteOMG yes the Keira Knightley version should be banned. I admit I did go see it just so I could say and saw it but regretted it immediately. I rewatched the BBC version today actually lol.
London looks amazing! And so is meeting Luke! And the Union Jack. Can't say I'm into Mr Darcy though, I prefer Bingley, though think he's secretly a puppy. :P
ReplyDeleteLondon was so amazing!! I am DYING to go back but sadly I probably won't be able to go back for a while. It was totally unexpected meeting Luke but a nice touch haha. LOL I can so see Bingley as a puppy!
DeleteGreat post! :D I look forward to the rest in the series ^^
ReplyDeleteThanks Melanie!! It's Orient Express next =) It's just taken me aaaaaages to get my butt into gear to edit pics etc oops
DeleteIt's been years since I was in London and now you've made me crave a trip back there! Cannot wait for your next post, Paris is my favourite!
ReplyDeleteOh you should so go back! I can't wait to go back either. I loved Paris too!! Would love to go back there as well but sadly it probably won't be for a while
DeleteI love London! I Try to Go there at least once a year, it's only 2 h from Madrid by plane and you can never get bored of London!
ReplyDeleteI am SO envious of you lucky people living in Europe! I would love to go once a year. There's just so much history and so much to see there.
DeleteYay I'm so glad London was so good to you huny! Now you HAVE to come back! I've done the Bath & Stonehenge tour as well and completely fell in love with the place, I automatically felt transported into a period drama! And don't fret my dear, the whole lake/wet shirt scene is the reason why 99.9% of the female population (and quite probably some of the male too!) watch it ;) Can't wait to read more about your fab honeymoon sweety!
ReplyDeleteLove Aysh xoxo