Making the most of the city: 48hrs in London

About two weeks ago my husband and I got back from our 10 day trip to Europe! It was our first long haul flight and our longest trip to date. We enjoyed every minute of it and were grateful to have had the opportunity to experience this.

Our first stop was London, we definitely hit the ground running! I was so proud of us for doing so much in so little time.

We landed in London at around 10:00 AM, requested a Uber and we were on our way to the hotel.  I still remember sitting in the car, looking from side to side at the new environment I was in;  thinking “wow we really made it here.” It all began with a thought, we then talked about it, planned the trip and now we were finally here!

First sights of London

We stayed at Park Plaza London Waterloo. It was a great location as we were walking distance from the London Eye, Covent Garden, The lyceum Theater, and other popular museums. The staff was extremely nice and accommodating. 

Speaking of accommodating: remember that if your check out time is way before your flight you have the option to have the concierge at the hotel hold your luggage while you are out doing your last sight seeings, like that you are not forced to carry your luggage around.

Hotel Lobby

After taking a nap we were off on the Waterloo bridge to find fish and chips!

Over the Waterloo Bridge

I gotta say walking was one of the things I really enjoyed on this trip. There is little to no humidity over there so with the sun shining and temperature at the mid-60s the weather was perfect!

After getting our fish and chips we headed over to the London Film Museum where my husband would be surprised with Bond in Motion! He is an avid James Bond fan, and of course, loves cars. So it only seemed right to give him this experience, in 007’s city. Seeing his expression when he saw the 007 sign and the wonder in his eyes while looking at each car, was the ultimate reward.

The Bond in Motion exhibit is the largest official collection of ORIGINAL James Bond vehicles, it features over 100 original vehicles and artifacts spanning all 24 James Bond films. There’s also a a gift shop and a cafe where they play director and actor commentaries from the movies, we sat down for a while to enjoy that.

So if you are heading to London with your honey and they are a Bond fan or you are one yourself, I highly recommend it!

 

Like a kid in a candy store

Rest assured that was just some of the vehicles.

After hanging out with Bond and his cars, we then realized we in the heart of Covent Garden, which is London’s main theater and entertainment area. We did a bit of a walk around through the shopping and food court where we stocked up on some of the best cookies we ever had from Ben’s Cookies! Oh so gooey and chewy, we got white chocolate, white chocolate/cranberry, white chocolate/ macadamia nut, and peanut butter. Don’t judge lol, at least we didn’t eat it all at once!

The cookies were so big, almost the size of my entire hand!

Finally our last stop was to go see the Lion King Musical! My husband and I have been talking about going for years, almost throughout the whole course of our relationship. Well after we got off the plane and saw the advertisement we jumped on the occasion. Thankfully the show for the same night was not sold out so there we went. The show was awesome, gave me chills all throughout, it was truly heartwarming.

 

I’m so looking forward to share that experience with our future kids. The Lion King is on of our favorite Disney movie, especially my husband’s, our  singing along to Hakuna Matata was much fun. The show really was another big highlight of our day.

Side note: We noticed that London showcases many plays/musicals. we saw the advertisement on buses, billboards, and Marquis for classics like Mamma Mia! and more recent ones like Waitress. A big plus is that they are fairly affordable. So if you find your self in the heart of London pick one of those to check out. As for us, That will be on our to-do list next time we are in London.

The play ended at around 11:00 PM, so we took a bicycle carriage ride back to the hotel. It was a short romantic ride, this was one of the many moments during this trip where I almost had to pinch myself to see if it was real.

The next day was all about being touristy and sightseeing! And for that, we used the Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus tours. That idea was presented to me by my co-worker actually. she used it while she was in Paris and recommended I try it as well. Initially, I thought we were only gonna use it for Paris but after going on their site to buy the tickets I realized that they offered services in London along with other popular cities too.

Basically, as the name says it, you can hop on and off at your own pace on a big bus that takes you on different routes to see all the touristic sites with live commentaries. To be honest, my husband and I didn’t like the idea of taking a guided tour, so finding something like this was the ideal situation as we could get on and off at our leisure while still listening to valuable information on board. Plus we were able to see many sites in a short amount of time.

 

 

Bright Corners of London

 

 

 

Belgrave Square; one of the most expensive places to live in London.

They have 1, 2 or 3-day ticket option, with discount booklets for shows, some stores AND museum passes. If you are traveling abroad and want to get as many historical sites under your belt and get some discounts while you are at it, I highly suggest you head over their way.

Highlights of the tour were stopping at Buckingham Palace and seeing the Victoria Memorial, strolling through Saint James Park and going over the London Bridge.

 

Buckingham Palace

Victoria Memorial

St James’ Park

Excuse this gentleman, he couldn’t hear me telling him to move out my shot LOL

London Bridge Ladies and Gentlemen

St Paul’s Cathedral (where Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married)

The Royal Court of Justice

After the tour, we walked over to Saint Aymes a super cute cafe on Connaught street, that has been my to-go list for a minute!

 

 

 

Besides the beautiful super girly decor, their pretty delicacies are delicious. We had the 24ct gold Pink hot chocolate (you know I love me a good hot chocolate recipe) and the chocolate and butter croissants. The offer other items like unicorn lattes, waffles, and coffee of course.

Since it was the bus tour’s last stop we were forced to take the Underground back to the hotel. Although we had to ask multiple times for help finding our way and did not have a dime of a clue what we’re getting ourselves into I was happy about the experience. Not only did we find our way back but this also helped us blend in and feel like locals.

The Waterloo Station

Our last morning, we went back to Covent Garden. Our first visit was so brief and spotted some restaurants we wanted to check out.

Love a Pretty Floral corner!

 

After lunch, since we felt like we were pros! (Yeah right!) We caught a Uber ride to King’s Cross station to take the train to the airport… and Oh boy, what a race that was! We were out of  breath multiple times trying to catch the next train, bus, and flight. I was almost at the point of tears running up to the wrong gate at the airport until my husband came back to let me know our flight was delayed. Pheww! Again that’s still a learning experience I’m happy we got to have.

We continued on train taking experience in Paris but this time we were more prepared and knowledgeable about all the ins and outs you need to know.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Paris coming soon.

I can’t wait to share some more pictures with you guys!