Tuesday, June 21, 2011

London: Days One & Two

I'm going to first apologize for two things - 1) for this is incredibly late, i did leave for my trip on the 20th of April and it is now the 21st of June! and 2) for this post being hideously long!  Please keep in mind i took hundreds of photos each day, so narrowing them all down and deciding which ones to put in each blog post is so difficult.  So people suggested i just put it in a video format, but i just didn't want to do that tbh.

My trip last April to London & Paris was absolutely amazing.  London is my favorite city that i've been to and we were so, SO lucky to have such incredible weather - we're talking no rain (except for a tiny bit one night), temperatures in the 70s/80s Fahrenheit everyday, and the sun shining.  I took my camera out everyday, but i did leave it home when we went out most nights as it is super heavy and bulky.  It was a trip with school so there were about 15+ or so other people and chaperones, but when we had free time, we were really free to roam about the city on our own (in groups of three or more of course), armed with tube passes for the day, maps, and a list of suggested places to check out.  Most of our nights we had free time, but of course we had to be back in our rooms by midnight. ;)  The trip was really worth every penny and i'm absolutely dying to go back.  My heart is in England. ♥

So here are some of the highlights of day one and two.  Obviously i can't include everything and i didn't even take photos of every place we went to or every thing we did, so bear that in mind.
Day one we arrived at our hotel, went on an overview tour of the city and visited Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus (we were running a bit late so we didn't get to go to Covent Garden :( ), and went on the Jack the Ripper tour (to try and stay up late as to prevent jet lag).  We also had time to go shopping, i went to King's Mall in Hammersmith, which is when i spent loads at Primark and Superdrug (didn't have time for River Island or anything else :/).  And for dinner that night we had Turkish food, it was okay!
Day two we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace, and went on a tour in a coach all around the city, and also saw Chicago the musical which i didn't like too much tbh.  For dinner we had Indian cuisine, super spicy!

Got my passport & ticket all ready to go.
*a day of waiting in the airport/flying/going through six time zones later* Baggage claim at Heathrow!

The beloved Primark, almost fell over seeing it (finally!) in person...  Taking a stroll down King Street.  We got some free time so i had a little stop at King's Mall in Hammersmith which was just one tube stop away on the tube or a five minute walk from our hotel.
A few hours of shopping later.. yep, i bought all of those nail paints in one go (+1 more a few days later :P)

Ravenscourt Park tube station, the one that was closest to our hotel. :)

Had another little stroll over the Queen's Jubilee Bridge.  I'm actually quite scared of bridges so i was quick to get off of this one!  Was quite nice though. :)

Trafalgar Square - probably one of my favorite places we went.  So lovely & full of people!
Second to last photo is a picture inside St. Martin in the Fields, located in Trafalgar Square.

I believe these were taken while we were walking through Leicester Square.  We didn't spend too much time there, but it looked like it has a lot of places to eat at and bars and such!  We were also walking through there around dinner time... haha

A little blurry view from our hotel room.  Hammersmith is so, so lovely in my opinion!

We went on a little drive around the touristy parts of London and saw a lot of things that were set up for the Royal Wedding, which took place literally three days after we left for Paris.  These are a bunch of Union Jack flags strung up if you didn't know that already. ;)

St. Paul's Cathedral - We didn't actually get to go inside as we visited it on Good Friday (you could only go in for the service), but it was such a nice day that chilling out on the steps in front of it was perfectly fine.  It was absolutely massive, the door to go in is probably taller than my house.... ha.  My friends & i also stopped at the little Marks & Spencer Simply Food and got some cookies and a berry drink.

Westminster Abbey - Of course we had to stop by here for a bit.  It was quite cool to see where Will and Kate were to be married. :)

A little shot of Big Ben (with the London Eye showing its face in the corner) from Westminster Abbey.

St. James's Park (which was full of people since the weather was amazing) & the walk to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace in all its glory!

Fish & chips for lunch!  Hands down one of the best meals i had whilst there, could eat it everyyyyyyy day.  And yes, i finished that plate off, don't worry. ;)

Hampton Court Palace on a lovely, lovely day.

Let me know if you enjoyed this ladies!  I will try my best to keep getting the photos up from the rest of the trip.  Will try to make them a bit more brief. :)

16 comments:

  1. Lucky girl! It looks beautiful, loving the photos! xx

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  2. Gorgeous pictures - i wish i lived in london. x

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  3. So glad you liked the UK! I always love seeing it through the eyes of a tourist :) x

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  4. Beautiful photos, I love London so much! It's a shame you left before the Royal wedding, that would have been incredible to be in London as it was happening!xx

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  5. Great pictures, only been to London a couple of times but never had chance to explore!
    xx

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  6. This is soo sooooo beautiful, these make me want to get to London and explore some more, i really need to take advantage of the fact that i live close! I hope you had an amzaing time and your pictures are stunning! And dont make the next post shorter, this length is great!:) xxx

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  7. Excellent pics! London is a must-see city. It's a city that has everything on Earth.

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  8. You're quite the photographer :) You really captured such a beautiful city so well xo

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  9. Loved it! doesn't need to be more brief, I love scrolling through photos!

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  10. I live in London and I never get to capture it like you :p
    Glad you enjoyed it :D

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  11. Gorgeous pictures! I love London and i'd love to take my American boy to see the city one day. I'm glad you loved fish and chips - its vrey much one of my favourite all time meals!

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  12. Aw you got some really beautiful photos Laura! London is such a pretty City (: xxx

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  14. love your bag! where did you get it? hope you had a good trip :)


    would love if you could come and visit?
    www.buttonsnbows101.blogspot.com

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  15. Loved this post! You took some really gorgeous pictures! xx

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  16. SO jealous you went to London. I can't wait to save up money and go! Tres tres jealous.

    x

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