We love a UK city break and every year make sure we’ve
included one in our travel itinerary, this year we headed down to the capital
for a long weekend in London. The weekend definitely went by way too quickly
but we thought we’d share some of the highlights with you after all there’s
never a dull moment in London!
Our trip started pretty early and we arrived at Euston
around 10:30am and after we dropped our bags off at the hotel we had one thing
on our mind, brunch! Something we’d researched a fair bit for this trip was
coffee shops and so we headed to the nearest one, the Bloomsbury Coffee House.
If you’re looking for a good coffee this was definitely the best! We both had
items from the breakfast menu and it left us full until dinner so it was well
worth the £17.
On our way out the hotel contacted us to say our room was
ready. We were staying at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Kenilworth on Great Russell
Street and found the location to be perfect! The room itself was a bit warm and
a bit noisy but otherwise fine for a weekend away.
After a pretty relaxed afternoon, of bobbing in and out of
shops around Oxford Street and Soho, we headed out for an early dinner to a
restaurant just off Piccadilly Circus – Rowley’s. We both had a steak which was
cooked perfectly and tasted delicious followed by the amazing chocolate bomb
desert. Whilst it is delicious it’s also a pretty pricey restaurant, if you’ve
travelled to London by train then this a great place to take advantage of the
Days Out Guide 2 for 1 vouchers available to anyone who’s travelled down by
rail – We did! (It was still expensive…)
Our Saturday evening, the reason we went down to London, was
certainly the highlight of the trip – a night at the Prince Edward Theatre to
see Aladdin. Having both grown up in what we’d consider the Golden Era of
Disney Aladdin was a firm favourite for us both as kids and seeing it on the
stage was magical! It’s an excellent take of the film and well worth a watch
whether you’re a fan of it or not!
We started the day early with a run route incorporating some
of the best sights to see in London whilst still managing to keep the distance
fairly short (7.7km) you can read our post of the perfect tourist run route
here!
Sunday’s planned activity was a trip out to Greenwich, just
40 minutes out of the city centre by DLR it was easily accessible and so worth
the trip out! There’s a lot to do in the area, we’d planned a walking tour
which lasted around 2 hours and at £8 for the two of us was a bargain! Our
guide showed us around the university grounds explaining the history of the
site, what some of the current notable features were, told us all about the
films that had been shot there recently and then took us up through the park to
see the best view of London you’re ever likely to see! Greenwich really does
have so much to see and do. You could very easily spend the full day out here.
Once we headed back to the city it was time for another
Coffee Shop stop, this time we headed to Monopoly Board Favourite Fleet Street
to visit the Fleet Street Press – in case you’re wondering Fleet Street was the
heart of London’s journalism back in the day, we reckon that’s why it’s called
press but we could be wrong! We didn’t have a bite to eat in here, but the tea was
lovely!
Monday
Finally it was time for a peaceful and relaxing morning
after two days of early get ups it was nice to finally have a restful morning
even if we had to ruin it by packing up the room. Once again we spent
some time wandering through a few shops, this time in the much nicer Covent
Garden area and before long it was time for Coffee Shop Stop number 3. We
visited Grind Covent Garden for a quick pick me up and we weren’t disappointed,
the pot of tea had enough for 3 cups in it! Plus the had some delicious food on
offer, we picked up a Pastel de Nata, in preparation for Portugal in July,
which was very tasty.
Our planned activities for Monday were over the other side
of London but we decided to enjoy a walk over rather than sit on the tube. We
headed first to Monument, the tower that was constructed to commemorate the
Great Fire of London in 1666. For just £5 we were allowed entry to climb the
311 steps to the top – of course James saw this as a challenge so we had to
power up all 311 steps without stopping – or even slowing down!
Just around the corner from Monument was the highlight of
our Monday. We headed to 20 Fenchurch Street, more commonly known as the Walkie Talkie building, to go to their Skygarden on the 35th floor,
bookings are required and can be made up to 3 weeks in advance – be warned
weekend and sunsets are booked up in the blink of an eye! The view from the
Skygarden is incredible! With 360 degree views across the whole city it’s well
worth coming up - especially as it’s free! You’re given an hour's slot which is
plenty of time to stroll around, take loads of pictures and enjoy a smoothie
from the bar.
We finished off our Monday and our weekend in London with a
wholesome meal from Wagamama and some cocktails from the London Cocktail Club on
Shaftsbury Avenue, taking full advantage of their two for £12 happy hour!
So that was our quick weekend away in London, we hope we've inspired you to visit! Let us know if you're heading to London and what your plans are!
Amazing pictures and great that you had a good time ...
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