August 13 – 17, 2014
August 14: Day out in London
August 15: Day out in London
August 16: Date night
Thursday, August 14
This summer, my boyfriend Jamie and I decided to go up to London for a couple of days just to do some sightseeing in our own capital city. Neither of us had really done this before, only really going up to London for gigs, and a few months in college for me, so we thought this would be a nice idea, given I don’t live too far from the city. People travel from all over the world to come here, so it seemed mad we hadn’t seen the sights in great detail. We would have loved to go on holiday somewhere warmer and further afield, but being university students, this wasn’t really an option at the moment. We saw these couple of days as our first step to travelling the world together 😉 Jamie stayed with me for a few days, and the weekend turned into our own little staycation.
On the Thursday, we aimed to see a lot of the main sights in London – not really go in and do anything, just spectate from the outside and keep the costs down. We started off at the Tower of London, and then walked west up to Hyde Park where we finished the day. My feet were pretty sore by the end of the day, but we had a nice day out!
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Hay’s Market
Southwark Cathedral
Millennium Bridge (too busy for an artistic shot)
The Shard from the Millennium Bridge
St Pauls selfie!
Walking along South Bank
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben
Houses of Parliament
London Eye
Buckingham Palace selfie (just before the heavens opened)!
Cocktail at the Hard Rock Cafe, to occupy us for the hour and a half wait for a table we’d been told!
Amazing burgers!
Even more amazing desserts (that cheesecake should be criminal)!
Friday, August 15
On the Friday, we had a game plan to visit some more tourist attractions in depth. We started off at Kings Cross, where we wanted to go and see Platform 9 and 3/4, although when we heard about the 45 minute queue just to take a picture, the magic was sucked from the whole thing, and we decided we’d come back a quieter time. Kings Cross and St Pancras are still great places to visit though, so stunning!
Kings Cross station
Patisserie Valerie at St Pancras – a Mille Feuille and a Croque Monsieur, like we were back in France!
Our main trip of the day was to go to the view at the Shard, something I’d never done before. We’d both been on the London Eye when we were younger, but as an attraction it’s a lot more overrated, with huge queues. There was no queue for the Shard whatsoever, and we were able to go up as soon as we arrived. The prices were similar, but I definitely think the Shard was the better option.
NE view from the Shard
NW view from the Shard
Too poor for champagne
We then got the train over to South Kensington, where we planned on going to the Natural History Museum. By this time it was about 3pm, and I’d not considered the fact there might be a queue to go in, nor that it would be several hours long! We quickly gave up on that idea and decided to come back another day after the summer, nice and early so we could spend as long as we wanted there. We wandered around South Kensington and Belgravia, some of my favourite places just to look at, and then went to Stepney Green to see Jamie’s mum who had just had surgery in a hospital there. She was doing really well and it was nice to see her! After a far more relaxed day, we went home.
V&A Museum
Saturday, August 16
On Saturday night, we decided to have a proper date night and go out for dinner, somewhere other than Subway or McDonald’s, where we usually find ourselves. We went to Loch Fyne, one of my favourite restaurants, and rather more classy than what we’re used to, that specialise in fish, which I love, and which Jamie likes too (despite his incredibly fussy tastebuds). Honestly one of the nicest meals I’ve had in a long time, and probably my favourite date so far 🙂
Boiled salmon with Hollandaise sauce – ooh mama!
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