London Trip

London Trip

Time for a little throwback post. I’m taking you back to May 2018, when I went on a little trip to London. I’m generally a huge fan of British culture, so that week spent in London was among the best times of my life. Let’s relive these memories together!

After leaving the plane I actually had to wait almost two hours to see the outside world. The airport train station was… well, inside the airport. Almost an hour later, a switch to another train at Victoria Station and then – finally, after a 30-minute ride – I could get outside.

London trip - Victoria station

One of the first things I saw was the typical small English town view which I absolutely love. A row of small, adorable houses, all with bay windows and at least a bit of brown brick showing. I can’t explain why, but this vibe is one of the main things that attract me to the UK. And the most incredible thing – this charming little place is only a 30-minute train ride from the centre of London! Yet no skyscrapers on the horizon, just the little houses and loads of parks. Stunning!

A road in Bromley, London

London trip - houses in Bromley

Moving on to actual London… no London trip can be complete without visiting Buckingham Palace. Although my invitation for afternoon tea from Her Majesty must have got lost somewhere in post. What a bummer!

Buckingham Palace in London

Walking around London I came across this view. No iconic landmarks in there, but this photo couldn’t be much more British. Phone box? Check. Union Jack? Check. Double decker red bus? Check. The only things we’re missing would probably be tea and some rain (though it was cold that day, despite the blue skies!).

Central London - red bus, telephone booth and British flag

Speaking of iconic landmarks, ladies and gentleman – The London Eye. Absolutely massive (just compare it with the boat parked beside it!). I decided against taking a ride that time (a combination of not the best, foggish weather paired with an enormous queue) but it’s something I will definitely do in the future, just for the experience.

Thames, though. Not the most impressive, clear colour of the water ^^’ .

A view from Westminster bridge onto London Eye ferris wheel

A 180-degree turn and there we have the Palace of Westminster (Parliament headquarters). Partly covered with scaffolding (totally forgot about the Big Ben being renovated until I saw it 😦 or didn’t see it, I should say). Still waiting to have a chance to see it in full glory!

A view at the Houses of Parliament in London

Another iconic place, St Paul’s Cathedral. Although, for some reason, nowhere near as occupied as Tower Bridge or Westminster area. It was quite shocking actually to see how very few people were around the cathedral – almost entirely empty streets! On a beautiful, warm, sunny Sunday afternoon, when thousands of tourists were strolling along Thames. Does anyone know why this area seems abandoned?

St Paul's cathedral in London

One of my favourite places to visit was Natural History Museum. The building is absolutely stunning! As a great fan of Harry Potter, I couldn’t help the feeling of a Hogwart’s vibe this place gave me. And it’s just as amazing inside. I was a little sad though with the fact that Dippy (the famous skeleton of a dinosaur that used to hang in the main hall of the Museum) had already been moved out, but the blue whale was incredible too.

Overall, I’m truly in love with London museums. Beside Natural History Museum I had a chance to visit Science Museum and British Museum. Honestly, you’d need to spend at least a few days in each of them to be able to see and read everything. It’s something I will definitely do on weekends once I’ve moved there.

Natural history museum in London - outside

London trip - Natural History Museum Hall

London trip - Natural History Museum

British Museum, as mentioned, was absolutely huge. Enormous. I knew it would be big, but I never thought it would be that big! I spent quite a few hours there but I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. I picked a few exhibitions that attracted me the most, as it was impossible to visit every single one. The mummies in Ancient Egypt section were incredible! I remember watching that old film, the Mummy, as a child – I loved it! The exhibition brought back a lot of memories.

And look at the ceiling in the British Museum. I wasn’t able to capture it well, but that glass & metal structure spreads over a massive area!

London trip - British museum

London trip - British museum - mummy

London trip - British museum - mummies

Science Museum was also great, but in this one it’s particularly important to read the labels if you want to understand what it is that you’re looking at. But at least a few items looked familiar!

London trip - Science museum - Apollo

London trip - Science museum - Google bike

Oh hi there! Baker’s Street 221B, anyone? Alphe, who doesn’t generally like films or series all that much, happens to actually love Sherlock Holmes (the BBC series, not the film). I loved how even the souvenir shop was full of that Sherlock vibe and the cashier seemed like the poshest, most gentleman of all British gentlemen I have, or will ever see.

Baker Street 221B - Sherlock Holmes house in London

London trip - Sherlock Holmes statue

Walk a few steps away from Sherlock’s headquarters and you’ll find a lovely little doughnut shop. I was starving at that point so it came like a blessing. Lemon meringue doughnut – 10/10 would eat again!

London trip - doughnuts

Back to iconic landmarks – Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Pretty unusual sight to see in the centre of a huge city, but interesting nonetheless.

London trip - Tower of London

Tower bridge in London

One of my favourite things in London is… the underground. Seriously. I was so impressed by how fluent public transport in London is! You enter a station without checking any kind of timetables and the train comes in 2-3 minutes. Incredible! If any Londoners ever complain about the tube… just visit Eastern Europe and you’ll see what bad public transport really looks like ^^’ .

London trip - the tube

Food! I couldn’t write this post without mentioning some of the most iconic English food – full English breakfast. I absolutely loved it! I tried to recreate it a couple times at home but it wasn’t the same. I’ve no idea what kind of sausages they were, but I’m sure I’ve never eaten anything similar in my country.

The bottom photo was taken at the airport, on the day I was going home. It was probably the most expensive breakfast I’ve had in my life ;D . But it was so, so good! The best possible thing to finish the holiday with.

This trip has also taught me one thing – drinking tea with milk. I’d never done it before, I’d shiver on just the thought of it… and now I willingly drink my English Breakfast tea with milk, every day!

London trip - full English breakfast

London trip - full English Breakfast - Stansted

Now what’s one thing a Potterhead has to do while in London? Visit King’s Cross, of course! Platform 9 ¾, to be specific. Which is nowhere near platforms 9 and 10, it’s just a small area in the main hall.

I couldn’t take a better photo of the trolley sticking out of the wall, the place was surrounded by a crowd of people queuing to take a photo there… a massively overpriced one. I would have maybe queued and paid too, but I was running late that day.

London trip - King's Cross

London trip - King's Cross Platform 9 3/4

A few random photos for the end, first: more of famous places, Trafalgar and Piccadilly.

London trip - Trafalgar Square

London trip - Piccadily Circus

And a few not so famous random places: a very British street (actually, most of the streets in the centre were full of British flags) and a charming store with cute flowers around the entrance.

London trip - a street with many British flags

London trip - door with flowers

To sum up – if there’s anything this trip did, it made me fall even deeper in love with London and England as a whole. I miss this place each day and I can’t wait to move there. It almost feels silly that my biggest goal in life at this point is to simply move to the place I love so much, but it is what it is.

Kew Gardens - tall palm trees
Kew Gardens in the rain
A giraffe in its green enclosure and blue sky in the background
Zoo trip – Chorzow
Lighthouse in Margate
Afternoon in Margate

47 thoughts on “London Trip”

  2. i LOVED reading this post! Your excitement and love about our little country makes me happy 🙂 Glad you had a great time and pictures look fab! Next time your in the UK be sure to check out Yorkshire! In the north where the people are even nicer 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Awh, thank you! 🙂
      I’ll certainly make sure to visit every part of England once I’ve finally moved there and I can’t wait to be able to plan all those little trips!

      Like

      Reply

  3. You certainly shot a many great photos!

    As for those ‘full English breakfasts’ I would say they are lacking; one is half a plate of beans; there should be mushrooms, black pudding and another sausage on each… and perhaps a proper hash brown or two, not what look like potato croquette things. I do like a good cooked breakfast! But of course, if you enjoyed them that is the main thing! The best I had was in Scotland and included haggis 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Ah true, I would have loved them even more with some mushrooms! The first one was indeed mainly beans, but it was the first full-ish English breakfast I had, so it was special! Black pudding though… we have a similar invention in Poland and I’m not a fan of it. And I was surprised to see that black pudding wasn’t included in ‘standard’ versions of English breakfasts in any of the places I went to – is it a classic not many people like?
      Also, it’s funny to hear that the second one was still lacking – I was completely stuffed for almost the entire day, haha!
      Haggis… I’m not sure how I feel about that, I think I prefer porridge as far as Scottish cuisine goes… 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I think a “Full” English breakfast includes mushrooms and black pudding, but often you can get a smaller one without these… and yes, like Marmite, not everyone likes black pudding. And good to hear you were stuffed after that one, I think that’s the aim 😀 I do like my porridge; I never thought of it as Scottish cuisine!

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  5. I love the UK. I went to Leeds back in 2017 to my grandmother’s funeral. The public trasportation is really awesome. I hope to returned again this summer. I only past through Heathrow Airport but hopefully next time I will actually get to visit and experience a few of those land marks.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. This post gave me so much nostalgia! I was fortunate enough to go to London a few years ago and, from the looks of it, our trips were so similar. It seems that I’m just as much of an Anglophile as you are, and this gave me such a yearning to go back. Great post and beautiful pictures! Also, that lemon meringue doughnut sounds incredible!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. It is lovely to see how you enjoyed London. Living in England, from original being German I also fell in love with it 30 odd years ago. I am still living here ( in East London) and I love to get into the city via tube, (yes it is brilliant, infrastructure is really great , no timetable needed, there is always a tube or bus coming) However, even after so many years London changes all the time and you never get tired of going in. I also love the theaters very much there! It is great to see your love for it and it makes me happy to share ‘ my wonderful London’ with you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Oh yes, theatres! I didn’t have a chance to go to any, but one of the things I’d love to do is seeing some of the West End’s musicals. Provided that Brexit doesn’t end with a catastrophe (which it seems to be going for at the moment… ;( ), I should have a chance to experience more of that beautiful city in a few months.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. The fact that no one does is the worst of it all 😅 I’ve put a lot of trust in all those negotiations and planned to move to the uk around september this year, now I’m really regretting not having done that earlier… Oh well! 😞

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          2. I certainly can and I’m determined to, I’m just unhappy with the perspective of paperwork, visas, applications and all that stuff – the eu made it so much easier!
            Glad it worked for you! 😊

            Liked by 1 person

          3. True Alphe, but until all this is in place it will take time, believe me, even if they are properly out in a few months, things will not be in place. Things take time.

            Liked by 1 person

  17. Hello Alphe. Thank you for sharing those unique moments. I had some nice time in London when I was younger too, so many different things to do, so multicultural, so … beautiful ).

    Bt the way, do you know Benjamin Clementine? He is talking about London )))

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Now I do, thanks for sharing! 🙂
      Yes, it is beautiful – to me, the most beautiful place in the world. Truly magical too, as it made me fall in love with it long before my first trip!

      Like

      Reply

      1. Yes indeed, London will always be my dream destination I think. I am not sure if I want to live permanently or if I want to just spend some time there now. Living there, means that you have to work many hours and live for the weekend. I don’t want that.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Ah yeah, life in London certainly is difficult. I’m kind of relying on my type of job being pretty flexible, hoping that I’ll somehow manage to establish a balance that won’t require working beyond regular hours… we’ll see!

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          1. Good luck with that … no matter what, I have realised in my life that luck is one of the most important parameters in life.

            Liked by 1 person

  18. Reblogged this on Ridings Educational and commented:
    Some nice bits of London covered in this post.

    Like

    Reply
  20. Pingback: Afternoon in Margate – Alphe's Corner
  21. Pingback: 15 Fun Facts About Monarchies And Royals – Alphe's Corner
  22. Pingback: Columbia Road Flower Market – Alphe's Corner
  23. Pingback: The Squirrels of Ruskin Park – Alphe's Corner
  24. Pingback: London Parks – West Ham Park – Alphe's Corner

Share your thoughts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.