Our London Trip Photos

Remember a few weeks ago when Scott and I spent an amazing nine days in London and Paris? I finally have had a chance to sit down and start sorting through photos from our trip. Ya’ll. Is it weird to feel “homesick” for a place that’s not home? Miss it so much already!

Today’s post is going to be super photo heavy. I decided to split up our London and Paris photos, and will be sharing our pictures from Paris on Friday!

These are like 10% of the photos I took, but I plan on printing and scrapbooking a bunch more and will be sharing the process as I go along. I haven’t scrapbooked in forever—excited to revisit the process! 🙂

Our first day in London was spent walking through the city with my cousin. We saw Picadilly Circus, Kensington Gardens, a glimpse of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament and more!

Scott and I had never been to London before. We both have cousins that live there, so it made total sense to go and check it out. We stayed with my cousin, Jamal and his beautiful wife Anne in their lovely new flat. They spoiled us rotten and we are eternally grateful. My FAVORITE part of London? Time with them. Hands down. Of course, the rest of it wasn’t bad either. 😉 Jamal and Anne took us out for our first proper English tea. So delicious! They had this amazing cream stuff for on top of scones and jam. So good! Here’s my cuz enjoying a spot o’ tea. 😉

We all took the tube one evening down to Harrods. I don’t even know to put Harrod’s into words. It’s like a department store with a massive gourmet food court, travel agencies, banks, restaurants and a museum—all in one store! They were DECEKD out for Christmas.  The store window displays were unreal.

The next day Scott and I took the tube down to Kings Cross Station to go to the British Library. Conveniently, we got to cross off another “must see” on our list at the station…any guesses?

Platform 9 3/4 of course!! So funny seeing what we have seen in Harry Potter so many times right in front of us! 🙂 There was a really long line to wait in to take a photo with the cart, so we snuck a side one instead.

The British library was INCREDIBLE. I can’t even describe. The museum was unreal. I originally wanted to go because they have Jane Austen’s writing desk there. I almost cried when I saw it there along with her manuscript of Persuasion. There were so many other amazing things there as well like handwritten lyrics from the Beatles scribbled on the back of birthday cards and random sheets of paper, along with handwritten notes from DaVinci, Mozart, Beethoven, letters from the pope, etc. So cool.

You weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I did snap this photo of the actual library—three floors stacked with old books. Swoon.

The day after that we went to see the Tower of London which was an incredible little village packed with tons of buildings, history and really cool info. I felt really motivated afterwards to learn more about the history of the monarchy. So many interesting characters and scandals!

Also, the Crown Jewels are ridiculous. They are so sparkly and giant—it was really hard to believe they weren’t plastic or something!! I wish I could’ve taken that giant diamond home. Sadly, no pictures allowed there, but you can see photos of them here if you are interested!

All the poppies you see above were from a memorial for the 100 year anniversary of WWI. You can read more about them here. They were actually taking them out when we got there…so glad we had a chance to see them.

After leaving the Tower we walked across the Tower of London Bridge and crossed another life-long dream off my bucket list: The Shakespeare Globe Theatre. I have dreamed about going here since I was little, and it was really weird to actually be there.

We then went and visited Scott’s cousin, Sarah and enjoyed an evening walk along the River Thames. It’s all so beautiful at night!!

The next day, we took the Eurostar to PARIS. Come see our photos from Paris on Friday. SO much eye candy ya’ll.

We got one more day in London before having to go back to the states (boo!). We all decided to cook a Thanksgiving meal together. Everything was so fresh and delicious. The turkey came from a butcher and even still had some feathers in it. :O The vegetables tasted so good and clean, and of course the beers, wine and cider was fantastic. 🙂 Most of all, the family time was wonderful. I really, really miss them already. 🙁 Just means we’ll have to go back soon!

Before we knew it, we were back on the long, long, long plane ride back to Dallas. We took the train to the airport and I had to giggle at the amount of luggage we had. 🙂

So what did we bring back with us? Well, team, jam and Christmas presents. And also, I might have picked up these:

Overall, our opinion of London was super favorable. I would ABSOLUTELY go back again. In fact, I will go back! 🙂 The people were extremely polite, everything was clean and organized, the history is rich and the weather really wasn’t bad. It was actually warmer in London than Dallas most days!

Next time we go I want to see the countryside. I want to go where Jane (Austen) was, and to Oxford where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis hung out. I want to go to Chatsworth House and pretend I’m at Pemberly. And I want to spend more time with family. 🙂

Have you all been to London? What’s on your travel bucket list? I have so many places to go and so little time…ahh!!!