England Part 1: London & Bath
I’m going to do this series of blog posts a bit differently than the ones I’ve done in the past. If you’re new around here and haven’t read my previous travel posts (you can check them out here), I usually post a journal style, highlighting what we’ve done each day throughout our travels. However, this time around, I’m going to do the major highlights of our trip in each place. I’ll still spend some time telling you about what we did, ate, experienced, but it just won’t be day by day. I figured we are traveling for so long that journal style might not work this time around. So, here goes!
London, England
Total time spent: 9 days, 8 nights
Where we stayed: a gorgeous AirBnB located in Fitzrovia.
London is a beauty! I believe she’s similar to New York and in the words of a local, she’s New York’s little sexy sister! This city is pretty big, and pretty wide spread with lots to see, eat, and drink.
Experiences of London
We hit all of the obvious tourist attractions like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament (which is currently undergoing a “face lift” and is under construction until 2021—a huge bummer), the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge and more.
At Buckingham Palace, we happened to visit on the Queen’s birthday and she just happened to be making an appearance along with all of her royal family members. So on our first full day in London, we saw the the whole royal family, including Kate Middelton, Meghan Markle, William, and Harry and of course, the Queen herself! Not a bad way to start!
Here’s a really great view of the Royal Family.
London, as I’m sure you can imagine, is quite pricey, so we’ve done our very best saving money where we can. For example, rather than paying to go inside Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, or riding the London Eye, we decided to view it from the outside and spend more time walking around the surrounding neighborhoods. I’m not saying it isn’t worth the price to visit the inside of these places, as I’ve read in many places that it is, we just decided to save the money, skip the queue, and enjoy our time elsewhere.
The outside of Westminster Abbey.
We hit up two beautiful and free entrance museums—The British Museum and the Natural History Museum. Containing beautiful artifacts and pieces of history, both are must-dos while in London.
Getting a hands-on lesson from a curator at the British Museum.
The Rosetta Stone located in the British Museum.
Skeleton of a whale that hangs over the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum.
We also really enjoyed walking around the neighborhood of Shoreditch, which has a very eclectic vibe where the streets are filled with more of my favorite things—street art. We saw some gorgeous pieces of art while walking the streets.
London also has some breathtaking parks filled with tons of green space, beautiful landscaping, and in The Regent’s Park, Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens. We thoroughly enjoyed laying out a towel and soaking up the small bit of sun while reading. After all, we are on vacation, so down time is a must!
We also met up with our friend Cass for dinner and drinks. We randomly went to an eccentric upstairs Gin Parlor complete with a doorman and ridiculously amazing decor. The place was tiny but very eclectic and we had some delightful gin!
Other “not to miss” experiences in London:
Taking a Double-Decker bus at least once (you can use your Oyster card on these as well.) It’s a great (and cheap) way to see the city.
Taking your picture with the quintessential red phone booths—you just have to!
A visit to Leadenhall Market where many films, including parts of Harry Potter, are filmed. We happened to make it here on a Sunday when everything was closed, but it worked out in our favor to get a few iconic shots of the market.
Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station—If you’re a Potterhead (fan of Harry Potter) this a must-do for you. I’m a huge fan of HP, but not a huge fan of standing in hour long queues to take a photo, so we skipped the queue, took a “cheap seats” photo and spent the rest of our time in the gift shop. #worthit
Jack the Ripper tour—As I’ve read everywhere, you can’t come to London and not take a Jack the Ripper tour. This extremely famous serial killer committed his crimes in London back in the late 1800’s. Many tour companies around London offer some form of a Jack the Ripper tour. Our tour took us around the areas where Jack the Ripper committed his crimes while explaining the history during that time period in this area of London. Our tour guide was great and I’d highly recommend this tour company. Side note: this tour may not be suitable for youngsters as some gruesome details are discussed, just sayin’.
Harry Potter tour—Easily one of the best experiences for people who love the Wizarding World. Just like the Ripper tours, most tour companies do some form of a HP tour, but we booked ours through AirBnB experiences and had a fantastic time! Our guide, Mark, was very knowledgeable and a Slytherin (so we know he’s trustworthy, #slytherinsunite!)
London Eats
Y’all know ya girl can eat and there’s no food group I love more than hand to mouth foods (this is what I use to describe foods you pick up with your hands and shove in your face hole.) We had some of the best hand to mouth foods while here in London.
Tongue & Brisket—a traditional salt beef and ox tongue mixed sandwich with mustard and pickles served on rye bread. I’m still salivating as I type this. The family owned company has been serving these delectable sandwiches for more than 40 years. We may have gone back, it was that good.
Borough Market—Michael and I spent a few hours wandering the various food stalls at Borough Market. Hyped as a “Foodie’s Paradise,” this place definitely did not disappoint. Stalls serving up breads, cheeses, olive oils, wine, sandwiches, teas, sweats, hand to mouth foods, and more crowded this market space that has been functioning as a market in some capacity since 1014, according to it’s website. Michael had a Lamb and Mint burger from Northfield Farm. Michael’s description of the burger: “lamby and minty.” He let me have a few bites and the meat was tender and juicy with only subtle hints of mint. I had Portuguese Porchetta (spit roasted whole pig) with apple sauce and roquette salad on a ciabatta roll with crispy skin and oh my goodness it was delicious. The succulent, juicy pork contrasted nicely with a the slightly sweet applesauce against the crusty ciabatta bread. Am I a food blogger yet? Seriously, Borough Market is exactly what everyone says it is, a genuine Foodie’s Paradise!
Kebabs in Shoreditch—We found one of the dodgy-ist looking kebabs places and decided to give it a shot. We split one Lamb Doner kebab for £5 and it filled us both up, easily. More delicious hand to mouth food.
Poppie’s—Famous for their traditional fish and chips, we had to hit this place up while here in London. We split a large portion of the Haddock and chips and a starter of jellied eels with a side of ale, duh. The fish and chips were delicious, with perfectly crisp breading on the fish and a nice sized portion of chips on the side. The jellied eels, however, were just not my cup of tea. I am always willing to try everything, at least once, so I was up for this challenge. But the slimy texture, coupled with the cold, fishy taste just wasn’t doing it for me. I tried a few solid bites but just couldn’t stomach any more.
Dishoom—Everyone we spoke to, both before coming to London and while we were here, said we had to eat at Dishoom. Famous for their Indian food, Dishoom is known to be impossible to get into for dinner. Apparently the queue snakes out the door and can be hours long. We made a reservation for breakfast (they take reservations for smaller parties only for breakfast and lunch, dinner reservations are only accepted for parties of 6 or more) and were able to see what the fuss was all about. I ordered the bacon and egg naan roll, which was delicious! The runny egg coupled with the crispy bacon and the sauce (not sure exactly what the sauce was) was absolutely amazing. Michael order the chicken livers on toast and said it was good. I tried it but there was too much cilantro for me (cilantro is my least favorite food on this planet. It’s disgusting, should be left out of cooking, and I wouldn’t be upset if it disappeared forever.) Suffice it to say, I wouldn’t recommend the chicken livers on toast but Michael says he would!
Look at all that cilantro.
Transport in London
We rode the London Underground a lot while here. We simply purchased an Oyster card at the airport and loaded it with about £20. We quickly had a top up (add more money) to our cards as we used the Tube so much while here. I’d say we spent about £35 total for all of our travel in London.
Bath, England
Total time in Bath: 2 days, 1 night
Where we stayed: an AirBnB located about a 35 minute walk from the city center.
I loved Bath! This small city compared to London was refreshing! There were way less people and the architecture was stunning.
Experiences of Bath
Bath isn’t a huge city, and most people visit on a day tour from London. With that being said, you can certainly see and do everything in Bath in one day.
On the walk from our AirBnB, we crossed the Pulteney Bridge over the river Avon. This gorgeous bridge was designed in 1769 and is one of only four bridges in the world to have shops on both sides of the bridge.
The biggest reason most tourists visit bath is because of the Roman Baths. For £22, you can learn all about this historic site which was once used by the Romans as a religious bathing spa. These baths were said to have been built in the 2nd century. We spent about 2.5 hours here, learning about how the facilities were used, the Religious ceremonies, and more. While the price is pretty steep, you can’t come to Bath and not visit the Roman Baths.
Bath Abbey is right across the way from the Roman Baths. A gorgeous abbey originally built in the 7th century but rebuilt in the 16th century. They are currently renovating the abbey.
One of the weirdest things we’ve done on our trip so far was Bizarre Bath Comedy Walk. This walk is essentially exactly what it sounds like, stand up comedy while walking around the city. Michael found this in Lonely Planet: Great Britain and was drawn to the comedy aspect. So we figured, what the heck, and decided to give it a go. For £10 per person, we laughed at the hilarious jokes of our “tour guide” and looked on as he did a few magic tricks. If you’re into comedy and want a laugh, I’d recommend this!
Eats of Bath
Sally Lunns Buns—We were told you can’t go to Bath and not eat at Sally Lunns, so that was literally the first place we went after dropping our bags at our AirBnB. To give you some background, Sally Lunn was a Huguenot refugee who came to Bath in the 1600’s. She began baking buns that were similar to brioche but also had a french flair. These buns became very popular and people still flock to Bath to try them. The restaurant is located in the original home of Sally Lunn and claims to be the oldest house in Bath, built in 1482. During lunch time, the serve half buns (which are rather large) with your choice of toppings, either sweet or savory. I had the french toast and one sweet bun with homemade cinnamon butter and Michael had the savory bun with salt beef. I’d say the cinnamon butter bun was absolutely my favorite! They also have a small museum in the basement where you can talk to someone about the history of the place and buy freshly baked buns to go.
Everything listed above we did in one full day. On our second day, we wandered the streets, ate bbq from a street stall at a Boules festival that happens only once a year (Boules is similar to Bocce Ball), sat in the abbey square and listened to the street musicians and walked along the canal lined with house boats. You honestly cannot skip Bath if you’re coming to the UK!
We’re now on our way to Dublin, Ireland! Stay tuned for our future adventures!
AirBnB referral link: https://abnb.me/e/UrOR2nYWDX
This link gets you 15% off your home booking and you’ll get $15 to use toward an experience worth $50 or more.
Safe travels,
Emily
