While London is a trip in itself, it was really the 3rd leg of a longer travel adventure.
I started off in Fort Lauderdale at a work event, which was successful. Then, had a beautiful 48 hours with my Besties in Miami (which needs a recap itself!) and then got on a plane at 9PM on Monday night to fly to London to meet with Dad and Cindy.
Getting through the airport was a breeze. I ended up having a conference call before the flight which worked out. Getting on the plane was a little sad after passing about 20 rows of First Class that looked SO nice… but the middle seat was empty next to me and the gal on the aisle was friendly. The plane left on time and was already projected to shave off 50 minutes of flight time.
The flight itself was brutal. I could not get a comfortable spot to actually close my eyes and rest my head. The silly blue neck pillow I carted the whole way mysteriously disappeared at some point. It was on my carry-on when I got on the plane but did not make it to my seat. I think I kept shaking myself awake every twenty minutes because my head would fall down! Even worse, I had the flight tracker on (because I love seeing where we are) and it must have frozen because I spent a delirious three hours thinking we had only gone two hours! I finally realized it when we had two hours left so that was comforting. It was over at some point though and then I was in London, so can I really complain that much? (The answer is always yes…)
I was shocked at how easy immigration was. There was no line and at least 20 electronic kiosks which scanned my passport in seconds and sent me on my way. I wish the US had that easy of a process! We shall see at the end of this trip.
Walking out to the taxi line was quite simple as well. I did get stopped by an “official looking” individual with a Heathrow lanyard on trying to convince me to not take a “metered taxi”, and that it would be best with a guaranteed price. I started to ask him some questions and realized it was most likely a scam and moved on to the official taxi line.
The London taxis are SO adorable. The drivers are protected with plastic/glass but the inside is so roomy with two or three jump seats if you need more people. The drive in was about 50 minutes and it was nice to look at the scenery on the way to the hotel.
It was very reminiscent of New York (which I had just visited three months earlier!) with lots of traffic, high-end luxury stores, mixed in with tall buildings. London did not have the super tall skyscrapers as NY but it still felt similar!
This trip was started by Dad and Cindy so they had made plans to stay at the IHC – InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair. A very beautiful and higher-end hotel but it was nice to not have to think about where I wanted to stay or do the research for it. It was booked and it was a lovely hotel room. It felt a little like a boat. The room was small, the bathroom didn’t (seem to!?) have a plug, but it was perfect for what I needed. My window looked out into an interior courtyard (or just the roof?) but it was nice to see the sky and you could pop the window open too.
I had gotten in an hour early on the flight, had a quick trip to the hotel, and even though it was just about 11am, my room was ready! I was texting with Dad and Cindy and they were keeping me updated on their arrival time. They were taking the train from Edinburgh, Scotland and were arriving around 12:30PM. I took about an hour to get unpacked, sit down, and check email before finally deciding that it was GORGEOUS sunny day and I needed to get outside and start exploring immediately.
I always have to laugh because if there is a wrong way of doing things, I usually start off that way. (But hi, I am resilient!) My goal was to wander over to Hyde Park but being in the middle of Mayfair (and in-between Hyde and Green parks in a little island) it was not immediately apparent where pedestrians went to get across the street. But I had fun wandering for about 10 minutes (and finally asking random people) before I finally got across the street, into one of the gates of the park, and started exploring.
This was me on the street outside my hotel!
When I returned, btw, I figured out where the underground tunnel was that put me right outside my hotel!
Snapping the first photo of a red “hop-on, hop-off” bus that you see everywhere. Quintessential London!
I ended up getting myself a little replica for my desk to remind me.
Once I did find the gate, I was on the east side of Hyde Park and wandered around the Rose Garden and asked someone to take my picture.
I’m also wearing a cute sweater from Rent the Runway and I love reading reviews from others with photos, so wanted to be sure I was returning the favor 🙂
It was seriously a beautiful day though. The weather app was saying this was the only sunny day that week (turned out to be not true!) and I wanted photos to remember of how beautiful it was.
I continued on my walk – which was also serving as a nice workout after that plane ride. I have read so many historical romance novels of promenading at this park, and especially walking next to the Serpentine.
On the way to the Serpentine, I found a cute little waterfall. I then realized I had my AirPods hanging off my jeans and it looked super dorky so I took those off. I wasn’t even listening to music, I was just enjoying people watching.
Here is the Serpentine. Very busy! With a cute little cafe to get coffee.
Apparently YouTube Shorts can’t be embedded… Sad. Here is a link.
I hung around for a very short while, appreciating the lake but the amount of children trying to run and stomp out all the geese/birds was a little frightening so I cut out of there.
At that point, Dad and Cindy were at the hotel. There was a computer issue so they had to wait 20m to get their room and were having coffee. I walked back to sit down with them and chat.
I heard a little about their Scotland adventure (which sounded amazing!) and once they got their room, freshened up, we headed out to the London Eye where the pier was. We were going to attempt to take the Underground (I kept on calling it the Tube? Which is it!?) but it got a little late and we had a deadline so a cab it was!
A friend had recommended these speedboats and said it was a fantastic time. I found Themes Rockets which had great reviews and somehow convinced Cindy that she wanted to go. (Dad was all for it!)
We were SO incredibly lucky it was sunny! Best weather ever! One of the other participants snapped this photo and I also got a selfie.
Cindy was definitely apprehensive about it but was a good sport and got on. Later, she said she had a little panic attack the first five minutes but really enjoyed herself after that and was really glad she did it.
I’m completely blanking on who our operators are and I will definitely have to remember when I go back to write the review. I want to say Andy… Hmm. I will remember at some point. Or Cindy will!
They did about 15 minutes of slow cruising up the Themes. We got the history of parliament, Big Ben, and a ton of other buildings on the river.
They were really great about taking photos of everyone. Especially at the London Bridge.
I saw so many cute areas next to the river that would be so great to walk along and have lunch/dinner at.
Once we passed the London Bridge, the boat started to get going. It was going semi-fast for a few minutes. I was thinking to myself, okay this is cool but I wonder how long we are going to go down the river. At that point we had 30 more minutes left in the tour.
But they slowed the boat back down.
THEN… they played a song from The Greatest Showman. I’m totally blanking on which one it was but it had a slow beat… and every time it came on, he revved the engine. Then it kicked in to the main part of the song and he REALLY started going.
SO MUCH FUN! He was curving around the river, playing amazing songs, and jumping all the other boats wakes.
I had a sweet French family in front of me (two young girls) who were just shouting with joy every time he curved the boat so you had to hold on really tight.
I have a few videos that I will have to make into a movie. Very entertaining.
Here we were, coming back to the dock. The London Eye looked amazing. Not something I really want to be trapped in for 30 minutes but maybe someday.
After that, we tried to figure out how to get home. It was difficult. Still struggling figuring out where the Underground was and it was so busy that it was impossible to call an Uber or find a Taxi.
We started walking. Dad really wanted to change before going to our Afternoon Tea! Luckily, after we passed Big Ben, my service connected with Uber and there was a car two minutes away. We were able to go back to the hotel, change, and then grab another taxi over to tea! We were about walk but then we started the wrong way, and we just turned around and grabbed one at the hotel.
There were so many options for tea but Rick Steves had recommended Fortum & Mason, and Cindy religiously read that book and Dad thought it would be a good one. It was so beautiful in there. The live piano was magical.
You had to buy tea – although they gave Cindy a pass – after making a big deal about how they were giving her a pass – after they saw her not even drinking the water. We would have paid for her to just sit there but they were nice about it.
I had put gluten-free down for mine and OF COURSE, ended up trying it. Mmm, it was so good though. I just had the plain scones in the middle (well, one had fruit in it) and a few bites of the desserts on top. The lemon loaf on the right, I had about half of. SO good! Then, had a bite of the chocolate pistachio. Heavenly. Plus a glass of Rose champagne.
Dad was in heaven. He loved his lobster whatever, and all his sandwiches. He got a Russian tea that our server recommended. Also a glass of regular champagne.
Yum!
When we were done, we slowly walked down all 5 flights at Forum & Mason. Very nice shops on every single floor. From housewares, to clothing, to teas & chocolate, and also Christmas decorations.
I didn’t buy anything but Cindy had fun shopping and got a few things as gifts.
At that point, it was around 7pm or 7:30. I can’t even remember. I was exhausted. I think we walked home and stopped at a convenience store to buy water for the hotel room.
It was a nice walk back and very busy on the streets.
I do remember getting back to the hotel after 8pm because I went to bed VERY quickly, definitely by 8:30. I was convinced I wasn’t going to sleep so did not set my alarm. We had plans to meet at 8:15am the next morning because we had reservations at the Tower of London at 9am.
I woke up at 11:10pm, convinced I was up for the day. After spending 10 minutes on email, I told myself to get back to sleep. I woke up again around 2am and then after that, the phone range at 8:22am. Whoops! Since all my devices are on silent and no alarm was set, that was fun to wake up to!
I told Dad & Cindy to go ahead and I would meet them. I would have felt way too rushed and upset if I knew they were downstairs. I took 15m and then jumped in the cab.
And more about that on the next post 🙂
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