london thru my eyes....

After we dropped our bags at the hotel in the late

afternoon, we asked the staff at the hotel which

way to head to get some food and drink.

Mind you it was early morning for us, but we wanted

to get ourselves on London time really quickly.

This pub turned out to be one of our faves - it is

in the West End (right around the block from our hotel)

and it was fun to listen to some live music there and do

some people watching as alot of the people stopped in

before going to the theater.  Afterwards we walked a

bit down to Leicester Square on Charing Cross Road.

The next morning we just started walking down Charing Cross

Road and ran right into Trafalgar Square - so gorgeous!

I am an outdoorsy person and love, love, love parks - we spent alot of time in Hyde Park (and Regents Park too).  Just watching everyone enjoying their day - be it rowing, biking, roller blading, sitting in the sun, hanging out with friends - was just fabulous.  I loved how there are chairs for anyone and everyone to sit on the lawns at the parks too!!

We then strolled over to the Queens place - and as you can see

we weren't alone.  So definitely no invite to go in for us.  Plus

I think she was at her vacation home anyways - so she is forgiven!  :)

So many beautiful statues everywhere we went.

A photo of a guard is a must - I think this was near the

horse stables - not postive though.

Serpentine Lake at Hyde Park

One of the gardens there.

Another lovely fountain. We passed by the Princess Diana

Memorial Fountain - but it wasn't on.  Very crowded though.

Can you tell I loved Hyde Park - I have many more photos of it!

The Museum Tavern near the British Museum.  I loved how

the pubs were so ornate with chandeliers and lovely textures

and draperies.  When one of our local pubs burnt down and

was rebuilt - it just wasn't the same for all of us, as we loved

the rustic, old look of it before and the new owners made it all

bright and modern. 

This subway, underground, tube map (whatever you want to call it) was my friend.  I know how to get around really well in London - thanks to this handy map.  I am so envious of cities that have this type of transportation.  We live in a driving city.  Sure there are pockets of quaint neighborhoods and a very small subway system - but in NYC, Chicago, London and Paris - you can get around pretty quickly without the hassles of sitting on a parking lot of a freeway for hours at a time to go 30 or 40 miles.  Loved my week of riding these rails!

Of course our vacations wouldn't be complete without some sports. We secured some very good seats at the season opener of The Tottenham Hot Spurs vs. Manchester City.  We have friends that are Man City fans and wanted us to wear the gear, but we were sitting on the home team side - so that was not going to happen..haha..We were very impressed at how organized things were at the stadium.  When we went to get our seats, the usher was hugging everyone that came in - even us!  Loved one sign that said "Mind your Language - or you will be kicked out immediately."  We would have empty football stadiums at home if those were our rules.  We truly enjoyed this experience, it was so much fun!

The Tower of London

A quaint little Marina near the Tower of London called St. Katharines Dock - it was very lovely and a quiet reprieve.

Another pub on Villiers Street, I believe.  By the EmbankmentUnderground Station.  We spent alot of time walking around there, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Oxford Street.

This is one awesome statue

Beautiful!

I didn't visit enough of these places - as we had some FABULOUS

desserts at our hotel that we couldn't get enough of.  Can

you say CHOCOLATE TOWER to just mention one.

I also found some delicious ice cream bars at a store by

our hotel - dark chocolate with vanilla ice cream and caramel.

Yum, yum, yum!!  Thankfully we did alot of walking so we didn't

gain any weight - I couldn't believe it!

I couldn't leave London without a photo of one of these!

I was in bookstore heaven.  There were quite a few in my area and I didn't get to peruse them nearly enough!

This was a cute pub that I found down a narrow alley while I was exploring one morning.  We met a nice young student from Germany that is going to the University nearby -he is majoring in the same exact thing that A. does for a living, so they got along great and I slipped out for a bit and went about my way exploring all the shops while they were talking shop!  haha...

A building across from the Pub

All week long we were talking about going to this show, but we were so enjoying not being on a schedule that we didn't want to commit to anything - it looks like a wonderful show though! Maybe, someday!!

Our last day in London, A. decided he wanted to go to Wimbledon. So we hopped on the subway, asked a few questions and had a nice walk to the stadium.  It was a beautiful day that day.  What a gorgeous place!  It's funny as every time  we asked directions, people would say - "it's just a 10-15 minute walk down the road" and we would happily head on our way. We were laughing about it, as we wouldn't even think of walking 10-15 minutes down the road where we live in our town.  We'd just hop in the car.  I loved all the walking though.  So I want to try and do more of it here in my town.

We also went to the British Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum - so gorgeous and Harrods - that is a world of it's own and the food and bakerie marts - well I could just live very happily in there!  :)

I am sure that I am leaving alot of things out, but all in all we had such a FABULOUS time and are already talking about visiting again in a few years. (Next summer Spain & Italy, yeah!) Everyone we met was so friendly and kind to us, we ate our way thru London - with the local fare, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, French food - it was delicious!  We visited enough pubs to satisfy our taste for any kind of alcohol for awhile.  As Jackie would say - we were only doing it "to be sociable"   haha...In the next few days, I will relive our one day Parisian adventure - it was a dream and the train over was so great!!!  If you're still with me, thanks for putting up with such a long post!!! 

Have a great day everyone!

xxoo

P.S. The Window's at Harvey Nichols were FABULOUS!

(photos of Patisserie Valerie, Wimbledon & the Underground Stamp are not mine)