Travel Blog: London
If anyone has ever told you that you should always have an active passport, you have received good advice. Teddy found out he was getting sent to the U.K. for work in the beginning of August and in the three week span between learning about the trip and his departure date, the two of us launched a plan that involved scouring travel websites, multiple phone calls to the Atlanta passport agency, and countless hours researching London tourism. After giving the passport agency the wrong zip code (in my defense, I had just moved...) and dealing with a lost passport, it finally showed up two days before my flight. I had a very quick layover in Orlando and missed the impending hurricanes creeping up the coast of Florida by a mere few hours and in a whirlwind of persistence and good fortune, I stumbled out of the Gatwick airport on a bright and crisp Thursday morning, exhausted yet so incredibly excited to spend Labor Day weekend in London.
I met Teddy in Surbiton where we spent the first night of the trip. Surbiton is a quiet and quaint town that sits on the River Thames and is a quick hop to Hampton Court, a medieval palace that was home to Henry VIII - a must-see for any good Episcopalian. I took a solo trip to the palace where I spent the morning winding through the rose gardens on the palace grounds. We ventured into London later that evening to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre, which is easily my favorite play to-date.
The next day, we lugged our suitcases through the Underground and made our way to our Air BnB in North Lambeth. That evening we ate tapas (Teddy's fave) on the rooftop of The Culpeper and then stumbled upon the BoxPark in Shoreditch, a shipping-container-turned-pop-up-mall with boutiques, matcha ice cream shops and restaurants as tiny as they are trendy. We kicked off Saturday morning with a walk across the Westminster Bridge and then spent several hours walking through St. James Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Palace before cooling our heels in the Sun in Splendor, an eclectic cafe nestled in Notting Hill. That night we took a gamble and tried the English version of Mexican at Barrio in SoHo (decent but not BuHi) and meandered through the Carnaby district. I got a nightcap at the Blind Pig, a speak-easy type bar with zero signage above Social Eating House. Despite being so difficult to find, the Blind Pig was filled to the brim with locals.
My mission for Sunday (i.e. our last full day) was simple: cover as much ground as possible and squeeze in an afternoon tea. We succeeded at both. On our way to the sites, we missed our bus stop and discovered Grind as a result - and wow am I glad that we did. Teddy opted for a traditional English breakfast while I took a break from bread and meat and munched on an acai bowl, fresh fruit and a kale smoothie instead. Afterwords, we set out to find caffeine in Borough Market, where we stopped in M + H for Flat Whites. They make their own chocolate in-house and I am still dreaming of that smell to this day.
Jittery from too much espresso, we crossed the river and walked the exterior of the Tower of London before deciding to take the tour of the Tower Bridge. The real selling point of this tour is the glass floor at the top of the bridge, right over the river.
The afternoon took us back to Shoreditch and then to neighboring Spitalfields, an artsy district in East London packed with drifters, musicians, pubs and vintage shops. I dragged Teddy into Salvage Beaute, where we satisfied our tea craving along with cucumber sandwiches, carrot cake, and scones. I found a few solid vintage jewelry pieces so basically this was the best place ever.
Earlier in the day we had been turned away from both the Sky Garden and the top of The Shard due to strict dress codes (I guess my Nike leggings and JCrew vest didn't really cut it, whatever) so we made it our mission to get to one of the two that evening to close out our trip. We opted for Aquashard, where we somehow nabbed a table in the corner with an exceptional view of the city.
