London Calling
Ashley took me to London for the first time back in 2011. I had just graduated high school, and she thought it would be the perfect place to have a girls trip. She had studied abroad in London a few years before and fell in love with everything they had to offer. If you watched our Q&A with our parents, you would have seen that my mom said that this trip to London was one of the most pivotal moments in my life so far. I have to wholeheartedly agree. London changed me in a way I could never imagine. We like to visit at least once a year, but hopefully soon we could put down some more permanent roots! All of these pictures are from our first trip, so LOL to 2011 Ash & Shelbs!
This first trip to London was also my first trip out of the U.S., so it was a lot for me to process at first, but I jumped right into it! We were there for about 8 days, and we stayed in a flat (or apartment) instead of a hotel. Remind me to tell you about the time a few years later that I stayed in a haunted hotel in London! We stayed in South Kensington, really because that’s where Ashley used to live, but it has become one of my favorite boroughs of London!
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Day One
As soon as we dropped our bags off our first stop was Ben’s Cookies, still to this day my favorite cookie, and then Ash gave us a quick little walking tour of South Kensington, Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College, and a little bit of Hyde Park. Then we headed to the London Eye, which I strongly suggest doing on your first day, I think I’ve done it 3 or 4 times and it NEVER gets old. The views of London and the Thames are just unbelievable. You can get some awesome shots of Big Ben. This is great to do on your first day because you can kind of get acclimated with the city around you.
To be completely honest with you, I do not remember anywhere that we ate on this trip. Fortunately, here is our list of places to eat in London that is much more recent!
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Day Two
The next day we headed east a little bit to visit Camden Market and Tower Bridge. East London is a really cool area. Think East Village of NYC. Camden Lock Market is one of my favorite places. There are so many cool stalls to shope, eat, and drink at. Highly recommend planning some time out there. We then headed over to The Tower of London and Tower Bridge. On this particular trip we didn’t go inside The Tower of London. I have been inside since, and if you are into the history and the background of the tower you should do it! Tower Bridge is my favorite bridge in London so I always have to get a picture by it. While we were over there we met up with our tour guide from London Walks to do the Jack The Ripper Walking Tour. This was weirdly one of our favorite parts of the trip. It was super fun.
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Day Three
The next day we headed over to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Y’all know how Ash and I feel about museums, so there was definitely lots of silly pictures involved. I have to say though, the V&A is probably one of my favorite museums I have ever been to. We then headed out on another walking tour, this time to see where the London 2012 Olympics were going to be held. We are there exactly one year before the Olympics, so it was really cool to see everything being built! We highly recommend London Walks for their walking tours! The one restaurant I do remember us going to is Texas Embassy. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist anymore, but we did write our name on the wall, right next to where our brother had written his the year before!
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Day Four
If you ask all three of us, we will probably all say that this was by far our favorite day! It started off with a tour of Buckingham Palace. This tour is only available for a limited amount of time while the Queen is not staying there. Lucky for us, this was a few months after Prince William and Kate got married, so we got to see her dress, their cake, and loads of other goodies from their wedding. Honestly, that is something I will never forget. Then we went outside to the gardens of Buckingham Palace and had coffee and cake in the Queens backyard. NBD. It’s fine. Then we went off to Kensington Palace and Gardens to tour the palace and exhibit that was happening at the time, then had Afternoon Tea in the Orangery. Could this day have been any better? FYI Kensington Palace is located adjacent to Hyde Park, so I would take this day to explore the park as well.
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Day Five
This day we headed off on a little day trip to Oxford & The Cotswolds. Unfortunately I do not remember the tour that we did, but this one looks very similar and just as amazing. Our mom loved The Cotswolds, so this was a really fun day for her. I absolutely loved seeing Oxford University, especially some of the places where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed!
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Day Six
Another day trip, but this time to Cambridge! We headed out there from London on our own, but met up with a tour guide at King’s College to show us around. We loved getting to see the University’s and get a perspective from the actual students. We also ate lunch in a restaurant inside of a church that our mom still always talks about to this day.
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Day Seven
We are back in London and off on another tour. This one started off at Changing Of The Guard at Buckingham Palace that I highly suggest you experience at least once in your life. Then our tour continued around Green Park, then over to Westminster Abbey to explore the inside. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside, but let me tell you it is beautiful. As if that wasn’t enough walking, we then headed over to the British Museum. It’s actually a really great museum, which i have been to since, but Ashley and I got so tired after about an hour we just sat in the lobby while mom looked around!
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Day Eight
This was our last full day and we started off with a bang at Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. This is one of my favorite areas in London, and such a great market. You can’t come to London without seeing Notting Hill! Bonus points if you can find the bookshop! Then we headed north to Abbey Road, something I was not leaving London without doing. I have a very deep love of music and the Beatles, so walking across that road and seeing the studio was so iconic. I also signed the wall, as well as my best friends name because she too is a massive Beatles fan. I signed the wall again a few years after this, but I couldn’t find my original signature. Our last stop was to get some of the best ice cream in the world from a truck in South Kensington, then a final pub meal to round up our trip!
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Check out some of our other London Posts Here, and don’t forget to see our latest London travel vlog here! You can shop items inspired by our many trips to London on The Sister Market, our online marketplace with products inspired by our travels around the world.
Have you ever been to London before? What’s your favorite thing to do?
-Shelbs xx