We arrived in London on Sunday afternoon after a ride on the buses and National Rail Overground system with all of our luggage. The dogs were extremely excited to see us, greeted us with lots of jumps and barks! The cat also said hello to us.
I know the cat, Mr. Thistle, does not seem entirely pleased with our arrival but I promise thats just how his face looks. He could honestly be the new angry cat
That night we mostly stayed in despite a quick trip to the grocery store to get our supplies for the next week. The grocery store itself was an adventure, every aisle being a different nationality’s set of foods. We especially enjoyed the produce section which had fruits and veggies from all over the world, labeled as where they were from!
Monday was really where we got down to business in London tourist time. We got up and decided it would be cheaper and faster to take a lime bike into Kensington. Although yes, it was both cheaper and faster, it was also nerve-racking biking on the busy streets of London where sometimes there was a bike lane and sometimes there wasn’t.
We made it to the Design Museum, which we both found very interesting. There was a whole exhibit on Enzo Mari and the effects of his work. We didn’t get to go to the Tim Burton and the Barbie exhibit (because they weren’t free entry), but the whole museum was beautiful and fascinating.
After the museum, I was exhausted and a little braindead after reading and learning, so we went to go get a coffee and a pastry. We took the pastry over to Hyde park and I lied down flat back on the grass for a while to recuperate. After some time touching dirt, some caffeine and some sugar; we walked around Hyde park for a bit, saw the outskirts of Kensington Palace Gardens, and saw people feeding the birds at the pond.
A highlight of Hyde Park, for me, was getting to see the Peter Pan statue and telling Jordan all about the original story of Peter Pan, The Little White Bird. I think it was because he was so baffled that the original story did not take place in Neverland. It was nice to see the fairies mentioned in the original story featured on the statue!
After Hyde Park we headed home and I cooked Jordan and me a pseudo-thai-pseudo-south african peanut butter chicken curry with rice. I haven’t made it in a while and I didn’t have all of the ingredients, but I had the main three so I figured I’d give it a shot. I think it turned out rather good, and it created a good amount of leftovers for the week!
We had a bit more of a chill day on Tuesday, it was rainy and cold, so we took the dogs for a walk and then went out nearby for lunch. We got a favorite of mine, birria, this time on nachos. And it was delicious. There was no photo taken and we basically licked the plate clean. We then walked home and hung out until later in the evening when we took the bus to a movie theatre nearby to watch Long Legs. It was so scary. I’m kind of a weenie when it comes to scary movies so don’t take my word for it though. I did enjoy the parts of it that I felt brave enough to watch.
We got home Tuesday night around 11.30, and then had an early start on Wednesday to get the dogs walked so we could get into the city. We walked 30 minutes to the underground station and took it into town so we could go to the natural history museum.
Somehow we ended up in the science museum, but it was fun nonetheless. It was all very intellectual and went over my head for the most part, so we left before seeing all of the exhibits. We didn’t end up actually going into the natural history museum, but thats okay because the main part that I wanted to see was the natural history museum gardens. I thoroughly enjoyed them, but was a little bit tired and hungry so I didn’t appreciate them as much as I could have. It was a very cool concept garden though, making all of the plants look like it was from the time of the dinosaurs.
To refuel our bodies and brains we went to Nando’s!!! One of my favorite restaurants! I have never been to one in the UK, and it was certainly a different experience to what I am used to in South Africa, but it was delicious nonetheless!
Refueled and ready, we walked to our final spot before we needed to head home to take care of the dogs. We searched and searched, as the homes were getting slimmer and slimmer and finally we found it. The skinny house. It was jarring. There were very big windows in all of the apartments, so naturally we looked inside and it actually seemed rather spacious. So, Jordan and I may have found our first home.
Afterwards, we fed the famished dogs and got ready for our evening. We were seeing the Mousetrap, a classic London Agatha Christie play. Before seeing the play we walked around Chinatown for a bit to try to find a quick bite to eat. We found a very fast bao bun takeaway restaurant and had delicious food. The play was very funny and very well performed, both Jordan and I thought the performance and the plot were fantastic!
After our two late nights and one early morning (and NINE miles walked on Wednesday!!), I had a sleep in on Thursday. Later than I was expecting. On top of that I ended up working for a whopping seven hours, trying to get ahead for the week so I did not have to work again until Wednesday. I managed to get all of my work done, but that on top of the classic rainy UK weather meant we did not go out and do any fun stuff. On the bright side, there was nothing left to do but fun stuff for the rest of the week!
Stay tuned for TWO posts next week, one on all of the places we ate, and one on the rest of our London adventures!
Thanks for reading,
Abby xx
Hi Abby! Loving your posts! Keep safe and have fun!