One Year in England! Let's go to London.
That's why we booked a trip the following weekend to London! We were celebrating our one year living in England. It truly has been amazing and we are so grateful for all the people we have met here.
We went on Expedia and did the surprise booking. We picked our location and how many stars we wanted. You get a discounted rate but you have no idea what you are going to get. We got The Grange Fitzrovia. At first we were a little worried with some of the reviews it had but it seemed to have more good reviews than not. So we stuck by our booking.
Friday after work we took the 6:12pm train from Snow Hill to Marylebone Station. Our hotel "Grange Fitzrovia Hotel" was about a 15 minute walk from the station. We were pleased with our hotel upon arrival. Actually, we felt a little under dressed... We checked in and the receptionist was very polite. So far, so good. We went up to our room, by a glass elevator which was quite scary. I'm sure it is 100% safe but it looks crazy.
Room was quite nice. |
The bed was a little uncomfortable and they could do with getting new mattresses. Other than that the room was quite lovely. We generally enjoy quiet rooms with free wifi, tea and free toiletries. This hotel had all of these things.
After we dropped off our stuff we went to a Sainsburys next door and bought some food. It was about 10pm by the time we got settled, so we wanted an early night.
We bought couscous salad, lettuce, houmous, falafels and wraps for dinner. It was quite easy to make wraps in the hotel room. We also got juice and oranges for breakfast.
By making easy food at the hotel we were able to save some money, as it is quite expensive to eat out in London!!
We tried our hands at vlogging this trip which we may or may not post at a later date. It felt awkward taking videos and talking in a crowded city but we started to get used to it.
We took a walk to Leicester Square to check out the half price theatre ticket booths to see if there was anything available. We thought about seeing The Book of Mormon, The End of Longing, Les Miserables but all of the tickets were either sold out or way too expensive. We spotted a poster for a play called Hand to God that had a sock puppet on it and described the play as Seasame Street meets the Exorcist. The tickets were not as expensive as the others, go figure, so we decided to take a chance. We did a little bit of haggling to get the price down.
Neal's Yard |
We each got a bowl of broccoli soup made with coconut milk. The soup was excellent.
Aside from the curry, our visit to Wild Food Cafe was great. We took a walk to Camden Market to meet our friend and enjoy some dessert from Cookies and Scream.
UCL |
Camden Town is super busy. It wasn't very busy last time we went but it was later at night and colder last time.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Donut |
Salted Caramel Vegan Milk Shake |
We walked around quite a bit but made our way towards the vegan sushi place called Itendaki Zen for our 6:00 dinner reservation. We went past the British Library at some point.
Itendaki Zen |
The food was prepared really quickly and it was glorious!
The next day we woke up late and made our way to a vegan ice cream shop called Yorica which had delicious ice cream made with rice milk. We are usually sceptical about rice milk based desserts but these were fantastic. We had cookies and cream and wow butter which was a nut free peanut butter option. Neither of us are allergic to nuts but it tasted great.
Ice cream isn't exactly a balanced brunch so we hit up Pret for some sandwiches and coffee which we ate in the park.
Inside the British Museum.
The not so vegan friendly Inuit Gutskin Parka made from seal intestines. |
Samurai Armour |
We took a lot of photos in the British Museum. Too much to post all of them on the blog so we just posted a few.
Next we went to the British Library. They had a couple different exhibitions. One was on Alice in Wonderland. It had lots of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia and early copies of the book. We weren't allowed to take pictures.They also had an exhibit with showing off famous old books and historical documents such as the Magna Carta and the work of classical composers like Mozart. After the exhibit we took part in a short psychological experiment that university students at UCL were conducting which paid £4 each. We used the money to buy some food and then took the London Midland train back to Birmingham. Good times London. Farewell for now.
Thank you for reading.
More on London:
"Tower of London and the Crown Jewels"
"Vegan Youtuber Meet-up and Camden Town, London"
"Who Needs the Hop on Hop Off"
"Epic Forty-Eight Hours in London"
Great blog post
ReplyDeleteThanks Tanya! We are glad you enjoyed our blog post.
DeleteLooks like so much fun! I love the area with the really colorful close buildings.
ReplyDeleteNeal's Yard? Yeah it's nice.
DeleteSuch a delicious looking trip with all the food photos up there haha! Sounds like a very expensive city to visit!
ReplyDeleteYeah food was good but London tends to be an expensive city.
DeleteI love London and miss it very much. It's been ages since I was there last. Looks like you had fun!
ReplyDeleteWe miss London too! We had so much fun there.
DeleteYour hotel looks super cozy and London looks amazing! I love that you are able to find healthy snacks to eat while traveling.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely
DeleteLondon is absolutely amazing! Such a great city! I have been there for six months and I loved it! Neal's Yard is such a pretty place, with my fav pizzeria in the world! Such a nice trip and your photos look gorgeous! xx corinne
ReplyDeleteWe agree, London is a great city. Thanks very much.
DeleteSo many good photos. I laughed about the outcome of splitting the food. Been there, done that. Love London!
ReplyDeleteHaha, yeah it happens too often in London! Oh well, live and learn!
DeleteSorry that the hotel wasn't very good. But this takes me back to memories of spending a month in London. All the different places, Oxford st., and the museums. I miss it. It was a great trip.
ReplyDeleteLondon has a lot going on! It is such a great city.
DeleteThose look like some tasty treats to had on your trip to London. Great idea making some quick wraps to bring along and save on food cost.
ReplyDeleteThey were! We try to go there everyone we are in London!
DeleteThe reviews in London are so mixed. Fitzrovia is a really great area. I'd stay in that area a lot as well when we'd visit and we'd always stay in different places depending what had the best price!
ReplyDeleteYeah its better to pick an area and jump around. The hotels are generally similar.
Deletehavent been to England but the movies, images and things i see/hear about it makes me dream of a one time visit there sometime in the future. amazing photos here, and yes LONDON is such a wonderful place to be. the weather/music and the people.
ReplyDeleteWe love London. You should definitely go.
DeleteAmazing experience! It's nice that you were able to enjoy some good food except for the curry. That's a price little plate! I think the museum is always worth visiting!
ReplyDeleteOverall we had a great time. The museum was fantastic.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about the curry food that you had. The donut looks good though. This place looks very lovely!
ReplyDeleteYou win some, you lose some. :P!
DeleteYou have just reminded me to book a holiday. Looks like you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear! Hope you have a wonderful holiday!
DeleteI have never been to London before and I would love to visit it someday. Watching a tennis match at Wimbledon is one of the things on my to do list.
ReplyDeleteOur friend wants to do that too!
DeleteI love looking through photos from people's trips. I also like to make food in the hotel because it cuts down on the costs of eating out for every meal.
ReplyDeleteEven if you can make one meal in the hotel it makes all the difference!
DeleteIts always so hard to go home after traveling some place so awesome! Love all the pictures. England is on our wishlist.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely go! England is amazing!
DeleteWe love British Museum! Anyway in London is so many nice places to visit. One day is not enough:)
ReplyDeleteIts not! We have been many times and there is still so much to see.
DeleteI would love to jetset to another country for a weekend trip. Y'all look like y'all had a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteWe had a great time. And you should definitely do it!
Delete