London Recap!!!

Good morning!  I’m back to Utah and so happy to be with my family again after a great trip!  I’m just going to warn you, there are more pictures than ever today but I just want to share everything that we loved in case you have a trip there soon (or maybe it will convince you to go there soon;).

My plane arrived around 1 pm in London and I met Sarah at our hotel.  She did a study abroad in London back in college and lived in the area that we stayed, across from Hyde Park.  We ate lunch at a place that she would go often when she lived there and it was SO good (cash only)—> Taza Kebab House!  It was SO good and it was something I wish we would have gone to twice.

The reason Sarah was going to London this last week was to do some research for her dissertation so while she did that, I went to Hyde Park and ran 9 miles (ultra training made it possible for me to eat above items and then run minutes later haha).

There was so much sunshine and the temperatures were perfect.  I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the park was and how many people were out running, biking and walking. I did two big loops around the park and I’m pretty sure I smiled the entire time.  I also decided to run the London Marathon someday while on this run:)

I went back to the hotel and unpacked and then when Sarah got back we went to the National Gallery.  Most of the museums we went to were free which I couldn’t believe.

It was amazing to see so many original paintings that we have copies of hanging up in my parents’ house or paintings from my humanities classes that I learned about.  The National Gallery was definitely a must!

From there we went to Wagamama which is a chain restaurant but I loved it and wish that we had one back at home.

And I definitely wish that we had an Udderlicious at home too.  I went with the brownie sundae and it was AMAZING (ps thanks for all of the recommendations).

We sat, ate and caught up for a while there.  We took the tube (which is what we used daily for transportation) back to the hotel and went to bed early because the exhaustion kicked in big time at that point…

Ten hours of sleep and we woke up ready to go on a run together.  Sarah took me on a running tour of the city and it was a blast to see so many sites via running shoes.

8 miles on Thursday!

When we got back to the hotel, Sarah’s friend from Switzerland arrived and she was absolutely the sweetest.  It was so fun to get to know her over the few days we were there and hopefully the 3 of us go on another trip again in the future.  We grabbed Pret for breakfast. I loved my croissant, juice and yogurt parfait there (and I went back there a few times while we were there for more juice).

We then went to St. Paul’s and I was in awe.  It was incredible.  We did the audio tour which I loved.  We also took the stairs up to the very top which is so incredible.  You could see for miles and miles and you get a nice quad burner hiking up ha.  I couldn’t believe how tired my legs were going up all of the stairs but the views were so worth it.

After St. Paul’s we walked around for a bit, walked over Millennium Bridge and then went to the Tate Modern Museum.

Our next stop was to the Borough Market for lunch.  We walked around looking at all of the different food options (and wanted them all) and decided on the fish and chips there.

We made a very wise decision.  I haven’t had good fish and chips since Andrew and I went to Canada a few years ago so this was just amazing.

We were told to go for the donuts at Borough Market too which was another excellent decision.   PS we definitely had about 50 treats a day and I wouldn’t do it any other way.

Between the 3 of us we have 10 kids so we really took advantage of doing things in London that we wouldn’t normally do with small children like seeing 3 shows in 3 days ha.

Hamilton was everything I could have dreamed it to be.  It was my first time seeing it but I had listened to the music a lot leading up to it and loved every second.  I didn’t want it to end.  We bought our tickets online for the first two shows and for the third show we bought them at a booth.

We then went to Leon’s because we just wanted to grab something quickly and focus on dessert ha.  Leon’s says it’s fast food but it sure all tasted incredibly fresh.

We then walked to Dominique Ansel Bakery for dessert.  We each ordered two items and we all sampled everything.  I ordered the flourless chocolate cookie and frozen s’more and both here amazing.

On Friday morning I woke up and ran 6.4 miles around Hyde Park again.  I want a park so badly like that in Utah… there were so many trails (you can run on dirt trails too) throughout the park, things to see and people out there commuting to work with backpacks on as they were running or riding their bikes.  We drive everywhere in Utah and I loved the change of being able to walk everywhere or take public transportation.  It was a really great change.

One of Sarah’s favorite restaurants in London is Dishoom for breakfast.  It serves Indian food and the inside was gorgeous.  I had the pancakes and they were amazing but Sarah’s egg and bacon naan was the best.  We called in advance for a reservation!

We then went to the Victoria & Albert Museum to see the Mary Quant exhibit (that is only there for the next 2 weeks) and it was amazing.  It was so cool to learn about how she built her company and to see the originals from so many of her different lines.  This exhibit did cost money but it was very worth it.

We did some shopping and walked to Fortnum & Mason for high tea.  We were there for hours and enjoyed every minute.  This was my first experience going to something like this and I loved it.  I devoured so many of those scones and they kept refilling whatever we loved the most (also those cucumber sandwiches… yum).  They also sent us home with cake!

Charlie met us there and it was my 4th time seeing her in less than a year.  She lives in London so I’m pretty impressed with those stats ha.

After we left Charlie we went to go see The Waitress with Sara Bareilles.  Sara Bareilles was incredible and her voice was unreal but the story line wasn’t my absolute favorite but the singing made it totally worth it to me.

Saturday morning I had my last run of the trip.  I went for 7 miles and soaked up the perfect running weather and sightseeing.  I did a total of 30.4 miles while I was there and I absolutely loved it (and all of the flatness too;).

Then we went to Notting Hill and went to the Portobello Road Market which was amazing.

We had churros with chocolate and falafel for breakfast there (along with juice from Pret:).

The highlight of the market= this stand with little military toys from the early 1950s.  Knox is going to be so excited when he gets some of these on Wednesday!  We were at this booth for 30 minutes looking at them all.

From there I didn’t ’t really take very many pictures but we went to King’s Cross to see the Platform 9 3/4 and the Harry Potter Store.  We met up with some of Sarah’s friends at Tortilla for lunch and then went to Oxford Circus for shopping.  THE SHOPPING was unreal and it’s a good thing I didn’t have a lot of room in my suitcase to bring things home ha.  My favorite stores were John Lewis, Muji and the three floors Lush!  We also had hot chocolate and a pastry from Paul’s and then we went to Soho for dinner.

eat TOKYO for sushi… definitely a must if you love sushi and bento.

We finished off the night with our final show and it was a great one to finish off with.  I had chills and cried a lot during this show.  It was beautiful.

It is a true story about the planes that were sent to Newfoundland, Canada right after the 9/11 attacks.  It’s a beautiful story about service, community, love and loss.  If you ever get a chance, go see it.  This was definitely a highlight for me.

Sunday morning I woke up and hit the airport and now I’m trying to convince Andrew that we need to get our family over there at some point:)

Just a few more random thoughts:

January was an amazing time of year to go to London.  It was busy there (coming from Utah:) but according to a lot of the locals it was a very quiet time in London.  I honestly was shocked over how friendly and kind everyone I came across was.  Customer service is incredible and everyone is just willing to help with any questions.  I could listen to everyone’s accent all day long, it’s beautiful.  Each day I was in jeans, my boots, a sweater and a jacket and that felt great (it’s much colder in Utah).  I wore gloves for two of my runs and overheated so leggings and a long sleeve were perfect for my runs.  The running there is great and there are so many other people being active out there with you.  I loved the history in London and the gorgeous churches everywhere.

I’m so happy I was able to go and it was sure fun being a bit spontaneous because I am usually the least spontaneous person on the planet;)

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Where would you go for your dream trip?

Favorite musical?

Do you enjoy museums?  What one is your favorite?

What’s your run today?  Snow or no snow?