Lovers in The Square Mile Ryan & Alyssa Explore London

Last year, for our 5 year anniversary, we took a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris! It was magical and you can read all about it right here! On that trip, we took a very brief stop in London. We’re talking, an hour. And let us tell you in case you haven’t been there. You can’t explore London in an hour! So, we told ourselves we would be back. Little did we know it would be just over a year later! So here’s our little recap of the trip in case you missed it, along with a few tips if you’re planning to head over to the Motherland anytime soon!

CAUTION: May contain cell phone images! But seriously, we always do our best to document our trips with as many beautiful photos as possible but sometimes you just have to bust out the cell phone for a selfie!

*If you want to read our Instagram post that explains more of our personal reasons for taking this trip, you can see that here*

Day 1 // Attempted Travel Day

We had everything packed up and ready to go. In Greenville, we have a wonderful little airport that gets us through security in a flash most of the time. This trip was no exception! For Ryan at least. Alyssa attracted some unwanted attention with her many bags and ended up needing to be hand searched. Only always happens to her! We boarded the plane, took a few selfies to let everyone know we were headed to Atlanta for our layover before zooming over to London! Yay!

Well…then we heard the announcement from Mr. Nice Pilot Man. All Delta flights had been grounded countrywide because of an IT error. Noooooooooo! The funny part was that we had about a 24 hour layover in Atlanta. So instead of spending the night in Atlanta, we turned around, rebooked flights for tomorrow, went home and spent an unexpected night at home in our own beds! Ryan was very pleased by this turn of events because he’s a major homebody! Anyone else like that? He likes traveling too but he just loves to be close to home!

Day 2 // Actual Travel Day

The next day we went back through the airport, boarded the plane and actually took off this time!

In Atlanta, we explored Ponce City Market where we found a place called 5 Daughters Bakery. They make something called a cronut. It’s a basically mix between a croissant and a donut and, guys, it is life!!! If you’re ever in Atlanta or anywhere that has a 5 Daughters Bakery, you need to try these!

Before we knew it, we were back on the plane and headed to London!

We have to say, the in-flight entertainment on these overseas flights has gotten so good! It makes time “fly” by! Ok that wasn’t our best. We watched Black Panther together. Alyssa tried to sleep the rest of the time (somehow she managed to have an empty seat next to her, allowing her to curl up on both seats and sleep!) while Ryan watched 12 Strong. He doesn’t really sleep well on planes as we have discovered! After breakfast, Alyssa turned to the Food Network “channel” and BOOM…we began our descent into London.

Day 3 // Hamilton

We landed at LHR midmorning with plenty of time to enjoy the day. We made our way through the airport to the Heathrow express train to Paddington (an English name if there ever was one!); a high speed train into the city. It’s more expensive, but due to the lack of sleep we were ready to get to our Airbnb. We made our way through Paddington to find the Underground line; We have to say it was nice that we didn’t have to try to decipher another language while finding our way! Yay English!!!

The tube dropped us off about a half mile from our Airbnb, so we walked! Thankfully the Airbnb building had a lift (unlike our Paris trip!), which made carrying luggage up so much more convenient. And made us happier campers!

Quick naps were in order, and a hot shower. Then we set our maps to take us to Victoria Palace Theatre, so we could go see HAMILTON! That was our one mutual surprise/treat this trip, and oh my goodness was it worth it. We loved every minute of it! Even the cute couple down the row from us that couldn’t stop singing along… lol! It’s quite interesting to watch Londoners watch a show about the American Revolution and listen to them cheer when the Americans beat Great Britain!

After the show, we documented the fact that we WERE “in the room where it happened” and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local Shake Shack. Not touristy, at all. But when you’re starving and don’t have the energy to Yelp a good local restaurant, you go with what you know.

And that was about all we could handle that day! Early bedtime to catch up on sleep and prepare for a restful week!

Day 4 // Non-Tourist Day

On this day, our goal was to be as non-touristy as possible. That’s hard to do when you have been in the city for less than 24 hours! But you know how you do it? By walking everywhere! We pretended like we were locals – we stopped at the grocery story across the street and picked up fresh pastries and milk, ran into Starbucks, and proceeded to wander the streets of the Kensington and Chelsea districts. Our favorite part about this day was that it seemed like we had the city to ourselves!

We explored side streets, ate lunch at a genuine London pub (yes, fish and chips!), walked all over the city, and even found a TK Maxx! It’s the England equivalent  of a TJ Maxx in the US, so Alyssa was in her happy place! While we were walking around, we ran into the Natural Science museum, and spent some time exploring there. In London, the museums have free entrance, so we enjoyed that perk to the fullest while we were there! We also stopped by Harrods, the world’s most famous luxury department store! We looked but didn’t touch – Ryan was so relieved!

Day 5 // Buckingham Palace

On day 5, we officially began our journey as non-ashamed tourists. We purchased a 3 day London Pass, granting us access to many of the tourist spots and activities! We toured Kensington Palace as well as Buckingham Palace (a separate ticket was required for Buckingham), but unfortunately we did not run into the royal family even though they told us to hit them up next time we were in town! We walked through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, waved at Royal Albert Hall, explored the Victoria & Albert Museum, and made our way all the way up to 221B Bakers Street to see if Sherlock Holmes was there. Sadly he is fictional after all. After lunch we walked more of the city and ended our day back outside of Buckingham Palace as the sun set. Perfect ending to a great day as obvious tourists!

Day 6 // Hop On Hop Off

Included in our London Pass was a one day pass on the Hop on Hop Off bus tour, so that’s exactly what we did! That allowed us to explore the Thames River side of London, since to this point we had primarily stayed in the Kensington area.

While the bus tour seems like that most boring tourist way to see the city, we love it for several reasons. 1) It hits all of the highlights, and you can stay at each stop for as long as you need. 2) It’s faster than walking, and if a city has sites and attractions spread out over a larger area, you save on time and subway/tube fares by riding. And 3) you can ride it and explore the numerous routes as many times as you want! We often ride the route once and mark the places we want to get off and explore, and wait for it to loop around again!

We spent a majority of our time exploring the Tower of London where we saw the Crown Jewels, walked the battlements, saw where they kept prisoners (and the royal beasts!), saw Traitors Gate, and visited the Mint. After lunch (where Ryan was able to watch some of the Ryder Cup!), we then walked across and through Tower Bridge and saw the Engine Rooms, walked by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and then up to the top of The Shard and saw London from 95 stories above ground level. We neglected to plan for dinner (if you go to London, stop and look for a place to eat at least 30 minutes before you’re actually hungry!), and most of the shops and restaurants near us closed at 7pm, so we walked and searched and walked some more to find a place to eat. Finally, hangry and dragging, we stumbled by accident across one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, Sale e Pepe. We would go back 10/10 times and probably eat the same thing. It was amazing!

Day 7 // Churchill War Rooms, River Cruise

Day 7 was the last day of our London Pass, so our plan was to visit the rest of the tourist sites we had access to for that last day. Our original plan included Westminister Abbey, but there was a special service and by the time it opened, we were unable to get in for a tour. But we highly recommend you go there if you’re in London and we will definitely be trying to get in next time!

We then waited in line to see the Churchill War Rooms, which was pretty incredible! Learning more about the history of the war rooms under the city and parliament buildings, seeing real maps and data from WWII bombings and attacks, and listening to real stories was well worth the wait. And they had a huge section on the life of Churchill as well. We grabbed an early lunch, dropped by Whitehall to see the horses and guards, then headed to the Thames to board a river cruise.

On the river cruise (highly recommend) we passed by Big Ben, who was all covered up by scaffolding (and will be until 2020!), and sat across from the London Eye, a massive Ferris Wheel, as we waited for our tour to begin. It dropped us off by the Tower of London, where we warmed up and refueled on coffee, stopped at the official Twinings Tea shop to pick up some gifts, and stopped by a church still marked with scars from surviving WWII bombs. Since the next day would be our last full day in the city, we planned for an early night in!

Day 8 // Pictures (obvs!), British Museum, Piccadilly Circus

Our last full day in London! We had set aside this morning to head across town to do our own little mini portrait session. Just us, our camera, and tripod. Or so we thought! The bridge we picked out, with views of St. Paul, was a smaller, less popular bridge as we determined from our scouting the day before. But just as the sun was rising at 7am, it was busy. Runners. Dogs. Moms with strollers. Business CEOs heading into the office early. And a photo class teaching lighting techniques! We knew our window was small and limited, so we set up our shot, were intentional about the poses we wanted, and waited for the right moment. Totally worth it! You can photograph in crowded places, you just have to be patient and wait for the right moment. And it always helps to have a few locals cheer you on and encourage you as you’re waiting for the 10 second timer to count down 🙂

After our mini photo session at the bridge and nearby Somerset House, we headed to breakfast at our favorite cafe, Patisserie Valerie. Since we were close by, we walked to the British Museum and toured the Egyptian exhibit! We saw incredible historical wonders like the Rosetta Stone, Ramses II, mummies, and other ancient artifacts. The history nerd one in our group (hint, she not he) may have had a moment or two wandering the halls. After we survived the mummies, we walked back through Piccadilly Circus, had afternoon tea, then left ourselves to explore the many, many beautiful side streets of London one more time. We found the most picturesque street – we would live there if we could!

Day 9 // Traveling Home

We had packed as much as we could the night before, so there was little left that we really wanted to do before we left. We ran downstairs and across the street one last time for coffee and breakfast, walked to the underground tube line, and made our way to Heathrow will all of our luggage. We had been told to anticipate 3 hours to get through Heathrow and to our gate; we needed maybe 30 minutes. Whoops! We spent most of our extra time in a restaurant, having one last great meal before airplane food. Before too long, it was time to board and we said goodbye to London! We will most definitely be back!

We hope you enjoyed reliving this trip with us! If you have any questions about London and what to do if you go there, let us know in the comments below!