Travel: England 2017 | offthebeatenpress.com

The next spot on our trip after Iceland was London, England! I hadn't been back to London since 2009 when I lead a trip of high school students there. The last time I went we stayed in a dodgy part of the city and had a long commute in to see anything of interest. This time, we had a perfect AirBnB, complete with George, that little dog you see!On the first day there, my boyfriend was feeling a little under the weather, so he stayed in in the morning to rest. I went to a fascinator hat making class that was a blast! Sarah, who lead it, had tea & sandwiches for us guests. She taught us how to sew things together and make beautiful creations. Mine was, of course, all black and white.After the class, my boyfriend met up with me and we explored the Imperial War Museum. This place was one of the coolest museums I have ever visited. They really pulled you into the exhibits with tangible objects and moving photos. They also paid a lot of attention to the sound of everything around you. There were newsreels, sounds of explosions and voices of men at war. I was so impressed with the quality.For dinner that night, we ate at The Black Prince. Apparently, it was in the movie, The Kingsman, though we were not aware of it. The service was the best part. It felt so homey and cozy in the cold rainy evening.The next day, in contrast to the cold, was bright and glorious! We first took a riverboat tour which was a great way to see the city and get your bearings.It ended up just being the perfect day for the water. It wasn't cold at all and the clouds provided great texture in the sky.This shot of Tower Bridge is one of my favorites from the trip.We heard some good stories along the river about the city and when it was done, we went on the London Eye. It was a little bit slow but I am glad to have checked it off my bucket list. Overall though, the river tour was better.The next day, we spend the afternoon in Kew Gardens. This place is HUGE! My friend Debbie suggested us going and since the weather was with us, we took advantage of it. They had a treetop walkway and flowers everywhere.They also had this new sculpture called the hive. It brought awareness about the depopulation of bees. You could climb inside and relax and poke around the whole structure.After Kew, we decided to go to Richmond. After all, my home city is named for this part of London. I can kinda see where the view came from. We ate a rather strange but lovely dinner in The Old Ship which has been there since the 1700s.The next day we started close to the house at Regent's Park. We found Queen Mary's Rose Gardens and saw the gorgeous greenery - also a dinosaur by the zoo.For dinner we ate in "the walkie talkie" aka 20 Fenchurch. At the top of this building is the Sky Garden. It was perfect for our garden themed day.The dinner was delicious and the view spectacular. And when we were done with our meal, we got to hang around the top level having an extra cocktail and relaxing.Here are some blues from around the city. We spend one day on the HMS Belfast exploring that museum, a morning looking at some local crafters and vintage records, and saw some of the financial district and food trucks.We really got a true tasted of the city. We also went through Platform 9 3/4 on the 19 years date of Harry Potter's son going off to Hogwarts!We tried a few fun cocktail bars including The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town, Luggage Room, and the City of London Distillery.We popped in the British Museum to say hello to some sculputres and history.And got some Homeslice pizza in Neal's Yard when we were done in the museum.We stopped in Harrods and quickly got lost. And then found the Graffiti Tunnel which was definatly up our alley. Our last day, we looked at the Transportaion museum. My favorite part was the history of advertising & logo design. They even had a wood futura lock up on display! We scored some discount tickets to see An American in Paris before shipping off on the last leg of our trip.Continue with us to Ireland, or check back on the first part of the trip in Iceland here.

Travel: England