Hi friends! I’m back with our first update from London! :)
On our first full day in London, we hopped on the Tube to spend a peaceful, sunny morning outside the city wandering around the beautiful neighborhood of Notting Hill. (As a side note, I loved our hotel in London and will be writing all about it in a post soon. Stay tuned!)
We used the Oyster Card to get around in London. We got one as soon as we got there from the nearest Underground station. I loved the public transportation in London! It was so clean and bright and everything looked brand new. And it was so easy to understand. I’ll admit it took me a few visits to NYC to get the subway down, but we were totally comfortable with the Tube after our very first ride. And there were London Underground staff member everywhere who were incredibly friendly and willing to help.
We got a 5-day unlimited ride pass, and we took the Tube and buses everywhere. Both were included in the Oyster Card. We got every penny’s worth of our Oyster Cards and then some, lol! We nearly wore them out. Trains and buses came so frequently, it was so easy to just hop on one to get to the next destination. As someone who really dislikes driving, it would be a dream come true to live somewhere with such awesome public transportation!
We couldn’t miss the famous Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. :)
Loved all the funky shops and their fun antiques!
We found the Notting Hill Bookshop (modeled after the Travel Book Shop in the movie Notting Hill) and it is just as cute and charming inside as you’d picture it to be.
And here’s the famous blue door from the movie!
Oh my goodness, this is the cutest little cookie shop in Notting Hill. The Biscuiteers! Because cookies in London are called biscuits!! It’s a “Biscuit Boutique and Icing Cafe.” Seriously cannot get over the cuteness!
Love, love, loved all the rows of colorful houses! Such a fun sunny morning in Notting Hill.
That afternoon we came back into the city and found Neal’s Yard, a colorful, hidden, tucked away courtyard in the Covent Garden.
Seriously loved this secret, vibrant, rainbow-colored hideaway in the midst of the city!
Such a fun spot to escape to in the middle of the afternoon for a burst of color.
We had reservations for afternoon tea at the Savoy, so we wandered through the Covent Garden neighborhood as we made our way to the hotel.
We found the Sherlock Holmes Pub on our way!
If you’re interested in our thoughts on tea at the Savoy, or any other London restaurant reviews, I’ll be doing a separate post of “Everything I Ate In London,” just like I did with Scotland. :)
After tea, we walked along the Thames River down to the London Eye.
Kevin loves heights and ferris wheels, so we knew we had to do this!! We had a great view of Big Ben from the Eye.
Dorky selfie in front of Big Ben!
Loved the view from the Eye, and especially seeing the massive shadow of the wheel and cars projected onto the buildings.
The capsules are fully enclosed, and you can walk around and get a view from every angle.
Loved our first day in London!
More to come! The next day we visited the Tower of London, saw the Crown Jewels, and found the biggest cookie I’ve ever seen in my entire life at Borough Market. Stay tuned! Be sure to subscribe to our email update list so you never miss a post. :)
View London in a larger map
Here’s a map of everything we did in London. It’s got the GPS location of all the spots you see in this post in case you want to find them on your own. :) Click here to see this map on a larger screen, with a list of all the places we went.
Follow along on our Scotland, London, and Paris Vacation!
Scotland
Scotland Day 1 & 2 — Inverness, Loch Ness, Skye, and Talisker Bay
Scotland Day 3 — Skye, Fairy Pools, The Highlands, and Oban
Scotland Day 4 — Islands of Scotland: Mull, Iona, and the Cave of Melodies
Scotland Day 5 — Fa’side Castle, Edinburgh
Scotland Day 6 – Edinburgh & Castle Driving the Coast of Scotland
Everything I Ate In Scotland
London
London Day 1: Notting Hill, Seven Dials, and The London Eye
London Day 2: Tower of London, Borough Market, and Big Ben
London Day 3: Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Fortnum and Mason
London Day 4: Bakery Hopping, Harrods Food Hall, and the London Tower Bridge
London Day 4: Sunset at The View from The Shard
Where We Stayed In London: Hotel Indigo Tower Hill
Everything I Ate In London
Paris
Paris Day 1: Sunrise and Sunset at the Eiffel Tower
Thanks for sharing this piece of information with us about Notting Hill London. I am going to add Notting Hill visit in my plan list. It would be helpful for me on my trip with my kids to London.
Fancy seeing your photos from Neals Yard in Convent Garden today. My Husband and I are currently staying in London and spent time around Covent Garden yesterday afternoon. We loved Neals Yard and what it has to offer.
Great pictures! We go soon and I’m taking notes! :)
Stunning photos!! I love all of the gorgeous colors! :)
I am planning a trip to London so not only did your pictures make me insanely jealous but totally ready to go right now. Gorgeous!! Can’t wait for your food post!
How gorgeous! Looks like such a fun trip!
Lovely pictures! I save your travelogues in my “travel file”. Someday when I get to go to these places too, well then, I will be all ready! Thanks! (and keep ’em coming please)
BEAUTIFUL pictures! Your trip looked amazing. Makes want to go back to London ASAP. :)
Amanda.
Your pics are so amazing!!
Have you ever thought about
turning them into jigsaw puzzles?
Thanks for always sharing.
LT
Omg such gorgeous colorful pictures! Makes me want to visit London for the fourth time lol.
Hi Amanda, I was super excited to see on your map you visited Peggy Porschen. Hopefully on my recommendation I gave you. I went last Saturday, to pick up my beautiful 50th birthday cake. I hope you loved it there….and all the Amercian comments on here about the UK and Europe crack me up. Only Americans would think and say those things. Your DSLRs are as safe in Europe ,as anywhere else in the world. And surprise, surprise people talk brilliant English in almost all the European citified and in fact countries I have extensively travelled in the world. And PS we had a drought for a few years in the UK, because it NEVER rained. It’s a myth about the rain. We just have very changeable weather, because we are an island and where we are situated. So it is hard for weather men to make accurate weather predictions. Apparently we are on for a heat wave this summer. That will no doubt end up to be a washout. LOL they always get it wrong. Look forward to reading about where you ate and Paris. I hope you got to eat in my favourite place. I’m off there next month. X
Wow! I live and work in London and am amazed at your pictures!
I work in Covent Garden (where Neals Yard is!) in the lululemon store! So funny to think our paths could have crossed that day!
your trip looks amazing and has renewed my love for London (which happens almost every day anyway!)
Elle :)
SO beautiful!! Ben and I are pining to go to London together someday. He’s been, but I haven’t. We’ll definitely use your recaps for ideas when we DO get to go!! :)
You have completely changed my mind about London. It is gorgeous and lively! It was so nice meeting you at Blog Her Food!
Beautiful photos, as always :)! I’ve gotta go here someday!
Ahhh I can’t wait for more London posts!! We’re headed there next year and I’m going to be bookmarking all your posts :) :) xoxo
Love these beautiful pictures of a beautiful London neighborhood! Portobello Market is on my “to do” list next time I go to London, I have visited London many times but never went to that famous flea market. Do you use your DSLR camera when you travel to Europe? I am going to Spain next week and I am taking my old point and shoot camera, I am afraid my Canon DSLR would be stolen… I have heard many stories of stolen camera in Europe…
Your photos are STUNNING. The colors!! I don’t think we made it to Notting Hill when I was in London years ago. I so want to go back!
I was in London a little over a year ago, and loved it. One of the most fun things we did was take a series of walking tours from a company called London Walks. They were inexpensive, and the guides were superb. Many of them were actors: they were extremely knowledgable and entertaining. Can’t wait to see your photos of Borough Market, which was my favorite thing of all.
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Thank you for sharing, Amanda!
Gorgeous photos!! Are you willing to share ur editing secrets on the two photos of The Eye. They are like paintings!! Amazing!!!
Thank you Laura! The first one was just taken with my iPhone using the ProHDR app. The second one (with the duck) was edited in Lightroom using Fill Light and Recovery. Check out my Lightroom Tutorial here, and scroll down to the Fill Light and Recovery section (photo of a peacock) for a tutorial. :) Hope this helps!
Ahhhhhhhh! You’re making me want to go back! We didn’t do the ferris wheel but that view of Big Ben is making me think we messed up in not doing so! Your round ups are so great, I don’t know how you pack it all in!
So many amazing pics but that one of all the different colored houses is just gorgeous! Sounds like you guys had the BEST time :)
Notting Hill looks amazing and the colors are fab!! The movie is one of my faves!
What beautiful pictures! My husband and I are trying decide where to go on our first trip overseas. I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, my dream trip, but my husband doesn’t want out first trip to be somewhere where they don’t speak English so he has been trying to sell me on England. I always thought it rained all the time and everything was blah but these Notting Hill pictures are anything but! It’s also one of my favorite movies so I could dream about Hugh Grant while strolling the neighborhood.
Am I the only one singing, “Po-tabel-lo Roooad…Po-tabel-lo Roooad…”?
Oh my gosh, I love it so so much. I’ve always loved the Notting Hill movie!!
Love the photos! Can’t wait to see everything else.
My parents are in London right now. They love it. They are using public transportation and said everyone is super nice. Y’all are making me want to go!
Oh man, I almost burst when I saw that antique store. This looks like my kind of town for sure and we’re trying to decide where to vacation next so this may have just made the list!
Love these photos!! The colors are gorgeous!! We are going to London in a few weeks – do you have any restaurant recs?? :)
For restaurant recommendations, I’ll be doing a separate post soon of “Everything I Ate In London.” Here’s the one I did for Scotland. :) Hope this helps!!
I will probably never get there but what beauty. Thanks for sharing. I love all the colors and those shops-swoon :)
What fun treasures you found on this trip. I love all the colors!