Five years ago I had my first Girls’ Trip with Chris’s mom and sisters. It was a great time to strengthen our relationships and explore Europe for the first time. I had no clue that the following year we’d actually be moving to London!
Now, 3 years after Chris’s brother, Jed, got married, it was time to do another Girls’ Trip with his wife, Heather. This time we wanted to do Scandinavia, to visit the family homestead in Denmark and other sites.
We were all meant to met up in London, to do some exploring . . . a number of things we didn’t get in on our last Girls’ Trip, and, surprisingly, some things I hadn’t done in the last 3 1/2 years of living in London!
DAY 1
Mom, Haley, and Heather flew in on Saturday morning and we hit the ground running. We thought a good overview of the city would be fun using the Hop-on, Hop-off Open-top Bus Tour. But, of course, we had to get there. Any big square we came to was covered in a sea of yellow and black. We finally figured out it was the day of the Football Champions League match between two German teams – Dortmund and Munich. There were Germans everywhere!
Piccadilly Circus
With all the hype we had about the Book of Mormon Musical coming to London, I finally saw where it was playing. There was quite a crowd of people outside, waiting for the matinee.
Finally we got to the beginning of the Open-top Bus Tour ini Piccadilly Circus to begin our official sightseeing. It was Heather’s first time in London, so I was excited for her to see all the big sites.
I think jet-lag caught up with everyone faster than anticipated. We were just a couple sites in when I was still snapping away and everyone else was asleep.
Heather & Haley
Germans in Trafalgar Square
In true honesty, most of the more memorable sites are at the end of the tour anyway.
London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben
After we crossed the Tower Bridge, we disembarked so we could go to the Tower of London. As we were paying for our London touring through my grocery vouchers, it made it really easy to feel that we didn’t have to spend hours, if not an entire day, at each site. We saw what we wanted to see and moved on.
Tower Bridge from Tower of London
The highlight of the Tower of London was being able to see The Crown Jewels. We didn’t even do the Beefeater Tour, which is always worth it when there aren’t hoards of others in the tour.
The Crown Jewels Entry
We headed down to Westminster Abbey to find that it had closed early. The girls got some site-seeing shots in and we walked down the road to peer at #10 Downing Street, where the prime minister lives.
London Eye from Downing Street
Day 2
After church on Sunday, the girls and I headed downtown once more to get some extra touring in.
Taking Time to Read Rick Steve’s Travel Info
We started at the British Library, one of the places I hadn’t been to yet. We just went to the Treasure Room, but were able to see the Magna Carta, original Jane Austen manuscripts, and original scores from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. That room was very appropriately named!
British Library Entrance
The British Museum was next. This is definitely a place where you could spend an entire day, but Haley really wanted to see the statue called The Discus Thrower. Last time we were on the Girls’ Trip in Europe, we tried to see it, but it was being cleaned and not on display.
We walked around to see the Rosetta Stone and began our search for The Discus.
The Rosetta Stone
We wandered and wandered some more with no luck. We finally asked and they said it HAD been here on display with the Olympics, but it was not on tour. Who would have thought – out of luck twice?!
Easter Island Statue
Our last stop of the afternoon was the Tate Britain. We had a great time wandering around, looking for certain paintings by John Constable and John Martin.
After we had been home and eaten a wonderful meal (that Chris and the kids had prepared), we ventured out for an evening stroll at Chiswick Park.
Chiswick House
Chiswick House Corner Stone
It is no secret that we think Chiswick House & Gardens is a little haven from London’s hustle and bustle.
Goose and Babies
Swans and Babies
On Sunday we found out that Heidi wouldn’t be meeting us in London after all. She had fallen ill and had been admitted to the hospital for dehydration. She had come down with some kind of bacteria and all her kids were sick; then she found out she had an infection in her foot. Things quickly went from bad to worse. This would have all been bad enough with her just coming on our Girls’ Trip, but they were in the throes of moving from Singapore to Mongolia to be mission presidents. We actually started to encourage her not to come as it just seemed it would add more stress onto an already stressful situation. But, Heidi said she needed to come and get away so she would meet us in Copenhagen.
Day 3
For our last day of London touring, we started with the V & A Museum (Victoria and Albert). It is right next to our church building and, surprisingly, I had never been. It is definitely huge! There are wings that go off of each other and others that are hard to get to, but it is definitely a treasure-trove of collections. It was neat to run across a little section of the British History section set aside for Chiswick House.
Prince Albert Hall from Hyde Park
Our next destination was Kensington Palace in Hyde Park. It was nice to meander around the park and see some parts that we hadn’t walked through before.
Kensington Palace
I was expecting a lot of information about Princess Diana, as that is where she and Prince Charles used to live. But, other than one portrait of her, there was nothing.
The majority of the history and site-seeing was about Queen Victoria and about her life in the palace. That was very interesting to learn about her life . . and her becoming queen. There was something called the Kensington Rule that was enacted by Victoria’s mother and Sir John. It basically stated that Victoria was not allowed to be by herself, not even while sleeping. When she went to bed, her nanny sat with her until her mother came to bed and shared the room with her.
Stairs Victoria Descended When She Found She Would Be Queen
When Victoria’s uncle died, and Victoria became queen, one of her first acts was to end the Kensington Rule.
Diary Entry about Seeing Prince Albert from the Balcony
View from Inside (Rose-colored Glass)
The next royals who are taking up residence in Kensington Palace are Prince William and Kate.
Prince William and Kate
Outside, the Kensington Palace Grounds are beautiful!
We will definitely have to recommend this for any visitors who come our way. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
We made our way through the grounds to the Orangery, where we had planned to have a truly British tea.
Playing the part of tourists well?
We did have to wait for a little while in line to get seats inside, but the weather was a bit cool and windy outside that we were willing to wait.
we had a great time at tea. We had the typical finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. Mom and I had hot chocolate while Haley and Heather enjoyed some fruit tea.
Tea Time
Afterward, we met up with some family friends from California, who were touring the world and happened to be in London for a couple days. I couldn’t believe that they had been traveling since February! They started in New Zealand and kept coming west, through Nepal, Italy, etc. They were a little anxious to get home and unpack!
Mom & Janna
We were able to finish wandering through Hyde Park as we made our way to the tube stop.
Peter Pan Statue in Hyde Park
Our final stop of the day was to the play, War Horse, on Drury Lane.
Chris met us there, armed with Haribo treats. We had a great night. I had read the book and seen the movie so knew what to expect . . . or so I thought. The puppetry was amazing! Towards the beginning, your eyes zero in on the handlers and how they move the horse, but by the end you start seeing the horse, seeing it ‘breathe’ and ‘shift’ like a real horse. Truly amazing!
Day 4
After a late night, we were still up early the following day to head out to the countryside. As would be appropriate, I guess, the weather turned wet, cold, and foggy. We got to Stonehenge right before opening and shot some pictures from the road, before any tourists ventured in.
Stonehenge from the Road
You can sometimes try to get tickets to be up close and personal, first thing in the morning. I think that would be a fun way to see Stonehenge some time.
That one view of the stones was enough for the girls, so we ventured on to Highclere Castle, the manor house used in the show ‘Downton Abbey’. I admit that all 4 of us are hooked on the show so we were there mainly for the connection it had with the show, rather than the actual history.
Highclere Castle
We hadn’t been able to get tickets online beforehand, as they had been sold out for ages. When I finally called to see if more would become available, the woman told me to come on the day and they usually always had ‘walk up tickets’. So we did that and had no problems getting in for a tour.
Castle Grounds
We walked around the house and then the grounds. We ended up getting quite wet, as we strayed away from the gravel paths into the gardens.
Mom in the Secret Garden
More Gardens
Downton Abbey’s Opening Shot
Mom really wanted Heather to see some cute English countryside towns while we were out so we started off to the Cotswolds. We opted for the closest town – Bibury – since we were wet, cold, and tired. It still took awhile to get there, but as we drove in, it all looked very familiar from a tour we had the last Girls’ Trip, with our tour guide, Tim.
We parked right away and headed to Arlington Row.
It all was vaguely familiar, right down to the wet, cold walk to the Row.
Arlington Row
Arlington Row
We finished our walk through the Row and headed to a nearby pub for a very late lunch. The girls were happy to get their English fish and chips (I opted for pasta).
We made it back to London earlier than we had planned and were able to have some time preparing for our early flight the next morning.
All of my favorite London places in 3 days! How fun!