The London Trip: Day 2

I’m back with even more photos and a brand new day to share of my trip to London! Day two of any trip is always one of the best because at least you know a little bit more of how things work, but this was an especially fun day two! We roamed all around London and saw some of the most famous sites in the city. In this post, I am including all of the activities we did that day and I am sharing a ton of new pictures!

The London trip: Day 2

It was another beautiful and slightly cloudy day in London. We had just ate breakfast at a different Patisserie Valerie location, this time it was near the Marble Arch! Although there wasn’t a whole lot to see or explore with the Marble Arch, we still wanted to grab a few photos. Plus, it’s not everyday that you get to see a beautiful piece of design from 1827.

St. Paul’s Cathedral 

Standing on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral was like a dream come true for me! You already know that I am a huge fan of Princess Diana and I keep up-to-date on all of the British Royal Family news, that is why standing here on the steps where Princess Diana stood before marrying Prince Charles was so exciting!

Although we weren’t allowed to take photos inside of St. Paul’s Cathedral, I can assure you it was stunning! The following photos are going to be of the beautiful view from the top of the cathedral.

We walked up 295 stairs to get to just this first level which is called the Whisper Room. Not sure how many more stairs we climbed after this when we went up even higher, but I would have to guess it was at least another 295 or more.

Now it was time to walk up to the second level and gain another stunning view of London!

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Our next stop was the Tower Bridge where they have a little museum type of experience that you can either purchase tickets for or if you have the London Pass like we did you get in for free.

Although I may be taking a typical touristy photo, it was hard to conquer my fears of actually sitting on the glass. As soon as the picture was taken I jumped right back up and stood somewhere there wasn’t glasses under my feet. At least we got the photo!

Exploring London

We spent the rest of our afternoon walking around London as we were heading to our next exciting location. We did some souvenir shopping and stopped what can be considered the Starbucks of England. If you haven’t heard of Costa, they are a coffee shop with a similar atmosphere as Starbucks. I have a holiday themed mint chocolate frappuccino, and it was so good! Highly recommend giving Costa a try if you love coffee and find yourself in London!

Parliament 

Visiting Parliament wasn’t on our itinerary for the trip, but we got to see it anyway as we passed by. It was beautiful in person, you can really see all of the details on the structure! It is so crazy to think that Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, helped to design Parliament!

Another sight we didn’t think we would be seeing was this Brexit protest. They were very civil and it was kind of fun to see since Brexit will play a big role in modern British history. Also, later that night when we were watching the BBC News they showed this exact Brexit protest so that was really cool to see!

Big Ben

I was a little confused looking around for the iconic clock they call Big Ben when we were standing near Parliament. We looked around and didn’t see it. Then we started walking towards the bridge and turned around. There he was! Big Ben in all his scaffold glory. It was a little sad we didn’t get a picture with a normal Big Ben, but I was just glad to see his face!

Hyde Park

Hyde Park is a must see while in London! No, there isn’t anything super exciting or fantastic to see, but it is so nice to step away from the noise and hustle and bustle. We enjoyed the relaxing environment and just stepping back into nature. It is crazy how the parks are just so quiet and peaceful amongst this historical city!

Buckingham Palace 

Buckingham Palace is so beautiful and grand in person! We were so busy all day long so we decided to visit the palace at night which I felt was a good idea because the lights reflecting on the building gave it an even more royal feel!

I got so excited seeing the Buckingham Palace balcony where Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stood on their wedding days!

Authentic Italian Pizza

Yes, that whole pizza was just for me to eat. No, I was not able to finish it all. As good as all of the food was in London, it was all so filling and sometimes hard to finish. Now you know why I wasn’t able to finish eating a whole pizza.

Another fun fact about the pizza shop we visited is that it was featured in the film Eat, Pray, Love! I was feeling a whole lot like Julia Roberts!

A Double Decker Bus

As you can see, it was super rainy and cold that night! So we decided to take a double decker bus instead of walking. It was rather empty but fun to see London from a higher up and moving view!

Selfridges

My brother and I had never been to a Selfridges store before so we made sure to stop by this one in London! For fashion lovers like me, Selfridges is a dream come true! All of the most glamours brands with any product you could imagine is available here! I had to get my photo taken with the some of my favorite brands, and I took photos of the clothes that were on display. Being surrounded by all of the fabulous fashion was a delight for me!

Back to Covent Garden

Keeping with the Italian food theme that day, we decided to head back to Coven garden for some gelato! Neither my brother nor I had ever eaten gelato before, we were both excited to give it a try even on the cold evening. Our first impressions of gelato was that it was delicious! Better than ice cream or custard! It was the perfect way to end the night!

I still have one more day to cover of our London trip here on Faintly Familiar, but I hope you enjoyed following along with our second day!

Much Love,

Sarah