London With The Girls

Three of my friends (Maria, Viki, Gabriella) and I have been planning a trip to London for awhile. We finally made it happen at the end of April when we went for 4 days. I'm sure many of you who are reading this have been there so you already know how awesome it is. I had a fabulous time and I think that London is now one of my favorite cities! Partially because it has an intangible vibe that I can't quite articulate.

What made this trip extra special, besides spending it with friends, was that Maria had lived their for 6 years so she was able to be our personal tour guide. If you've been to London, you know how valuable that is. I didn't have to look at a map once! She was also instrumental in showing us places off the tourist-track and taking us to restaurants that she knew.

Another interesting thing for me was taking the "le Tunnel Sous la Manche" or "Eurotunnel". It's basically a train for cars and it only takes 30 minutes to get from Calais, France to England.

That's all I'll say for now. I've included some additonal explanations along with each set of pictures.

The House in Wimbledon

This is where we stayed. Maria has a friend who works for the family who owns this house. As you can see, the accommodations were much better than the 2-star hotels we usually stay in. Moreover, The Wimbledon Tennis Courts are just behind the property.

Hampton Court Palace

Because we were staying on the outskirts of London, we decided to visit this palace on our first day. Hampton Court is one of the great Tudor houses in Britain. Aside from the building, there are 60 acres of gardens and a world-famous maze called the Great Vine.

The entire palace was beautiful, but the most interesting part, in my opinion, was the royal kitchen. They had it set up just like it would have been when it was actually being used--complete with food on the tables.

We concluded our visit with a carraige ride around the grounds and a walk through the maze. I'm embarrassed to say, that after 15-20 minutes in the maze, we gave up and took the escape exit! I'm sure we would have had more success if we had not woken up at 5am that morning, driven 5 hours, and then toured the palace for 3 more. We were pretty tired.

Hyde Park
We decided to skip the museums and other tourist attractions this day because it was warm and sunny. Instead, we headed to Hyde Park to boat on the Lake. It was great to see London out playing on a beautiful, Saturday afternoon. While many tourists probably pass through this park, this is definately a local hangout.










Camden Town


After leaving Hyde park, we went to Camden Town, which is an area that was once a cheap place to live back in the late 70's/early 80's. As a result it drew a very alternative crowd (artists, musicians, punk rockers, etc.). This is where Rick lived when he spent a summer in London a long, long time ago. The alternative vibe still exists today, which makes it a great place for people watching. Think Haight Ashbury in San Francisco , Greenwich Village in NYC, or Little 5 Points in Atlanta ( on a much smaller scale).



Unfortunately, I only got a couple of pictures when we were there because we spent most of our time shopping in the huge indoor/outdoor market. No girl's trip is complete without shopping and I did some damage!



Between Hyde Park and Camden Town, this was probably my favorite day during the trip.

The Sites
Here are a few of the sites that we visited. We didn't see a lot of the tourist sites because we really just wanted to enjoy the city. Also, we all live very close so ---We'll be back!





























Out For Drinks

These were taken on several different days. The last picture was from a traditional, English pub located in a small town outside of London.









A Day In The Countryside

Our last day was spent driving through the countryside and visiting a couple of really sweet villages. I fell in love with the immaculate lawns/parks, beautiful flowers, and stone houses with thatched roofs. The first picture is from a restaurant where we had a typical English breakfast, which was huge, even by American standards! I had the vegetarian option, in which the bacon and ham were replaced with veggie sausage and baked beans. Yum!




On that note, I have to say that I was impressed with how vegetarian friendly England was. I would expect that in London, but the small towns/villages surprised me.














My fashion magazine debut - sporting the new bag I bought at Camden Market.