London, the beaten and off beaten track
Lord Kitchener already sang it in the 60’s:
London is the place for me
London this lovely city
You can go to France or America,
India, Asia, or Australia
But you must come back to London city.
After my trip to London this last week, the only thing I can say is that I totally agree with him. It’s always time for a London adventure and it is always the season to go with how many kinds of activities there are to do there!
For my first London adventure, I decided to go with a friend from Bournemouth, England that I met earlier this year in Amsterdam, I mean really, who doesn’t love having some international friends! We stayed in this really nice and laid down hotel in the neighbourhood of Covent garden, what is literally the centre of London! This hotel is definitely a big recommendation so for those who are interested: Strand Palace Hotel London.
Because this was my first trip to London I wanted to do both some really typical touristic things and some of the beaten track things, this was easy to arrange because I was with a kind of local, thank god! I for sure wouldn’t have survived the underground otherwise.
Totally over the top
We started off with one of the most typical London attraction, The London Eye. I never expected it to be big or high like it is, so it gave the most perfect and prettiest view of the British capital that you can think of or wish for. TIP: Pre-order a fast line ticket when you want to visit The London Eye, there can be some really nasty and long lines. And I mean, you would rather spend that time exploring, right?
Also, did we go into the tower bridge what is also a definitely must with is history and view it gives off the Themes. After that, we walked over the sidewalk next to the river to the big ben and Westminster church. The weather was amazingly sunny and you can definitely say that we were extremely lucky with that!
A thing that makes London so interesting is the mix of old and new. When William Faulkner remarked that the past is not dead, that, in fact, it’s not even past, he didn’t go far enough. You have the old historical buildings and monuments that tell and learn you so much over the city and its history, but then at the same time, you also have the new. This brightens up the city and attracts a big and diverse crowd of people looking for a little adventure.
Shoppin, g Shopping Shopping
If you want to take a break from the sightseeing I can highly recommend to visit oxford street! This is the big shopping street in London, with almost every brand as a store you can pretty much think about. Also, go and take a look at Harrods! I had the time of my life exploring this beautiful store. It also broke my heart because I as a poor student couldn’t really afford anything, except for the Mac & Cheese what was really good at least! You can pretty much compare Harrods to The Bijenkorf, what we have in the Netherlands. Sorry for all the non-Dutch readers who are still clueless, guys you just have to go there to see it for yourself!
If you are looking a little bit more of an affordable way of living, you should definitely hit up Camden! This area is known for its vintage markets, stores, and little boutiques. This neighbourhood is known for its more artistic and hipster-ish kind of feel. With its diverse mix of people, stores, and restaurants it creates such an interesting feeling and vibe, very relaxed and an ‘everything is okay just be yourself’ kind of mindset that I personally really love!
Vintage department store Blitz is the first one of its kind in London, and the biggest one in the whole world! It basically is like any other department store only than totally filled with vintage clothes, shoes, furniture, accessories, and LP’s. Even the music from the speakers is vintage! They also serve some really good coffees in the little coffee corner, especially espresso’s.
Theatreland
Another tip is to go see a musical! London has a really big theatre district in West End, also called theatreland, what is filled with around 40 theatres in total. The neighbourhood is filled with neon signs, flashy billboards, crazy big posters, and gourmet restaurants. All year around there are many amazing musicals, comedies and classic plays and shows to see. I personally went to see the musical Wicked. And OMG I can’t even put into words how good it was! If you are not sure what musical to watch I highly highly highly recommend this musical. Everything about it was amazing and crazy good performed, even the smallest details were thought trough perfectly.
Street art
Artists in London are there to make your day better and make the streets look so much more colourful! And the best thing is that everybody can enjoy it for free, I mean I am Dutch so guess I love the free stuff even more. To see the best street art in London and also wants to get informed about it should take part of the Street Art London tour! I surely enjoyed it a whole lot to learn more about the art, its makers, and stories behind it while wondering around the streets of eastern London. I can’t tell you too much about the route that you will walk when you are going to do the tour because of the daily disappearing and appearing street art!
Foodies favourite
England is of course known for their typical English breakfast with beans, bacon, mushrooms, eggs, and sausages. However, this is by far not everything that they have to offer! And well that’s a good thing for me as a vegetarian! London is actually named as the most vegetarian city of the world; can we get an amen for that, please.
The city has the most vegetarian restaurants, the most variety of vegetarian options in the grocery stores and even vegetarian options in the steakhouses! So, no more problems when you want to go out for dinner with your non-vegetarian friends just hit up London. Every neighbourhood in London has a lot of different and good kind of vegetarian restaurants, but my favourite was by far inSpiral Lounge in Camden, definitely necessary to visit during your stay!
Also for the non-vegetarian, the capital city of England offers a whole lot and wide range of different kind of restaurants. This because of all the ethnical groups who live there. A really nice place to visit in Borough Market! It’s a big market hall with over a 100-different kind of little stalls. You will definitely find whatever you were looking for and more! Also, the focus of the people who run the stalls is to be as sustainable and organic as possible, it’s a win-win situation!
All by all I wished I could have spent so much more days in this beautiful capital city, but I had to run to the bus to go to my next destination; Bournemouth! More about this part in England later. For now I can definitely recommend everybody to visit London and mix it up between beaten and off beaten visits, got to keep it interesting!
Kisses!
