Today we were off the see the seat of arguably the most important institution in UK history, Buckingham Palace. But first we had to catch the tube to Soho to pick up some bagels. If you want an entire carriage to yourself on the tube, travel at 10am on a Friday morning!

We picked up our bagels and made our way to the palace via Piccadilly Circus. It was very quintessential London with the Union Jack flying and the London buses and black cabs going past.

We arrived at St James Park just in time to watch the morning drills on the parade ground. It was quite impressive watching them perfect their marching and turns to the beat of the band!

From there, we walked down The Mall to find a good spot to watch the changing of the guard! Everyone was crowded around the palace so we stopped a bit further back away from the grounds to watch the new guard being escorted to the palace by the marching band. We didn’t actually see the formal changing of the guard in the palace grounds as it was much too crowded. Luckily we had already seen a mini-version of it yesterday at the Tower. After some quick snaps of Buckingham Palace we went out and found a spot in St James Park to enjoy our bagels in the very beautiful spring sunshine (a rare London occurrence I hear!).

It was quite entertaining watching the operator of the sun loungers placed out in the park appear and disappear to charge unaware tourists for sitting in his loungers. He did have signs out with the cost but they would all look around, see no-one and take a seat. Then, just as they get comfy, he would suddenly appear with his card machine to charge them. Small amusements.

From here we caught the Royal Guard making their way back along the mall after their shift change before heading along towards the Wellington Arch on the other side of the palace.

We continued our walk through Hyde Park where we saw some beautiful big swans, a running race, a fancy statue of Queen Victoria and Kensington Palace! It was such a lovely day we took our time to amble through the park and watch all the Londoners go about their day.

For our next stop, we took the tube to the Museum of Brands which was a brilliant walk through time of the evolution of brands and packaging. It was a blast from the past - especially seeing all the old branding from the 90s! The museum is run by a not for profit and costs £9 - highly recommend if you’re ever in London!

After spending some time looking through various food options, we ended up at Wetherspoons again! It’s just so cheap and easy. We had a few pints before heading back to our accommodation. I had another friend to meet up with so I left Sam to head over to Shoreditch for Italian with my gorgeous friend from Melbourne Belinda!

The next morning we had a slightly awkward day. Our train to our next city didn’t depart until 5pm so we headed to Kings Cross and deposited our bags into luggage storage so we could get out and continue exploring the city. We headed to the Design Museum, located off the Kensington High Street  where we had a delicious croissant and coffee! The Design Museum was a let down in comparison to the previous day so we didn’t really stay long as there wasn’t much to see.

It was another gorgeous day (London was really putting on the good weather vibes for us) so we headed back into Central London to see Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We didn’t end up paying to go into the Abbey as it was expensive and both of us didn’t care that much. We ended up doing a loop around the back of the Abbey and around the riverside. From here we had gorgeous views of Big Ben over the river!

On a more sobering note, we went past the National Covid Memorial Wall where every red heart represented a loved one who had died during the pandemic in the UK.

In the same area was the Graffiti Tunnel. There were many artists at work adding their own flair to the walls of the tunnel. I overheard a tour guide mention something about Banksy having an influence in the foundation of the tunnel. However, we didn’t see any Banksy works around (generally they would be covered by perspex).

Again, we were hungry and after mulling over different food places, ended up going for another Wetherspoons! On the way we walked underneath the London Eye which was very busy. There were many buskers around plying their craft and the bridge back to the station was packed! Wetherspoons was also packed so after a quick bite to eat and a pint we retired to a central London park to chill out in the sunshine until our train.

After collecting our bags, we headed to the Eurostar Terminal to check in for our train. Sam spotted this amazing button in one of the upmarket bars in the terminal. Unfortunately too fancy for us to get in there to press!

My verdict on London? Ok for a visit but not somewhere I’d rush back to see! We (I) was constantly on guard for pickpockets after being warned multiple times by multiple people to be careful with our pockets (someone’s friend put their hand in their pocket only to find another person’s hand there!) and to be careful with our phones (don’t even hold your phone in your hand closest to the road as they will bike past and snatch it!). Wetherspoons was good value for money but everything else was expensive! Overall we had a good time but next time I’d like to get out and explore more of the UK!

Next stop, Paris!