In my travel articles, I will try and take you back to some memorables trips I took recently (and less recently – I will try and keep it up to the last year). I want to share my experience, tips and feelings with you – and basically make you feel like you were there!

 

For my first travel article, let’s throwback to last April when I turned 25 and the boyfriend took me to London to celebrate. So we enjoyed a lovely (but rainy) 3-day weekend in the British capital – a.k.a my favourite city in the world.

 

Day 1

I hadn’t visited the city since the time I was living in West Midlands, which was three years ago, so we started off with some casual walking around and sightseeing under the rain, as it should be when you are visiting gloomy ol’ London.

We also enjoyed a bit of shopping while passing by Regent Street and Oxford Street, and especially my favourite shop there: Anthropologie. Not everything is affordable but they have very sophisticated items of clothings, as well as for the home, and some killer accessories! The mood there is very zen, it looks like an artist loft or a yoga studio to me.

 

 We chose to escape the rain for a while and stopped at SoHo’s Bill’s, the one on Brewer Street, just behind Picadilly Circus, in order to grab lunch. I had been there once before and I remembered the warm local atmosphere , as well as the delicious burgers and cocktails! The menu has both classic and original pieces, as well as veggie options, and the burgers and fries are truely tasty.

 We then resumed our walk and went along the Thames, one of my favourite spot to sightsee, no matter the weather. Among other landmarks, we walked through the Millenium Bridge, and spotted Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral, looking good as always.

Then, the culminating point of our day arrived: diner at the Sky Garden, a place between botanic garden, greenhouse, and restaurant with some serious rooftop vibes (check the website to know more about this fabulous place). Hiding at 20 Fenchurch Street, this place holds a 360 view point of London and an observation desk.

We had booked an early diner several weeks in advance at the Darwin Brasserie, one of the two restaurants of the place. The cuisine was very refined, I ordered the risotto and some cheesecake for dessert. They were both fine and delicious, but not as much as the view…

 

After this lush meal we decided to stay at the Sky Garden and hang around to watch the sunset. If the Sky Garden is a magical place during the day, it even more incredible at night. When the sun goes down, the place turns into an amazing place of nightlife, with bars, live music, and the breath-taking view of London by night. I think this place is the one that made the strongest impression on me during this weekend. I definitely wanna go back!

Day 2

On Staturday morning, I was feeling eager to check the Portobello Market, so we headed towards Notting Hill.

It was a lot of looking around through racks of vintage clothes and jewellery, cute touristy items, fresh flowers and fruits. The place was packed but the atmosphere was cheerful. Once we were done with the market we decided to get lost in the back streets on Notting Hill, between tall clean white buildings and colorful houses.

After lunch we went and did something I had always wanted to do again since I was 12: a little spin in the London Eye! Here is one good tip for you: just book or go off-season, in the summer, the queue is so long it’s depressing. In April, on the contrary, it wasn’t so bad! I had forgotten how stunning was the view from up there.

We finished our day by a well deserved trip to Covent Garden to look at yummy food (hello chocolate strawberries!) and enjoy a crepe in that cute little French place called Crème de la Crêpe. They make tasty sweet crepes with original flavours, it’s pretty good!

DAY 3

On Sunday, we enjoyed a long active walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

It’s incredible how you forget you’re in a capital city when you’re strolling around the ponds and the grass. We also had a walk around Kensington Palace, which was very beautiful.

And then, it was already time to say goodbye and hop in the Eurostar!

Let me know in the comment what your favourite London landmark is!