Today I’m starting my three-part recap series of our Europe trip! We were lucky enough to spend some time at the end of summer traveling to three countries: England (where we have some dear friends), Belgium (where Grace is from), and France (where our friends were getting married).
Grace and I had been looking forward to this trip for what felt like forever. We planned it based on our friends’ wedding in the South of France the first weekend of September, so we left at the end of August and decided to travel around a bit before the wedding.
Grace grew up in Belgium, so most of her best friends still live in Europe. It’s hard being so far from her oldest friends, but it’s so fun visiting Europe and having some of our favorite people to stay with!
After an overnight flight from LAX (thank goodness for nonstops between LAX and London Heathrow), we landed in London around noon. Our plan was to stay awake the whole day until a normal time to go to bed on England time, so we could adjust to the time zone more easily, and I think it definitely worked!
We took the underground to Grace’s best friend Juli’s flat where she lives with her boyfriend Jens (who we are low key obsessed with, haha). Jens is from Norway.
Juli and Jens’s flat is adorable, full of exposed brick and city views. They live in Shad Thames which is a super cute neighborhood right by the London Bridge. We spent some time catching up with Juli once we arrived, and then Grace and Juli’s other best friend Laurane came over to meet us. Juli and Laurane were both bridesmaids in our wedding and we hadn’t seen them in about a year. We talked for hours and took a stroll by the London Bridge before dinner.
Grace with Juli and Laurane!
We then headed to dinner to meet up with Laurane and Juli’s boyfriends, Angus and the aforementioned Jens. Juli had made a reservation at the cutest and most delicious Peruvian place! It was called Adina, in the Shoreditch neighborhood which isn’t too far from Shad Thames. Grace and I had been up for over 24 hours at this point (we both can’t really sleep on planes) but we were at the point of just being deliriously happy to be in England, so we cheersed with everyone else with our Pisco sours and ate endless amounts of ceviche and other delicious Peruvian dishes.
Low quality photo, very high quality friend reunion and very high quality Pisco sours.
After dinner we walked across the street to a pub and had a couple more drinks while we kept catching up with our friends. At that point I was so delirious on no sleep that I don’t even remember what it was called or what drink(s) I got! I do remember they had very delicious popcorn that was free. Honestly, a highlight of the first day haha.
That night we slept 10 solid hours so I think our plan of staying up until the next night worked perfectly! We woke up and headed over to have brunch with Juli, Jens, Laurane, and Angus at a cute vegan place in Notting Hill falled Farmacy.
I didn’t take a picture of the food I got, but I had the vegan burger with fries (aka chips in England) and it was amazing!
I did snap a pic of my turmeric latte with black pepper on top. Very different but so good as well and from what I understand, very good for inflammation which I tend to get when I travel.
After brunch we ventured out to Portobello Road which is a fun shopping district in London. I LOVE the colorful houses there.
One of my favorite shops was an antique place selling old rugby balls, golf clubs, and other sporting accessories. It was so cool and the guy working there told us tons of fun British tidbits and history.
After Portobello Road we headed over to the lovely Kensington Gardens. I should mention that it probably seems like we’re skipping over a lot of the key sights in London like Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, etc. We did skip a lot of those famous places, but it’s because Grace and I have both been lucky enough to go to London several times before (including a trip together a few years ago). We really wanted to focus on spending time with friends on this trip and didn’t feel a strong desire to go back to some of the iconic London landmarks, fun as they are :)
On the tube!
And we stopped for an ice cream while walking through the park.
After Kensington it was about dinner time so we headed to get a pub dinner near the Globe Theater, where we had tickets for that night to see a Midsummer Night’s Dream!
Fish and chips was one of my food “musts” while we were in England and this did not disappoint!
Next we walked over to the Globe Theater and watched a Midsummer Night’s Dream! It was truly such a cool experience. I’m really glad Juli booked it for us ahead of time and thought of it. Spending a balmy night of our summer vacation, in London with amazing friends, watching a Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe Theater with a Pimm’s Cup in hand was a transcendental moment for me.
The next day was super sweet and a very different change of pace from our whirlwind day exploring London. One of Grace’s other best friends and bridesmaids, Laura, lives just outside London so we headed up there with Juli to visit her and her precious children. This is the one time my jet lag hit, because I fell asleep in the car on the way there. But I was refreshed by the time we got there :)
We spent such a special afternoon relaxing, eating the delicious lunch Laura cooked us, and playing outside with the kids!
Laura’s son LOVED taking photos on our phones, like this one, which was hilarious.
It was just the best day! And it wasn’t too sad of a goodbye since we knew we’d see them the next week in France for our mutual friends’ wedding (which Laura was actually officiating!).
The cutest mother-daughter pair ever
That night was, very sadly, our last night in London. We kept it relaxing since we had an early train ride to Belgium the next morning, and we stayed in and ordered delicious Indian takeaway (as they call it in England)! Indian food was one of my other must-haves while in England. We watched the new season of the Great British Bake Off and had such a nice last night hanging with Juli and Jens.
The next day we woke up and headed to the Eurostar to make our way to Belgium!
Writing this recap makes me so nostalgic for our time in England—it was just so sweet and filled with some of our favorite people. Stay tuned for my Belgium and France recaps coming soon!