November 2019 – 4 nights with the family to visit friends
Getting to visit with good friends who live in a cool location, what a perfect combination for a trip. We got to spend 4 days with our friends in their London flat, so a nice mixture of sight seeing and some time for all of the kids to play and get to know each other.
Overview
Without realizing that anybody really trick-or-treated in Italy (they do, but it’s much smaller and more low-key than in the US), we departed on Halloween night for London for a long weekend to visit our good friends from graduate school. We know that the weather is never predictably good in London, so we figured we would just pick a time and go. We stayed at their house in the Fulham neighborhood of the city (right near Stamford Bridge for all you Chelsea supporters) and used it as a base to explore some of the famous sites, eat ethnic food (we really miss Asian food living in Italy), and stroll through the many beautiful parks.
We love London, and last visited our friends there in 2008 when Ali was a baby. We definitely won’t wait 11 years before we go again.
Avventura Favves
Candella Tea Room – This was a highlight for the kids and we loved it too. It was like going to your British grandma’s for tea in her cozy little dining room. We ate delicious biscuits and scones with clotted cream, finger sandwiches and drank several different kinds of tea. It was all for only £15 per person (way less than going to Harrods, which is £60-80 per person). Be sure to make a reservation.
Bike Tour with Brakeaway – As we’ve mentioned before, we love doing bike tours with the kids because they are far more entertained and we get to see a broader area of the city. Our guide for this tour was hilarious. He told stories about his time working with the royal family and we saw many of the highlights (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, theatre district etc), as well as hitting the smaller places that make London so fascinating. We particularly liked hearing about Samuel Johnson who wrote the first dictionary and his cat, Hodge, who has a ‘talking’ statue. During the tour, we made a brief stop at Covent Garden and had a bite to eat. The tour was safe and easy even for Joy at 7 years old. £24 per adult / £19 per kid for the 3.5 hour Grand London Bike Tour with a small group.
Victoria & Albert Museum – Enjoy the free entrance to this incredible museum collection of art and objects. With the kids, be sure to start in the Sackler Centre of the museum to grab a backpack full of activities for a treasure hunt. It was great fun and an organized way to see the highlights without having to figure out where everything is located.
Camden Market – Although very crowded, this punky area is fun to shop for oddities, and also a great place to try a variety of foods with so many different stalls set up. Of course it was raining when we went (spoiler alert…it might be when you go too!), but we brought some umbrellas, eventually found a picnic table and everyone was able to get something different.
Graffiti Tunnel – We loved taking a stroll through and enjoying the cool street art of all different styles and themes.
Meander through cute neighborhoods or parks, like Holland Park which has a Japanese garden and an adventure playground for the kids. Or visit Primrose Hill (see picture above), which has a beautiful view of the city and cute little shops to stop for tea afterwards.
Restaurants & Bars
On this trip, we didn’t eat out as much because our friend Agathe is an excellent cook, but we really did like these two Asian restaurants.
Dishoom – This is a trendy Indian food restaurant with several locations throughout London. There is often a wait, but they make great cocktails and the Indian food is spot-on.
Churchill Arms – This was a unique combination of an old pub with a Thai restaurant attached to it. Perfect combination of beer, atmosphere and delicious spicy food.
Other Things We Liked
- Ranoush Juice Lebanese restaurant – This is a quick spot near Kensington Palace with good and inexpensive Lebanese classics in a simple environment.
- Kensington Palace – This is such a beautiful area – take a stroll and see the Palace, gardens and the surrounding homes. Don’t forget to make friends with the Royals.
- Globe Theatre – 20 years ago, we visited London and took in a Shakespeare performance standing on the floor in a replica of the original Globe. It was a very memorable experience.
Logistics and Miscellaneous Notes
- Don’t get confused. London has a lot of airports and they can be quite far from the city center. We are always looking for the most inexpensive and direct flights, so we ended up with two very inconvenient transfer situations.
- We flew Ryanair to Stansted from Milan. We arrived very late at night and Stansted is very far so we arranged a transfer in advance rather than taking the train. It was expensive but necessary at midnight!
- We departed from Luton airport on Easyjet. We tried ahead of time to arrange a bus through Easyjet affiliate from the city, but it was such a mess. There was so much traffic the bus was over 30 minutes late and we were worried about missing the flight, so we jumped in a taxi. It was expensive and in the end, we couldn’t get our money back from Easyjet.
- Definitely take the tube to get around. You can get an Oyster card and there are discounts for kids.
Next Time We Go
More of everything please! We can’t wait to get back to London again.
- Check out the Borough Market
- More pubs like Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
- More museums – either the Wallace Collection or British Museum
- More delicious food – one of Ottolenghi’s restaurants and more Indian food of course
- Organize a trip to the countryside
- Take in a show at a West End theatre
- Try to score tickets to an English Premier League match
We really love it and might need to move there for a period.
The Avventura 