Category: London

Our final day in London was spent exploring the landmarks in the city and eating our way throughout different neighborhoods. The first stop was to go to the National Gallery. They were showing a Caravaggio exhibit, which is the first major exhibition in the UK to explore the influence of Caravaggio. The gallery has a free entrance and is fairly large – I spent about 2 hours in there alone trying to find all the masterpieces. They have Vermeer, Monet, Seurat, Cézanne, Rembrandt, van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, Michelangelo’s “The Entombment”, and more. They also have a da Vinci panel and Raphael’s “The Madonna of the Pinks”, which are both must-sees. Continue reading “Walking and Eating Our Way Through London” →

We had to start out our day with breakfast at Sky Garden. It’s a three-story glass dome with the highest public garden that provides a 360° panoramic view of London. There are couches and bar seats throughout the floor but we made reservations at Darwin Brasserie. I highly recommend reserving a table in advance because it is pretty popular – after all, entrance to Sky Garden is free so the place gets pretty packed. You can book a table in advance here. Continue reading “Towers, Jewels, and Markets” →

FULL ENGLISH TIP:
Regency Cafe is known for their cheap, full English breakfast
You can find their menu here

Originally, we were going to start the day off with breakfast at Regency Cafe, since they open really early (7:00am) but we ended up going to King’s Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4 before getting a quick breakfast at Aux Pains de Papy, a quaint French bakery that served fresh bread and pastries. I ordered an almond croissant and a brioche with my cappuccino and wow, the brioche was like eating a cloud! It was so soft! They serve coffees with little biscuits and fresh meringue as well. I’m not a huge fan of meringue but theirs was the right amount of crisp to lightness. Continue reading “The British Library, the Guards, and Claridge’s” →

We took the evening flight out of JFK to London so as soon as we arrived to Heathrow Airport, we went straight to our Airbnb to drop our things off and get food. Just for convenience’s sake, we bought roundtrip tickets for the Heathrow Express (which is an Express train that goes between Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station). It’s definitely not the cheapest option but we were staying in Balham, which also wasn’t the closest to the airport so we just purchased tickets from one of the ticket agents. Continue reading “London, We Have Arrived!” →