A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. -Charles Darwin

Yeah. We went to London. In March 2017. I know, I know. It’s now almost a year later. But hey, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with this blog just yet. Find my top tips at the bottom of the post. =D

(and now I’ve decided it should be a memoir of all our adventures both near and far. Mostly because I’m a jack-of-all-trades kinda gal cause I get too bored doing tge same thing over and over. You’ll probably never see me travel for more than a month at a time because I get bored of moving from place to place and want to go back to work.)

Anyway. That just means I’m going back in time a little. And I really have to because since we went overseas 3 times in 2017 to 4 countries (Australia, England, France and South Africa) and bought a house, and a puppy AND I married a guy who works for himself so doesn’t get paid holidays, we’re on a 12 month no-overseas-travel ban.  This ends in time for Christmas 2018, but means that we won’t have any new overseas trips for awhile.  Hopefully though, plenty of hiking, skiing and New Zealand trips.

(And of course planning a planning a Christmas trip).

You’ll see that the first overseas wanderings I wrote about was our honeymoon to the islands (Which made me desperately want to go back!). Today, I thought I’d collate all the pictures and some of the stories I can remember about our trip to London to celebrate Mike’s brother (Jon) joining his life with Emily.

So we had packed up our bags, flew to Auckland and then jumped on board the world’s longest commercial flight. 17 hours to Doha, Qatar. It was, how to put it, not something that I really want to do again anytime soon without an actual layover to get some shut eye. We had 3 hours there then jumped on another flight to London.

We arrived in London first thing in the morning (around 6) to view you can see above.

I had chosen my seat to have a window, and was so so glad that we arrived on a beautiful clear day.

WOKING

Mikey has quite a bit of family in London and we stayed with his Aunt and Uncle in Woking. His aunty Bren and mum (who had already arrived) picked us up from the airport. We had a shower and then the first thing we did was go for a 3 hour hike in the English country side!!!!!!!!! Ekkk. I was  admittedly somewhat begrudging.

Though my feet were swollen from the long haul, and we were both extremely tired, turned out that this was the best thing for the impending jetlag. But how beautiful are these views?!?!

We walked along the River Wey and saw painters painting, a beautiful old Abbey in ruins, boats peacefully paddling up and down the river as well as various places of interest. There’s definitely no denying that this place inspired the mind and breathed peace to the soul. I could never imagine enjoying a 3 hour walk with swollen feet after 30-odd hours of flying anywhere but along this river. And we went back time and time again while visiting (because it was just a quick skip down a walkway from the home where we stayed).

So we walked all the way to Ripley, and explored the church graveyard to find the grave of Eric Claptons son (whose death inspired tears in heaven). We also ate the most amazing pub food at an adorable little place on the main street, and I was inspired by the local architecture so antiquated feeling but yet so timeless all at once.

The rest of that day is a blur. I recall watching squirrels in the yard. Doing a jigsaw.  Breathing in fresh air that tasted of that crispness when the winter is drawing to an end and spring is well on its way.

On another day we visited RHS Garden Wisley, which I’m sure is a sight to behold in the spring and the summer. Still, in the midst of winter, it was wonderful to walk around and see a large selection of plants and trees, including beautiful orchids, some native New Zealand trees, and off course the tropic plants in the butterfly sanctuary!

Now, when I’m on holiday (Even in exciting new places) I’m a big believer in having “chill days” for rest.  For me, there’s nothing worse than going away on holiday and feeling like you never took a break.  Holidays are, in my mind, a space to switch up your pace of life, to rest and to renew your mind.  On this trip we tended to have one day off rest (spent reading and puzzling and wandering on short peaceful walks) followed by one day of “go-go-explore-see-touch-tick off the list.”

LONDON

On day, Mike and I headed in to London on the train and walked around the city until with sore feet we collapsed on one of the last trains back to Woking. And we ticked off a LOT on our list: London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, changing of the horse guards, trafalgar square, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, St Paul’s cathedral, Tate Modern museum. (note: the BEST free view of London is at the top of the Tate Modern. Never mind paying to go on the London Eye, you gotta check this view out. Its better in real life, I promise)

My Favourite figures in the Westminster Abbey Courtyard:

After that we defiantly needed a rest day.  And we also decided we needed anther day in London central before we left. And so we booked tickets to see the show Wicked, at Victoria Apollo, first spending the day seeing the sights we had missed: Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Kings Cross Station. And also just wandered up and own the river Thames, checking out sand art and just enjoying being far away from home for a bit.

LEITH HILL

On another, foggy London day we (with many of Mikey’s extended family) went for a walk to Leith Hill Tower. This place was pretty amazing. Not only was it beautiful in that misty-english-countryside kind of a way, but it is also steeped in history (it always blows my mind that many of the places and buildings we visited in england, despite not being too dilapidated, can tell you tales from before our country even had people walking the land!) There was a rhododendron dell planted in the 1800s by Caroline Wedgwood, a familiar name from my Botany studies, who although a great botanist in her own right, was also the eldest sister of Charles Darwin. On the walk around the area you can also spot what I believe to have been the childhood home of Charles Darwin an Caroline Wedgewood.

And, of course, the Leith Tower. 76 steps in total, built in 1765 as ‘a place for people to enjoy the glory of the English countryside.’ In my books at least, it does just that! Especially since there is a little window at the bottom of the tower from which you can purchase a cup of tea. There doesn’t seem to be a more ‘English countryside experience’ more underrated yet brilliantly refreshing than this.

GUILFORD

Mikey’s cousins study in Guilford, so we had a quick trip over. In Guilford, we explored the castle and its grounds, listened to buskers, strolled along the picturesque river, and had the most delicious lunch at JAMIE OLIVER’S!! I purchased a bottle of lemon cello (from Italy) there and it is to die for. Only a quick few photos of Guilford, but worth a quick little trip if you’ve got half a day to spare.

BATH

High on the list of must-sees when in London is the  town of Bath, which I liken to walking through a castle the size of a town. The architecture was amazing and I wanted to take a photo every corner we turned! I cant even describe how amazing it was there, so I’ll just leave you with some picture and a list of must-see places. Oh and Stonehenge is on the way there from London (if your into that sort of thing). We didn’t stop but did spot it from the motorway.

• Roman Baths (obviously)
• Scones and tea for ‘elevenises’ and trying spring bath water at “The Pump Room” cafe, which use to be the old pump room, funnily enough.
• Jane Austen home
• Glass blowing
• The circle town square called “circus”
• Bath Abbey

PARIS

And, what trip is complete without a little spontaneous side-detour. AND this time, off we went to Paris for a little more than 24 hours, having only decided to do so the day before. So no french was brushed up on, and no real thought went in to what we were going to do once we got there. We booked a train ticket + one night accommodation combo through lastminute.com and stayed at a wonderfully unique experience of a place called Vice Versa.  You honestly have to check it out. We spent a whole day walking around the city, seeing almost all the things to see. While I would probably recommend spending more time there, for me, a day in Paris was definitely enough. I’d love to explore more of France, but I think I’ve seen enough of Paris to last my lifetime.

TOP TIPS

• Lastminute.com is your best friend when booking tickets to the theater, or train tickets to Paris
• You can pay for awesome views of London. Or you can go to the top of the Tate Modern and see it for free
• St Paul’s cathedral and Westminster Abbey both have 5pm Choral-Evensong services when you can go in for the price of sitting through a 30-45minute service. Or you can pay money. Up to you.
• There is a difference between the Apollo and the Victoria Apollo Theaters. And they are VERY far away from each other
• When you buy a train ticket in to London from surrounding suburbs, your ticket goes to anywhere you need to be in London so you can use it to on to the underground and to the necessary station-no need to buy a new ticket at waterloo.
• Make sure you have really comfy shoes to do London by foot (i wore my Allbrids, and they were perfect). You can do the red bus hop-on-hop-off, but I’d recommend going by foot if you can-you see sooo much more!
•  Find some Melatonin to beat jetlag-you can buy it over the counter in England
• Visit a Jamie Oliver restaurant. There are different options depending on your budget.

TO DO NEXT TIME:

This is mostly for my own reference, but feel free to check out the list of things we wanted to do, but didn’t get to fit in to our short trip.

• Day trip to Durdle Door
• Oxford
• White cliffs of Dover
• A European Christmas Market
• London Sky Garden
• London food trends
• A cooking class

Happy Holidaying

Moochelle