My boyfriend and myself spent the past weekend in London. My dad picked us up from our front door bright and early at 6am (I was already cranky from my 5am alarm and not having time to apply winged liner) and managed to get on the train at Edinburgh Waverley at 7.30am. The train was nice, empty and quiet until it reached Newcastle and then it got very busy all at once. Three people from Edinburgh were enjoying their beer a little bit too much and were causing a riot which is always entertaining, especially when the police were waiting for them at London King's Cross.
We arrived in London at 11.51am to 27 degrees heat, which is just far too hot to be walking about with a suitcase.
Here's a list of my favourite things we got up to (in the order they happened):
1. Lunch at the Diner on Carnaby Street. First stop in London (after Topshop!) was Carnaby Street, and when we spotted the Diner with a free table outside we knew we had to go there for lunch. I ordered the Reuben sandwich - which was yummy! and a fresh iced tea. After an early start this meal was exactly what I needed. However, my two minor complaints about The Diner are; a service charge was already added to the bill and our server was not the nicest. I wouldn't usually mind but our waitress' customer service skills were SERIOUSLY lacking and a £4.22 service charge on a £30 bill is just ridiculous, especially when it's not deserved.
2. Arriving at the hotel - we were staying at the Aloft London ExCel, which yes is quite far out the centre but the DLR makes getting there extremely easy. We booked our trip through the East Coast 2 Day Rail Break on Superbreak, which is just fantastic and makes travelling to London (especially from Scotland!) a lot more affordable. The hotel room was very nice, it had the comfiest bed I've ever slept in and the breakfast buffet each morning was delicious and had lots of choice for everyone!
3. Going to Camden for the markets and a few drinks. We got up early on Saturday to explore Camden (one of the only places we didn't manage to go to on our last visit!) before we made our way to Hyde Park. Was such a good atmosphere (despite the crowds!!) and I enjoyed having a Kopparberg in the sunshiiiine - but I didn't enjoy paying £5 for it eugh.
4. Saturday was the most important day for us - we were going to see The Libertines at BST at Hyde Park. Saturday was just incredible, we saw The View twice, drank far too much beer/vodka/wine, had an amazing burger and got to witness the Libertines live. I'm still in a state of disbelief that it actually happened. I'm absolutely gutted it's over. Hopefully they'll come back to Glasgow Barrowlands soon so I can see them again!
5. A highlight of Sunday was not checking out until noon. We got to have a relaxing, slightly hungover, morning. We went to the buffet breakfast and ate far too much hash browns and scrambled eggs, and then got ready to leave and spend the day at Westfield (which was kind of ruined by a half hour long bomb scare - not the best environment to be trapped in when you're hungover!).
We eventually got home on Sunday night after the train ended up having to stop quite a few times due to a track failure which was frustrating but what can you do! We didn't actually get up to much on this visit to London, as we purely went down for the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park; we went to London in April 2012 where we got up to a lot more tourist activities! I also found it a lot harder dealing with the crowds this time, during April there was crowds but it was bearable. This time was just ridiculous, especially trying to get on the tube. I'm not sure how people actually live in London and willingly leave their house to go into Central London during the summer - I would be going on a 3 month holiday if possible!
Have you ever been to London? Any good things to do that we missed out?
