Hello guys
Me and my mom went on a holiday trip to London last week. We were there to enjoy the city, do a lot of strolling, buy a lot of books and just enjoy the holiday spirits in London. The first thing we did was taking the train in the morning. We arrived at Citizen M, the hotel we stayed at (in the area of Victoria station, which is a very nice area) and we left our luggage there. The first thing we did was strolling around in the area where we were staying at and we went into a bookstore where I immediately saw a lot of English books that interested me, English books are just something else, way cheaper and the covers are often prettier than Dutch books. There were a lot of books I really wanted to read and add to my collection at home. After we had a little lunch at Joe and the Juice and we had a nice walk and passed by the Big Ben and the City of Westminster. The weather was okay, it was a little cold and grey, but I would say the perfect mood to be in London. We walked over the bridge and had a pretty good view on the Big Ben, but also on the London Eye. When we walked, we saw there was a wall at the waterside with a lot of painted hearts, so we walked there and saw it was made for all the people that lost their lifes to COVID in London in 2020. That was very touching to see, but also very beautifully painted. We strolled further along the river and we walked to South Bank, where we also walked into a nice bookstore and passed a Christmas market. We walked past another bridge and had a very nice view again. We were on our way to an exhibition of Gucci. It was called 'Gucci Cosmos' and it was a temporary exhibition, in the Strand area. We walked past Somerset House where they had a very nice ice rink before getting into the Gucci exhibition, which was very nice. You could enter different rooms with a lot of different experiences and designs. It was very nice. You could see all the different luggages of different eras and learn more about the history of the brand. You could also see very nice outfits, bags and other items. The rooms were very impressive. They also had a very nice room called 'the Blue Archive'. It was, as you can see in the picture below, a room full of archived bags. It was really interesting to see. After the exhibition, we walked again and passed by Charing Cross. We were on our way to Covent Garden and were desiring something sweet. So we had a stop to have a cinnamon bun and a Raspberry cake. Then we were at Covent Garden where we could really feel the holiday spirit. It was very nice to see. Then we went to the Glossier store, as we had a list of things to buy for me, my sister and my mom. The store has a very nice aesthetic. After, we just kept on walking and we took the bus back to our hotel. In our room, we had a little FaceTime session with my little niece at home. After, we had an apero drink at the bar of the hotel, before taking the uber to our restaurant reservation. We had a reservation at Ave Mario which is one of the Italian restaurants of the Big Mamma group. All the restaurants of them we went to before in London and Paris were all very good. The food is always very delicious. The restaurant looked very nice with an impressive bar and we had some burrata, some veggies and a truffle pasta, which was to die for. I already had it before, but it's always very tasteful and creamy. Suddenly, we got a surprisingly good looking neighbor coming to sit next to us. It was the one and only Mr. Grey, the actor Jamie Dornan. So yeah, that was fun. After that we just went back to the hotel and relaxed and actually went to sleep quite early, as we were very tired.
The next morning we woke up very early and we took the bus to Selfridges. We just strolled around a bit and walked to our reservation at the restaurant 'Plants by Deliciously Ella', which is the vegan restaurant of Deliciously Ella. We've already been there last year and it was again very nice. I had a smoothie and an avocado toast, which was very good. My mom had some yummy pancakes. As we were in the Mayfair area, we just walked around. We went to Selfridges, which looked very impressive for the holidays. We had to take a look at the books again and buy some more books. We already bought a lot the previous day. We went to the H&M home and then of course we had to go to Hamley's to take a look at some play stuff for my little niece. We got her some nice gifts. So that was very nice. Then we were in Carnaby Street and we had a Caesar salad for lunch. After that, we walked to Regent Street and did some more shopping and went to the Glossier experience. After, we walked into Bond Street and strolled around a bit more. It was raining a bit, but it was still fine. There were a lot of people in these busy streets, as you can imagine, a few weeks before Christmas. Then we also went to Uniqlo and Fortnum & Mason and after that, we took the uber back to our hotel, because we had to drop off all of our shopping bags. On the drive back we we passed the Buckingham Palace, which is always nice to see. After we dropped our bags, we went to the exhibition of 'Accidentally Wes Anderson' which is an Instagram account with very nice looking colorful pictures based on the atmosphere of Wes Anderson, which is a movie director. The exhibition was actually really nice, all the the difference rooms were very colorful and in themes. After that we went back to our room and we just had a relaxing evening. We got some Shake Shack and enjoyed a movie in our room.
The next morning it was already the last day so we went for breakfast at Bill's, which is a very nice place where you can get all the typical breakfast you're looking for. I had some pancakes with some fruit. After that we took the bus to Nothing Hill, which is a very cool area. We walked by Portobello market, which represents local brands. We also walked by the typical colorful pastel looking houses and had to take some pictures there. After that we had a chocolate milk on our way to the Nothing Hill bookstore, which is of course famous from the movie. We also had to get some more books there, oops. After that, we just strolled around and had some lunch Granger and Co, which is an Australian restaurant. It was very nice. After that we took the uber to the National Portrait Gallery where we still wanted to see a exhibition of David Hockney. It was very nice to see the nice looking art and of course the best part of it was the artwork that he made of Harry Styles, which was also featured in Vogue. After that we just went back to the hotel, picked up our bags and we went to the train station because it was already time to go home.
In the evening we took the train back home and were very happy to be back, home sweet home.
It was a very nice trip and I enjoyed the holiday spirit and some quality time with my mom. We just love strolling around in this very nice city. We'll definitely be back!
Thank you for reading this blog post. And of course you can always take a look on my Instagram to enjoy more content.
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Cheers!
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