Europe Trip Part 1

I finally sat down and edited my photos and sorted through them to show you what I did while I was away. Now I obviously can't write about my work day, but just know, I spent the first week in an office and the second week in meetings. What I will write about, is my weekends and evenings. The good, bad and ugly parts of traveling. Enjoy.

I flew to England on Friday, September 7th, but did not arrive until the early afternoon on the 8th. Once we got to our hotel, only a few of the rooms were available. Those of us who had rooms, showered, unpacked and then met everyone else later. I was one of the people who had a room available. I want to show the pictures of my hotel room because it was amazing, but I can't. Just know that the hotel was an amazing place. And if you want to know more about it, send me an email or a DM on my IG.

That evening we walked from our hotel to Trafalgar Square, past Westminster Abbey, to Covent Garden and into The Chandos for a beer. We took in the crowds, people watched and then went to dinner. Dinner wasn't memorable AT ALL and I tried to erase it from my memory. The food just wasn't good. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest.

Westminster Abbey

Sunday we were able to sleep in and then met downstairs to head to the Tower of London. I have been on this tour along with my boss, but the others had not. It had been 10 years since my tour, so it was fun learning about the Tower, the history, the torture chambers and seeing the Crown Jewels (so beautiful!).

 The Tower of London had a food festival going on that day and it was included with entry, so we had lunch after our tour.

 Torture Chambers. You can faintly see how a person was crouched down inside of this contraption.

 A person would be stretched on this.

 Tower Bridge

 They have a ravens area. They eat blood soaked crackers and meat each day.

 Where the crown jewels are housed. Sorry no photos allowed inside.

After our Tower visit, we headed back to the hotel to rest and then headed out to dinner to Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote. This was a French Steakhouse and it was good. The green sauce they put on their steaks is so yummy.

Since we were in the Covent Garden area, I took my co-workers to my favorite spot, Laduree for macarons. I had macarons twice while I was on my trip and I would have brought some back if I ended my trip in London.

Monday there wasn't anything notable.

Tuesday we went to Bone Daddies for dinner which is a ramen place that was amazing. It was so good that we went back the following week.

Wednesday there wasn't anything notable.

Thursday we grabbed salads for lunch and then walked around the office's neighborhood which was basically next to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Thursday night, my co-worker and I met our friend and her husband for dinner at Christopher's Martini Bar. We had martinis, sliders and fries. It was a cute place and it had a pretty good happy hour.

Friday we tried to go to several places for dinner, but we needed a reservation for the 6 of us, so we ended up splitting up (after walking what felt like 100 miles) and my co-worker and I went to Cicchetti. We had bruscetta, arancini balls and pasta bolognese. It was amazing!

Saturday was our day off, so we went to the Mithraeum. This is a museum with ancient Roman ruins that were found in London. It is a free tour and it was worth it.

Since the Mithraeum was close to St. Paul's Cathedral, we made that our next stop. We did a self guided tour and one of my co-workers and I headed up to the whispering wall. You can supposedly whisper into the wall and hear it on the other side if you put your ear up to the wall. Then we climbed more steps to go into the dome. We climbed 525 steps up and then down after taking some amazing photos. It was well worth it and something I had never done before. I wouldn't do it if you are afraid of heights. I am not, but it still got to me a little bit. One of my co-workers just sat down inside and waited while we climbed to the top. Note: I don't have any photos inside as you were not allowed to take photographs, but believe me, it is breathtaking inside.

 Overlooking the Thames

After St. Paul's Cathedral, we went across the Millennial Bridge and came up to the Shakespeare Theater.

Then we walked to Borough Market for some lunch and shopping. This market is full of amazing food, chocolates, beers, honey, a farmers market and shopping. I opted for the Pad Thai and it was AMAZING.

After shopping in the market, we headed to the Cheshire Cheese Pub where we met two other co-workers. After having some cider, the girls split off from the guys and we went to Lush for some bath bombs (since we had amazing tubs in our hotel), Harrods for some chocolates and then to meet with some of our other co-workers at their hotel. We walked to MeatLiquor for dinner, but there was a 40 minute wait. One of my co-workers and I went to the Disney Store which was around the corner and picked up more gifts. Then we headed back and had dinner at MeatLiquor which was a grunge burger joint. These pictures don't do it justice, but it had a cool feel to it. The service was eh, but the food was good.

 They had a free picture booth which we did not go into, but the stickers up top were funny and I had to snap a photo.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. I should note that there were many nights that I woke up at 2 am, so I could talk to the girls. It was far easier to talk to them during the weekends, but we made do.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2.