Day 9 - Big City Life: Everything is bigger (& better) in London
Waking up in London, visiting the sights & over-indulging in lots of good food, drinks & company.
14/11/2023
We woke up a bit later than usual (6:30 am) as we stayed overnight in the city after last night’s podcast event, and were treated to a great little buffet breakfast that we didn’t expect to be so good.
After getting ready for the day, we decided to pop into the breakfast area to check it out before we headed off, not expecting much (as the hotel wasn’t too flashy). However, we were surprised to find a quaint little room, set up with tables & chairs with tablecloths, cutlery laid out, and a little sitting area where the news was playing. The buffet ranged from cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt, bread/toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, baked beans, waffles, jams, fresh juice & pastries… flash!
After I had finished off 3 (or maybe 4) servings, we headed out to see some new sights. The first stop was the Tower Bridge! It was both of our first times seeing the bridge up close (we had seen it last time from the viewing deck at Skygarden with Asha, but had not made it down close).
Architecturally, it is absolutely stunning. So much detail in every section of its build. But something I couldn’t get over was the sheer size of the thing. I have seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge and other grand buildings, but the fact that there are two literal castles built across the river that link the banks of London is just something special.
The wind had picked up, and the rain was starting to threaten, so Chelsea was giving me the hurry up to get across to the other side, but I still managed to take about 200 photos of the bridge alone (I won’t bore you with all of them, but here are a few favourites).
After getting across the bridge (about an hour and a half process with me slowing us down). We walked some back streets and took in the old cobblestone roads. After racking up the steps early in the morning, we stopped in for a coffee at Starbucks (yeah yeah, not very English of us we know haha). Feeling very festive (as Chels is year-round), we ordered a gingerbread latte & iced eggnog latte - can recommend!
After recaffeinating ourselves, we walked Southbank, taking in the views of the city and also looking back at Tower Bridge. Along our walk, we took shelter from a scud of rain in Hays Galleria. It was being setup for Christmas, and also has some great old buildings, combined with modern architecture.
After walking a lot of London, we finally came to one of the main places Chelsea has wanted to take me - Borough Markets.
For those of you who don’t know, Borough Markets is London’s premier food market. The market has been operating in one form or another for over 1000 years, with the market transforming from a grocery supply market to a high-class food market in 1998. There are over 100 stalls in the markets, along with other restaurants setup in surrounding streets.
If we hadn’t done enough walking for the morning, we certainly did at the markets. Making sure we covered every stall available, from fresh seafood, cheeses, & meats; to fried donuts, melted chocolate, and various styles of cuisine. A few main points were:
Chelsea’s first mulled wine (tasty)
Sharing a “Festive Wrap”, which is pretty much a whole roast dinner, wrapped and toasted in a Yorkshire Pudding
Stopping in at a Wine Bar in-built within the markets
Caramel Fudge
After eating our way through the market (that we will need to return to several times to try a bunch of stuff we decided we couldn’t fit in today), we jumped on a bus and headed over to a restaurant called Pivot which has a great view over Covent Garden, to catch up with Chelsea’s family from Canada who are holidaying in London for a week.
Chelsea hasn’t caught up with them since her trip to America/Canada in 2016. Rafina & Tim were great fun to catch up with. Tim & I are now best mates and have a rough plan for Chelsea & I to trip to Canada to go snowmobiling together haha.
If anyone thinks I am taking too many photos while in England, well you haven’t met Tim! We’ll share some photos of us all below, and please keep in mind these are only a few of the 10’s or 100’s that Tim took while hanging out! Love it haha.
We meant to only catch up for an afternoon drink, but were having so much fun, we ended up staying for an early 3-course dinner! The food at Pivot was great, but the company was better. After a lot of food, a lot of laughs, and too much beer (Tim is the bad influence I swear), we headed down to Covent Garden to take some Christmas Card Photos, courtesy of Tim & also a random guy that Tim taught how to take good photos to make sure we got a good group one too (he made Tim take some of him and his mate as well haha).
Finally saying goodbye and promising Tim we’d book a trip to Canada next year, we jumped on a bus and headed home to see Grandad and get straight to bed (about 20,000 steps completed for the day).
PS. These images are loaded at a lower quality to make the website load easily. If you’d like some of the photos taken to download for yourself, message us through the Contact Us section of the website, or email us at hello@picswesendtomum.com
Cheers,
Matt & Chels
Pics We Send To Mum
