When you have been together with someone for 10 years, you have to do something big to celebrate. Neither Chris or I had ever been to Europe. We decided to take a trip to London and Ireland to celebrate this huge milestone. Unfortunately, I broke my foot 2 months before we were supposed to leave. I was devastated and so freaked out that I wouldn't be able to walk. Thankfully, the doctors I was working with at the University of Utah helped me as much as they could to get me walking by the time we left. I was on strict no weight bearing orders for 5-weeks. The day before we left I was cleared to start walking in my boot. I got a cane for the trip and still took my scooter along for navigating through the airport. It was still really painful for me to walk and I didn't want to be slowed down by my foot. I had to catch our flights on time!
We booked a trip through TripMasters that got everything ready for us. We had our flights, hotels, and a rental car ready for us in Ireland. It made everything super easy and for our first trip to Europe I wanted to get a sense of how things worked before booking our own accommodations. Next time, we will book an AirBnB so we can go to the markets and cook our own meals to save some more money. The first stop of our trip was London, we flew into Heathrow and were on our way to our hotel in Chelsea. I may have been tired from the flight, which I did not sleep on at all (huge mistake), but I started to cry looking around. I was overwhelmed to finally be in Europe. Something I had dreamed about for so long. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I was in heaven. Looking out the window of our hotel room I was elated to be there. I'm sure most people know this... but I wasn't prepared...hotel rooms in Europe are SMALL! My scooter took up the majority of the room. It is not a good place for those who need ADA accommodations, but it was a minor inconvenience. However, the people were so nice it was a great hotel to stay in.
After we took a much needed nap we went to Portobello Road to explore and get some dinner. We love markets and just looking around at different shops. Portobello Road was a great place to do that. I had looked up what there was to do close to Chelsea and this was one of the top suggestions. I completely agree. There are so many choices for food, we ended up at an Italian place that had its windows open and the smell led us in. It was by far the best pizza I have ever had. I am sure it is nothing compared to Italy. But I figured that we were so close it was made authentically and perfectly.
The street art around this area was unbelievable. I become obsessed the entire trip with the murals that seemed to cover London and the cities in Ireland. This one was one of my absolute favorites. A combination of two iconic figures in British and American culture.
The next day we decided to explore the must-do area of Westminster. I wanted to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. This would also be my first real day of walking. I was a little nervous but we figured this would be a great area because everything was so close and I would be able to rest easily if I needed to. We got to hear Big Ben chime and stood there with all of the other tourists holding our phones up. It's still one of my favorite videos from our trip; I love that sound. Across the bridge was the aquarium, as we all know, I was there. It was a nice break from walking around. There was a school on a field trip while we were there. Watching the kids run around in their uniforms was adorable. After the aquarium we walked back across the bridge to find a pub where we could get some fish and chips and a good ale. We found St. Stephen's Tavern that felt old school and very in-line with British culture. We were satisfied and full.
After lunch and a good rest off my feet we decided to explore a bit as we walked back to the hotel. This was our last day in London. Tomorrow we would be flying off to Ireland and we wanted to try and get the most out of it. We started to walk through a park and I quickly realized it was St. James Park, which meant that we were on our way to Buckingham Palace. I hadn't planned on being able to get there with my foot and the adrenaline of knowing we were right there kept me trekking on! The details that go into the architecture of these buildings was even more magical than NYC. They are even older than those buildings and on top of that you add the royalty factor into it. Everything was thoughtfully planned out and gold seemed to be everywhere!
London was amazing to visit. It's huge and there is so much more we could have done, but with my foot and only having two days I think we explored the city and had a great time.
What You Want to Know:
Where to Stay:
MyHotel in Chelsea was a great place to stay. It is very small and quaint, but that is just what you want out of London. I thought it was a great location to the main tourist attractions.
What to Do:
London is huge. There is so much I wish I would have done, but it all depends on what you like to do. Here is a quick list of what we did, read above for further details, if you haven't already: Westminster Abbey & Big Ben, the London Aquarium, Buckingham Palace & St. James Park, Portobello Road Market, & of course lots of pubs!
Where to Find the Best Deal:
We booked this trip with TripMasters. It included all of our hotels, car, and flights for traveling from London to 4 cities in Ireland. A little pricy, but it was nice to have everything planned out for us in one go.
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