Return to the UK

For our final May holiday weekend, we took advantage of the Eurostar and headed up to London to meet my parents, who had flown over from the US. We spent two days in London before making our way to Bath and Stonehenge. It was a great trip that reminded me of two things: how much I love London and how expensive the UK is!

London
Wednesday night we met my parents for dinner at my favorite burger place...Honest Burgers. As yummy as I remembered, but they definitely are catching on. There's so many more of these now.  Afterward, we met up with Manny and Michelle, who we met on our desert adventure in Morocco and are living in London now. 

Thursday morning allowed us to explore our area...East London and Shoreditch...a bit before meeting up with my parents. It's a really cool area, with tons of street art including a real Banksy. Sadly we didn't get a picture of that one. It's definitely an area I would recommend checking out to get a local feel of London.

We then met my parents to visit the first of many markets this trip. We started at Borough, which was fantastic. So many yummy foods in a cool setting. I even found ancho powder (yayyyyy)!

After a delicious Mexican lunch (can you tell what foods we are missing here in Paris), we spent a little bit of time in the British museum and then shopping in Primark (well, at least for mom and me).  The real highlight of the afternoon trough was the afternoon high tea we scheduled at the beautiful Bloomsbury hotel. We spent several hours gorging ourselves on delicious sandwiches, pastries, and of course biscuits with clotted cream and jam. A glass of champagne to top it off was perfect before heading to our evening shows. 

Mom and Dad went to War Horse (which they said was wonderful), and Nick and I went to Book of Mormon. Hysterical and awesome!

After sleeping in Friday we continued our market tour with Portobello and Camden Lock markets. It was the first time I had been to Camden lock and despite tons of people, I still loved it!  The street food options are incredible...anything you could possibly want from Indian and Chinese to French and Mac and cheese. All set on a picturesque canal...definitely want to go back!!

The streets of Notting Hill are some of my favorite!

From there, Nick and I decided to check out Greenwich on the recommendation of a coworker. Note: North Greenwich and Greenwich are not the same. Take the time to transfer for the light rail instead of just taking the tube all the way to North Greenwich. We made that mistake and ended up walking almost 3 miles to get to where we really wanted to be. Good thing the sun finally started to come out!

Pretty houses along our walk, at least!

Once finally in Greenwich we were pleasantly surprised. It is very cute, quaint, and picturesque. We saw the Cutty Sark, the last tea ship to run between England and India, and the park where the Prime Meridian is located. We didn't have time to check out any pubs or restaurant in the area but they all looked fun!  We wanted to take a boat back to central London, but it would have been an hour wait for the next available one.  Next time!! :)

Our friends had recommended White Hart Inn for good pub food so we met my parents and my cousin, John, who lives just outside London for dinner there. And by far the best fish and chips I have ever eaten!!!

We rounded out our time in London with a walk along the river and caught a beautiful sunset. Pretty great way to say goodbye to London!

Bath
Early Saturday morning, we took the quick hour and half train ride over to Bath.  The mayor's office offers completely free (no tips even accepted) 2-2.5 hour walking tours of the city, so we decided to take advantage of this.  It was a great way to see the city, and learn about a lot of the history.  This is the only place in England where there are natural hot springs, which is why the baths were created here.

That water is where the last scene of Les Mis was filmed!

After our tour and a great lunch at a cute little cafe, we toured the Roman Baths.  The baths themselves were cool, but honestly I'm a little over Roman and Greek ruins after seeing so many already this past year (yep, first world problem, I know).  Nowadays, they know that the water from the springs contains bacteria that can cause meningitis so people no longer come here to remedy their illnesses, but you can taste some filtered water.  Nothing much to write about there. ;)

The rest of the day we spent relaxing and chatting before dinner at Nonna's Italian Restaurant, which was probably the best pasta I've had outside of Italy.  Sadly, it was so good that we forgot to take pictures of any of it! :(

We did find Marshfield ice cream though, and it was delicious!

Stonehenge
Sunday morning we had booked a tour to Stonehenge with Scarper Tours.  It was the perfect way to see the landmark because we avoided all the lines and were on a mini-bus so our group was much smaller.  I didn't have a lot of expectations for this because I had heard it was just a "well, you have to see it once in your life" type of landmark.  But, I was pleasantly surprised.  I really, really enjoyed this visit and would recommend it!  The new visitor's center and audio guide helps quite a bit.  We learned a lot, and it's still amazing to me that no one know exactly why it was built.  And the fact it took 700 years to complete is also crazy when you consider the US is only roughly 200 years old.

All in all, a great weekend!  Overall thoughts: London, as always, was awesome!  Bath was pretty and quaint, but just okay for me...not on my must-see list, and Stonehenge was awesome!  See the rest of our pictures from the weekend here.

London tips:  White Hart Inn for dinner/pub food, check out Shoreditch/East London and Camden Lock for something a little different.  If you have time, Greenwich is worth some time.  A high tea is definitely worth the price.  If you schedule it early or late enough it can work as your lunch/dinner, and this website can help you find some good deals.  We got free champagne this way!

Bath tips: The mayor's walking tour is worth the time, they usually have two a day--one in the morning and one in the evening.  Nonna's Italian Restaurant is a must!

Stonehenge tips: If it's a nice day, pack a picnic lunch and plan to hike around the fields and grounds. We weren't able to do this on our tour, and it's something that I think would have been a blast!

Oh, and just for fun...I've decided that Britain has the most bizarre streets signs ever.  Here's just a few from my two trips over the past year.