This past week we had friends visit from Canada and while Cambridge is a beautifully quaint city rich with history, tradition and architecture, truth be told, you can cover a lot of ground in a week. And since our friends had never been to London, we had to take them and show them the sights.
London, however, is hard to squeeze into a day but I think we came pretty close to seeing all the major attractions balanced with relaxed enjoyment.
The train from Cambridge to London is about an hour, give or take, depending on the day and if you catch the express or not. We didn’t rush our morning and were able to arrive at London Kings Cross around 11am. From there we took the underground to Covent Garden, which is one of our favourite spots.
As it wasn’t very busy (Sunday morning) we managed to snag a table at Ladurée right in the square centre for cappuccinos and macarons. Jakob also had some of their amazing “hot chocolate” which is more of a drinking chocolate – thick and rich.
We took some time to walk through the Apple Market and Jubilee Market before heading down towards the river. Jakob, however, opted for the Mac store, which is also quite a sight with it’s exposed brick walls and glass staircases: 3 whole levels of MAC and rather large kids section.
We took them half way across the Waterloo Bridge for their first glimpse at the Parliament Buildings, Big Ben and the River Thames. We walked up the river to the Temple underground station and trained up to the Tower of London. Of course they put an ice cream truck right at the exit so we had to stop and have a picnic in Trinity Square before continuing on.
Across the street at the Tower Pier we caught the Thames ferry, which is just £4 if you have a travel card and travelled up the River to Embankment Pier just across from the London Eye.
We walked up the River a little further to the Parliament Buildings and across to Westminster Abbey.
From there, it was over to Downing Street near the Churchill War rooms and through St. James Park to Jakob and Ella’s favourite place in London. The St. James Park Playground…aka, the sand pit. We let the kids play while we sent our friends next door to Buckingham Palace.
By now, the sun was just starting to set. We walked up The Mall, which was closed off to vehicle traffic towards Trafalgar square.
This landed us around on Hayward Street just in time for dinner, and like always, we went to Spaghetti House. We discovered this small chain of restaurants the first time we went to London, but because of their impeccable service, reasonable prices and great food we keep going back.
Our last stop was Piccadilly Circus at dusk. It’s a sight not to be missed and a great way to end the perfect day in London.
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