I was fortunate enough to be able to spend Christmas in London with my parents. I had quickly visited London last year, so I was eager to return to the city and explore more. We spent four nights in Kensington (arriving late Saturday evening and leaving early Wednesday morning). Here’s a list of what we did:
Sunday
A visit to Abbey Road
Church service at Westminster Abbey
Dinner in Highgate/ a visit to George Michael’s memorial park
Monday (Christmas Day)
Bus tour of the city
Tuesday
A visit to Harrod’s
A walk through Hyde Park
A ghost tour
We had a great time! For privacy’s sake, I didn’t want to post pictures of my family here. Instead, I chose a few of my best pictures from the trip to share.
Westminster AbbeyGeorge Michael memorialChristmas lightsHarrodsHarrods windowMagpie in Hyde ParkTufted duck in Hyde ParkSwans in Hyde Park
Thanks for reading! 🙂 I’ve got a few other London pictures posted on my Instagram feed.
I mentioned previously that my friend Chelsea and I have a similar approach to traveling: we’re pretty laid back in the pre-planning department. However, our friend Sierra is the opposite (organized and scheduled), and when she offered to give us a tour of London (a city she LOVES and used to live in), of course we said yes.
Per Sierra’s suggestion, we bought our Eurostar train tickets far in advance, in order to get the best price possible. So Thursday morning, we got up early and took an Uber to the train station. (FYI: Uber is super easy to use in Paris … I used the same app I downloaded in Chicago, and it works the same way.)
I had neutral feelings about visiting London … I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was more excited for Sierra to visit, because she’s so enthusiastic about London. But it took me all of 5 seconds to fall in love with the city, too!
We stopped for lunch at an English Pub Sierra used to frequent as a student (they give you a free drink with your meal!). Then, it was off to see the Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge
Sierra had to leave, so Chelsea and I were on our own. I’m a George Michael fan, and was sad to learn of his death four days earlier, on Christmas Day. I really wanted to visit the memorial his fans created outside the gates of his house. Sierra had figured out which subway stop it was (Highgate), so Chelsea and I made our way there.
I asked a few people if they knew where his house was, and they said no. (Chelsea suggested I ask about the memorial, since asking where his house was made me sound “creepy.” :-P) We went back to the tube station and I asked a man working there if he knew where the George Michael memorial was.
“Oh, you want to go up to his house?” he asked.(YES! I want to go to his house.)
He instructed us to walk up a hill to the village there, and then ask around. So we did that. We made it to the village (with two other memorial seekers behind us) and once we got there, I stopped at a pub. After exchanging initial pleasantries with the barman, I told him I had an annoying question to ask.
“How annoying?” he asked.
“Like, SUPER annoying,” I warned.
I asked about the memorial, and he came outside with me to point us up the street. “I paid my respects on Monday,” he told me.
I am so happy I was able to visit. It really meant a lot to me.
Despite my sadness over George Michael’s death, he died in a nice place. A small patch of land across the street from his home had a decorated Christmas tree, and beyond that was a beautiful old church. A number of people were gathered outside the gate. There were flowers, candles, and balloons laid out everywhere. I wished I had flowers to leave, but instead I left a note, thanking him for his music.
“I wonder who’ll read that?” I asked Chelsea, as we walked back up the street. “Maybe someone in his family?”
“He’ll read it,” she replied. (I like the way she thinks.)
We stopped for a drink at the pub with the helpful barman. It was cute and English and decorated for Christmas. After a long day of walking, it was nice to sit with a pint of cider and relax before we had to catch our train back to Paris.
