Lovely London!

I travelled on a Family holiday with my husband and three children. We fly to London very often as we have relatives there so I would know London quite well. We flew from Kerry to Stansted Airport and took the Stansted Express to Liverpool Street Station. While in London we stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Islington.

To get a good look at London we decided to take a Tour of London on The London Bus. This was an excellent way to see London as you can hop on and hop off at various tourist attractions. Also it was great value as the tickets purchased are valid for 6 months. While in London we saw the following attractions: The London Eye, which is a major feature of the London Skyline and is the world’s highest observation wheel with 32 capsules which holds 25 people each. The journey takes 30 minutes.

Madame Tussauds: (A real life wax Museum). Madame Tussauds enables you to come face to face with many of the rich and famous celebrities on the Red carpet. Celebrities such as Sean Connery, David Beckham, most members of the Royal Family, Madonna, Lewis Hamilton to name but a few. Needless to say I took loads of photos with my favourite celebrities.

Tower of London: The Tower of London has over 900 years of history as a royal palace, prison, place of execution and a jewel house.

Trafalgar Square is great for families and as a meeting place for people. Here you can feed the birds and watch some street entertainment.

London’s Big Ben/Clock Tower as it is also known, houses the Houses of Parliament. A light above the clock is illuminated letting the public know when Parliament is in session.

Buckingham Palace: Outside Buckingham Palace you can experience a free display of British pomp and ceremony as you the watch the changing of the guards at various different time during the day. Kensington Gardens, covers 100 acres and is home to Kensington Palace which was once home to Diana Princess of Wales prior to her death.

Covent Garden, is an excellent place to meet up with people, great restaurants and cafés in this area and also good for free street entertainment.

Hyde Park is set on 350 acres with beautiful lush trees and landscaped flower gardens with a large lake. It’s an excellent open space for children and families as it also has a playground, tennis courts, cycling area, and track for horse riding. A visit to Hyde Park is a must as it would make you feel like you were not in the centre of London.

We went to see Mama Mia at the Novello Theatre which was absolutely fantastic, a must when visiting London.

There is an excellent choice of areas for shopping; Oxford Street is excellent for high wnd shopping with shops like Selfridges etc., Bond Street for the John Lewis department store, Oxford Circus for Nike Town & Top Shop, Knightsbridge for luxury shopping with the famous Harrods with its seven floors to choose from and Harvey Nichols. Stone Street is the shopping area for designer clothes in shops such as Gucci, Armani etc. Camden Town is great for its night life and markets. A must area to shop in is Borough Market which only opens to the public from Thursdays to Saturdays. This is an excellent food market and is over 2000 years old and is undercover which means you can enjoy it no matter the weather. Portobello Road is an excellent area for antiques shopping and to get your London memorabilia. It is here the film Notting Hill was filmed.

There is a wide variety of Restaurants in London to tantalise your taste buds. The most memorable restaurant we had dinner in was in Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse Restaurant on Kings Road near Kensington Tube station. Excellent food at very affordable prices and very friendly and helpful staff.

I would definitely recommend London as a romantic break away or a family holiday as it has a lot to offer.