Thank you all so much for joining me on my recap of our London trip! I hope some of what I’ve shared has been helpful and interesting to you!

I love me some brunch, but our trip didn’t really allow many opportunities for long breakfasts. On our last day, I was determined to breakfast hard! The Breakfast Club kept popping up when I’d look for breakfast and brunch, and their menu seemed fun, so we headed out early to their location on Southwark. Our timing was perfect – we got in immediately but when we left, maybe around 10, there were tons of people waiting.

John had been wanting a traditional English breakfast. They sat us at a table where a guy was eating alone (super hard to have a conversation with your partner when there’s a random dude at the table, but ok). He had ordered the traditional breakfast and John was impressed, so that’s what he went with.

And a warning before you scroll down and the next picture scares you to death…I was chatting away and John started laughing hysterically. I figured I had something on my face, but when he told me to look at my teeth I almost died. The blueberry compote from my pancakes had totally stained my teeth!

I mean, at least they match my dress, right? I was kind of horrified because we were heading to Shakespeare’s Globe immediately after breakfast, but it was also pretty hilarious. Needless to say, we took our time walking to the Globe in hopes the blueberry stain would go away.

One of my favorite parts of London were all the cute storefronts and the beautiful flower arrangements in pots and window boxes. All summer I’ve seen other Instagrammers posting the cutest areas in London (one of my former students recommended that I follow Secret London on IG, and you should too if you love gorgeous scenes that make you want to book the fastest plane to London!).

But on to the Globe! We didn’t see a play performed here, but I imagine that would be an incredible experience! I had looked at the schedule, but they were performing all kinds of Henry the ___ (insert a number there because I honestly don’t remember…I’m also not sure if I’ve ever read any of the King Henry plays.), and I just wasn’t really interested in any of those.

ANYWAY, if you’re also not interested in seeing a play, they do have guided tours so you can at least go inside the theatre and get the feel of what it would be like. If you do want to see something, they also sell standing tickets for only £5. (Y’all, that’s such a steal. For reals.)

A tour of the Globe is included in the London Pass. If you don’t have the Pass, tour tickets are £17/person; the tour is about 40 minutes (our tour guide was delightful, and I’m pretty sure our tour lasted longer than that, which I was totally fine with).

And while we’re on Shakespeare, I’m totally going to plug a theater in my home state of Virginia. The American Shakespeare Center and Blackfriars Playhouse is located in Staunton, Virginia (pronounced like Stan instead of Stawn, so really get your twang going when pronouncing it). This theater is a replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre which burned down in the Great Fire of London. The builders and designers used as much evidence as they could find to make sure the Virginia Blackfriars matched Shakespeare’s. I saw two plays there in college with my Shakespeare class, and they were SO GOOD. I highly recommend a visit!

And now back to London. Our afternoon consisted of two museum visits. John was really pumped about visiting the Churchill War Rooms. I think everyone else in London was equally excited because we waited a very long time to get in.

Time out for a story: the young guy at the door letting people in looked at me and said, “remember for future sights that you can tell them you’re pregnant so you don’t have to stand in line.” I think I kind of screamed, WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME? And then he kind of ignored me. I still have no idea what was happening…was he trying to get me to just say that so I didn’t have to wait? Did I actually look pregnant? (I mean, I have a lower belly pooch that I’m self conscious about, so thanks, bro.) I’m not sure if he realized how close he came to seeing full-blown, American crazy 🙂

But back to Churchill (who I think would’ve supported anything sassy I fired back at that dude). This museum is also included in the London Pass; without it tickets are £22/person and include an audio guide. There is a TON of information to listen to AND read, so make sure your legs are up for it. I only took two pictures (which includes the jumpsuit below) because there was just so much information.

It’s surreal being underground and seeing how he and other civilians and soldiers lived and worked during World War II. I also really appreciated seeing and hearing about World War II from a different perspective than an American’s.

Our next stop was at the Imperial War Museum, another amazing place where you can spend hours getting lost in the information! And it’s free admission for this one! They also have the most beautiful roses leading up to the museum.

I also didn’t take any pictures inside because I was so invested in the information. We had to rush through a lot of the exhibits because it was so late in the afternoon, but they had an incredibly powerful Holocaust exhibit that is really worth taking the time to explore.

And it just wouldn’t be a trip to London without a traditional Sunday roast! A friend from grad school recommended that we eat at The Jugged Hare for at least one meal, and after looking at the menu, I thought it would be perfect for our Sunday roast.

It was definitely one of our best decisions, and it was our favorite meal from the whole trip (a perfect way to close out our week in London!). I wanted the traditional meal, so I ordered the 45 day aged Longhorn rump that came with horseradish cream and rotisserie gravy, Yorkshire pudding, duck fat roast potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and cheesy cauliflower.

The waiter (who was amazing, hilarious, and so welcoming…I wish I could remember his name!) talked John into getting the goat shank special. John and I were both like, do you eat it out of the pot or put it in the bowl they brought? John finally asked our waiter, and he was so great about helping us not feel dumb (answer: people do both, and he assured us no one was watching and judging us 🙂 )

Even though we had enough food to feed us for another day, we couldn’t leave without one more helping of sticky toffee pudding!

Although we were totally exhausted from the week, John was up for one more tube trip, this time to Notting Hill. I just couldn’t leave London without at least seeing it, even for just a minute.

We walked up and down a few blocks, and then I ran in a Tesco and bought as many packs of Smarties as I could hold (my Gran, who was from England, used to order them for us).

And our final stop before crashing for the night was gelato. Always a must no matter where you are 🙂

Again, thanks so much for sticking around as I recapped our London journey. If you have any questions about what we did, saw, or ate, I’m happy to answer them! If you’ve been to London, what was your favorite part? If you haven’t, what would you want to see or do first when getting there? Let me know in the comments section!