London

In May my husband, youngest son and I took a trip to London England for a week. I had been dreading the overnight flight with an hour layover in Iceland, but in all honesty it really wasn’t that bad at all. We slept very little on the plane but still managed to make it through the first day with a short nap right before dinner.
We had really amazing weather the whole trip. Every day was sunny and in the 60’s. It was wonderful sweatshirt weather. I’m going to try and list some of the things we did below incase you ever want to take a trip to London, and find it helpful.
We stayed at Kip Hotel in Hackney Downs. It was super conveniently located right next to the London Overground Hackney Downs station. I know a few reviews online said they could hear the train, or that they booked a room that didn’t have windows. However we never heard the trains at all and booked a suite with windows, a small kitchen, and a couch. The hotel offers free espresso drinks any time of day or night, which I took full advantage of. We got a great deal for the room, and I’d stay there again.
When we arrived we added £30 onto an oyster card for each of this. This card allows you to use London Underground, Overground, buses, and some trains. They have a wonderful app that lets you put in your location and where you are heading, and it makes it so easy to get around using the London transit. Again highly recommend.
Before we went on the trip I was worried about getting around without data on my phone. I checked with Sprint and they offer low speed data and texting included with our plan, and for $25 for a week I could add overseas high speed data to any of our phones. I thought this was a great deal and we added it to my phone to make using the underground app easy, and help with anything we might need to look up even if we didn’t have wi-fi. And it worked perfectly.
Anyhow we had an amazing time, and were all so glad we finally made the trip. Below is a list of all the things we saw and did….
–Paddington Bear Statue
–Tesco This grocery store was in walking distance from our hotel and there is nothing as fun as visiting a grocery shop while traveling for inexpensive souvenirs like candy, a £4 Orla Keily reusable shopping bag, and food to try.
–Kip Hotel
-Moomin shops (there are two) Camden Market and Covent Garden
–Warner Bros Harry Potter Tour
–MinaLima for Harry Potter fans!
–Hardy’s Sweets
–V&A Museum Of Childhood
–Jack The Ripper Museum
–Highgate Cemetery Tour we did the East & West admission
–Walrus And Carpenter Pub
and of course all the normal touristy things like Buckingham Palace, The Eye, Westminster Abbey, Tower Of London, and Tower Bridge.