London Days 4 & 5

FRIDAY MARCH 4TH

After Harry Potter we made our way back to London proper.

This colorful building sits right across from King's Cross Station:

My grandpa used to teach a class with BYU study abroad called something like Sherlock Holmes' London, so liking the character is in my genes. Chris and I are both huge fans of the BBC series Sherlock and the various books so we had to go see the actual 221B Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes' residence in the books/movies/tv shows. 

#iamsherlocked

Sherlock stuff was all around in this area.

As Chris said on his caption to one of his Instagram photos, "We used the door knocker but nobody was 'Holmes'." He's punny. 

From there, I wanted to ride on a double decker bus again so we found one and rode it out to Oxford Circus. 

Anthro window displays get me every time. So creative!

Bustling Oxford street. 

We hopped off to grab a Nutella crepe, then hopped right back on to go find Sketch. 

Sketch is a funky cafe, etc that has some of the coolest decor around. 

I've seen this pink room ALLLL over Pinterest and instagram, so it was high on my London bucketlist. But I forgot to go to the funktacular bathrooms!!! Next time.

More Sketch decor.

Layers and layers of old and torn signs make cool texture and pops of color.

Hmmm. What to do for dinner... how about Shake Shack? Oh yes we did. Three days in a row. We couldn't get enough. 

That night we had tickets to go see another show so we traveled out to the Apollo Victoria. 

Neither Chris nor I had seen Wicked so back when we were planning this adult-only trip to London we bought tickets online. 

We enjoyed the show!

SATURDAY MARCH 5TH

Our hotel had a fairly late check-out so we decided to maximize every moment we had together in London and head out before traveling back to the airport and flying home. We wanted to walk through Hyde Park so we took the underground out that way. 

Tube details.

Entering Hyde Park.

So many trees everywhere and people running and walking their dogs. A little slice of green in a vast urban oasis.

Kensington Palace sits primly on the park. It was once the residence of King William and Queen Mary and Sir Christopher Wren converted the existing house into a more fitting palace when the couple moved from Whitehall to this home. It was the center of English court life until 1837 when Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace. It was also the home of Princess Diana and Prince Charles from their marriage in 1981 until her death in 1997.

Paint and flowers.

Lovely local church near the park. 

After exploring a little longer near the park, we grabbed a huge cookie from Ben's Cookies (soooo good) then rode back to the hotel, packed up, checked out, and made our way back home via planes, trains, and automobiles. We were excited to get back to our kids (even if the feeling wasn't mutual... direct quote from Fox: "I want Morgan and Jordan to come back!") but it was also wonderful spending some time just the two of us.

I LOVE LONDON!