📍London, England, Part IV 🏴 🇬🇧
The final chapter…for now.
It is the quickest, cheapest, and easiest to catch a flight from the UK back to the US, so here we are again. Our European home, London. We knew we would be back so it was time to knock out the final things on our London “must-do” list—or try to at least. Being very experienced London tourists, we decided we liked staying in Earl’s Court the best so we found a cozy Airbnb for us to stay in for our final week.
Day 1: We had taken a bus from the airport to the city center (good news is it did not take 4 hours like the last time we had tried this) and got in around dinner time. To no one’s surprise (literally no one) I was craving sushi. We (probably I) found a place with good reviews not far from the house called Kappa. It was 10/10, amazing, addiction, and probably mercury poising unlocked. We ended up sitting next to an American couple who had moved to London 25+ years ago and they gave us all the tips and restaurants to try.
Day 2: J was busy with appointments during the day so I decided to take a trip to Cambridge to see the college(s). I truly did not know that there were 31 colleges here. I took the tube to the train station and made it there by myself. The fact that I didn’t end up in Scotland is both impressive and shocking.
I randomly texted my travel friend Megan who I knew was in London at the same time. Without planning a thing, she responded instantly and happened to also be in Cambridge. Travel soulmates. She had gotten there much earlier than I had so she had already toured around. I decided to roam around until it was my time to go on the punting tour. Before this day, if you said I was going on a punting tour I would have assumed I was watching an NFL player kicking a field goal. Overall, a very educational trip.
Side note: I would like to take a LONG minute to address and admire the fact that there is sometimes sun in England and when there is, it is very nice.
It was time for my punting tour and, for any fellow football fans, I can now confirm this is in fact a boat and not a foot event. I sat on a long kayak-looking thing that fits more people than a kayak with a nice (strong) man standing on the back with one very long paddle steering us through the canal. We saw a whole bunch of colleges and a lot of nice lookin’ bridges that he claims are also famous. Can’t say I’m a bridge expert so I did not know about them, but they looked nice.
After spending some time on the boat, I walked around a bit and eventually met up with Megan. She was eating at the place I met her, so we caught up and debriefed about our Cambridge trips. We both decided it had been a long day and was time to train back, so we headed to the train station making a few photo pitstops on the way back.
When I got back to Earl’s Court, I met up with J and we decided it was probably in our best interest to try Kappa again. Results: it was, in fact, in our best interest. It was just as good as day one.
Day 3: The couple we met at Kappa night one told us about B Bagel, which as you may have figured out, is a bagel spot. So we took a walk over to the shop when we woke up and ordered some bagels. They were very good, comparable to East Coast USA bagels. So good, we inhaled them without documenting the goods. This also just goes to show all good things in London this trip stemmed from Kappa sushi.
Anyway, we tried to go to Sky Garden the first 3483 times we were in London, but we never booked it early enough. We had finally learned our lesson and booked weeks in advance. Sky Garden is a place with a bar on a very high floor with all glass windows so you get amazing views of the city (as amazing as you can for a typically overcast city).
I am going to let you guess where had dinner that night…to be fair this place was not just a sushi spot, they had other amazing food and we wanted to try the whole menu. And that is exactly what we set out to do.
Day 4: A bunch of people had told us how great shows were in London so we decided to see one. What better show to see in London than Harry Potter? Part 1 and Part 2. In the same day. For someone that cannot stay awake through a TV show, let alone a movie, this was aggressive, but I am happy to report I stayed awake and actually enjoyed it.
Perhaps I was able to stay awake because the intermission between shows was very long and I felt very refreshed after our break. We ended up having enough time to go explore Harrods and eat some dinner. Everyone says you must go to Harrods when in London and, while I agree it is very nice looking, after this trip I belong in Walmart.
We ate at Nando’s as we needed a quick meal to get back to our seats for part two of the show. Everyone seems to love Nando’s, but J and I agree it is VERY average at best. Kappa sushi 4 lyfe!
The show ended pretty late, so we went back to our London home. We had a very full final day planned and we needed some rest for it.
Day 5: Our final day- how is it even possible? Take me back!! 😭
I really wanted to visit the upside down house. It’s not a huge attraction, but I saw it on Tiktok and was determined to go. It is exactly how it sounds. Everything in the house is upside down. It’s super weird being inside and we were getting a bit dizzy but it was so worth it!
We were not leaving London without one more Kappa visit, so we met Megan for a quick lunch. For the amount of times we were there, you would think our phones would be FULL of pictures, but apparently the food was TOO GOOD because after 3493 visits, I have one picture and it’s not even of the sushi. I will selflessly do you all a service and go back one day to take some pictures (and eat EVERYTHING on their menu).
We had reservations to explore Westminster Abbey, so we made our way there. On the way, we had found some Ben’s Cookies, but we were too full from Kappa so we traveled around with the goods.
Remember those cookies I had mentioned? J was very irresponsible and somehow put them down. We left church and quickly realized the cookies were no longer with us. Completely frazzled as the church was closing to visitors, we ran (sprinted if you will) back to the exit and asked if we could try to find them. They were nice enough to let us and we found them very quickly. We were thrilled. The staff was less thrilled knowing they weren’t getting to eat our cookies. V sorry.
Our very last event for our trip was the Murder Express. It is a murder mystery show that takes place in a train. Mostly importantly, they serve food, really good food.
Unrelated, while we were on the tube going to the event, a random man left his wallet. Someone sprinted off the tube, got it back to the owner, and got back on the tube before it took off. What a feel good story.
I digress, more about the event—the set was amazing, the food was amazing, the acting was…okay and the overall experience was super fun.
The event ended late, so we went back to our room, packed up, and got ready for our flight back to the States the next day. 😭💔
The last 7+ months were some of my very favorite memories. Thanks for everyone who visited, who followed the blog, and, most importantly, to my favorite travel partner and blog editor, J. Couldn’t have imagined this adventure with anyone else.
Until the next trip.
Xoxo,
AK & J