National Gallery, London, tourists
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A Day in the Life of a London Tourist

National Gallery, London, Tourist, London Day Trip

This post is going to be photo heavy guys. There’s nothing that screams out “a day in the life of a London tourist” more than lots and lots of pictures with gazillion other tourists in it!! That’s right, photos were taken at normal touristing hours not 5 am when the world is asleep!! 😉

We’ve always been saying we need to explore more of London, but we all know that you always take your home city for granted. So I love it when our families and friends come over to visit us because we get to show them around and do the touristy things with them! So here is our take on “a day in London”…

Buckingham Palace, London, Tourist, London Day Trip

First things first, make your way to Buckingham palace to watch the change of guards. It’s not for everybody but if this is for you, then be sure to get there at least an hour early if you want a decent viewing spot as it does get pretty crowded (be sure to check the schedules here)! If you are here during summer, you can also purchase a ticket to visit the palace. Since Her Majesty is off to her summer palace. But our guests weren’t interested, so we moved on leading us nicely into lunch. We took them to Fortnum & Mason for a traditional afternoon tea and a proper English brew. Advance booking is definitely a must here.

Fortnum and Mason, Piano, live entertainment, afternoon tea

And a must-do in London. It is so British!

Fortnum and Mason, afternoon tea, british, london

Don’t you just love their Tiffany-meets-England theme and tea sets? So pretty!!

Fortnum and Mason, afternoon tea, british, london

Choose between savoury or sweet stacks. We had half and half between the four of us, obviously.

Are you a jam-before-cream or cream-before-jam scones kind of person? I am in the former camp and A is in the latter. One day I will google and report back which is the “traditional” way. But right now, we need to keep moving. London tourists don’t have time for this kind of detail… Haha

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Mission accomplished! By the way, they offer unlimited top ups over the 2-hour seating. So make sure you are hungry!!

Fortnum and Mason, tea, London, shops

Don’t forget to leave sometime after tea to browse through the store. There is just something about the way things are organised here… nothing ever changes, yet I can spend hours and hours going through everything again and again in awe… must be the turquoise-Tiffany-esque colour scheme… so calming and smoothing… *weirdo*

Fortnum and Mason, tea sets, shops, british, london

Fortnum and Mason, lollies, british, london, shops

Even the most mundane lollies, can look deliciously pretty in their jars screaming “buy me buy me”!

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If I could, I’d do all my grocery shopping here. It would be such a pleasing experience. Actually, we will probably save a lot of money, as I’d hate to grab something off the shelf and mess up their perfectly ordered shelves. As we all know what it feels like to spend hours and hours getting your pantry shelves in perfect order only for X [insert name of the son, daughter, partner here – yep we all have that person in the household] to pull out a packet of crisps (yes it is crisp in London, chips everywhere else, sticking to the London theme here) and messed everything up!!

Anyway, I digress. When you can finally drag yourself out of the store, make your way to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery for some cultural experience… aka people watching!! Hehe 🙂

Trafalgar Square, London, day trip

Take a picture with “the Thumb”.

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And Pikachu…

National Gallery, London, tourists

Admire the beautiful architecture in the square.

National gallery, Interior Design, architecture

Then go inside the National Gallery to admire the detailed interiors… or in our case escape the heat! Free admission helps. Just kidding, I do love a good gallery experience.

Facetune

There are a generous collection of beautiful paintings. So you’d want to give yourselves plenty of time in there if you can. I think this sofa would look amazing in our house!

National gallery, the Sunflower, Van Gogh, art

“The Sunflower” by Van Gogh. Hold off booking that flight to Amsterdam!

National Gallery, art, painting, Whistlejacket, George Stubb

Isn’t this the most magnificent painting of a horse ever?! This is Whistlejacket by George Stubb. Apparently, this is the revolutionary portrayal of a horse as there has not been a portrait ever painted for a horse before. A kind gentleman saw me staring intently at the painting came over to let me know.

Trafalgar Square, London, Tourist, day trips

View of Trafalgar Square from the gallery. I quickly snapped this one as we were being shooed out of the gallery since it was closing.

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After the gallery, we walked across to Soho for dinner. Then we saw this WICKED ACE car parked in one of the streets. LOL

That’s all folks! Hope you enjoyed reading about my take on ‘a day in the life of ‘ a London tourist. Where would you spend your day in London?

Thanks for reading.

… by J

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12 Comments

    1. Thank you Nikki! Awesome!! Perhaps you can give me your take on a day in London then… 😊 Would love to hear it from your perspective!!

    1. Hi Cynthia, thank you for your kind words and encouragement. When are you planning to come? There are so much to do in London… make sure you leave plenty to time!! 😍
      … by J xx

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