London: My Five Favorites

I’m linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up for WHAT?!, and Mar from Mar on the Run. This week’s Friday Five theme is Five Things I Like about My Favorite City. To be honest, I have several favorite cities because I love to travel, but I thought I would highlight my favorite city I visited 2014: London, England. I was only there for 4 days, but it made a serious impression on me. I will be going back soon! A close second is Mainz, Germany. Gotta throw that in there. 🙂 

Five London Favorites (1)

 

Here goes:

  • Architecture (hello, Buckingham Palace!). I’m just amazed at the level of detail on all the buildings in London. None of them have that thrown-together, strip-mall feel.

 

Gates of Buckingham Palace
Gates of Buckingham Palace
  • Food! A lot of people say they don’t like the food in England, but there’s enough of a variety to make everyone happy. We had fish and chips a couple times, delicious Indian food, and so many toasties from Pret a Manger, a delicious UK fast food chain.
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Traditional English Breakfast
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Yummy gelato at Scoop
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Fish Cakes and Chips

 

  • So much history! Everywhere you look in London, there are monuments, plaques, statues, or buildings that commemorate a historical event. We visited Westminster Abbey and were overwhelmed by the history–in a good way. We saw the coronation chair (or King Edward’s Chair), the chair in which all the monarchs from 1296 have been crowned. We also saw the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, which was amazing. Another cool thing to realize is that American history and British history are the same until a certain point. It makes me feel more connected.
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It’s me and the Crown Jewels!
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Westminster Abbey

 

  • Activities and tourist stops. From the London Eye to the Tower of London to the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to West End shows, there is so much to see and do in London. We had a blast dipping our toes into the culture that is thriving there.
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Shakespeare’s Globe

 

 

The London Eye!
The London Eye!
  • Museums! Most of the museums in London are free, so we were able to go to a few, which was awesome. We went to the British Museum (hello, Rosetta Stone!), the National Gallery (Monet, van Gogh, and Rembrandt, oh my!), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (so cool!). We saw so much awesome art, exhibits, and displays, and just loved it.
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Monet’s Japanese Bridge

 

I really could go on and on about London, and it’s hard to pick 5 of my favorite things. I will say this, though: if you haven’t taken the trip across the pond, do it. You won’t regret it.

Honorable Mentions

  • San Francisco, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Mainz, Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany
  • St. Louis, MO

 

What’s your favorite city? What draws you to that city?

Where are you traveling next?

Don’t forget to link up at You Signed Up for WHAT?!, Mar on the Run, and Eat Pray Run DC.

 

Back from Californ-i-a

Golden Gate Bridge (source)

Well, we just got back from a glorious week of vacation in California. We went to visit family for Thanksgiving and had a blast! There was fun stuff happening all the time, and it felt so good to just relax. You have no idea how much I needed a break.

How many miles did I run? Well . . . 3. But I’m totally fine with that. I’m not really training for anything. I’ll be running a 10K this Saturday with some coworkers/friends, which should be fun. We’ll see. Then it’s back to ramping up mileage and incorporating cross training so I can be totally healthy for my next half, which I’m planning for March. Woot.

Anyway, an abbreviated vacation recap is coming, but I thought I’d check in and let ya’ll know I’m not dead.

Did you get any good Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals? I certainly did, but I can’t reveal them since the Engineer reads the bloggity.

Anyone run a turkey trot? Almost, but I got lazy. Oh well.

FFR

p.s. Join Active GearUp and get great deals on workout gear. Right now, they’re having a sale on ProCompression socks for $24.95. Killer deal. I’m really liking the purple.