I love being in new places & hate getting there, & have been known to say on multiple occasions that I would give anything from a piece of my soul to a limb to a portion of my life savings to teleport. ~ V E Schwab
The ideal island to me is one that is a little difficult to reach. One with no cruise ships or hordes of tourists. A place where time slows and you can forget who you are. The Greek island of Sifnos is one of those islands and unless you hang with the super yacht crowd, then you will be taking a ferry to Sifnos. But fear not, it’s very easy to get to Sifnos & it’s worth the effort!
We spent a week in Greece, and no we didn’t go to Santorini…or Mykonos…or Crete…or any of those other islands that travel agencies love to promote. We went to Sifnos.
On a recent trip to Greece, we had an overnight layover in London, which Eric & I have never visited. We’d flown through Heathrow airport a few times, but only via short connecting flights, so this was the perfect opportunity to get a little taste of the city. We brought my youngest sister Aimee along with us, allowing for some rare photos of Eric & I together.
Since time was precious, we took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station — a more expensive option but well worth the convenience & 15min ride. [If we had reserved our tickets 90 days in advance, it would have been cheaper.] Another option would have been the TfL Rail (replaced Heathrow Connect), which is half the price but double the time (depending on what terminal you leave from). Paddington Station was beautiful & we found navigating London transit to be very easy. We had more trouble navigating the airport shuttles than we did with the Tube 🙂
I used Google My Maps to plan our walking & transit routes before leaving home, but once we arrived we changed it up a bit. Citymapper is another great navigation app for cities, offering live routes from all public transit options within select cities.
Our original plans were to head straight for Westminster, but we were starving & exhausted after a long transatlantic flight, so we started with the Borough Market instead.
The Borough Market is London’s oldest market, & it remains a thriving farmer’s market even after a thousand years of operation.
It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, so the market was packed full of locals & tourists. It was foodie heaven! The buildings were beautiful, the food was art, the smells were divine! If not for the crowds, we could have happily stayed there for hours. But with places to see & stomachs to fill, we ate our shredded lamb gyros & artisan truffles & began our walk into the old city of London.
From Borough Market, we walked to the Tower Bridge & across into the actual City of London, where we meandered through streets of old buildings nestled between skyscrapers. We saw the hordes of tourists at the Tower of London, had Leadenhall Market all to ourselves, & wandered aimlessly through Oxford & Bond Streets, stopping for dinner at The White Horse Pub near Carnaby Street. I loved the cozy atmosphere & food at White Horse & Carnaby Street perfectly captured my “Harry Potter” vision of London. We ended our brief sojourn by walking the quiet neighborhoods of Mayfair & Marylebone on our way back to Paddington Station, then headed back to our airport hotel to get a few hours of shuteye. It was an unorthodox way of seeing the city, but it was just enough to get our feet wet & make us want to return when we have more time. I especially want to explore the underground cafes & bars that were once public toilets — sounds fascinating!
