Layover in London

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!

White Horse Pub

White Horse Pub

White Horse Pub

Leadenhall Market

Mayfair and Marylebone

Mayfair and Marylebone

White Horse Pub

White Horse Pub

White Horse Pub

Carnaby Street

Phone Booth

St Michael Cornhill

Leadenhall Market

Leadenhall Market

Leadenhall Market

Leadenhall Market

London Streets

St Clare Street

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Tower of London

Tower of London

London Streets

London streets

London Toilets

Southwark Cathedral

red door