Trooping the Colour - 10 Hours in London #TheBrightonDiaries

Hello everyone!

I recently spent a whole Saturday in London aka one of my favourite cities, if not my favourite, in the whole world. Well, okay, I've not been to a huge number of cities, but still. It was such a hot day, over thirty degrees, yet I somehow managed to walk around 24km that day. Yes, I know I'm a little crazy.

The day I had planned on going, actually turned out to also be the day of Trooping the Colour, the Queen's birthday celebrations. I only found out the night before I went, but I instantly knew I had to go.  I have a slight obsession with the British royals, particularly Kate, so there was no way of not going there. I mean, I didn't see a lot of them, but at least I can tick this point off of my bucket list. They were tiny figures in carriages and on a balcony. It could've been anyone. Yet, I am glad I went, and at least my camera managed to capture more than I actually saw of the events.

I'm really sorry that I didn't edit the pictures, but truth be told, you would have probably never gotten to see them if I would have edited them all.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Could we also please talk about how stunning Kate looked in that pink dress?? 😍

Big Ben

London Eye

Here's a little tip...

So, I walked a lot of kilometers that day. Why not use the tube, you may think? Well firstly, I have asked quite a few people, and they all said the best thing to do in London is just get off somewhere and walk everywhere. And honestly, it is the best thing you can do.

If you get the tube to every single place, you will miss out on so many places and opportunites...like the best Waterstones ever at Trafalgar Square (go there, it's sooo pretty and the atmosphere really just sucks you in...okay, that sounds strange...you get what I mean...I hope lolz). Obviously you shouldn't walk all the way from one end of London to the other end, but there is no reason to take the tube from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, or from Buckingham Palace to the Big Ben and London Eye (unless you can't walk that well or far, of course). Everything is so close to each other.

Just to give you an example - if you get off at Victoria, you have a 10-15 minute walk to Buckingham Palace. From there it's literally another 15 minutes down the road to Trafalgar Square or around 10 minutes to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye. From London Eye it's another 15 minute walk to Trafalgar Square, which is close to Piccadilly Circus as well as Regent, Carnaby and Oxford Street.

That's just the places that I went, but I am pretty sure you could see a lot more places if you wanted to. Marble Arch and Hyde Park are just around the corner from Oxford Street as well. Obviously that depends on how far you want to walk, what you want to see and how much time you've got. But definitely try to do as little tube trips as possible, if you can, because you don't only get to see a lot more, but you also safe some money.

The Mall (leads to Buckingham Palace on one and Trafalgar Square on the other side)

Trafalgar Square

Piccadilly Circus

Carnaby Street

Oxford Street

I definitely spent a lot of time just walking around, trying to see as many things as I possibly could, and I definitely wouldn't do it any differently next time. To be honest, I had actually already seen most of the places that I went to, but I never really had the chance to go and do whatever I wanted to there, because I went with a whole group of people. Also, you can't get bored of London, can you?

There will be another blog post soon though, which is also going to be about London, but maybe not the instant places you think of going as a tourist...although I do have to say, that they are still quite popular spots. But anyway, you'll hear and see more of that very soon...hopefully. :D

Have a great week!

Lots of love,

Jacqueline Xx