London was the first stop on our 10th wedding anniversary trip last month. We loved our time in London and can’t wait to go back.

I chose Thrive as my word of the year for 2019, so I could focus on growing and doing more than just existing. When we checked into our London hotel, this was the room key. I took that as a sign that this trip was exactly what I needed this year. Time to relax, explore, celebrate, and most importantly, THRIVE.

On our first day, we decided to walk around and explore Kensington. After wandering around the adorable neighborhood, we ended up at the Design Museum. It’s free to explore and enjoy the permanent collection, and then they have visiting exhibits that you can see for a fee.

Of course being a design museum, the building is incredible. They had all kinds of cool displays, showing the evolution of technology, and the coolest bathroom ever. The bathroom sink had the water, soap, and hand dryer, built into the mirror. I love a good bathroom.

After walking through Holland Park and visiting the Design Museum, we went to check on Notting Hill and eat some dinner. We got the spring burger special from Honest Burgers and had some local beer. Notting Hill was adorable. It had the coolest houses and the prettiest trees and plants. We loved wandering around, picking out the houses we would want to live in if we were fancy and lived there.

We couldn’t go to London without visit our good friends Will and Kate and Kensington Palace. I love old buildings an this one was no exception, so many historical things have happened in those walls, and the Princess Diana Memorial Garden was beautiful.

We got to see someone leaving Buckingham Palace with a small motorcade, but we couldn’t tell who it was. Buckingham Palace is enormous, I can’t even imagine calling that place home/work.both. The Queen was home, her flag was flying, but we didn’t catch any glimpses of her.

After years of reading the Lady Emily series by Tasha Alexander, and Lady Emily’s love of the British Museum, I knew I had to visit. We got to see all kinds of cool ancient stuff. We spent half a day mesmerized by the collection of statues and artifacts. It was magical.

We spent an evening of our trip at the Sky Garden, an indoor garden and observation deck with restaurants and bars, cool plants, and tons of little places to sit and take in the view.

Christopher was really looking forward to seeing Big Ben, but we didn’t realize that it was being refurbished and would be under construction until 2021, sad day. We also got to Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral RIGHT as they closed so we didn’t get to go inside either place.

It was all kinds of nerdy fun to visit Platform 9 3/4 and buy a couple little Harry Potter trinkets. Kings Cross Station is beautiful, such a cool mix of old and new.

Christopher and I love The IT Crowd, we’ve watched the whole series so many times I’ve lost count. So when The IT Crowd was on TV in London we were crazy excited.

We ate delicious food in London, great burgers, Persian and Indian food, donuts, what a tasty city.

London reallly understands my love of gin. God bless London.