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Espresso and Ambition

A not-so-serious gal with some serious dreams.

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A Week in London at Christmas: Sites and Advice

January 4, 2017 by Taylor 3 Comments

London for Christmas is a dream. If you get the chance to visit during Christmastime, I highly recommend it. The town is covered in beautiful lights and there’s so much to explore – not only do you have the traditional sites to visit, but all sorts of new festive locations open up as well. Here, I’m going to document the places I visited during my week in London, and hopefully it can help you plan your own trip there as well.

 

Day 1: December 21

 

First up, we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, and Shakespeare’s Globe. As a warning, it’s around 16-18 pounds to visit both St. Paul’s and Shakespeare’s Globe. As a result, we really only saw the outside of St. Paul’s, but the building is beautiful and I’m sure the inside is equally as stunning. All of these places are within walking distance of each other, so we were able to travel everywhere on foot.

          

Millennium Bridge is a footbridge across the Thames that has some really stunning architecture, and dumps you straight into Tate Modern. Tate Modern is a wonderful art museum that features… shocker, modern art. There’s also a few Picasso pieces and other well-known artists – and the best part is that the entire museum is free. I’ve also heard that there’s a café on the top floor that has an amazing view – I didn’t go, but if you have time, definitely check it out. Finally, Shakespeare’s Globe. There’s a full tour that also goes into the history of Shakespeare’s life, so if you’re going to pay for a tour, this one is certainly worth it.

My parents and I stayed in a hotel in Canary Wharf, and I think this ended up being a great decision. Canary Wharf is far enough from the center of the city that you don’t experience the full-blown craziness, but it’s also only a short tube ride away, which makes it easy to visit all of the attractions.

 

Day 2: December 22

            

On this day, we found ourselves in Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Trafalgar Square is an incredibly famous part of London, and naturally it’s usually filled with a number of tourists. I’d recommend getting there somewhat early if you’d like to get some cool pictures, because otherwise your shots will be filled with people milling around in the background. The National Gallery is yet another free museum, and it’s overflowing with beautiful paintings. Not to mention, the architecture of the building itself is beautiful.

In the evening, we wandered up to Oxford Street, which is a major commercial street with a lot of shopping opportunities. Also, since it’s the Christmas season, there are lights strung up that make the whole street glow. (Side note: if you’re at all a fan of LUSH, their prices are so much cheaper in the UK than in the US since they don’t have a manufacturing center in the US, so I stocked up on goodies while I was there.)

Finally, we ended the night by seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. As a lifetime Harry Potter fan, this was nothing short of a dream come true. While the written script is a pretty good read, it is 100x better to see it come to life. The casting is fantastic, and I had a perfect view from the third row. However, if Harry Potter isn’t your cup of tea or if you can’t get tickets (they’re hard to come by at the moment), any show in the West End is bound to be a great time.

 

Day 3: December 23

          

This day involved a miniature tour of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. Since I’ll be touring the Houses of Parliament as a part of my study abroad program, I didn’t go see it then, but it would be an interesting tour if you haven’t already seen it (I’m super excited to see it this weekend). Also, I was able to go into Westminster Abbey for a Christmas Eve service, so it didn’t make much sense to also pay to tour it since you get a pretty good view of it just from attending a service.

Dinner took place at Mildred’s Soho. There are a couple of locations of this particular restaurant in London, but it is a great choice if you’re vegetarian or vegan, since the entire menu is vegetarian and at least 50 percent is vegan. The night concluded with the second part of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – once again, I highly recommend it.

 

Day 4: December 24

            

Today was where we delved into the more festive parts of London. Every year, Hyde Park transforms into a “Winter Wonderland,” which features carnival-like attractions and plenty of food. The Wonderland itself is free to enter, but you do have to pay for any of the rides as well as any food or drink you may want. It’s a bit cheesy overall, but you really need to visit one of those places at least once during the holiday season, right?

          

We also went to a Christmas Eve service at Westminster Abbey. It’s a ticketed event so you need to request tickets about a month in advance during the designated purchase window, but the service itself is free. The chapel is itself is beautiful and the service has a heavy emphasis on carols, so the acoustics of the building make the experience magical. I’d highly recommend.

Day 5: December 25

One thing I didn’t anticipate properly about spending Christmas in London is that nearly everything is closed. In fact, many places are closed all the way through December 27. As a result, we actually ended up walking through London for about five hours – even the Underground was shut down for the day! I also believe there are some tour buses still operating on Christmas Day. While I’m normally not really one for bus tours (I much prefer walking everywhere), this would’ve been a really awesome option if I would have known about it.

Another important note for Christmas Day is the importance of making dinner reservations. Particularly if you want a traditional Christmas meal or want to eat somewhere in the center of the city, many of those restaurants book up quickly.

Just a spontaneous piece of encouragement we encountered during our walk.

 

Day 6: December 26

Based on my experiences in the US, I completely expected that Boxing Day would involve stores opening at 6 a.m. and there being mad rushes to make the most of the after-Christmas sales. However, Boxing Day shopping was actually relatively calm where I was, and none of the stores actually opened until 11 a.m. I’m sure Harrods in the center of the city was a completely different situation, but the Canary Wharf shopping traffic was significantly lower.

We also did a bit of ice skating at the Canary Wharf ice rink. There’s another rink in Winter Wonderland and a few in other places, but this one won out due to its location. However, ice skating didn’t exactly go as planned – my mother ended up breaking her wrist! On that note, UK hospitals are actually pretty nice and even the emergency room was pretty efficient (US, take note).

 

I missed a few sites that I still would like to see – namely, the Tower of London and the London Eye, but since I’ll likely be in London on a couple more occasions before I go home in March, I’m planning to see them then. Until then, cheers!

xo, Taylor

 

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Filed Under: Etc., Travel

Comments

  1. Kiran says

    January 4, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    London around Christmas is gorgeous! Lovely photos, Westminster Abbey looks incredible, thanks for sharing x

    ALittleKiran | Bloglovin

    Reply
  2. Ann Morgan says

    January 6, 2017 at 9:05 am

    Great job, Taylor. It was very interesting to see London through your eyes.

    Reply
  3. Miquel says

    June 28, 2018 at 11:14 pm

    Your style is unique in comparison to other people I have read stuff from.

    Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this blog.

    Reply

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Meet Taylor

A real-life combination of Elle Woods and Hermione Granger. Recent graduate of the University of Georgia, currently living and working in DC. New blog posts every Monday, new YouTube videos every Thursday. Subscribe by clicking the link below for post updates and exclusive content!

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tayy_kay

📍 dc
🔥 nasm certified personal trainer
✨ self-love + balance
🎥 2 new workouts per week!

tayy_kay
without heavy weights, it’s sometimes a little c without heavy weights, it’s sometimes a little challenging to really feel like i’m working at my full potential on leg days 😶 enter: single-leg movements. since all the weight is in one leg, you’re putting way more emphasis on it than you do during two-leg movements - and you’ll definitely feel that 🔥 you also get some added bonuses in the form of ensuring you’re working each side of your body equally AND a balance challenge!!
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you can add in weights or bands to up the challenge level, or do it all bodyweight like i am here!
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1️⃣ 15 single-leg box squats per leg (use other leg as a kickstand for an easier modification!)
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2️⃣ 15 bulgarian split squats per leg
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3️⃣ 15 single-leg hip thrusts per leg
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4️⃣ 15 single-leg deadlifts per leg
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throw on at the end of a longer leg day workout or do it 3-4 times as a workout all on its own!!
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👚 @girlfriend 🎧 numb - neffex
🖤 go easy on yourself 🖤 this is a weird time 🖤 go easy on yourself 🖤 this is a weird time to be alive, and it’s more important now than ever to listen to your body and stop being so hard on yourself. motivation is a fickle thing and working out when you don’t have all the equipment you love is weird. give yourself permission to take a break when you need it. don’t beat yourself up for missing workouts - exercise should be something you do because it makes you happy, not because you feel like you have to punish yourself. if it doesn’t make you happy that day, that’s okay. give yourself a break, come back and try again tomorrow. 💪🏼
circuit-style upper body workout 🖤 honestly not circuit-style upper body workout 🖤 honestly not kidding about how much i love this long resistance band, it’s so versatile! definitely worth getting your hands on one for home workouts 😊 (although almost all of these can be completely with dumbbells or heavy objects if that’s what you’ve got in hand)
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also please watch to the very end of the fourth video for quality footage of greg 😂
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1️⃣ 12 long band shoulder presses to standing chest presses
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2️⃣ 12 upright rows to bicep curls
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3️⃣ 12 overhead triceps extensions per arm (the one leg stance is some bonus balance work!)
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4️⃣ 12 rear flies, featuring greg trying to fight my shadow
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5️⃣ 12 commandos
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6️⃣ 12 side-to-side pushups
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repeat 4x total!!
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👚 @underarmourwomen
🎧 best of me - neffex
giveaway 🔥 we’re all handling this weird, cra giveaway 🔥 we’re all handling this weird, crazy time in the world a little differently, and for me, it’s looked like a lot of establishing to and sticking to routines (seriously, sometimes it feels like my skincare routine and workout split are the only thing still giving meaning to days of the week, lol). my morning smoothies have been another important one - there’s a recipe in my story highlights and surprise surprise it uses this protein powder 😛
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anyways, onto the real reason you’re here! i’m giving away 25 $20 giftcards for @310nutrition with NO STRINGS ATTACHED 🤯 you hear that? you ain’t gotta do a thing to win - the first 25 people to use the code KAYGC20 on their order automatically win. get your hands on some fire plant-based protein powder, courtesy of me and 310 😋 (p.s. if you’re still seeing this caption, there are still giftcards available!!)
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#310gc20 #310shake
sometimes you just gotta get hella dressed up and sometimes you just gotta get hella dressed up and hold a fake photo shoot just to prove to yourself that you’re still a real human
posted a new youtube video. this picture is tangen posted a new youtube video. this picture is tangentially topical. link in bio.
upper body circuit ‼️ i’ve been gravitating upper body circuit ‼️ i’ve been gravitating towards circuit-style workouts lately, because they really work up a sweat and home workouts just don’t feel as legit to me unless i’m hardcore sweating 🤷🏼‍♀️ i don’t mind not breaking much of a sweat at the gym, but it feels weird not to when i’m working out at home - anyone else feel this or am i just weird?? 😅
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do all exercises back to back with no rest in between!
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1️⃣ 10 push-ups to renegade rows
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2️⃣ 12 alternating bicep curls
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3️⃣ 12 diamond front raises
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4️⃣ 8 sets of 3 tricep pulses to this lil cross-body weight move that doesn’t have a name {keep your core tight to feel it on your obliques!}
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5️⃣ 15 bent-over rear delt rows
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6️⃣ finisher!! 🥵 10 burpees with 2 shoulder taps and 2 toe taps in the middle of each rep
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repeat 🔁 for a total of 3 rounds!!
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👚 top from @gymsharkwomen, shorts from @nike 🎧 dangerous - neffex
would be nice if both sides of my head could agree would be nice if both sides of my head could agree on whether my hair is wavy or straight, but apparently that’s a little too much to ask of it 😂
got a circuit-style leg workout for you today! 🥳 there are 3 sets of 3 exercises that you’ll complete back-to-back - once you’ve done those three moves, rest for 30 seconds before repeating them all over again 2 more times! rest for 1-2 minutes in between each circuit - keeping your heart rate up is the goal here, i was driiiiiiipping sweat by the end of this one 🥵
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circuit 1️⃣: 10 step-ups to reverse lunges per leg
10 reverse lunges to curtsy lunges per leg
20 lateral lunges
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circuit 2️⃣:
10 squats to surrenders (stop in a squat position before standing up at the end to really feel this one)
10 stagger-stance rdls
20 criss-cross squat jumps
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circuit 3️⃣:
15 leg lifts per side
10 single-leg glute bridges per side
15 frog pumps
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👚 top from @fabletics, joggers from @gymsharkwomen
🎧 watch me - neffex
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