How have I been back home for nearly a week now?! It’s never fair how quickly vacations fly by, is it? Even though I’ve been back in the swing of things at home, I didn’t want to skip writing about my last couple of days in London, so buckle up! Or just read attentively. Whatever works for you. 🙂

Now, where were we? Ah yes – Wednesday! After a fun day of the V&A, a Twinings masterclass, and a pub quiz, we didn’t have much “scheduled” for Wednesday. I’ll give you one guess how I started my day though!

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If you guessed that I started with a walk, give yourself a pat the back! The weather continued to be quite cooperative, so I once again started my day with a five-mile jaunt. I’m sure that some of you read that and wonder why anyone would get up early (not too early though) and go for a long walk on vacation, but I really do enjoy it! Not only is it what I would do at home anyway (gotta get those steps in early!), but as I’ve said before, one of my favorite things to do in London is to just BE in it. I really do soak up a ton of positive energy from being in my favorite city and walks are a great way for me to do that, so I’m always extra appreciative when the weather makes that easy to do. I even got to wear shorts! And after yesterday’s realization that I was very close to Hyde Park, I knew exactly where to walk, though I turned in a different direction at the park and instead did most of my wandering through Kensington Gardens, which is right next to the park. In fact, it used to be part of Hyde Park, until it was annexed to become the private gardens of Kensington Palace (which you can see below). As with Hyde Park, there are nice, wide paths to walk on throughout, which makes a morning walk that much nicer. And did I mention that there are SO many off-leash dogs to smile at, too?? I saw multiple people walking their dogs on leashes who then let those puppers run free once they enter the park. And the doggos all behave so well! Some run around and some stick close to their owners, while others run wildly, looking up trees or playing with balls. And they all seem to play nicely with each other as I didn’t see any snapping or fighting amongst them. Well done, canine friends!

Aside from dog-watching, I got to take in some nice views and even strolled by Kensington Palace. Check out some photos below!

The Italian Gardens can be found inside Kensington Gardens. They date back to 1860 and were the brainchild of Prince Albert.

Now, I ask you, is there a better way to start the day than a walk like this? I mean, if you like to sleep in, there are better ways, but for me, it was perfect! Especially on this trip for some reason, the daily walks helped me feel an “I’m a local” vibe, which was cool. But locals don’t typically head back to their hotels to scarf down a tasty breakfast buffet, but that’s okay. It was once again delish, so I have no regrets. 🙂

Our one “event” for the day involved a trip to the National Portrait Gallery. This is a museum I’ve visited once or twice in the past and, of course, it’s in one of my favorite London spots, Trafalgar Square, so I was only too happy to go there. On this occasion though, we were going for a specific exhibit, rather than just to wander around (though rest assured that we also did some wandering). My friend Bill, who’s a BIG fan of The Beatles, wanted to visit their Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64 exhibit and our little group was only too happy to oblige (minus Shaun though, as he had made plans to meet up with some other friends for the day).

Although I myself am not a fan of The Beatles, I love that Bill is, plus I thought that the photos could be really interesting because they were all taken with Paul’s own camera (not all taken by Paul himself, though many were) just as the band was really skyrocketing to superstardom, so I thought they’d represent a neat slice of history. Just the fact that all these photos all still exist is pretty cool in and of itself! And it was indeed neat to see them, though I will say the exhibit was a bit more crowded than I expected for early afternoon on a Wednesday, but it was the final days of this exhibit (it closed on 1 Oct), so people may have been trying to see it before it closed. While I may not have connected with these photos the way a Beatles/Paul McCartney fan likely would, I still enjoyed seeing them!

Examples of contact sheets that some photos in the exhibit were pulled from (only where negatives didn’t still exist).

There were a good amount of other photos after the one above, transitioning to mostly color photos from a visit the Beatles made to perform and relax in Miami (along with some photos from Washington DC). This was definitely an interesting way to spend some time in London and I’m really glad we got the chance to visit. Nice pick, Bill!

Of course, since we were already there, it would have been rude to not wander around some of the rest of the museum, so that’s what we did. It’s visits to museums like this that make me glad I’m not all that into art because I could see myself just getting totally engrossed in it and spending hours in a place like the National Portrait Gallery. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, but for me, I much prefer being able to just meander around and seeing what catches my eye. And that’s especially true in this museum, which focuses on portraits (as you likely guessed from its name). As with the exhibit photos, I find that portraits of people often pull me in in the same way. I wonder what the people in the portraits were thinking, what the arists were thinking, how much of what we see in the paintings was actually true to what things looked like in real life, etc. You can decide what you think for yourself though, based on the photos below.

A trio of paintings of Queen Elizabeth I.

And that put a bow on our time at the National Portrait Gallery! All in all, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. And after visiting the National Gallery (connected to the NPG) on my 2022 trip, it was nice to pay a visit to the other Trafalgar Square museum this time around. Since we didn’t have anything else planned, we didn’t have anywhere to rush off to, but the group was ready for a bite to eat, so we wandered over to Chinatown to make that happen. Unfortunately, the weather started to get a bit less cooperative at that point as it got pretty cloudy, a bit windy, and we even felt a few raindrops. Thankfully, it never really rained, but I bowed out because we were seated outside and I was getting cold in my shorts!

So how about the rest of the day? Honestly, none of us had anything planned. Shaun was still gone, Bill and Felicity were each happy to chill in their hotels, and the rest of our group were easy-breezy about what to do. After a stop at TKTS on my walk to the tube, I debated going to a show on my train ride back. Ultimately, I decided to make a return visit to a show I saw last year – Back to the Future! It was such a fun time and with no other plans anyway, I went for a last-minute ticket just a few rows back from the stage (if you’ll recall, my seat last year was in the stalls, but quite a ways back, and under an overhang) and it was so worth the £58/$70 USD price! My friend Jason ended up joining as well, but he couldn’t get a seat in the stalls by the time he bought his ticket, so he got a balcony seat. We both really enjoyed it though! It was a different cast from last year, but they were all really good and the show was just as fun. I know the show has come to Broadway now as well, so if you can get to it, definitely do so!

The view from my seat. I don’t think I noticed the fun goodbye message last year – haha!

Although Jason and I couldn’t sit together, we caught up during the interval and after the show ended so we could catch the train back to our hotels. Although I’d seen the show before, I was happy to see it again and I was really glad Jason enjoyed it, too. Next time, I’ll pick a different show. 🙂

Speaking of next time, there’s still another post or two about this trip yet to come. Stay tuned!