Our First Day in the UK: Arriving & Adventures in London

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We spent nine lovely days (11 including travel days) in the UK! We spent time in London, the Cotswolds, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Highlands. I wanted to share all the things we did, what we ate, and the things I regret doing or not doing. There’s no way to plan a perfect trip, especially when it’s your first time visiting a place, and you’ll always feel that you have a bit of vacation remorse. But don’t let this stop you from traveling. I came home inspired and feeling refreshed, ready to work even harder so I can return to Europe before too long!!

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So, let’s jump right into everything we did on our first day of the trip. Meet me in London?!

London Day One!

This is going to be a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and a snack! If you want to check out the Youtube video of the first day, you can watch it here:

Itinerary

Here is a quick breakdown of our trip itinerary. This was a moderately long trip, and I know many people spend more time abroad, but it was just the right amount of time for my husband and I. By the end of the trip, we were ready to be back home with our boys!

Day 1: Travel to London

Day 2: Arrive in London and try to beat the jet lag!

Day 3: Changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, Sightseeing

Day 4: Portobello Road Market, Walk along the canal, Regent’s Park

Day 5: Day trip to the Cotswolds (Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Charlbury)

Day 6: Last day in London, Natural History Museum,

Day 7: Train to Edinburgh, explore the Royal Mile

Day 8: The Highlands Tour, Dinner reservations at The Dome

Day 9: Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile, Old Town, and New Town

Day 10: Edinburgh, train to London, then head to the hotel at the airport

Day 11: Travel Home

London Day One

We flew into London Heathrow on a British Airways A380, a double-decker plane, and that was a first for me! We landed around 6 am London time (midnight back home) and were living on pure adrenaline. Once we had cleared customs and baggage claim, we hopped onto the Elizabeth line and headed into the city. This was about an hour-long train ride. I want to say that the public transportation in London is excellent!

We arrived at our hotel around 9 am and were so lucky to be able to check into a room. We were able to shower and change clothes, so we could hit the ground running and adjust to a new time zone.

Borough Market

I had heard SO many things about the infamous Borough Market, so that was our first stop! We planned to ride the hop-on, hop-off bus there, but the buses were taking longer than we wanted, so we hopped on the tube.

Borough Market is pure chaos. It is essentially a market area featuring various food vendors, offering everything from coffee to sourdough to risotto. Social media has gone crazy over this place. I knew that it would be crazy busy, but knowing something and experiencing something are two different things. Not to mention that it was technically the middle of the night for us…

We walked around to see what was there, and once we found the chocolate-covered strawberries, we stopped to try some. Y’all, they were delish, BUT I think you could create the same thing at home. We walked around some more and eventually found The Black Pig. We ordered ‘The Best One’ sandwich, which was a slow-roast pork sandwich with fennel and apple slaw, honey truffle mayo, salsa verde, pepperoncini sott’olio, and 30-month aged Parmesan. Y’all. This sandwich was amazing. I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t go back for another one. Next time for sure!

I would recommend arriving here earlier in the day to avoid the long queues and ensure the vendor you want to try hasn’t run out of food. After we filled our bellies, it was time to ride around on the bus!

Hop On – Hop Off Bus

We had purchased tickets for this particular tour company ahead of time, but if we could redo that choice, we would pick a different company. We waited for over 30 minutes for a bus to show up at the location we were at. When multiple buses from other companies kept stopping at that particular spot. Once we finally got seated, we started to get sleepy. We rode on the Tower Bridge and headed into SOHO.

The jet lag started to hit us, and we both ended up falling asleep on the bus. We rode the bus until we were close to our hotel. Then we hopped off and headed to our hotel to take a quick nap. We ended up sleeping for just about an hour and woke back up ready to take on the rest of the day!

Hyde Park

OOTD! It was much colder than we were expecting.

OOTD: I shared a Youtube video all about what I planned to pack for this trip, and I definitely picked the right outfits. Although, I wish I had a few warmer options, as it was quite chilly.

Our hotel was just across the street from Hyde Park, so we decided to go for a walk around. I had been dying to see the swans at the round pond, and it did not disappoint! I loved just walking around the green space. It was absolutely gorgeous!

We walked south towards the Albert Memorial and snapped some photos there as well. It was truly so amazing to see such beauty in every detail. We didn’t have anything much planned for this day, so we just walked around and explored.

Buckingham Palace

After walking around Hyde Park, we started walking east towards Buckingham Palace. It was only about a 20-minute walk before we were descending upon the palace. We didn’t stay for too long here, as we planned to return the next morning for the changing of the guard ceremony.

We people watched at Buckingham Palace for a bit while we decided what we wanted to do for dinner. We were searching for the best fish and chips in London on TikTok, and found a place called Rock and Sole Plaice. It’s located in the SOHO area, and about a 30 minute walk from the palace.

Rock and Sole Plaice

The restaurant scene in London is different from the US. Here in the States, we are used to expansive buildings with plenty of tables and open space. In London, I found the restaurants to be relatively small as they are usually inside more historic buildings. The tables are small, and they are not afraid to sit people close together. This was honestly a welcome change. It definitely felt more cozy and intimate.

We got a table outside along the street. It was a very quiet street that night which was nice, and we sat under the heat lamps. It was much colder there than we expected!

For more information on Rock and Sole Plaice, click here!

Robby and I got the Hummus and Pita Bread to start, and the hummus was warm and delicious! 10/10 would recommend. Then we both got an order of the Cod fish and chips. I got the regular size and it was the perfect amount! We were hungry since it was about 8pm at this point. While waiting for our food, I almost fell asleep because we were still and I was so warm under the heat lamps!

After we finished eating, we agreed that it was time to head back to our hotel and call it a day. We rode the tube back to our hotel and were able to fall asleep quickly after our extra long day!

It was the perfect first day in London and we were excited to finally start this adventure of ours.

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