A Nerdy Girlie Christmas Vacation: Day 1 London

Our journey to London began at 3 p.m. on December 21st in San Diego. Everything was smooth sailing the entire trip. I have never done an international flight before and WOW it was so much better than US plane travel. They gave us two meals, free TV and movies {good ones!} and if you drink FREE alcohol. I am sure the cabin behind us was taking full advantage of because of a screaming kid! The entire ride, I still didn't believe where we were going to the UK. It was surreal when they announced "this is the flight from Atlanta to London." It was definitely difficult sleeping on the plane because I was so excited!

Upon landing in London, we were greeted by my brother-in-law {The Hunny's brother} and sister-in- law {who's Mexico wedding we just attended in July}. It was so great to have them there waiting for us and then our England Christmas holiday began! We popped into our first cab and were on our way to our Notting Hill hotel.

I was nervous about the hotel room since my brother in law did all the booking for us. I was pleasantly surprised when our hotel turned out to be quite nice. The room was SUPER tiny, but we were barley in it so that didn't matter too much. Only when we were trying to leave the room with all our layers did it get a bit cramped. I ended up just putting them all on in the lobby each day.

My first picture in London had to be me in one of their famous telephone booths! This one was right down the street from our hotel. After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we headed downtown for a bit of sightseeing and dinner.

The moment we stepped off the Tube, we were greeted by Big Ben. He was RIGHT there, looking down on us. It was such an amazing feeling to see such an iconic sight. It finally started to set in where we were!

The weather the first night in London was a nice way to ease us San Diegians into cold weather. There was no rain and we didn't wear all the layers we brought. It was a nice trial of what we needed to wear while on the trip and after that first day, the weather never bothered me. I was too happy to be bothered by weather.

Down by the London Eye there was a charming Christmas market going on. There were tons of shops and food stations and I was totally overwhelmed. I wanted to try everything! But we all really needed to eat some dinner first and warm up so we headed over to a local restaurant The Slug and Lettuce. My very first meal in London HAD to be fish and chips, they were delish! Now warmed up a bit we went back to the market and had some sweets. The Hunny and I shared a Chimney Cake and my sister in law bought us some chestnuts roasted on an open fire! So Christmas-y!

A short walk across the Hugerford Bridge and we stumbled across The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant! I wasn't expecting it so I fan-girled out just a TAD! We then walked to Trafalgar Square and crossed off TWO of my Sherlock sites in one night! End scene on day number one in London!!!  

Stay tuned for more of my travels in the UK and Paris! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

You can read ALL of my Christmas adventures HERE!