Finally, we reached our stop for the entire trip, LONDON!
I was super excited to be back in London. The last time I came to London was for work so I didn’t get to do much sightseeing apart from watching two awesome plays. I watched We Will Rock You and Guys and Dolls (the hero was Ewan McGregor!!)
Anyway, we stayed at this small hotel called Gower Hotel in Hyde Park. I would highly recommend you to stay here. Rooms aren’t exactly huge (as you can expect out of most budget hotels in London) but it’s good enough to crash for the night. Plus it comes with an attached bathroom, and when you’re travelling with a baby, that’s definitely something you look for when booking a room!
On top of that, Gower Hotel’s location is extremely convenient. It’s just 10 minutes walk away from Paddington station and MARA Hall, which means… HALAL FOOD AVAILABLE YAAAAAAYYY!!!
Hheheh… yes, that’s right. Just a walk away is Bonda Cafe, a Malaysian owned restaurant that won’t let you starve. We made daily trips throughout our three-day stay in London. Alisha got to eat rice daily, much to her joy (yer, Cik Chempedak nak makan nasik hari-hari).
We did as much touristy stuff as we could. We went to Madame Tussauds, visited Buckingham Palace, Bath Abbey, Trafalgar Square, London Eye, and walked around as far as our feet could carry us.
Inside Madame Tussauds, and Alisha was very curious to see what all the commotion was about
Bersama Encik Tom
Agent 001, 007 and M
Chemps in disbelief! These people are not people!
Sherlock Holmes, let’s solve a mystery shall we?
A picture with the handsome Prince William! HIIIKK!! Suka!!
Alisha was still not impressed, as you can very well see
Daddy, this isn’t funny
At a corner of Buckingham Palace, we didn’t stay long, too many people
and Alisha was obviously bored
So we walked on, enjoying the lovely summer breeze
Here we are at Bath Abbey!
We let Alisha run loose, pretending to be a lion, chasing after birds
Of course, she loved every minute of it
Another one for the road!
Houses of Parliament
With the love of my life 😉
We had our very own tour guide, Hamid, my husband’s cousin, to show us the way to where ever I wanted to go, heheheh, so that was great help. On top of that, my sister’s been to London as well so she pretty much knows the where tos and all that. Sort of. Kot. Tengok map jugak akhirnya. Hhahahahaha!
Last but not least, we went SHOPPING! The best part about bringing a pram around is that you get to dump all your shopping bags into the pram and just push it around (or have your husband push it around for you, hik, ailebiu sayang). Although I must say I didn’t really buy that much.
It’s shopping time!
You see, when we arrived in the UK, sales season was at its peak. I wanted to shop soooo much but thinking that it would weigh my luggage down, I decided to save my shopping madness when we got to London. Unfortunately, by the time we reached London, the sales were over L booooo!! All the shops we went to either had no discounts or were left with only one or two racks of clothes on best buy. I was devastated. If I knew about this, I would’ve shopped to my heart’s desire in Val d’Europe, Paris. ALL the shops in the mall were on sale and they had such awesome stuff too! Can you imagine Longchamps were up for grabs at around RM300 each? I didn’t buy any though. Yeah, complete doink, I know.
Even so, I did manage to find some good buys, so I wasn’t all that upset lah. At least with the sales over, I didn’t do that much damage to my pocket (much to the husband’s relief). Still, I was all hyper and full of energy going in and out of shops, I think my sister was about to collapse on me from the sheer fatigue of following me around, whoopsie 😀 The husband was super thankful he had his cousin to keep him company. They chilled at coffee shops with Alisha while we shopped.
Owh, Hamid also took us to this diner called Tinseltown. If you’re craving for some burger or western dishes, check out this shop. It’s halal! Awesome ey? Their specialty is their chocolate smoothies and shakes so be sure to order one when you’re there.
On the morning of the third day, we were completely exhausted from the previous days’ sightseeing and shopping and not to forget PACKING. The flight back home was definitely welcomed with a huge sigh of relief.
All in all, we had an amazing trip. Twelve days of new experiences and beautiful memories to keep with us forever. Alhamdulillah, we started the journey safely, and ended it safe and sound as well.
Here’s to more awesome trips in the future, Insya Allah! 😀
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Links to my Europe trip posts:
Introduction – Europe Trip!!
Europe Day 1 – Hellooo Manchester!
Europe Day 2 – Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet
Europe Day 3 – Brockhole, Lake District National Park
Europe Day 4 – Lancaster
Europe Day 5 – City of Bath
Europe Day 6 – Stonehenge!
Europe Day 7 – Paris
Europe Day 8 – Disneyland Park, Paris!!
Europe Day 9 – Walt Disney Studios Park, Paris
Europe Day 10 – London baybeh!
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