---
layout: blog
title: Lovely London Trip
segments:
  - blog
published: true
date: 2022-11-27T19:49:09.204Z
thumbnail: /images/uploads/image_7115.jpg
tags:
  - News
  - Travel
---
I have been thinking for a long time about how should I continue my blog writing. Right now, I am standing underneath *Tower Bridge* in London and I got so many inspirations on what should I write about, but the first article should be about our trip to London.

![Tower Bridge in London](/images/uploads/img_7631.jpg "Tower Bridge surrounded in typical London weather")

This time I want to try an experiment. Instead of writing this blog post, I am going to dictate it over to my phone and do some edits after. I've found that I can put my thoughts much quicker into something that can be edited. I know that I haven't been posting my weekly posts since June, but to be honest, I had to find some motivation over time and I will be not continuing with weeklies anymore. I would much rather post something with a theme around my life.

![Big Ben](/images/uploads/image_7115.jpg "Photo of the Big Ben taken right accross the street")

We are on the 4th day of visiting London with my wife.
We have been at *Buckingham Palace* yesterday. Today we were walking across the *Tower Bridge* and even though it is still just the 19th of November it's already Christmas time over here. There are Christmas markets at every single popular town square and alley.

![Christmas market in Trafalgar square](/images/uploads/image5.jpeg "Christmas market in Trafalgar square")

I have been to London previously around 7 or 9 years ago. Actually, I have been here twice already, but my wife hasn't visited London yet so we decided that it would be a lovely small vacation before Christmas. From my perspective, London hasn't changed much over the last few years. It is still a multicultural place full of possibilities and excitement. There are so many places to visit. We are walking around for the 4th day straight and we still haven't seen everything that we have planned. This is also the first time I have taken my new [pinqponq backpack](https://www.pinqponq.com/products/blok-medium-polished-black?_pos=1&_psq=blok+medium&_ss=e&_v=1.0) with me. I must write a review on that one at some point. It is excellent.

Most of our commute is done by walking around. One of the most challenging things to realize is that everyone walks mainly on the left side of the road. It doesn't only apply to vehicles but also to pedestrians. Other than that we are mostly using the London underground tube system. It consists of 11 lines. The first underground railway was built in 1863. Keeping up with the demand and innovation of the tube system is astonishingly mind-blowing. You don't have to buy any card or ticket to use public transportation anymore. You can just use Apple pay or Google pay with your mobile phone saving a lot of unnecessary ink and paper.

![Westminster tube station photobombed by myself](/images/uploads/img_7110.jpg "Westminster tube station photobombed by myself")

[Kensington Gardens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Gardens) have been the nicest park that we've visited. They are connected to the largest park in London, [Hyde Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_London). We haven't been able to take a walk around Hyde Park. [Hyde Park Winter Wonderland](https://hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/) festival has already started and it has taken a colossal area of the park. We haven't visited the festival, but we have agreed that we will take our kids to this festival one day.

![A statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter](/images/uploads/image1.jpeg "A statue of Queen Victoria sculpted by her daughter, Princess Louise, to celebrate 50 years of her mother's rule stands outside Kensington Palace")

![View of the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from the Kensington Gardens](/images/uploads/img_7735.jpg "View of the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from the Kensington Gardens")

## Unhappy ending

One big lesson for us for future travels is to ensure that we book the correct date for flight tickets and accommodation. It can save you a big money. We, unfortunately, missed the dates on the return flight ticket and booked them a week later than we thought. We only realized this at the airport right before the security check. We had to buy new tickets for a different flight from a different airport.

And next time we will take a laptop with us so we can watch movies or when we accidentally overbook our flight tickets, we can at least work while being on a workation.

Credits for all pictures go to my wife [Marika](https://www.instagram.com/marika_vnk/). She says Hi!

![Me and my wife on the Queens walk](/images/uploads/image2.jpeg "Me and my wife on the Queens walk")
