Last Friday Adam and I excitedly headed into London for the weekend for a trip just us two, whilst the boys had a sleepover at their grandparents. I'd originally asked my mother in law if she wouldn't mind picking up the boys from school on the Friday as I really wanted to go to the new Titanic exhibition and she very kindly told us to make the most of it and spend the weekend there, so we booked a hotel and decided on a loose itinerary for the two days.
We didn't want to spend too much so we decided to do a bit of a London budget trip and we found a hotel (The Millennium Gloucester in Kensington) for a great price of £179 for the two nights which we thought was really good considering how central we were. There was some noise in the evenings (more than we usually hear when we stay in a hotel), and we didn't include breakfast in our stay, but the room was a really good size (the bed was huge!) and we could get around London easily enough from there.
After we checked in, we headed over to the new Titanic exhibition which I'd pre-booked tickets in advance for. I didn't really know what to expect, but I loved it, as did Adam. It was so interesting seeing some of the items related to the Titanic up-close and in real life and I loved seeing photographs off some of the people associated with the Titanic too.
One of the things I liked the most was the audio guide that I listened to throughout the entire visit (they ask you to take your own headphones and listen to it via your smartphone). It was so informative and it really brought the items on display and the photographs to life. I loved hearing the stories behind the items and people's photographs. I found myself at times comparing the photos and some of the items to the Titanic film, especially so as it's my favorite film, but it really hit home in the last room of the exhibition when looking at the names of the people that sadly died. So many crew members lost their lives, in fact they made up the majority of the victims, and I found that so heartbreaking. Also, seeing the names on the wall of entire families and some with very young children was so incredibly heartbreakingly sad too.
We thought that the exhibition was incredibly well done - super informative and respectful of the people who tragically lost their lives onboard the Titanic. It's inspired me to think about and research the Titanic even more since our visit.
After the exhibition we stopped at a nearby bar for a rest, a few snacks and a tasty cocktail each before heading over to another bar for a 'cheese and wine experience' that Adam had bought for me two years ago. We had to get it extended and rescheduled due to the pandemic and lockdowns and so it was really nice to finally be able to use my voucher and go and enjoy it. We had six cheeses each and 3 glasses of wine and it was a lovely way to spend the evening!
The next day we headed to the shops to have a browse, with our first stop being at the LEGO store in Leicester Square. We're a household of LEGO fans, with my Husband running his own LEGO based business selling custom LEGO lightsabers and other lego weapons and mini figures from popular TV shows and films, and so it had to be the first shop that we visited!
The models in the London LEGO store and are incredible, it's hard to believe that they're made out of thousands and thousands of individual small LEGO bricks, especially so the model of Big Ben which actually works and displays the time! We picked out the boys a little present each (a little Minecraft LEGO set each) in there too.
After the LEGO store we headed to the world-famous store for the mega rich, Harrods. We obviously aren't mega rich ourselves haha, but we had never been in there before and with time to kill and out of curiosity, we thought we'd have a look around inside. Having now been, it's safe to say that I'd much rather spend my time in somewhere with prices like Primark than Harrods, haha!
After that we went to The British Museum, somewhere I don't remember having ever been to. It was so much bigger than I had expected and it was just full of so much history and amazing artefacts and treasures!
The most interesting for me personally was the Egyptian exhibitions. I couldn't believe what I was seeing - real life Egytpian Mummy's and coffins, I just think it's absolutely incredible how well preserved they are considering they're thousands and thousands of years old and they've been moved from Egypt to England. Seeing photos online is nothing compared to actually seeing these things in real life and it's incredible that you can do it for absolutely no cost, as the museum is totally free to enter.
We couldn't look around the whole museum as we just didn't have the energy for it having been on the go the whole morning and the day before, but what we did see was amazing!
That evening, we went for dinner at Prezzo in Kensington using our Tesco clubcard vouchers to cover the cost of the food. We shared a bottle of red wine and admittedly got a little tipsy (it doesn't take much for us haha). It was such a fun evening and the food was fantastic. Prezzo is our go-to restaurant - we've been going there and having pretty much the same thing since we met at 14!
It was a wonderful weekend and we feel so incredibly fortunate that we get to go and do stuff like this thanks to Adam's parents who are always so good with the boys and happy to spend time with them.
Thank you for reading. Alex xo