Â鶹APP

My wife and I arrived in London the last week of May at the start of an extended trip for June.

The weather was so good I can easily title this visit Summer in London. Still, I often put a couple of small umbrellas in my bag, just in case. Accuweather tries its best, but even a 10% chance of rain in London can mean getting caught in it.

As expected, tourists were everywhere, the reports of record numbers of travelers to Europe this year are true. So our plan to enjoy ‘summer in London’ weather was to do what Londoners do with sunshine. We went outside and stayed outside. We also made advance reservations at places we really wanted to go to. (Something I think is a necessity in 2023 in Europe.)

If you want to take in a show, book well before you arrive in London for any show that is a ‘must see’ for you. Get skip-the-line tickets for The Tower of London, the Eye, etc.

We walked (and walked) and loved it. Kensington Gardens was full of kids, couples, dogs and picnics. The road behind Kensington Palace is a wonderful shaded street, full of mansions and embassies and almost no people.

You can easily walk to Notting Hill. No Julia Roberts sightings, but we bought the famous Notting Hill canvas shopping bag on our way up Portobello Road for the Market. The Market goes for a long way, and is great fun. (And for your 1984 fans Portobello Road is where George Orwell lived.

By the way, if you are staying near Kensington Palace there are three places to consider eating. The Ivy Kensington is good. We prefer the eclectic Maggie Jones and Ffiona’s (where the equally eclectic owner/host is very likely to pull up a chair and have a glass of wine with you while you decide what to order),

We walked to King’s Road in Chelsea, stopping at Harrods on the way. (Shoe Heaven is on the fifth floor in case you are wondering where my wife needed to go.) We walked past Buckingham Palace to Parliament and some time along the Thames. If you haven’t spent time in the War Cabinet Rooms and the connected Churchill Museum, I highly recommend it. Not a short stop because it is so interesting.

We walked around SOHO, New Bond Street, and several places that had lots of ‘interesting’ stores. The London Transport Museum is fun if that kind of thing appeals to you.

I could go on with park names and fun streets, but I think you get the idea. Summer weather in London is for being outside.