adventures in london: part one

Last week, we finally took advantage of our close proximity to some bucket list destinations and hopped the train to the U.K. Josh's friend, Jas, had invited us to stay with he and his wife, and we used it as our excuse for one last big vacation before baby. Neither of us had ever been to London before, so we mostly just saw all the major sights, but we'll definitely be making a return trip to check out some more off-the-beaten-path locations.

We arrived Wednesday evening, got settled in, had an awesome dinner prepared by Jas's wife, Jennie, and turned in for an early bedtime so we could hit the ground running on Thursday.

We started off the day in Canary Wharf for breakfast, where we crossed over this really interesting footbridge seen above, to arrive at The Breakfast Club.

Josh had the English breakfast (as you do), and I had pancakes layered with ham, eggs, and cheese and topped with maple syrup. Delish.

The building the restaurant was in also had a really gorgeous greenhouse...

At Jennie's recommendation, we decided to head over to the Tower of London for the afternoon...

We took the tour, given by the Beefeaters, which was, in fact, really interesting. Ours was super animated and quite enjoyed picking on us Americans any chance he got. Who knew someone could make such a tragic and gory history lesson so entertaining?! At the Tower, we also got to see the Crown Jewels, but we weren't allowed to use cameras inside the building where they're kept.

You also got a really nice view of the city from the Tower walls...

Next, we crossed to Tower Bridge and headed to forage for some lunch...

It was already later in the afternoon, so we decided to just snack our way through Borough Market. 

We also stopped in Monmouth Coffee for a pick-me-up. Hallelujah for a great decaf latte!

Our last stop before heading back to meet our friends for dinner was to St. Paul's Cathedral. What a beautiful church... it's also probably the largest cathedral I've ever seen in my life. Simply stunning.

Stay tuned for Part Two of our London adventure coming soon!

All photos taken by yours truly using a Fuji X100 or by Josh via iPhone and edited in the VSCO app.