Week Thirty-Eight & Nine | Team Carpenter Takes London

James and I only beat the Carpenters to London by about four hours. Our Stateside weekend had come and gone in a flash and now we were back to "normal" life. James quickly showered and skirted off to work while I awaited our guests' arrival and straightened up the flat a bit.

Mike and Lisa were in good spirits when they arrived in Islington around 1:00PM. Luckily, by this time, I had a short nap and was able to "be an active participant" in the day's adventure, but I don't think any of us could deny that we were exhausted from our earlier travel... Regardless of how we felt, we freshened up, got some food and headed over towards James' work so we could explore St. Paul's, the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe.

James was able to get out of work at a reasonable time, so we all went to a local pub to watch some of the World Cup (Holland vs. Australia.) We were ALL feeling the effects of jet lag, so we decided to go back to Islington for dinner. Needless to say, it was an early night for all of us; James had work in the morning and Mike, Lisa and I had an early start and full day tour on the books. 

Overall: solid first day in London for Team Carpenter.

The next morning, all four of us were up at 6:00 AM— James for work, and the three of us for our day excursion. Mike, Lisa and I were picked up at a local hotel and taken to the Victoria Station where we met up with hundreds of other tourists like ourselves. Luckily, without too much hassle, we settled into our coach and we were off on our day tour of Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge.

More pictures to come! 

The tour was a TOTAL success and I am so happy that I tagged along. Stonehenge was BY FAR my favorite stop of the day. It was just so amazing, cool, (insert any exciting adjective you want).

The next day, I pushed the little birdies out of the nest and Team Carpenter explored London on their own for the day.  They toured Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. Big Day! Go TEAM CARPENTER!

For dinner, James and I took Mike and Lisa to Parveen, a local Indian restaurant. London is well-known for its Indian food, so it's definitely something you should try if you haven't. Being the Carpenter's first time eating Indian food, I think they really enjoyed it, soooooo we celebrated their new food experience with drinks at the Angelic.

Maybe a nightcap wasn't the best idea considering the Carpenter's were heading to Paris super early the next morning, but hey, when in London... ya know?!

The next two days for Team Starnes were low key for sure. Even though James did some work over the weekend, we both caught up on sleep and relaxed around the flat. Mike and Lisa got back to London Sunday night around 11:30 PM, just in time to catch the second half of the USA vs. Portugal game. It was lovely to catch up and hear about their time in Paris, but once the game ended we all said goodnight.

Monday morning, Mike, Lisa and I set out to explore South Kensington. We started at Harrods and moved through the V&A Museum and the Natural History Museum. Considering you can spend entire days in these museums, we technically only peaked in, but at least I was able to show them some of my favorite rooms.

Tuesday was Team Carpenter's last full day in London and Lisa's 31st birthday, so it was all about making sure their London bucket list was all checked off. For lunch, we headed over to Covent Garden for a proper British lunch and then Mike and Lisa explored around the Tower Bridge while I went home to shower and get ready for Lisa's birthday celebration.

For Lisa's birthday, Mike arranged a special champagne ride on the London Eye and dinner afterwards in Soho. Our time-slot for the London Eye was at 8:00PM, so by 6:30 Mike, Lisa and I were on the tube heading to explore around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliment. 

The weather started to get finicky right before our 8:00 time-slot, but we all still had a great experience on the London Eye. We were all ready for dinner, so we hopped in a black cab and headed over to Flat Iron Steak in Soho. Even though we had a 1.5 hour wait it was worth it; we got some drinks and some donuts from the bar and waited it out. 

Flat Iron is always worth the wait. BY FAR one of our favorite restaurants in London. We closed the restaurant down and with full bellies we walked to the nearest tube station to get us home. 

The rest of the night was spent coordinating Mike and Lisa's departure in the morning. We were all exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. We had a great day (and week!), with great people, great experiences and great food. What more could we ask for?!

Since the Carpenters were leaving somewhere around five o-clock in the morning, I decided to say my goodbyes that night. It's always difficult to hug our guests and say goodbye because we don't necessarily know when the next time we will see them will be, but without a doubt, the Carpenters caught the travel bug and I feel confident that we will see them sooner than later! :)

*Thank you Mike and Lisa for letting me use some of your pictures for this post!