“When exploring London, you will come across lots of excitement by chance, so try to take everything in rather than just rushing around to all of the major tourist haunts.” – Richard Branson

2018 was the last time we left Melbourne to go overseas because plans were stopped by “you know what”. Took this Royal Brunei flight on board this cool designed plane.

And 2018 was time to see London again.

It was nearly summer when we left Melbourne and this was what greeted us in London, cold and wet… and did I say freezing cold?

We planned a two night’s stay at my son’s place just in case we experience a bad jetlag. But no, I guess because of our excitement we didn’t have any jetlag at all.

And as they say “Coffee first”. After some 23 hours flight (counting the other stopovers too) we had to have some Costa coffee. This is a popular take away coffee here in London and in Europe but we don’t have this in Australia.

After coffee, Jack and I decided just to go around the centre of London without any plans and took the bus 17…

When we got off the bus, we saw this cool building. Lots of people were standing around looking up and taking photos of the massive graffiti covered mural building.

I found out that the vivid artwork was commissioned by the building and hotel owner, Tony Megaro. “The idea is basically to bring a bit of fun and colour to a drab stretch of road,” according to Mr Megaro.

Across the street was the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. It’s such an Instagrammable iconic architecture. This is a five star hotel in London which has a fairy-tale like facade. As we passed it, there were people taking photos of it, as in fashion shoots…vintage cars were parked in front with people posing beside it, a couple with their wedding attire.

Inside the station is the 9 metre statue known as the Meeting Place,. It stands at the south end of the upper level of St Pancras railway station and it is by British artist Paul Day

Beside is the British Library which is the the national library of the United Kingdom.

Here is the entrance gate of of the library designed by Lida and David Kindersley.

Walking through the gate, we see Newton, which is a work by the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi The large bronze sculpture is displayed on a high plinth in the piazza outside the British Library in London

Just about a 10 minute walk we reached the Harry Potter Shop. Not an avid fan… but just a kid at heart. Platform 9 ¾ started off with a luggage trolley stuck into the station brickwork. We had wands and scarves and had our photos taken pretending our scarves were flying haha that was funny but fun!

Took the tube from Kings Cross to Oxford Street.

When I was researching for places to go and have coffee, I saw EL&N Market Place. It is so pretty … a pink cafe with flowers on walls, photo booths and lots of Instagrammable spots. I am happy that my husband went along with what I wanted to do. wink wink