Hey strangers. I know, I know I promised this post on Saturday, but the weekend was busier than I anticipated. My sister and her boyfriend moved to Fayetteville on Saturday, and we spent yesterday at the lake then grilled out at our house with friends. So without further adieu. . .
Time for the final Honeymoon Week post! This post is Part 6 in a 6 part series chronicling my honeymoon from last summer.
Catching up on previous posts?
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We saw Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Tate Modern art museum
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We saw the Queen and watched the U.S. play England in the World Cup
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We saw the Magna Carta, Harrods & the platform for Hogwarts Express
I’ve mentioned our hotel briefly before, but we stayed at base2stay Kensington, a ‘boutique and luxury budget hotel’ in the South Kensington neighborhood of London.
“Adjoining a quiet and charming Central London garden square, base2stay Kensington is situated in an ideal location, only a few minutes walk from either Earl’s Court or Gloucester Road underground stations.”
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It’s an affluent and densely-populated area, which made it safe enough for us to wander and also filled with little shops and delicious restaurants. We did NOT feel like tourists walking around Kensington and Earl’s Court which was really important to us.
Our room was small (like most in Europe) but it was clean and modern and it suited our purposes perfectly.
base2stay hotel viewed from Courtfield Gardens, Kensington (source)
We rented a Standard Double room that featured a Queen size double bed and an oversized shower.
It included a mini kitchen (microwave, fridge and kettle)
I loved that our room had real dishes in it and a real hairdryer instead of the usual miniature hotel versions.
a mounted HDTV and free internet access ( a HUGE plus).
Overall we loved this hotel and would definitely recommend it to someone looking for budget accommodations (FYI budget accommodations in London still means over $200 a night).
Every day we woke up and got ready, walked down the block to grab a pastry or sausage roll at a deli and crossed the street to the Earl’s Court tube station.
On our first day in London we each bought a 7 day Oyster travelcard. Oysters are plastic smartcards you can use instead of paper tickets to ride the London subway systems.
In the afternoons we would make our way back to Earl’s Court and often grab a cone of gelato at a little shop down the street or a beer at the pub across the street from the tube station. The neighborhood was charming, full of little townhouses and parks with plenty of shops and grocery stores where we could stock up on snacks. I bought a candy bar called a Crunchie the first day and became obsessed.
I ate at least one every day of the trip and definitely brought several packages home with us.
Our days in Kensington, and the rest of London, were wonderful. It was the trip of a lifetime and we truly cannot wait to go back.
Congratulations, you survived Honeymoon week! We will now resume regularly scheduled posting. Coming up this week will be some new house projects, a Lois update AND our first wedding anniversary!