London Places: Covent Garden

Covent Garden is quite possibly my favourite place in London.



It might seem like a bit of an odd choice, given all the museums, palaces, & so many other amazing places that there are to see in London.



Covent Garden is basically a square with a market & lots of little shops & restaurants.

Oh, & it's also where Eliza Doolittle sold her flowers in My Fair Lady.

For me it's one of the quintessential London-y places I can't wait to visit when I'm there.



There's good British food to be had, including a Jamie Oliver restaurant that opened last year.





Or you can just bring your own sandwiches in ziplocs, like we did.







Jenny & I grew up traveling around Europe, so Covent Garden feels kind of like home.

There are few places we would rather be than sitting in a square in Europe.





We were pretty content hanging out there in the chilly London sunshine.







Covent Garden also has fun shopping. There's a Paperchase, little toy shops, good coffee & more.

Our favourite is the London Transport Museum Gift Shop.

They have tons of London books, postcards, magnets, & just general British awesomeness.

This guy is usually there too. Doesn't he kind of look like he belongs in Gringotts?

Covent Garden really is one of our favourite spots in London.

(It's also within walking distance of Persephone Books.)

We were two happy girls that day.

I hope you get to visit Covent Garden sometime. xx

linked with A Compass Rose

London Places: Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace is famous for being the home of Princess Diana.

And of course it's the new London home of Wills, Kate & baby Prince George.

It also has an epic garden. Oh, & it was the birthplace of Queen Victoria.

Jenny & I got to visit last year. It was one of my favourite things we did while we were bashing around London.

We kept our eyes open for Kate & Lupo while we were there, but they must have been in Wales that day.

It was typical drizzly grey London weather, but check out those flowers.

While we were at Kensington Palace there was a special display about Queen Victoria, which walked through her whole life.

Love affair with Albert, throne by age 18, nine kids, years of grief & seclusion, England's beloved monarch, etcetera. It was awesome.

Kensington Palace also has a few of Princess Diana's dresses. And Princess Diana wallpaper, naturally.

And here's the gate where everyone laid flowers & cards back in 1997 when Diana died.

I'd say Kensington Palace is totally worth the cost of admission.

And not a bad London home for Prince George.

London Places: Churchill War Rooms

I'm a big history geek. Especially British history. Especially World War II. Seriously, Winston Churchill is fascinating.

So when I got to spend my birthday in London last year, I decided to go to the Churchill War Rooms with my friend Alysen.

I know, I know; clearly, I know how to have a good time.

If you like museums & history, you've got to visit this place. The Churchill War Rooms were basically a secret underground bunker during WWII. There are whole areas down there that were left exactly as they were when the war ended in 1945, ash trays & everything.

You can see the Map Room, the original front door of No. 10 Downing Street, & the room Clementine Churchill stayed in when she visited.

There's also a new Churchill Museum that walks you through his life. Alysen & I spent an inordinate amount of time wandering around down there listening to old speeches & typing on the typewriters.

And don't miss the gift shop (my favourite part of most museums.) Besides the usual books, postcards & memorabilia, this one has reproductions of a bunch of old WWII posters.

If you want a little taste of what London was like during the Blitz, you've got to check out the Churchill War Rooms.

Churchill War Rooms images via Visit London, The Sun, IWM, The Telegraph, here, & the Imperial War Museum

London Places: Persephone Books

Persephone Books is a small publisher in London with the coolest little bookshop.

When I was there last winter, my Cafe Nero coffee started leaking. The charming shop assistant (who kept using the word "Fab," which made me happy) saw my leaking cup & offered to pour my coffee into one of her mugs so I could keep browsing. It was one of many moments in my life when I thought "I just love England."



Persephone Books is tucked away on Lamb's Conduit Street (only in England, right?!) in London, not far from Covent Garden.

They find & republish awesome out of print novels, cookbooks & diaries, mostly by or about women.



Every book has it's own endpaper & matching bookmark made with a pattern that came from the time the book was written -- colourful old fabric or wallpaper or paintings.

If you're a book geek like me & this kind of thing is your scene, you'll love Persephone.

They publish light, comic novels like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (which was made into a film with Amy Adams & Frances McDormand) & Miss Buncle's Book. 

And they also have slightly more intense stuff, like Good Evening, Mrs. Craven & Saplings (by Noel Streatfeild who wrote Ballet Shoes.)

Tons of Persephone books take place around the time of WWI or WWII & if you want to know more about the time period from Downton Abbey, you could definitely find something good to read here.

Even if you can't get to the shop in  London, you can still order the Persephone catalogue to drool over.

And several of the books are available in the States too. Most of the Persephone Classics are at Barnes & Noble, & you can sometimes find them at the library.

So next time you're in London pop over to Lamb's Conduit Street & find this awesome little bookshop.

Because really, Persephone Books is fab.

London Places: Buckingham Palace

When Jenny visited me in England last summer, we got to spend a week staying with a friend in London. We went out every day & wandered around our favourite London places (all the old haunts, as Anne Shirley would say) & discovered a few new ones too.

And of course, what's a visit to London without a trip (or 2, or 3) to see Buckingham Palace.

Even the details on the gates & statues are regal:

There are beefeaters:

And the rather imposing Queen Victoria:

The Union Jack was flying that day, rather than the Royal Standard, so the Queen was not in residence.

Before 1997, the flagpole would just be empty when it wasn't flying the Royal Standard. But in the days after Diana died, reporters were suddenly asking why the Queen didn't have a flag at half mast over Buckingham.

The reason was simple: she wasn't there, so there was no flag to lower. Even when a king died, the flag had never been lowered.

But after a few days of heated press attention, the Queen broke with tradition & on the day of Diana's funeral the Union Jack was seen at half mast over the palace. There's been a flag flying there ever since.

Not all the Queen's guards wear red uniforms & furry hats:

But some of them do:

Here's the balcony where we occasionally see the royal family, during weddings & Trooping the Colour:

The thing I like about Buckingham Palace, the Mall, & the whole area around it is that it always seems kind of peaceful, a slightly calmer oasis right in the middle of bustling London. Not a bad place to live, I think.

As city homes go, you could do worse.