London Day 1 - Sunday, March 26

Arrival
Karen and I arrived a little after 10am this morning! We decided to beat the jet lag by dropping our bags and exploring the city. We had a vague idea of following the West End city walk from our guidebook, but other than that we mostly decided to go down the roads with the most interesting architecture!

Chinatown
Our hotel is located right by the entrance to Chinatown. Guided by the bright red lanterns and delicious smells, we ended up at a Chinese bakery where we purchased pork rolls and Chinese donuts. These were the perfect snacks to munch on while we explored the markets and shops in this area.
Covent Garden
We next meandered towards Covent Garden. I have read about this place so many times in historical fiction and romance books, I was excited to see it for myself! There was an open mall area with shops, restaurants, and an art exhibition. Not to mention performers putting on shows for families! In all the bustle Karen even spotted a Peter Rabbit sign!

We ended up here due to the guidebook, and were delightfully surprised to find statues of favorite storybook and movie characters. My personal favorite was Paddington!

Hatchards Booksellers (est. 1797)
This was a top place on both Karen and I's list! We were both so excited to explore this historic bookshop that has been mentioned dozens of times in our favorite novels. Prior to the trip I had just reread The Governess Game by Tessa Dare and this is where her characters meet at Hatchards for the first time in the first chapter! Needless to say after exploring the five floors connected by a winding staircase neither of us left empty handed!
Buckingham Palace + St. James Park
After a leisurely stop for tea and something sweet, we mosied over to Buckingham Palace by way of Green Park. I am so glad we did this in the "off" hours in the afternoon so we didn't have to battle a large crowd to get an up close look! It was surreal to finally see the palace and the famous guards in person after seeing so many movies and documentaries about England! We then explored St. James Park, which had a surprisingly diverse amount of wildlife, specifically birds, which I was not expecting to see in such a large city.
Trafalgar Square + National Gallery
Our last stop was Trafalgar Square. We didn't have plans to see much here until we realized we were right by the National Gallery. It was about 25 minutes to closing, but we decided to pop in anyways. We both were so glad our wanderings took us there as we were able to see classic works by Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso and so many more! It was the perfect way to end our day of sightseeing. 
We closed out the day by eating some delicious Indian food and collapsing in happy exhaustion!

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