Hello everyone! I hope you’re all well, I figured that the first blog post back had to be a travel one.. so here goes.

On the 25th of July, I turned 21 and back last November/December, myself, my Boyfriend and my Parents booked a long weekend away in London (which I’m sure you know by now is my favourite place) to celebrate. When the pandemic started I never imagined we’d be able to make it on this trip, but thankfully the coronavirus restrictions in the UK eased just in time for us to go. I love travelling but I’m quite an anxious traveller in normal circumstances so travelling during a pandemic was quite stressful but we took a lot of extra pre-cautions to ensure that our trip was as safe as possible.

So on the 24th of July we checked the dogs into the kennels for their mini stay-cation and set off on the drive to London. At this point in Wales, there was no mention of facemasks being mandatory anywhere except on public transport, but that day it came into force that you had to wear a face-covering in all shops in England (which made our first stop in the services my first time wearing a mask for longer than 2 minutes). The drive was uneventful, we all had plenty of face-masks, anti-bac spray, wet wipes and hand sanitiser, and we were all set for our first holiday since January of this year.

We stayed in London Wembley High Road Travelodge which is conveniently located 2 minutes away from a car-park where you get discount as a hotel guest, and directly above the nearest tube station. My Boyfriend and I stayed in a Best Western in this area of London last year, and decided we should go back to Wembley purely because of all of the shops, takeaways and pubs in the area. We arrived slightly early but the lovely lady on reception let us check in early because it was my birthday the next day, and so we chucked our bags into the rooms, quickly changed and set off to our first stop: the pub.

A cheeky gin later, we hop on the tube and head to Leicester Square. As I’m sure most of you are aware, face-coverings are mandatory on all public transport in England and have been for quite some time now. I expected to hate wearing a face mask as I hadn’t previously had to wear one back home in Wales, but I actually liked it, it definitely made me feel safer being in London with my mask on and less exposed to the virus. The underground was surprisingly empty, the entire weekend we didn’t have to stand on a single train and managed to get seats every single time (which never happens). We hopped off the tube at Leicester Square Station and made our way to Pizza Hut in Leicester Square, it’s a family tradition that we have a pizza hut on our first night in London and it was our first meal out at a restaurant since lock-down begun. The service was slightly strange this time because we had to order via a website on our phones, and slightly rushed as they take bookings to tight time schedules, but the food was amazing (as always), and we left the restaurant with full bellies. From there we went for a walk around some of the sites, through Leicester Square up to Piccadilly Circus (to show my Boyfriend what the map on Modern Warfare looks like in real life😂) down to Trafalgar Square along the strand and back up to Covent Garden. Compared to the multiple other times I’ve visited London, it was SO quiet. I live in the countryside in South Wales and somehow London seemed less busy than my local town. I felt safe the entire time, and apart from a few people everybody wore their masks on the underground which made us all feel very safe. After a quick stop in a pub for one more drink we made our way back to the hotel. Our step counts were high and we were all tired, we had a busy day ahead of us the following day (My Birthday🎉) so we turned in relatively early to conserve our energy for the Saturday: our only full day in London.

The next day we awoke early, we got dressed and ready for the day, I opened presents, blew out the candles on my Birthday cake and then we shot off to a local pub for breakfast. Some Jam on Toast later we set off to our first destination of the day: Peggy Porschen. When we decided to go to London for my Birthday, I knew we had to go to Peggy Porschen for cake. The cupcakes there are expensive (one cupcake cost £5.95) and I hate spending money but I really wanted to try one, and so the only logical time to visit was on my Birthday. We visited Peggy Porschen in Belgravia, which is a short walk from Victoria station. We had booked our table on their website prior to going to London and we arrived to find our 4 seater outdoor table waiting for us, right outside the picture perfect store front. It had forecast showers that day but we were lucky enough for the weather to stay sunny the entire time we were enjoying our tea and cupcakes. The presentation was beautiful, the cupcakes were delicious and the tea was great, service was efficient and we were checked in on regularly which was really helpful. The cakes were well worth the money and I would definitely recommend a trip to Peggy Porschen if you plan on visiting London in the Summer, it was a great experience.

Cupcakes demolished and tea pots empty we decided to go for a walk down to Buckingham Palace. My Boyfriend is not a fan of the royal family (a point we bicker about occasionally as I love the Queen😂), but he is a fan of architecture, and Buckingham Palace was actually on his list of places to visit while we were away. Once again I was blown away by how relaxed the grounds outside of the Palace were, I visited last Summer and there was at least half the amount of people outside this time and everyone was social distancing. We took some pictures outside the palace and took a stroll through St James Park en route to our next destination. I’d never visited St James Park and I was completely blown away. For one I’d never realised that Pelicans lived in the UK, and actually managed to see my first Pelican in the park. Secondly we saw lots of squirrels which have always been one of my favourite animals, and a few even chased my Boyfriend🐿. And lastly we saw so many beautiful species of birds, I saw a black swan for the first time which I was in awe of, and it was just truly beautiful to have this slice of nature smack bang in the centre of a busy city like London. Our journey through St James Park over, we hopped back on the tube and set off to destination 2: ZSL London Zoo.

Originally we were supposed to be on a Thames River Cruise eating lunch and drinking prosecco, but that was cancelled due to COVID-19 and so we decided to visit ZSL London instead. I’m quite fussy with zoos and will only visit places which play an active part in conservation and take excellent care of their animals: and ZSL London certainly fits to these conditions. I visited ZSL when I was a child but my memories are vague, and I was excited to go back and get some fresh memories. We pre-booked online and were allowed to visit any time between 2pm-6pm, entry was easy (we had our bags checked, gave in our printed tickets and we were off), and ZSL had done a lot of work to ensure social distancing was complied with. The Zoo was split into three different one-way routes all of which linked together and ensured you could still see all the animals while social distancing, face-masks were advised and were mandatory during any of the indoor/walk-through exhibits. My favourite thing about ZSL was how clear the focus on conservation was throughout, there was lots of information throughout, the animals all had huge enclosures and there was a clear focus on education, education, education. We got to see so many animals, some babies and some elderly, and even the rain couldn’t stop us. We walked through the insect exhibit which was one of my favourite areas because there was so much you could learn in there, and they even had a spider walk-through (which neither myself or my mother were brave enough to go through) which was a great way to educate young people that spiders aren’t scary. My favourite animal that we got to see were the penguins, there were so many and we were lucky enough to get to that exhibit at feeding time. It was the first time my partner had seen penguins and he fell in love with them. Overall it was a great experience and I felt completely safe throughout, and I will definitely be looking to visit ZSL again in a few years once this pandemic has passed and the zoo can open again as normal.

As it had rained quite heavily during our time in the zoo we made a detour to the hotel to change into dry clothes before heading back into London for a birthday meal in the Hard Rock Cafe. We were temperature checked on our way into the restaurant and had to wear masks until we reached our table (and every time we left it throughout the time we were there), but the staff were super friendly and clearly focused on giving us a great service. It was my first time at a Hard Rock Cafe and I expected the food to be overpriced and have you essentially paying for the brand rather than the quality but I was pleasantly surprised to find the food was incredible😍. So much so that I’m eager to visit another Hard Rock Cafe and am considering planning our trips around visiting these restaurants😂. I was treated with a complimentary Ice Cream to celebrate my Birthday which was very yummy and then we made the journey back to the hotel where we ate birthday cake, watched crappy TV and drunk Prosecco after mini pink cups. I had an amazing Birthday which was completely different to what I would’ve done back home, it was a busy day but I got to spend it with all of my favourite people and I loved every single minute❤

On the Sunday we decided to take it easy and relax on our last day away. We slept in until late, packed our cases, checked out of the hotel and went for breakfast in the pub. From there we took the tube to embankment station and went on a stroll around the shops that we wanted to visit. We stopped in the M&M store, a souvenir shop to buy some magnets (my Boyfriend and I collect a magnet from every place we visit), and finally Lush on Oxford Street to buy some bath-bombs. All tired and worn out from a busy but extremely enjoyable weekend we set off back to the car to make the drive back home to South Wales. Taking some incredible memories with us.

Like I mentioned before, I was anxious about travelling while the virus was still around but I’m so glad that we went away. If you are planning any trips during this strange time I’d definitely recommend taking lots of facemasks (so you can alternate), anti-bac spray and wipes, and lots of hand sanitiser. If you have any questions about my experience travelling during the virus please ask below⬇ or if you want to find out more about London during this strange time please feel free to ask me.

Charl💗