EN sample entry

Three days in London

Our first trip abroad as four. Slower than any London we had done before, and better for it.

Destination: London, United Kingdom
Dates: 14 to 16 March 2025
Duration: 3 days, 2 nights
Stayed: Southwark, near Borough
Travelling: Two adults, twins at eight months

Hero photo: Southbank at dusk, Thames, the pram in the foreground

Day by day

Times are rough. Everything bent around naps.

Friday 14 March

Arrive, walk, eat

13:00
Heathrow to Southwark on the Elizabeth line. Pram-friendly, surprisingly.
16:00
Walk along the river from the Globe to Tate Modern. Turbine Hall as a running track for us, not them.
18:30
Early dinner at Borough Market, Padella (queue, worth it).

Southbank
Tate Modern
Borough Market

Saturday 15 March

Museums at toddler speed

09:30
Natural History Museum before the crowds. The blue whale is the whole visit for an eight-month-old.
12:30
Lunch and a nap in Hyde Park; coffee at the Serpentine.
16:00
V&A, two galleries only, then the courtyard.

South Kensington
Hyde Park
V&A

Sunday 16 March

Neighbourhoods, then home

09:00
Columbia Road flower market, then breakfast on Redchurch Street.
11:30
Walk through Shoreditch to Spitalfields. Bought nothing, photographed everything.
15:00
Back to the hotel for bags, Elizabeth line to Heathrow.

Columbia Road
Shoreditch
Spitalfields

Photographs

Sample photographs. Illustrations until the real ones go in.

Red double-decker bus passing Big Ben on a wet road

Union flag and black railings on a rainy street

Clock tower and a street lamp above the river bridge

Practical notes

Elizabeth line from Heathrow beats a taxi with a double pram, and most stations have lifts.
Big museums open at 10:00; be there at 9:50. By 11:30 the pram is a liability.
Borough Market on Friday evening is calmer than Saturday noon.
Pharmacies close early on Sunday. Pack what you need.
Contactless card everywhere; we never used cash.

Favourite moments

The Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, empty on a Friday afternoon, and realising neither of them had ever seen a room that big. The flower market at 9 a.m., all four of us in the same mood for once. And the flat white on Redchurch Street, which I am still thinking about.

What I would change next time

One museum per day, not two.
Book Padella-style places for 17:30 instead of queueing.
Stay four nights. Day three was the first day we felt like we lived there.