When I was given the opportunity to attend a work event in the UK, can you guess how long it took me to say yes? About half that. Even though my sabbatical was supposed to start on July 1. I pushed that baby back until the end of the month, and on July 8 hopped on a flight to London.

I arrived a day early so I wouldn’t have to attend the event all jet-lagged, and since it wasn’t in London, I decided to spend that first night in Oxford (much cheaper than London anyway. Look at me saving the company money!) As it turned out, my niece Emily was going to be in Oxford for a month for a program, so my plan was to hang out with her a bit before meeting up with my colleagues.

A friend picked me up from the airport (look at me saving the company money again) and we went and had lunch in Windsor. I’d never been! It was adorable, and we even got to see the Changing of the Guards from our table.

After lunch I headed to Oxford and Emily and I got some food and walked around a bit. I stayed in a super cute B&B (well, minus the B) and saw some of the sights. I was exhausted though, and had to allow myself a nap at 5:30pm so I could make it to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour. It all worked out, I got a decent night’s sleep and then woke up, unsure what to do. I had to check out by 10:30 but couldn’t meet up with my coworkers until 4.

I realized I could store my luggage in London, so that’s what I did. I used this app called Stasher and paid about $8 to have a random hotel store my bags. Very handy. I took a bus through just ridiculously adorable countryside to get to a train station which took me to the city. Then I spent some time wandering around London. I’d be back at the end of the week, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to tick some things off my list so I’d have more time at the weekend.

So I went to Borough Market and had some lunch (if a cup of strawberries drowned with chocolate counts and I think it does) and then I went to the Peloton store to get a shirt for my class on Friday (sound familiar?) I rode a bunch of buses, which was great. I love buses.

HOWEVER. My knee was twinging weirdly in the morning, and by the afternoon I was almost in tears. I could barely walk. It didn’t help that I got on a bus going the wrong direction at one point and had to find the right stop. It was agony. I have no idea what was wrong with it. I’ve never had knee pain like it.

But I had to get to Luton, where we were staying, so I hobbled my ass to pick up my luggage, then hobbled my ass to a train station, nearly in tears, and managed to get to Luton. Bringing my bag up the stairs at the station was truly pathetic, but finally I got to the house and was able to meet up with my coworkers and ice my knee. That helped a bit.

We ordered in Nando’s (my first time!) and tried to watch the semifinals of the Euros, but we were stuffing our faces with chicken when the game ended so we missed all of the excitement.

The next day, we went and had breakfast at the most British cafe you can imagine and I was able to get a knee brace from Boots. Then we headed to the festival grounds for this event.

It’s the strangest thing, a conference disguised as a festival, but it was pretty great. It was for people in talent acquisition (which I am, as an operations manager for our Talent division, that’s what I do now) and there were a lot of interesting talks (in tents) and booths for vendors, and a ferris wheel, and food trucks, and portapotties, and really, it was very similar to the music festivals I’ve been to, only less music. And cleaner.

Afterwards, a few of us went to another coworker’s house for dinner (he’s on parental leave) and I was VERY excited to play with their baby but she was asleep, which was devastating, but we were fed well, and had a wonderful time hanging out. Got back to the house after midnight, like the party animals we are, then passed out.

Friday a few of us took the train into London for lunch, then we parted ways and it was time for phase 3 of my trip: Pam Takes London 2024.

I have dreamt of taking a solo trip to London for literally half my life. (I was going to do it for my 25th birthday, but I moved to New Orleans instead.) And it was everything I could have hoped for.

I checked into my very tiny airbnb, then headed to the Peloton studio for my first class. My knee was doing fine, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me anyway. Fortunately, I felt zero pain during the class (or after.) I won’t go into great detail about the Peloton classes I did, it really wasn’t that different from the New York classes. (But I will say that the showers in London were waaaay better.)

After class, I had dinner at a little French place in Covent Garden, then got gelato, then went back to the airbnb.

Saturday was my big day.

I woke up too early, no coffee shops were open yet, but once one did, I left to get some breakfast. Nothing else was open except one Waterstone’s, so I went there to browse. I still had time to kill so I went back to the airbnb and hung out until I could actually go somewhere.

And that somewhere was Liberty. Which you can read all about here.

My airbnb was very well situated, more than I would have imagined. It was close to the Russell Square underground station, and there were plenty of buses. So it was never a big deal to go back to drop things off or just rest for a bit.

After Liberty, since I wasn’t too far from Soho, I decided to wander aimlessly a bit. I ended up walking by some old sights from our stay in 1997.

Then I went in search of lunch. I couldn’t figure out where to go, so I decided to get the tube to High Street Kensington, where I grabbed a sandwich and pastry from a little cafe and walked down to Kensington Gardens to eat it.

After that, I decided to hop on a bus to go to a bookbinding supply shop that was near Victoria. After perusing and buying some goodies, I went to get on a bus to drop everything off at my room. I cursed my lack of directional sense because it took me forever to find the right bus. But eventually I did, and I dropped everything off while I tried to figure out what to do next.

It was mid-afternoon, so I decided to check out one of the (free!) museums in South Kensington. The V&A won out. After spending so much to go to museums in NYC, it was a nice change to be able to just walk in to this one without spending a dime.

I just wandered around, really, and looked at whatever caught my eye.

It wasn’t open for too long, so I then decided to go for a walk by our old flat. I was tempted to have a drink in the pub we used to go to (not that it’s the same or anything) but I was a weenie and just wanted to get some dinner. I really wanted this pizza/salad thing from Pizza Express, which is, like, everywhere. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal to get a table alone, but the location in Covent Garden can bite me because they just did not seem to want to seat me.

So I went to friggin Shake Shack instead. Oh well.

I was pretty tired after that, so I went back to the good ol’ airbnb.

Sunday morning was a set of two short Peloton classes, after which I met up with a friend. We had a truly Instagram-worthy lunch after doing a little shopping (I wanted to get a baby gift for a friend while I was in London.) Then we had a pint in a pub (so I could tell George I did) then I headed over to Buckingham Palace for the tour I’d booked months ago.

It was pretty cool, I guess. I was most excited about the garden tour. It was to take place after going through a bunch of rooms in the palace. (No pics allowed.) So I go outside for the tour, but decide to get some tea and cake before. After eating, I follow what I assume is the garden tour path, but I am unimpressed. Where are the famed English gardens?

Well, after this path shunted me unceremoniously onto a busy street, I decided that was the worst “garden tour” ever. Only YESTERDAY did I realize I missed the whole friggin thing. I saw zero signs directing me to this alleged garden tour, so the 15 extra pounds I paid for that were completely wasted. I’m so mad. Hmmph.

So. I had time to do things, so I took a bus to Piccadilly Circus to go to some shops (a giant Waterstones as well as Fortnum & Mason to pick up tea for a friend.) Got a few books and the tea, then got on a bus to go back to the airbnb.

Decided I’d try again for the pizza/salad, and this time, I was far more lucky. It was a lovely evening and the restaurant was empty (thanks to the Euro finals, everyone was at pubs instead) and I had my pizza/salad and some wine.

It was a lovely evening, and so I went back to my room to read and relax, and I could hear people yelling during the game, so I really didn’t have to watch it at all.

Monday morning I woke up early again, so I got coffee and sat in a little square with it, and just tried to really enjoy my last few moments in London. It was heavenly, and I really just did not want to leave. Sigh.

Went to airport, had bangers and mash, got on plane, made it home after a million hours of flying and no sleep.

I need to do that again.