Last New Year, we spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s—also known as my birthday week—in the United Kingdom! Our trip began in Scotland, where we celebrated Hogmanay, and wrapped up in London, our departure city for the flight home. In this post, I’m sharing how we spent three very fast days exploring London in January.

DAY ONE: A TRAIN FROM GLASGOW, LUNCH AT THE PRADA CAFFÈ, A GUINNESS, AND ONE OF OUR FAVORITE DINNERS

Our first day in London actually began in Glasgow, Scotland, where we boarded a train from Glasgow Central to London Kings Cross station. We were lucky that we boarded early and had seats, as another train on the same line broke down, and many, many passengers joined our train. It was largely standing room only for most of the ride to London (which is over 4 hours!). As we very luckily had seats, it didn’t bother us too much. We arrived in London just a bit behind schedule. We took a Black Cab to our hotel in Kensington, the Kensington Marriott.

Early departure from Glasgow, and it was snowing in Scotland when we left! 

We didn’t have too much time at our hotel, as we had a late lunch reservation at the Prada Caffè, located inside Harrods department store! I convinced my husband and my friend’s husband to go with be under the guise of a “Birthday lunch.” And, I had so much fun! The Prada Caffè is very Prada, very cute, and the food was shockingly quite good. The menu was Italian, inspired by Prada’s flagship in Milano, and while I am super picky about Italian food (being a citizen and all), this meal was legit. We, of course, also did a bit of shopping at Harrods before heading back to the hotel. If you are considering going to Harrods the weekend after New Years, known that Harrods decorations were still up almost a week out (although I think they came down the next day) and it was SUPER crowded.

Harrods still decorated for Christmas on January 3rd.

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