July 24, 2026

We landed at Heathrow at 7:40am today. We dropped our bags at our hotel, The Bailey’s Hotel London Kensington and headed to find a pub for lunch. Our hotel is beautiful and the area is so quiet. 

We found a pub just down the road from our hotel, The Hereford Arms. Isn’t it so cute?!? Of course, we got fish and chips.

During lunch, the exhaustion really hit. My dad kept falling asleep at the table. 😆 I love the peas that are served with Fish and Chips.  After lunch, my dad waved the white flag and headed back to the hotel.

We headed to a needlepoint shop and bought handprints needlepoint canvases.

After the needlepoint shop, we wandered to The Victoria and Albert Museum. The long term exhibits were all free. Once we started wandering the exhibits, we realized how tired we actually were and decided to head back to the hotel for some afternoon rest. It was about 1:30pm and luckily our room was ready for check-in.

After our rest, my mom and I headed out for a walk. We went to Kensington Gardens. We decided that tomorrow we would buy tickets to visit Kensington Palace since we had never been there.

Princess Diana lived in Kensington Palace for 15 years following her divorce. It has also recently been the home of Princess Margaret and is currently an official residence of Prince William and Princess Kate, although they do not live there full time. In 2021, Prince William and Prince Harry placed a statue in the Sunken Garden in memory of Princess Diana. The outside spaces were free to visit, so we walked through the gardens before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

For dinner, I had made reservations at The Ivy Kensington Brasserie. I selected this restaurant due to its proximity to our hotel. It was about a 20 minute walk. Once there, we realized it shares ownership with Kate’s favorite restaurant in London, Harry’s Dolce Vita and it definitely had the same quality and feel. They also had a live jazz singer and pianist, which was excellent. Most of us ordered Shepherd’s Pie and we were not disappointed. Jack got the salmon and Dan got the steak. I got The Ivy Royale, a gin drink. For desert, we got their specialty, The Chocolate Bombe.

After our meal, we walked back to our hotel and concluded the day.

For those following my wardrobe, here is my day and dinner outfits. I decided to switch to the skirt for our dinner.