We made it! — RachiePie

Well, we have arrived to London in one piece! We did have an interesting experience in customs after landing as we wrote on the custom forms we were going to be in the country for 61 days. The customs officer was nice, but very thorough in his questioning and wanted to see proof we were not planning to stay in the country longer. He asked to see our flight information from London to Portugal, which I could not locate on my phone, so instead showed him our rental car reservation and all our Airbnb confirmations in Portugal. This seemed to satisfy him as he stamped our passports and we were free to collect our bags.

We arrived to our flat in Notting Hill (see, I'm already becoming British, ha!) and both of us were feeling pretty overwhelmed at this point and sort of looked at each other like, "Holy Cow! We just put all our belonging in storage! What did we do?". We unpacked and realized there were a few things we were going to need for the apartment (only one bath towel!) and off we went to the grocery store and to my new favorite place, Poundland, where everything is priced at less than £2.00! We also explored a bit of our neighborhood including Portobello Road where we ate dinner at Pizza East.

Home for the next two months!  Love the blue door! — Home for the next two months! Love the blue door!

The next morning, we had to wait around for a few hours as there was an electrician and a plumber scheduled to do some maintenance work. After they left, we took a long walk to explore the Kensington neighborhood not far from us. It was a pretty rainy day, so we popped in and out of several shops. We ended up back in Notting Hill where we grabbed a drink at Trailer Happiness which was a fun and kitschy tiki bar.

Today, was the first day since we arrived I have felt more settled and better about the decision to leave Charlotte. We explored the more touristy areas of London and went to Buckingham Palace, Parliament Square, Westminster Abby, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, The Portrait Gallery, and Piccadilly Circus. I've included lots of pictures below!