Staying on top of my New Year’s goal (to branch out and experience or explore a new part of London every week), I joined a fellow LSEer living in my building for a mid-day getaway to Hampton Court Palace. The Palace is 35ish minutes from London by train and today’s sunshine made it a perfect break from London.

Despite having lived here for five months, this was one of my first times taking the train and venturing outside of central London. I must admit, I’m going to have to push myself to explore a little more often; it was such a beautiful area and it was nice to step outside of the overpopulated city centre. For anyone counting costs, it was £9.50 for a return ticket from Waterloo to Hampton Court.

After running into the palace and snapping some pictures, we decided to forgo the actual palace tour this time around (£15.80 for tickets); instead we headed down to the Thames to people-watch and soak up the rare bits of sunshine.

Everything looked gorgeous with the sun shining on it (I feel like I’d seen London in a new light!), and seeing the families, kids and dog walkers running around the area was such a nice change of pace. Getting out into these types of areas occasionally serves as a reminder of how nice it is to enjoy a change of scenery once in a while. With this being a short train ride from London, it was definitely worth the investment!

My goal for this week is to finally head over to St. Paul’s and get a proper look at it from the inside and outside.  Also on the agenda for some time in the near future: Oxford!

Love from the UK,