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Catherine McConachy for McIntosh Travel

After a full-on few days in Chicago, we were off to London. Booked on British Airways, we were moved to a leased aircraft operated by Belgium Air.

We had a row of three seats to ourselves and the service was great, so the seven-hour flight was very comfortable with a few movies, beverages and food service. But we didn't manage to get a lot of sleep, so arrived at Heathrow feeling a bit jaded at 7am London time.

This was my first time at Heathrow and first time in London. The airport is totally insane; we walked what felt like miles, with massive crowds of people who all seemed to be in a hurry.

Once we got to the arrivals' concourse, we grabbed UK sim cards with a month of data and popped them into our phones - my Samsung phone takes 2 sims, so it was easy for me to switch to the UK one. The friendly staff got my friend's iPhone up and running and we were off to find a train to the city and eventually Notting Hill, where we had our accommodation booked.

My travel buddy used to live in London years ago, which was very helpful. We grabbed visitor Oyster Cards at the airport and had these loaded up as we knew we would be getting around using the tube and public transport.

We checked into our accommodation and headed off on foot to explore Notting Hill. Resisting the urge to sleep, we visited the iconic book shop from the Notting Hill movie and took in the very cool village atmosphere of the area, lunching at a very chic café.

London was experiencing an Indian summer - it was unseasonably warm for September, so locals were all out enjoying the sun.

There were a few things we did in London to fill our days. I had booked a couple of shows, the first at the Royal Albert Theatre to see Ministry of Sound Classical - this was amazing and a total highlight.

Not only is the theatre a fabulous venue, but the show also was a mix of old school Ministry with an incredible light show and the support of a full orchestra. It was absolutely worth it.

During the days we regularly used the tube or jumped on one of the iconic double-decker red hop-on hop-off London buses to take in the sights.

These are great as they have headsets to plug in for commentary of all the locations ahead, with a bit of history. We visited Westminster Abbey, which is just amazing and so full of history. We topped off our London stopover with a Shania Twain show at the 02, this was disappointing after MOS but still an experience.

Next stop - Edinburgh.