My partner and I fell in love in London. I believe it was somewhere along Southbank as we cycled along together under an unusually hot July sun. He told me I looked cute on my bike and with my middle name being “easy to please” I think I let my guard down and decided he wasn’t so bad either.

That was a few years ago and we have long left London behind. Swapping sky high rents, perpetually grey weather and squashed commutes to work for a life of travel was an easy decision. However, when we left London a small part of me did wonder if we would leave our love there too. If we fell in love in London would we then fall out of love once London was a thing in our past.

Although time will still tell about this I can say that we have since fallen in love in many other countries and cities so it’s going to take a lot of travel to stop us finding new places to fall in love with. And yet it did all start with a romance in London.

And for that reason I’d like to share five ways I fell in love in London and you could too if you’re planning a romantic trip with your new partner.

1. Get on Your Bike

London is not a cycling city in the way that Amsterdam is but it does have an excellent public bike scheme and cycling around some of the city’s parks is calm enough for couples to even hold hands cycling side by side at some points.

I remember one evening cycle we went on as the sun was setting behind us. Suddenly my partner stopped ahead of me and told me to turn around. I did and saw the most spectacular sunset through the trees of Hyde Park. I’ll have that memory forever.

2. Pick Your Future House

One autumn evening as we were preparing to leave to go travelling we were feeling stressed and overworked, with too many things to do before we left.

We decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood of Notting Hill and as we approached the upmarket area we started to play the “Which house would we buy if we were millionaires?” game.

By the time we got home to attack our To Do List again we were property tycoons with a number of gorgeous Georgian properties to our names and at least three kids, two dogs and a cat running around them.

3. Walk around the Serpentine

There are so many parks and hidden green spaces in London but there’s something about Lake Serpentine in the middle of Hyde Park that always surprises me when I walk around there hand in hand with my husband. Maybe it’s the elegant swans, the absence of traffic and noise or the fact that London feels so far away but it makes my world seem both bigger and smaller at the same time.

4. Play Ping-pong

Underneath a tall office block in Holborn is a bar experience called Bounce. It is a table tennis bar where you can challenge your partner to a game of ping-pong while also drinking beer, eating pizza and listening to wisely chosen music.

I only discovered this place on our most recent trip back to London and for some reason we found ourselves completely hooked, laughing our way through game after game after game. You might like to view my other recommendations for hip hangouts in London.

5. Go to See a Show

When my partner bought me tickets to see Wicked for my birthday I genuinely thought he’d bought two tickets for me and a friend. I didn’t think he’d want to see a musical with me. Turns out he’d already seen it and we loved every minute of the show together. In fact every time I return to London and see the Wicked sign outside the theatre we saw it at I smile to myself. There are also lots of other classic London shows to see.

London is for making many happy memories. There are hundreds more really romantic things to do in this amazing city, for example amazing rooftop bars in London and literally endless amazing places to eat. For more recommendations check out my London travel guide.