A lovely trip to London, in a very unusual season.
Nothing that London can’t handle tho – it always shows a new and interesting face.
We landed late on a Friday evening at Luton airport. After a quick (but painfully cold) queue to get the shuttle bus to Luton station (take some small cash with you!), and after a long (and equally cold:D) wait at Luton station, we finally caught the Luton express train, that took us to St Pancras in about one hour. After a little metro ride and brief walk, we reached our home for the next two days, the Shaftesbury Hyde Park International. A lovely, clean and cozy (read, smallish:D) room, conveniently located for our weekend explorations.
On the Saturday, we took it easy and started with a seriously delicious brunch at Aubaine Notting Hill. The food was fresh and of high quality, the menu offered few but complete and very reasonable alternatives. Couple it with a calm and relaxing ambiance, and a very friendly service, and you’ll know how to start your day well. Afterwards, it was a lovely walk trough Notting Hill, the hipster Portobello Road with the clothes shops and delicious food market afterwards..ahhh! A short metro ride brought us to Camden Town, where we strolled through the crowds until we reached Camden Market and its eclectic shops and stalls. Strangely, no compulsive buying this time, just a tiny bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice and two gigantic slices of cake at Miss Poppy‘s stand – despite the low-key appearance, the cakes we tried were to die for! This delicious break gave us a few more hours of charge, which we used to flee to Soho and explore London’s nightlife. And oh boy, we were not deceived – London truly never sleeps! After a bit of shopping and a nice walk among the crowds, we stopped at Pho & Bun for a delicious, light and fulfilling dinner – caveat: if you are like me and do not stand hot spicy food..well, the Pho IS spicy:D (although I must admit that I did not “suffer” for more than a few minutes afterwards..and it was really worth the effort:D) A quick run to Westminster (undergoing renovations, sigh) and the Thames by night, are we were definitely ready for a well-deserved night’s sleep.
On the next day, we had some friends to meet. That allowed us a quick walk through Hyde Park (we saw pretty green birds! and squirrels!), a stopover at Boots, and then the metro rode us to Little Venice. Beany Green was one of the trip’s highlights! Try the avocado breakfast – just perfectly balanced in its simplicity.
We flew out from Gatwick airport in the afternoon…and here we are, ready for the next pin on the map!