Oh wow, London. This is going to be a massive post with a lot of pictures!

I’ve been tempted to go to London for a while now, but New York is still the place I want to visit the most. I took advantage of the fact that I was going to be in Shanghai to travel through the Northern hemisphere, and managed to get a very beautiful stopover at Helsinki too – a place that’s a little bit of an in-joke with my friend from a radio play called Cabin Pressure, but also because I think Finland is a cool place – and the view from the plane is certainly pristine and amazing!

I guess I start at Hyde Park – the first place we walked through as it was near where we stayed. I absolutely love the royal gardens here, and it’s a bonus when the birds aren’t afraid of people, so I could get fairly close them and take all the pretty photos.

 I had a few goals in London, the default is always to find coffee – and lucky for me I had a list created, but me being me, I have my own methods too, which simply involves walking around until I see something interesting, and two, following the conversational trail when visiting places. First stop is the cafe where my barista used to work – Workshop Marylebone. It’s small and pretty, and I can see where my barista got his idea for the wooden benchtop from.

Workshop in Clerkenwell is a full fledged cafe, with a very nice food menu. I couldn’t resist trying out the smoked salmon, avocado, wasabi mayo, ginger and seaweed dish. I did find it odd that it didn’t default with bread, but the waitress did ask, and having just come from China where everything is overcooked and mushy, I decided to go granary, and then executed my pseudo plating skills to place it on the bread. I kept getting asked at regular intervals if I needed butter or jam to go with the bread, but I kept declining, to the point where I was eating plain bread, but I was loving it – not having had good bread in two weeks meant it tasted so good!

 

SQUIRREL

My brother could spot squirrels from far away, and I could barely find them when he did! I had managed to find a couple of squirrels in a trip to America a few years back, but here there were plenty! And some of them will even approach you if you have nuts for them, but they notice pretty quickly if you don’t have anything at all.

Walking around lead me to a place called the Horse Guard’s Parade, which is a parade that happens, but I had gotten there too late and there was only a trail of poop. However, there were still two horses stationed at one of the entrances so I took a photo.

Famous landmarks of London city. I really love Picadilly Circus, mainly because Whole Foods Market is there – which I was very happy to discover. I visited there many times for my coconut water hydration! I’d say it’s my favourite supermarket in the world, but I’m not sure it’s a valid statement. Also, I loved how close Picadilly and Oxford are – though I did accidentally spend too much money when I saw people walking around with Liberty bags, and that’s when I decided it was time to pay a visit to a store I knew I’d love – mainly because all the shirts I get are Liberty prints, so I knew their branded products would be both pricey and gorgeous. Came out just under 600 pounds poorer with a really nice bag, wallet, earrings and scarf.

Baker Street was relatively empty, so a visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum was warranted. We also had a pit stop at Monocle Cafe – which was so hipster with a German/Japanese food menu, which was pretty interesting. My brother was quite interested in the layout/design of the cafe too, with its two levels and small rooms where it looked like you could have a business meeting over coffee. Ah how nice it would be to have meetings like that all the time!

 Regent’s Park, another very pretty garden. There was algal bloom here hence the green covered water, but this was mostly contained.

Ah, I gravitate towards Death because he is so pretty (pun intended)! There are a whole row of these buskers as all different characters here, but Death was my favourite. I think the way these are done are really cool and wish there were some in Australia too.

 Borough Markets was a very nice place across the river – a foodie haven! We did get there a little early, but this was a great opportunity to see them preparing game! The birds were being hung up, but what really caught my eye was the venison skinning! That was pretty cool, though I did find it odd that this was being done in a place that sold seafood. There was plenty of honey, fast food, baked goods and fresh fruit and vegetables. I was so tempted to get some avocados and blueberries because they were so cheap! I also came across a raw milk stall, and it tasted pretty good!

Queen Victoria Memorial is an amazing place, and I absolutely love the golden statue. It’s so beautiful and I absolutely love the wings. This is what I took pictures of as I didn’t visit Buckingham Palace, and I actually don’t mind the fact that I didn’t go. I spent way too much time taking pictures here as all the statues were so striking. Those wings!!!

And back to talking about food. On a trip to Riding House Cafe, my brother and I got separated at Oxford Circus station – very awkward when he didn’t exactly have a working phone service in one of the busiest places in London – plus I was the one leading the way! It turns out I had followed the Way Out sign and reached exits 1, 2, 3, 4, and my brother had used the 5, 6, 7, 8 exit. Luckily, being awesome siblings, I knew my brother would probably find a wireless spot, and we were once again reunited. After a very busy service for breakfast at Riding House, we ducked over to the cafe across the street – Kaffeine! And it turned out to be one of my favourites. They offered a fantastic tasting plate of espresso and flat white, with a very unique palate cleanser – cascara and earl grey blend. Wow, everything about this was just so awesome. That espresso was so good, bright and sweet, and the cleanser was perfect, the cascara complementing the coffee and the tea just gave it that extra layer of flavour. Then that flat white – it was so sweet I almost thought there was sugar added, even though there wasn’t! I’ve actually never had a flat white that sweet before in my memory. I don’t know how they did it but it was amazing!

And those portuguese tarts. Wow… those were the best I’ve ever had! That pastry was so good and that custard! Mmmmm. In fact, it wasn’t till I came back to Adelaide that my barista asked me if I’d had the tarts – looks like I made a good choice to sample one! I would go back to London for this cafe and the Liberty shop alone.

We spent almost an entire day in Greenwich and explored the area of Cutty Sark, and I’m glad to say I managed to use the Underground, DLR, bus and taxi during my stay! The DLR was pretty cool because it’s a fully automated system; driver optional. It kind of felt like a roller coaster at times due to the shakiness, but it was certainly fun to be able to stand at the front of the carriage and just watch the tracks.

  At the hill of the observatory, we got an amazing view of an adorable dog. And the city. But the dog was way cuter. And while everyone else was taking pictures of themselves on the international date line, I was more excited to see the “Steampunk’d” exhibition they had on! Not to mention take a trip to the planetarium, where we played an interactive game and made it all the way to Ganymede (after the second attempt)!

Some gorgeous designs at the exhibition, and there were plenty of cool gadgets. Apparently this was part of a competition that was held, and the theme was Longitude and how to determine it while on the seas. It was accompanied by a humorous story called Rime of the Ancient Commodore, and had kiwis, references to sat navs and even the computing device! And a hilariously tragic painting whose caption included throwing lemon sherbets overboard.

Another day, another cafe – this time to Prufrock! I actually got there right on opening and was waiting for my brother, at which point one of the staff asked me if I was there for the espresso class. Alas, I had to say no! I would have loved to do a coffee course while in London, but exploration was my number one priority. A lot of cafes here offer the espresso flight – black and white, and my brother was lucky enough to get a super fancy latte art! I learned that the owner is actually not a big fan of art, so we were lucky to get a super pretty pour.

Workshop, Fitzrovia gets a special mention as it’s the newest of the four Workshops, and also because it is so elegant and features Madagascan granite! I didn’t realise how pretty granite could be until I saw this. The whole place is just so classy looking that it’s amazing; each Workshop has a very different feel. This was one where I felt like royalty because of the way it was designed. I also took the opportunity to sample their almond croissant – which was massive and oh so tasty!

During our stay we made several visits back to Oxford Circus, mainly because it was always near us, and also because public toilets were hard to find and cost money – but they were also better maintained than Australian toilets so I was happy to pay the 20 – 50p required to use them – so the guaranteed toilet access I had was at Liberty! As a result, we ended up visiting, and revisiting a pretty cool burger shop called Carnaby Burger Co. We had the tasting plate, burgers, ribs and steak. My brother took great joy in devouring wet chips.

The last of the Workshops, this time in Holborn. This was larger, but a simpler design than the other small cafes, with a double counter. I also noticed that each branch uses a different colour for their cups, which is pretty cute. Some really tasty espresso and milk coffees here too!

And who doesn’t go to at least one Jamie Oliver restaurant while in London. I was forewarned that it was hard to find good food in London, and food that was good was expensive, though the cost of food was never really any reason for me not to eat anywhere. When we needed food, Jamie Oliver restaurants were great in a pinch – and I had no need to visit his Italian restaurant. Instead, we went to his Dino Diner and Union Jacks. Fish and chips are pretty tasty here, and I love that they come with mushy peas! I love pea mush.

No trip to a new city is complete without visiting tall buildings, so not only was there a visit to City Social, but also the Shard! The gift shop wasn’t so flash but the view was pretty cool – especially because we had a full moon that night too.

Right, apart from just pictures of the top of the Shard from inside the Shard itself… here are the pretty shots of the city!

I decided to also pay a trip to Canary Wharf – mainly because all that runs through my head is “the battle of Canary Wharf” from Doctor Who – and I don’t even remember the details! While there wasn’t too much there to see, I did get this very nice shot of the Shard.

Reflective water is pretty cool too!

Towards the end of my stay, I managed finally duck into Lyle’s, a new restaurant that had opened and I was curious to try it. Had some beautifully cooked quail, chanterelles and crab apple jelly; chicken of the woods (a mushroom); and apple sorbet. I liked the fact that the sorbet came with a shard of elderflower vinegar meringue – which tasted delicious and made the dish look pretty.

And here’s a nice reflective building!

Now for the text dump, for everything that didn’t have an accompanying photo. First of all, a trip to London is never complete without a visit to one of Heston’s restuarant – in this case, Dinner, at #5 in the San Pellegrino top 50 restaurants of the world.

City Social is another one worth visiting – for the views and the food. And some crazy rare wine like a 1996 Chateau d’Yquem that I didn’t actually order because I chose a Chardonnay from Burgundy instead.

In my wonderful ways of exploration, I also managed to stumble upon Martin Freeman starring in Richard III, and I pretty much payed through the nose to get premium seats to watch the adorable little man in action. What an intense play, but I’m glad I got to see it, as my only prior experience of Richard III was back in high school, at the back of the theatre, all dark and unable to see or hear anything and on the verge of falling asleep. It was a requirement for me to see a play while in London, and I felt very lucky to have had this particular experience!

On the topic of live performances, another afternoon was spent watching Book of Mormon – which was the most hilarious and inappropriate musical I’ve ever seen! It was highly entertaining and so different from the seriousness and intensity of our previous theatre experience. I enjoyed attending these things so much that if I had the funds, I’d make it a regular occurrence.

A standout of the Underground was how organised it was – I absolutely loved how efficient and orderly people were when commuting – the whole “stand on the right” works really well, and the fast lane is beautiful on the escalators. On weekends the efficiency dropped a little, but it was still better than every other city I’d visited so far. In addition, each station was very unique and some of the designs are pretty epic. One exited into a massive glass buildings, others into quaint courtyards. Then there was Westminster, an epic station that for some reason reminded me of the Prometheus from Stargate, even though it probably looked nothing alike, but that’s the memory it invoked for me. Another was Waterloo station, which reminded me of the Tardis.

If I thought China had gaudy, over the top stuff, then London has set a new benchmark via Harrod’s. Oh wow, it stocks the most hideously, filthily expensive shinies I’ve ever seen! The food hall was pretty epic as well, and all that caviar was so tempting to try! My barista was right in telling me to pay a visit.

There are definitely a lot of museums that I still need to see, but with the ones I did visit, the Hall of Enlightenment in the British Museum was beautiful – all library like. The way the hall is set up is amazing, and felt like the most epic library that I could live in. Now I know how my friend feels about museums and why she loves them so much!

Overall it was a fantastic experience and I’d love to visit again, to go to places like Cardiff, mainly to see if there’s anything being filmed there. I’d definitely revisit Kaffeine and a lot of other cafes that I skipped over from my list, and definitely revisiting Lyle’s, and any other place that takes my fancy. Funnily enough, I’d also bring fancier clothes because I felt so underdressed amongst all the suits in the city. Then I might summon the courage to enter a shop in Savile Row too.

But for now it was off to Japan!