Category: London

Monday’s adventures 

It was a sunny day in London so I took a walk through Kensington and Hyde park again and caught the tube from marble arch to Liverpool.  I was making my way to my tea when I found this great place called boxcar.  The bottom level of containers are all little shops. 


The top level is little food vendors. 


It was a great place to enjoy a drink on a sunny day!  

After that I went to my tea at the cat place. Now I should say I have only had high tea at the Ritz, so my food expectations were probably a bit high. 


The food was just so so…  the worst part was none of the kitties would come anywhere near me!   They were all really big cats as well.   But they did have a really cool play place! 

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Saturday Markets

I started out the day icing my poor toe.  Then I went down the block to the Notting farmers market and Chedworth Farm Shop all providing local produce.  It was so refreshing to see all the local produce and it was so cheap!  

I then took a bit of a nap and rested my foot before heading out to explore Kensington and Hyde park.  The park was fairly quiet- full of happy dogs running around and trees just starting to bloom.  There were two places I wanted to see- the gardens at Kensington place and the memorial to princess Diana.   They had a beautiful tulip exhibit in the gardens it was a tribute to princess Diana. 

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 Then I had always heard about the water feature that was a river flowing in Hyde park (once again for princess Diana).  I have to say I was very disappointed in it.  I expected quite a bit more.  

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After the park I started to slowly making my way down Sloan street to Partridges champagne bar for a refreshing glass or two before my market tour.  The market first booth was full of champagne… so a different type of farmers market and definitely made me miss Jo! 

We made our way through the market, but I wouldn’t call it a farmers market as most of the stalls had freshly prepared foods.  I had some of my Sicilian favorites…  I was really happy!

Then we made our way to Cobble Lane Cured to learn about how they make their products.  It was a great little local shop.  We enjoyed a brief tour and then some beer and a tasting of the meats.  https://www.cobblelanecured.com

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Tooting London market 

Last night I went to an old market in London in the Tooting area it was interesting as you could see the parts that hadn’t changed in 60 years mixed in with 2-4 new stalls.   The area is mostly made up of Pakistanis, but there is starting to be some others.


After the market we went to a great little restaurant (Pakistan food of course).  It reminded me a lot of the food we ate in India a few years ago.


We finished the meal with an interesting tea.  It is a traditional tea made with green tea, cardamom and saffron with plenty of sugar and topped with a bit of mint. Very interesting.

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Not so great time

While we had a great day in Miami and we were  happy to get a business class upgrade for free  from Miami to London, unfortunately that is where the fun ended.

We arrived in London on time, showered and had breakfast before heading into London. The major problem was I got sick in the plane after I woke up, so I was not feeling the best. Arrived at the hotel and dropped our bags.  It is actually only a block from the tube stop so really nice location. We had about 3 goals for the day and we failed miserably and got lost several times!
First in the agenda was the lulu store as they carry a different line than the U.S. Well it pretty much is the same. Stopped for lunch in a pub and I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with light sauce thinking it would be good for my stomach. It was ok on the stomach but had no taste!
Then onto look for my shoes the doctor recommended- Harrods was listed as a retailer. Unfortunately not anymore. They then told us of 2 other stores- one was miles away on the tube, the other by Marble Arch, so we headed to that one. We also made the great decision to walk, which is when Richard got cold… and it started to rain. Of course when you want a coffee shop you can never find one!  All day it was in the 50’s with a light mist, so wonderful weather!  Several hours later we finally find the store only to discover they are closed!  We then go to my favorite shop to gets some ink pens- they are closed for renovations. Finally Richard needed some face cream- the store no longer carries it…
Finally after all of that we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. Richard had a nice long bath and I took a nap before a light dinner and an early bed time.
Let’s hope the rest of the week goes better!
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