Adventure day: exploring all the City of London has to offer!

Adventure day: exploring all the City of London has to offer!

Today was a very open day, so we had lots of free time to explore the city! We made the most of our day by taking the tube to Notting Hill. This is a cute little town outside of the City of London filled with street vendors. It is an outdoor market that lines the street for blocks covered with food, bags, watches, and trinkets from all over the world. It was so fun to see all of the different cultures represented there. I loved just walking by and sellers would give samples of their fresh food or show me their goods. I tried an egg and cheese paratha which is a traditional Indian dish that is similar to a flatbread filled with various toppings. I saw them making the dough from fresh flour, salt, and yeast which was cool! And I got some coffee -- an iced vanilla latte, not too sweet and reasonably priced, one of the best coffees yet. The quality of coffee just tastes so much better here!
Handmade watches for sale

From Notting Hill, we went to a Gin Distillery tour at the City of London Distillery. This was a very fun experience to learn about the rich history gin making and drinking has in London. I never realized how much goes into it and how elaborate the process is! I am not a huge fan of gin as it is super strong so I struggled a bit during the tasting part. It was super bitter and I had to add a lot of tonic water to be able to tolerate it. 
Tasting of four different types of gin

To end the day, we went to dinner and a show at the Apollo theater. We went to Palm House for dinner and got their special pre-theater menu. I got beet and halloumi salad and fish cakes. It was very delicious and fun to eat downtown with a view of the city skyline. We then went to the theater and saw Wicked! The actors were incredible and it was an amazing experience. It was such a fun atmosphere and the performance was amazing!
Wicked at the Apollo Theater


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food Day: Culinary Walking tour and Food Market

Image
 Food Day: Culinary Walking tour and Food Market Another busy day! We started the day with a culinary walking tour with a guide named Sophie that took us around the city. She explained the history of the city of London as it related to food and highlighted key features such as gin, beer, Indian cuisine, fish and chips, tea, and coffee that made the city as we know it today. The most interesting story to me took place in 1814 when a pipe burst in a brewery, leading to a 15 foot wave of beer flooding the city and killing eight people. I was also interested in how coffee evolved through time, from first being a drink for rich, white men to discuss business affairs to now being a drink enjoyed by 83% of people in London daily! On the tour, we stopped at a bakery that has been around for 150 years called Maison Bertaux where Hal treated us all to almond croissants! Thanks Hal!! We ended the tour at a food market called Spitalfield Market. It was a huge market with many shops and vendors...
Read more

Bucket List Day: Borough Market

Image
 The Borough Market Checking it off the bucket list: the Borough market definitely lived up to my expectations! This was a place I had seen all over social media before coming to London and it was 100% worth the hype. I have always enjoyed going to Farmer's markets back in Minnesota, specifically the Mill City Farmer's Market every Saturday in the summer. The Borough market was 3x the size of any farmer's market I have ever been to. It was covered with vendors selling fresh produce, hot and ready food items, and little trinkets and homemade goods. It was hard to move around with how crowded the streets were and the lines were crazy long. I started by getting a coffee (of course). I looked at many different places and most had very plain, basic coffee options. I settled for a Colombian-based coffee stand and got a hot mocha with oat milk. The chocolate flavor was very rich and delicious, however, it was pricey. It cost £6 for a small cup. I then went to find lunch. The optio...
Read more

FIRST DAY in London!!!

Image
 First Day in London!     Longgg travel day! We flew overnight and had a layover in Iceland and then arrived at our hotel in London at around 1pm. I slept very little on both plane rides, maybe three hours total, so coffee was the top priority! We tried a super cute little coffee shop just around the corner from our hotel called Crepe, Coffee, and Chai. It was very bright in there, with windows lining the walls and decorative plant and floral arrangements! I ordered an iced vanilla latte with oat milk and a spinach, feta, and sun-dried tomato omelette. The coffee options were pretty standard: latte, americano, mocha, macchiato, etc. and the flavor options were limited: hazelnut, caramel, and vanilla. There were many non-coffee alternatives as well including smoothies, teas, and hot chocolate. I enjoyed my drink and food, but the coffee was definitely on the sweeter side. Also, a bit pricey, the latte was £6 and the omelette was £11. Overall I would rate my experience a 7/...
Read more