Parks and markets, food, beer and tea – Our London

When I and two of my oldest friends decided to visit London, it was clear, that this wouldn’t be a typical sightseeing trip, but instead a girls weekend. We hadn’t met for quite a long time and there should be enough time for talking, talking, talking…

As Anna spend a lot of time in London during the last years, she knows a lot of nice places that perhaps aren’t the first choice of the usual London visitor. Actually, our program wasn’t that spectacular … we did what we intended to do: spend some time together and talk, talk, talk.

We did this for example on our stroll along the river Thames between Hammersmith [P.S.: We stayed in the cozy little MyOE guesthouse in Hammersmith with its friendly host Francis.] and Chiswick, where we dreamed of our little house in this quiet suburban part of London and drank our beer(s) in the White Hart Barnes pub, located directly at the river, and watched the sunset.

In the Japanese restaurant Koya near Soho Square we ate yummy homemade udon noodles and algae salad.

A real insider tip are the Petersham Nurseries located on the northwestern end of Richmond park – the biggest of Londons parks, by the way, where you can even meet some deer. We nearly got stuck in this beautiful nursery, plant, garden and homeware shop, tearoom and cafe, all in one …. a stunning idyllic place!

…and with plenty of green, so after a longer break I’m joining  the Beauty-is-where-you-find-it challenge again .

Of course we visited some markets as well, and followed unkowingly the steps of Jamie Oliver from the Borough Market south of the Thames…

…to the hip eastern London quarter Spitalfields, with its famous sunday markets (Old Spitalfields Market, Sunday Up Market) and the Brick Lane, which is also known as “Banglatown”: lots of delicious food from all around the world (we went for Ethopian this time) and a treasure trove for cool fashion – new and vintage (A pair of shoes and a new handbag for me 🙂 ).

To strengthen for the walk through the market stalls we drank some energising tea at TeaSmith and followed interested the ritual preparation of our matcha tea. And of course we were talking, talking,…

Last but not least, Hyde Park was on our program, and sadly again, the chestnuts were not yet ready for harvest!After being at a lot of different places during the last weeks, I’m finally unpacking my suitcase, putting the toothbrush back at its place, filling the fridge again, preparing – slowly – for work … with a lot of great memories of this summer in my head!