Not Being a Tourist in London! Day Two!

Since Martin had to get to work in the morning, we all got up and had the breakfast buffet at the Travelodge.  Then he went on to work and we headed to Harrod's!  That is possibly a bit touristy, but it is always fun to visit Harrod's!

Of course, it was also too early for Harrod's to be open, so we had to force ourselves to have a coffee, or in Whitney's case - a Chai Latte!

Starbucks coffees with our names spelled correctly!
That certainly deserved a photo!

 







Both Whitney and I had been to Harrod's before, but never together.  It is a huge and very famous department store and you can just get lost in all the wonderful areas.  We tried on Tiffany's bracelets, found the pet store - no live pets though, the souvenir shop is always fun and of course, my personal favourite - the food section!

Such a gorgeous way to display food! 

There is also a touching memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in part of Harrod's.

There is a beautiful little specialty shop called Laduree. This is a French specialty shop and what they have done in Harrod's, and Covent Garden, is as beautiful as the original locations of Laduree in Paris.  I was introduced to their macarons by my good friend, Gina, at the Harrod's location.  She also treated me to tea at the Champs Elysee location.  The decor is a feast for the eyes and the gorgeous food is incredible, but to have these combined is a feast for all senses!

Can't resist this little treats! 

Our next stop was Borough Market, imagine that, a market totally dedicated to food!  Bliss!  Too bad I don't have a sense of smell....but then you probably just gain weight walking through this market!  I had first visited this market a few years ago and was frustrated with my lack of smell then too!

Whitney treated me for lunch but I can't even spell what we had.  I should have taken a picture of it, but after ordering and then agreeing to have humus....uh oh, does that have cumin in it? The stall keeper was not very amused with me.  However, the spinach and feta cheese housed in filo pastry was exquisite!

We then discovered a wonderland of cheese!  This is called Neil's Yard Dairy and I intend to check out their classes the next time I visit Martin in London.....











After returning to the hotel for a little rest, we headed on to Camden Market!  I guess you could call the theme of this trip "London Markets"!

We just meandered along all the shops until we got to the actual market.  There is everything and anything you didn't realise you need here.  Some nice art and jewellery and a really interesting Cuban restaurant. We stopped there for a hot chocolate since we knew we would be eating a mystery but lovely dinner later with Martin.

There were some fabulous bookshops and one stall holder seemed to have read every single book he was offering for sale!  We also (finally) found the statue dedicated to Amy Winehouse.  Whitney had never been able to find it on her other times here and we had just given up.  I guess that is the key to some things - just don't try too hard!

 Our next goal was to meet Martin at the Angel Tube Station, but we got there too early.  As we were leaving the station, we saw a sign for the Hummingbird Bakery!  Both of us are great Hummingbird Bakery cookbook fans so virtually ran there!  The choice was amazing but we settled on two salted caramel cupcakes.  (Don't think Martin was left out, I had packed 6 tupperware boxes of cookies, plus a bag of Reese's mini peanut butter cups AND a bag of Hershey's kisses, so he really had access to more than enough sources of sugar!).  We were thinking ahead and knew these cupcakes would see us through our bus journey to the airport the next day.  (and they were everything we hoped for, and more!)

Martin had suggested a club that hosts free comedy acts 7 nights a week!  Well, not exactly free, at the end they ask for donations of what you felt the evening was worth.  It starts at 8 and usually ends up standing room only, so we had to get there early.  No problem!  We got there early enough for my son to treat me to a Guinness.  Nice!



There were 9 acts altogether on - not many of them were memorable.  But it was a really fun evening and I would recommend this club to anyone if they are looking for something a bit different to do while in London.

I didn't take a note of where this was located, I just blindly followed Martin from the Angel Tube Station.  It was called Angel Comedy  at the Camden Head - which is a beautiful old fashioned looking pub.  While Martin was buying the beer, I went outside to take this photo.

Once the show was over, it was another challenge to find an open restaurant, although they seemed to stay open a bit later in this area.  We ended up in Tenshi  a tiny little Japanese restaurant and had a real feast!

When we got there, red lanterns were lit up outside, but when we left, they were no longer lit up. Sorry, it would have been  a much more interesting picture with them!

What a great dinner to enjoy on our last night together!

"I want a house with a garden, but slap bang in the centre of London. Next door to a sushi bar."

Michelle Dockery