Happy Monday everyone, hope everyone's Monday's have not been all bad. At least we have the appropriate weather for this time of the year, finally umbrella's can be kept away without the fear of surpise rain for a few days, bare leg weather may soon be upon us.
Today I come with something a bit different on the blog, a travel diary/guide to one of my favourite cities. Myself and my dear boyfriend headed off for a short city break in London last Monday. London is one of my absolute favourite city's so I have been really looking forward to going again. With the city's wide mix of history, art, fashion and music I can't even begin to think of my favourite thing about it. We had four full days to spend in the glorious city, so we were determined to get the most out of it.
When travellling anywhere I am an advocate for finding the best places for an affordable price, especially in cities such as London, as most of the nicer and well situated hotels wouldn't be altogether that affordable. I find that the best way to garauntee this is using Air Bnb, we used this form of accommodation once before when in Barcelona and it was a great experience that gave us a real feel for the city. Our Air Bnb host in London was located right on the famous Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The apartment was only two doors up from the famous 'Travel Book Shop' from 'Notting Hill' the movie, could you honestly get anything better on a budget? I think not. Our host Mark had the most to die for Three-Storey town house right on the famous market road, the decor was a mixture of retro, antique and modern design. It honestly was a struggle to think of ever leaving.
FOOD
Whenever I go anywhere my first port of call is usually food. Perhaps it's because after travelling for an amount of time once you arrive all you want to do is chill and get your bearings, what better way to do so than over some grub? Our host had an infinite depth of knowledge for all the best food places, mostly on the Portobello Road itself, which was an absolute dream as we had been up since half 5 that morning. So for our first breakfast/brunch we headed off to the lower end of the Portobello Road to a place called 'Goode and Wright'.
271 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LR
Goode and Wright was probably one of my favourites places that we ate in, it was so nice inside. A super casual place with a decor of mostly woo and black and white tiled floors, as the weather was good the resataurant had the entrance doors and windows open. The breezy restaurant came with such friendly staff and quick service, not to forget the AMAZING food. I went for a sourdough dream called 'Gypsy Toast' that included the restaurants own take on french toast and bacon with maple syrup, Yum! John had the Smashed avocado (because is it really brunch if someone doesn't have avocado?) with poached duck eggs, also on sourdough. Both of these dishes had the most wonderful and surprising flavours to them. The food was so good we went back on our last day!
Our first day was spent discovering all that Notting Hill had to offer, so for our dinner that night we decided to check out some more of the restaurants that had been reccommended to us. We decided on an Italian restaurant, that was actually next door to G&W, it was obvious as soon as we entered that this was a very authentic Italian. The interior was very simple, very reminiscent of places I have been to in Italy. The restaurant was moderately quiet as it was Monday evening, which was great as we were meeting a friend and could sit anywhere. The staff were lovely, we ordered quickly and we settled in with some drinks, prossecco ofcourse..when in Rome(ish). Our food was delicious, so fresh and an amazing array of flavours. I had bruschetta to start and then finished with Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni, anything with spinach and cheese and I'm your woman. This was another great meal that wasn't expensive and the food was amazing.
175 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2SB
On the second day of our trip we went to a highly reccommended place in Notting Hill, Granger & Co. The cafe was clearly very popular in the area, it was completely packed when we arrived but this meant during our waiting time we could nosey at what everyone else was ordering, much avocado was to be seen. After a short waiting time we were seated by a lovely window booth, the atmposhere of the restaurant was so pleasant, really bright and airy. Both John and I decided to go for the Ricotta Hot Cakes, these were dressed with honeycomb butter, banana and a type of maple syrup. They were the most heavenly things I have ever tasted.
Our second day was filled with much sight-seeing and shopping, so by the evening we just wanted something quick and easy to eat. As two lovers of burgers, our only decision to be made was what burger place to go to. Luckily we were right on Carnaby Steert and only a mere five minute walk brought us to Byron Burgers. Between us we had two burgers, mac & cheese, sweet potato fries and some massive milkshakes. A nap was definitely needed after all carbs in the world. The service was super quick and the interioir of the resaturant was very cool and spacious.
Farm Girl : 59a Portobello Rd, London W11 3DB
So that was just a small round up of all my favourite places we visited for food in our short break. I'd highly reccommend them to anyone wondering where to eat while in the city!
SIGHT-SEEING
I know it's probably quite obvious but Westminster is maybe my favourite part of London for sight seeing, it's just so touristy. The last few times I have been to London I have stayed in Westminster and its been so amazing to wake up every morning to the amazing views of Westminster. So, although we weren't staying there this time I really wanted to go and walk the Westminister bridge in all its glory.
We also checked out a few of the famous exhibitons at the Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was on our second day that we decided to do a tour of the museums as both of us had read about some cool exhibtions that were on in London last week. The Tate was slightly dissapointing, as although there was many iconic paintnigs and art pieces to see, much of the museum was closed off for refurbishment and setting up new exhbit. Nevertheless, all that was there was very interesting with many iconic paitnings and pieces from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and more obscure modern artists. The VA has many fascinating expositions and galleries, we spent ages around and exploring it. It is connected to the underground station so you can easily get there. When we were finished we sat outside in the fabulous garden/cafe area, its such a pleasant place to chill after walking round the museum.
Bricklane; for those with a love for all the vintage shops you can imagine and some amazing street art.
When in London we didn't even scratch the surface on the awesome shopping destinations throughout the city. However, we did manage to checck out A-LOT of vintage shops, so many that I would quite happily never look at acid wash jeans or 90s sports wear again. We also got to check out many of the London based shops that we usually can't shop in, one of my favourites being 'And Other Stories' and 'JOY'. This was great because I was able to pick up a few items not on my local Highstreet.. I think I will do a separate post about these though, so keep tuned.
So, I apologise if this has been uneccesarily long and slightly boring to you, but this is just a snippet of some of the amazing things you can do when in London. Genuinely there was still so much that I wanted to do and didnt get round to. SO I hope you enjoyed this and feel free to comment or share!
M x