A weekend in London

Dragon-ey Goodness at the Tower

So Friday, after a late start to the day, we decided to go and look around the Tower of London.  We had turned up the previous day an hour before closing, and the entry person suggested we perhaps wanted to give ourselves more time. 

So glad we did!  We spent about three hours looking around the whole facility.  An absolutely fascinating piece of British history.  If you do decide to go, I’d highly recommend taking one of the Yeomen tours – for a start, you’re able to get into the Chapel which you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, also they provide some great stories and entertainment to go along with the visit, and there’s no additional cost.

Then, after catching up with a friend for a (very) late lunch, we took a stroll through Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Leister square etc.  I’d also highly recommend a quick tour around the National Portrait Gallery – some very interesting takes on ‘portraits’, as well as some great photography and painting.

Gay’d it up with dinner and drinks in Soho to finish off the day – thoroughly enjoyable, very vibrant and fun community.

Then ‘twas a weekend of markets.

We started off on Saturday morning by heading to the Barnes Market, this amazing little Farmers Market that had a lot of delicious gourmet food.  And a duck pond. 

After that, we caught a bus into town and headed to Notting Hill markets.  This is a... well, to be honest, a market for all sorts.  We ordered ham and cheese crepes, wandered down the packed streets peering into antique stores, food markets, clothing booths... You name it, you could get it!  Plus the Notting Hill Buzz is something else altogether.

Then we took our first double decker bus ride!!!  We went from Notting Hill to Knightsbridge and hit up Harrods.  This is an AMAZING store - we only hit the food halls and the gift shop, but even this is enough to make you drool.

After Harrods, we made our way up to the Victoria and Albert Museum and viewed the costume exhibit - this was sooo much fun!  The Tim Burton Catwoman costume, the Batman outfit, the Ruby Slippers (Take two), just a really interesting insight into Hollywood.  Very cool.

Brick Lane Markets

Sunday started off with a visit to Brick Lane Market.  Once you get past all the curry houses closest to the Subway, this is a fantastic way to kill some time on a Sunday afternoon.  Very kitcsh, very cool, very alternative.  We also found this old factory style building that had different food stalls with food   from all around the world, so we enjoyed the most delicious Chinese dumplings on noodles.  Absolutely fantastic.

Making our way back into town, we stopped for a quick coffee in SoHo and then made our way to the Natural History Museum (for those of you who are interested, you might want to have a quick look at maps to see how far this means we walked...).  Nothing like dinosaurs to finish a day off. 

Two more days left in London - my, we have packed in an awful lot of goodness over the last few days!