London Vacation with all them Foodie Highlights!

That first week back after vacation is always the hardest. You've just finished a slice of that rich and famous lifestyle and the taste is still lingering as you return to your everyday routine. You post some pictures to your social media, share the stories of your trip with friends and family, and start easing yourself ever-so-gingerly back into reality. 

Fast forward just over a month back, and your trip feels like it was a year ago! That's where I am today. The last five weeks have been a blur of getting back into the routine of work (a particularly busy time at work, I might add), plus squeezing in a few final road trips before the inevitable end of summer.

Before I forget all of the fabulous tasty bits and highlights from our trip, I wanted to share them in a quick recap. There was so much awesome to see and eat, I could've spent the entire summer in London and still not have experienced it all.



Day 1: Started with the perfection that was this americano. Just what the doctor ordered after a 5 hour sleepless, red-eye flight, arriving 3:00AM Newfoundland time or 6:30AM London time! *yawn* lol

Day 1 was pretty low key, we did some touristing about, checked out some scenery and soaked in all the glory that is London.

 

Day 1 also brought my first encounter with carnitas. Yum!

Burrito from Tortilla

Day 2 was our 3 year wedding anniversary and a busy, jam-packed day! We visited Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the guards (which did not happen), Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and the Natural History Museum.

We ate supper at the Skylon Grill. The food was great, but the noise-level was nuts! lol So much for a romantic meal - we yelled the entire time and after 3 requests, I never did get my drink! But again, the food was good, so it wasn't a total loss ;)

I tried pate for the first time and really enjoyed it. Specifically, it was a chicken and duck liver pate with dried fruit chutney and toasted sourdough bread. The rest of the meal was great too - I had butternut squash and sage ravioli with mushrooms and toasted pine nuts (omgyum), while Nick enjoyed himself a giant slab of steak with paprika butter and spuds.

And because it was our anniversary, we just had to have dessert ;) I opted for a dark chocolate mousse with salted peanut praline and Nick enjoyed a Bailey's Creme Brulee. So smance.

Day 3 was an early rise, but well worth it! We did an inner circle tour of Stonehenge and visited Lacock and Bath.

Our first shot of Stonehenge in the morning mist and only our tour on site. Words cannot describe.

Our food highlight of the day was breakfast at the George Inn in Lacock. There we enjoyed a traditional English breakfast and some gorgeous scenery.

In Bath, we enjoyed the most delicious gelato with a view :) Plus a trip to the Roman Baths.

Day 4 was our East End Food Tour!! I contemplated doing a separate post for this but decided I might as well put it all in here. All I can say is that it was fantastic. We ate a lot! Learned a lot! and had the opportunity to stroll around one of the most exciting parts of town. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a true taste of the city. We had the nicest, most enthusiastic guide and ate such good food! Definitely an experience.

As I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who plans to take the tour, I've included just a few snaps from our day.

We stopped at Androuet London for cheese sampling... so much fun! I should also note, we made a return visit post-tour to bring some of the cheesy deliciousness back home with us! :) B'ys were so nice and you could tell they truly loved the product they were selling!

We stopped into Aladin on Brick Lane for a curry sampling - veg/mild, lamb/medium and chicken/hot :) Such a great spot.

We taste-tested a salt beef sandwich on a delightfully chewy and delicious boiled bagel!

And one of my favorite stops was at a small pub for bread pudding and custard. Amazing!

We also had the opportunity to compare our Newfoundland Fish and Chips to London's fish and chips. I gotta say, their fish was just as delicious - they even used cod which I wasn't expecting... or at least they did at Poppies. We tried some mushy peas too and it wasn't half bad ;)

The remainder of our day included a trip to Bond in Motion (amazing!) and Covent Gardens markets.


Day 5 consisted of a second failed attempt at seeing the changing of the guards, a visit to 221 Bakers Street and M16 headquarters... no big deal. Nothing exciting to report on a food front on this day.

         






Day 6 brought another exciting English tradition I had been looking forward to since booking the trip - high tea! It was our first day of 'London Rain' but our umbrella's kept us dry. We visited the Royal Observatory, straddled the prime meridian and popped over to the Queen's House for our tea.

High tea was incredible. We had a gorgeous view of the observatory, plus a fabulous spread of treats including clotted cream! (Side note: Clotted Cream is actually available in Newfoundland at Coleman's!!!)

We hopped a clipper back to the city and visited the clink prison. Then headed to Piccadilly circus to finish our souvenir shopping and feast at Inamo, one of the coolest restaurants I've been in to date!

Day 7 was another awesome day, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Borough market was partially open for lunch when we walked through. I can't imagine the day we would have had if the full market was available, we bought and sampled enough as it was! ;) We also checked out Shakespeare's Globe, London Bridge and London Tower and finished our day at Covent Garden for some paella (another food first).

We were sad to leave, it was such a great trip! Thanks for the time London, hope we see you again some day soon!

xoxo