England Day 3: Shopping and Eating in London

Hello whoever is reading this!

Woke up to a glorious 4th of July today in London. It was 58 degrees and rained most of the day. Absolutely brilliant.

But as one of the guides at Chatsworth house told us yesterday, “I mean it’s England, isn’t it, so it’s going to rain and you’re just just going to have to get on with it, aren’t you”. It was not a question.

So today, we got on with it. My friend and I have both already been to London before and have seen many of the sights, so today we decided to enjoy wandering Portabello Road, Notting Hill, and shopping. Not a bad day.

We started with a bakery from a famous chef named Ottolenghi. He has a very posh and expensive restaurant elsewhere in London, but we sampled the pastry selection at his Notting Hill bakery. It was gorgeous, and everything was delectable.

That last one is a cinnamon and sugar brioche bun that completely melted in my mouth. Absolutely delightful.

After breakfast we hit the streets of Notting Hill, heading to find Portabello Road.

This neighborhood is so cute. It has all of those sweet and colorful houses that look like gingerbread houses.

I also found some furry friends, but so far none are coming home with me.

Even though Jimmy isn’t here to stop me

The main attraction of Portabello Road is the street market on Saturdays, but we were there on a Tuesday, so the street was fun with lots of shops, but much quieter than when the market is on.

Paddington bear, however, may be coming home with me. Again, Jimmy’s not here to stop me.

I visited some cute shops including the Notting Hill Book Store, which served as the facade and model for Hugh Grant’s shop in the movie Notting Hill.

They had my favorite bookshop find, Blind Date with a Book (if this is your first time on my blog those are books covered by paper with clues about the plot and you get a surprise).

Then I headed to Biscuiteers for some truly British iced gingerbread.

More pictures of cute places

Another traveling tradition is to find great, locally made, artisan chocolates. On this trip I found Melts, which was a cute little shop with employees willing to let me try samples and put together a lovely gift for Jimmy. Because he’s not here to stop me.

By that time it was time for a lunch break. Shopping is hard work, and chocolate and cookies do not a meal make.

A pub we were hoping to drop into wasn’t open for lunch, but they do serve up some ale for those walking by at ground level.

We found some lunch on Portabello Road, but the food wasn’t great so I’m not sharing it here. If you go to area, let me know and I’ll steer you away from it.

After lunch we took a little siesta, then hit the tube to a new part of town to visit a very famous shop, a place where every London shopper just pilgrim to.

Yep, we went to Harrods. It was huge, it was crowded, and so ornate. Honestly, it was all a bit overwhelming for me.

But I did but a card and got my little green Harrods bag.

Our plan for the evening was to grab dinner at a food hall near convent garden, then try to catch the stage production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

But first, shenanigans

Fitting pub name. I refused to be in the pic

In homage to Agatha Christie the food hall was called Seven Dials Market, and we loved it. We had everything from Uzbek dumplings, to Syrian lamb, to guava glazed fried chicken. And AMAZING iced chai. The atmosphere was fun and lively, with lots of young people and live music.

After dinner, we headed over to St Martin’s Theatre to buy our tickets.

Where we were told it was sold out. Which was sad. I had checked online earlier and tickets were still available, but an hour before the show they were all gone. So if you go, buy tickets ahead.

Instead, we wandered the area.