London Adventures Part 2!

Hello again lovelies!

As I continue on with my account of my randomings in London I am brought to the day we started out at Le Cordon Bleu. Le Cordon Bleu is a fabulous cookery school that my friend Niamh is dying to go to to study baking and pastry arts and I can totally understand her. Situated in Bloomsbury Square the culinary school has a cute little cafe that opens on to a lovely quiet square and is a perfect picture of peace.

I don't even want to be a baker but I would make the trip to this cafe just to taste everyone of these hand made treats!

Next it was over to Portobello to check out the markets. I have to say Portobello and Notting Hill were my favourite places in London because of the relaxed and cute vintage atmosphere. I could spend hours walking about the pretty pastel houses and imagining what a splendid life I'd have if I too had my own dusty blue townhouse.

Apart from spotting the brilliant Jack Whitehall (he really is very tall in real life) we also came across the book shop where 'Notting Hill', one of my favourite feel good movies was shot.

That day was a very busy day indeed as after Portobello we walked all the way through Kensington Gardens and up to Hyde Park to go row boating.

Before we reached Hyde Park we took a gander at the Italian Gardens which were stunningly beautiful filled with colour and fountains. 

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Checking out the birds.

Now I must admit Niamh and I weren't the best rowers on the lake but we did our best to avoid capsizing or getting hit by other boats.

Gorgeous photo snapped up by Niamh while I was doing the hard work rowing us about. 

I've always wanted to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum because I've heard its exhibits are brilliant. We were lucky enough to visit the Club to Catwalk exhibit which was all about fashion in the 80s in London. We weren't allowed to take photos or videos but let me tell you it was so interesting. Very punk grunge, leather, studs and lots of mannequins dressed in famous iconic outfits, a definite must see if its still on show.

Now at this point in the day we had truly walked our feet to the bones so we decided to treat ourselves to something sweet and what better to treat yourself to than a Humming Bird red velvet!

However this is where it gets interesting. I'd say it was about 7:30ish around this point and we wanted to find a park to eat our well deserved cupcakes in. However there were no parks nearby and we made it all the way through Chelsea without finding a public garden. Instead of parking our bums on a curb or even eating our cupcakes on the way home we trudged on over the bridge and into Battersea park where we collapsed on the first bench we could find.

Poor tired out Niamh!

After devouring our red velvets we decided 9 o'clock was a good time to head home at so we set off in search of a tube station. But to our demise there were no stations on that side of the bridge and we were forced to walk for about an hour to the nearest tube. By this time it was after 10 and Niamh's feet were blistered to high heaven. Luckily I spotted a bus to Waterloo station which we were only to glad to hop on and rest our sorry feet. We didn't arrive home, battered and worn, until 11:30 but it was an interesting adventure no less.

Thanks for reading,

Ciara xxx

London Adventures Part 1!

Hello lovelies!

It has been a long time since we last met and I think you're well over due for a London travels blog. I spent four weeks in the lovely London the first two were spent working in buying at the head office of M&S which was amazing (more on that soon) and the other two weeks were spent with my friend Niamh poking about London central and having a ball at my aunt and uncles' lake house. Yes I said it, lake house!

The day after Niamh graced us with her presence we were off into London to do all the touristy type things. As we came out of Waterloo station we headed straight over to the London Eye and gave Big Ben a visit.

It was Westminster Abbey next where I also had the pleasure of meeting Winston Churchill.

In the spirit of being true Londoners we decided to hop on a few Boris Bikes and cycle our way up to Buckingham Palace. The bikes were great fun but one thing I would recommend when cycling them is knowing where all the drop off points are and literally racing from one to another to find a free portal. Niamh and I checked about five drop off points before having to cycle back out towards Waterloo to get rid of them. 

 

Unfortunately we weren't there when the royal baby was born because that would have been fun but a visit to Cinnabon to taste my first ever cinnamon roll quickly soothed my disappointment. I tell you if there is one thing you do whilst in London it's going to this tiny store and ordering yourself a wonderful, gooey, cinnamony, sweet ball of deliciousness that is otherwise known as a cinnabon.

Warning, the classic ones are so so  much better than the chocolate ones!

A picture of happiness and fulfillment.

The last thing we did on our first day in central London was go to the National Gallery which is utterly amazing and totally free as well! I'm not usually a gallery type person but the National Gallery has lots of famous paintings in their collection by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and pretty much everyone else. I would really recommend a walk about the gallery because it's like no other.

And here is Nelson on his column. 

That's about it for my first day in London it really is such an amazing city and there is so much to do you could spend weeks there. Hope you enjoyed and there is lots lots more to come so stay tuned!

Thanks for dropping by,

Ciara. xx