London, United Kingdom

In the middle of June we took a trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  First stop was London.  We spent three days in London seeing friends and doing some of our favourite things.

Westminster Abbey

This is the church where Prince William married Kate Middleton.  It is a beautiful church located in the heart of London. 

St. James's Park and Buckingham Palace
We took a walk through St. James's Park and ended up at Buckingham Palace.  St. James's Park is beautiful and peaceful.

Afternoon Tea

Our friends Cathy and Mandy treated us to afternoon tea at The Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge.  We enjoyed delicious sandwiches (roast beef with horseradish, eggs and cress, and smoked salmon with cream cheese); quiche; a variety of sweet delights (lavender doughnuts, lemon verbena meringue pie, elderflower and berry jelly, dark chocolate and mint cupcakes, and hibiscus and champagne granita) and of course scones (plain and fruit).  Everything was delicious and went down well with the tea.

Holland Park

The NH Kensington Hotel where we stayed is located a short walk away from Holland Park.  On one of the mornings we got up early and went for a peaceful walk through this park.  This park has a beautiful Japanese garden which we also walked through.

Dinner at Hawksmoor Restaurant
We enjoyed a pre-theatre dinner at Hawksmoor Restaurant in Covent Gardens.  We had bone marrow (so good!), potted mackerel, steak, fries and for dessert we all shared a sticky toffee pudding.  All the food was really good.

Miss Saigon
After our pre-theatre dinner at Hawksmoor Restaurant, we went to see Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre.  It was an enjoyable musical, but with a sad and tragic ending.  Unfortunately we did not get to see another musical as we did not have enough time.

Whole Foods Market

Fortunately for us, our hotel was a short distance away from Whole Foods Market in Kensington, so we made a couple of trips there.  We are very familiar with Whole Foods, as it was one of our favourite shops when we lived in Seattle.  

Hyde Park
We took a walk with our friends Cathy and Mandy through Hyde Park, another one of London's beautiful parks.

Dinner at Chotto Matte
We had dinner at this restaurant with our friends Gerry and Achille.  Chotto Matte is located in London's theatre district and it serves Japanese/Peruvian fusion cuisine.  All the food was beautifully presented and everything was delicious.

Borough Market
Borough Market is one of our favourite places in London.  This market sells an array of food and there is a vendor that sells the best Scotch eggs (we had some the last time we were in London and had some again this time).  I was also able to get my hands on some raw milk, a healing food with lots of health benefits and completely different to pasteurised commercial milk.

Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens was closely situated to the hotel where we were staying, so it was easily accessible for a peaceful walk.

The Windmill

While in London we really wanted to have a good pie.  After doing some research, David found The Windmill in Mayfair, whose tag line is "Institute of Pie Excellence".  As it turns out, their pies were excellent, especially the steak and kidney pie that had generous amounts of steak and kidney in it.  What makes these pies extra special is that they are made with suet pastry.   This was a great way to end our visit to London.