Day: June 18, 2017

Unfortunaley no time for coffee with Margot, Jerrry, Barbara and Tom… 😦

Today we are off to Hampton Court, about 20km south west of London. That will be a subject of a later post. The train to Hampton departs from Waterloo so we had to make our way here first. 

Easier said than done, as the line we had planned to use to get here was closed, so it took a bit longer than expected. We then had a 30min wait for a train, so excellent opportunity to grab a coffee for the morning. 

Unfortunately Waterloo suffers like most large train stations, no good coffee. All chain based stores. Coffee was from “Upper Crust”. As far as train coffee goes it certainly wasn’t the worst I’ve had (better than the one from Paddington last week), but no where as good as yesterday from Camden Market or Association coffee near the Gherkin.

This morning was quite warm, 20c by 8am. We packed up everything in prep for our move from Philpot Lane up to Chapel Market in Angel, Islington. We were out of the apartment by 10.30am and just grabbed a Black Cab on the street. The ride cost £15, which was only £10 more than the tube would have cost us, so a bargain considering we don’t have to drag all the luggage up and down the maze that is the Northern line.

Luckily we were able to check in early and dump everything in the apartment before heading out to check out the markets just here in Chapel St, then head over to Camden Market. Its been very warm here today, almost 30c, so ended up buying some sun lotion before getting the tube over to Camden.

Camden Market is amazingly huge, It just keeps going and going. I don’t think we covered the whole of it, and it has some great stalls. It has the normal touristy shite shops, but also has some really unique things. The range of food is also incredible. Sharon had calamari and chips near the lock, I had one of the most delicious burgers I’ve ever had, a spiced Lamb burger. I also found a place to have my daily coffee, which was pretty good. Although compared to home there were hardly any places selling coffee, only a handful of vendors. We also had some incredible ice-cream, hand made on the spot in front of you using liquid nitrogen.

Walked back to Camden Market station, it was crowded and the escalators down were broken so everyone was going down a massive spiral staircase. We got of at Kings Cross Station to pick up our tickets for Hampton Court tomorrow and grab some things from the Harry Potter shop on the station here.

My last day in the office today before holidays start on Saturday. Started the day with Coffee at Association, followed up by a quick trip out to East India in the dockland to visit  our data centre (The computers have a fantastic view over the city). After a few pints with the team from the London office it was time for a curry up on Brick Lane. Went to my favourite one there “City Spice”. We of course had the UK’s most popular dish, Chicken Tikka Masala.