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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.

With our relocation from one end of London to the other this morning, I didn’t get a chance to pop out for a coffee so had to wait till this afternoon when we were in Camden Market. Most surprising thing really is that for the amount of people here there are only a handful of coffee vendors. Found a little boutique place past the lock near the rail over pass. Very good coffee, even though on this warm afternoon an iced one might have been more appropriate.

This week has been a week of good food catching up with work mates, friends and relatives. On Monday I was by myself. I had to pick up train tickets for a work trip to Slough on Tuesday, so went up to Kings Cross to pick them up, check out the Harry Potter shop and get some dinner. Dinner was meatballs from an Italian restaurant by the station. I then headed down to Angel station to get my bearings as Sharon and I will be staying in this area once I’ve finished work for the week.

On Tuesday morning, I headed up to the “Duck and Waffle” in the Heron building, as it has a fantastic view over this part of the city, plus looks down over the Gherkin. Initially they had no spare tables for breakfast, so I decided to just have a coffee in the bar, but after a few minutes there was a cancellation and I was able to have breakfast there.

Tuesday night I was out with friends, Sophie picked this amazing Peruvian restaurant (Pachamama) in Marylebone, followed up by cocktails in trendy little bar just nearby. I’d never had lamb belly before, delicious and not as fatty as port belly.

Wednesday morning I was off to Slough, west of London for a meeting and decided to get a coffee from the Station on the way. Unfortunately this was a poor choice as the coffee was terrible.

Wednesday night, after a quick beer at the pub with some work colleagues under the Gherkin,  I had dinner with a cousin of mine who lives in London and I hadn’t seen in 20+ years. Kristy picked “TheCulpeper” on Commercial street in the E1 area of London. Dinner started with G&T’s and had some fantastic steak and deserts.

Sharon arrived in London on Thursday, we started in Leadenhall market looking for somewhere to eat, circled around past London bridge then ended up back at Leadenhall in an Italian/Pizza restaurant. We discovered the restaurant was also pictured in the guide book we had on London after we had finished dinner.