London

London, the capital city of our home, the place I have visited innumerable times and each time I find a different pocket that I didn’t know existed. A place that flourishes in summer, suits spill out onto the streets, the hanging baskets explode, the tube temperature creeps up, and the parks are flooded with people seeking some much needed vitamin D. Its early Friday morning high on coffee we step off the train and get hit immediately with a wave of summer city heat and the swarm of rush hour commuters with somewhere important to be. We settled on Leman Locke for the 3 nights we are here and are so glad we did, the room is well thought out with floor to ceiling windows and views over the city reaching as far as Essex we discovered on a clear Saturday morning. Bags dropped off we head in search of my spring summer wardrobe.

My feet start to burn and I realise we are 7 miles in and need some food, luckily stumbling upon Bone Daddies for a monster bowl of Ramen before heading back to the hotel for a quick outfit change and on the recommendation of a few friends head to Luca in Clerkenwell. We didn’t prebook and have to wait a few hours for a table, we spend an hour drinking cocktails at Zetter before heading over but it is so worth the wait. We are in there for nearly 3 hours with the staff fully embracing the relaxed Italian service, taking in over 4 courses washed down with Italian wine and an E Pellicci cocktail for me. A slice of Italy in Central London and one of our new favourite places.

Waking up at 7am with a mouth akin to the Saharan desert we quickly get dressed and head out in search of some food. The croissants in our hotel lobby are too tempting to ignore and my stomach shows me up and grumbles on our way past so we buy a few and a coffee for the walk over to Bermondsey. Shuffling our way over Tower Bridge with the rest of London we finally arrive at Maltby. A Cheese Truck toasty inhaled we settle into a corner of Jensens to escape the pending storm before moving onto Brew By Numbers, Moor Brewing and the Bottle Shop. The crowd is nicely filled with families and friendly groups, we pet all the dogs (including a Boston Terrier called Ziggy) drink copious amounts of alcohol whilst trying to avoid the apocalyptic rain and decide to use our Beer Merchants Crowdfunder reward card and head over to Hackney Wick because we weren’t quite drunk enough.

Jumping off the train at Hackney Wick we are smothered by people in a similar state to us and settle in Howling Hops for ALL the street food before making our way over to Beer Merchants Tap. Everywhere is rammed as the clouds seemed to have inexplicably poured what feels like a years worth of water on us, but thankfully as the evening progresses it quietens off and we are left with an amazing space, chilled crowd, good music and a great drink selection. The draft list had taken a beating, so after half a Huis we dug into a few special bottles from the fridges. At some point after dark we decide its probably time to head back so as not to be too hungover for the theatre tomorrow. I convince Mark that an Aperol Spritz nightcap won’t do us any harm and drink it in bed whilst setting an alarm for the morning.

I wake up and instantly regret the Aperol Spritz I can still taste, I can tell its at least 20degrees outside and we forgot to put the AC on overnight. I convince myself that food will lift this fog and miraculously shower and get dressed and out pre 10am in search of life. We slowly make our way down to Shoreditch enjoying the fresh air and quickly deliberate between Smoking goat that has just started breakfast, The Albion and Dishoom. Smoking Goat is put on the list for dinner later and we have been to Albion so Dishoom wins (it almost always does), Food is ordered with re-fillable Chai and I pray this makes me feel better in time for the theatre in a few hours. It doesn’t but we make it back to Leman in time for an outfit change and a stern word with myself before heading across town to start the Harry Potter marathon. On paper 6 hours of theatre in a day sounded fine, in reality with a hangover the size of East London I was a bit worried. I needn’t have been the show was quite literally spectacular and when we break between shows for a few hours I realise the hangover has dissipated and we are starving. The choice was Barbary or Homeslice but time didn’t permit Barbary and secretly I knew I wanted Homeslice when i saw it pop up a year ago and it did not disappoint. Practically a tyre shaped pizza shared between the two of us and washed down with an Aperol Spritz (there is a theme here i know) I feel 90% better and ready to tackle another 3 hours in the theatre. It was immense and high on Harry Potter and Aperol Spritz we settle on a nightcap at our local The Culpepper before collapsing into bed.

Making a plan for our final day and in desperate need of some fresh air we decide today is the day to take in the best of London architecture and exhibitions. Stop one is the Barbican, the brutalist beauty and our absolute favourite place, followed by a potter around Borough Market and a stop at Taco Pastor for some amazing Taco’s (actual rivals to the Santa Barbara Tacos we inhaled last spring) before a riverside stroll to the Tate Modern. Overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the structure we made a booking for Picasso before taking in the viewing tower and the other free exhibitions. Feeling thirsty the wild Beer Co pop up outside Tate modern sorted us out before wandering down to the Southbank for more Brutalist architecture and a much needed pit stop at Bleeker Burger and the Hop locker. Reluctantly we take in the last few metres of the riverside before ducking underground and onto the homebound train North.

There is something beautiful about London, I am never sure if its the diversity, the architecture, the people or the mixture of towns that make up a city. We love our home and we love visiting London, its just lucky for us its only 2 hours away the next time we fancy a weekend away.