Three lovely hours in London

I love London, that’s  a well known thing, but I wasn’t delighted with the fact that we have to fly to Croatia with almost eight hours time between connected flights.

We_In_London

Luckily London was again extremely nice to us. It was a bit cold when we arrived  in the morning, but was quite sunny and dry throughout the day. Since we had a lovely flight connection using two London airports (City and Heathrow), we had to pick our luggage first and then leave it somewhere safe. The only train connection between city centre and Heathrow airport is at Paddington station, and we decided to get there first and leave our luggage there. We wasted our first hour traveling to Paddington so we decided to stay around that part of London.

London_Bus

During my second last visit to London in 2010 I’ve arrived to Notting Hill in the evening, after 6pm and famous Portobello market was closed and since Dina was never here we decided to get to Portobello first, and then we planed to see what else can we see in such short stay.

Me_In_London

Until the time we arrived to Notting Hill we were both hungry and craving for a decent coffee so we decided to find any caffe near by. On our great surprise after just fifty meters we were in front of Jamie’s caffe (Jamie Oliver) “Recipease”.

Jamies_Recipease

We did not think too much since we both like him and his show. OK, I have a confession to make. When he started as “naked chef” I was among those who didn’t want to even give him a chance. Prejudice that he can be good chef since he is British, and British cuisine is not on any gastro map known as “wow” were too strong, so I missed his early carrier. Few years later I watched his fight against American fast food and how he tried to introduce healthier eating habits in US schools, his tears when they refused his meals and opted for fast food were kinda breaking point and I started to like him. I watched several different shows later, red some of his articles and tried some cooking techniques, and figured out that I was incredibly wrong.

Recipease_Bakery

Luckily, I now like him so much that I would not mind paying for a culinary course if he would be a teacher. So Jamie Oliver, if you ever end up on my blog, make sure to let me know! 🙂

Anyways, if I liked him so far, I like him even more from Saturday. His caffe is organised as a huge open space kitchen that could ressemble to modern Mediterranean home.

recipease_school

In there, kids and adults can learn how to prepare meals. That means that you can come for your Saturday’s coffee and let kids play in the kitchen, learn something from professionals while you can relax, read a book or do your work on a free WiFi and enjoy your coffee or breakfast. Absolutely awesome concept as when you see a bunch of kids enjoying and making home made pasta, that’s priceless. Besides that meals are nice and not overpriced.

I had awesome toast with wild mushrooms! 🙂

Recipease_Breakfast

Thank you Jamie!

After the breakfast we continued with our plan but after just a few minutes in Portobello we figured out that we’ll have to simplify it. Since weather was nice, and market was fully packed and required slow pace if we wanted to see it properly we would not have had time for anything else. But it did not matter.

Portobello_Market

I love markets and I love being on different places as I usually see some different things and get bunch of cool ideas.

I’ve noticed these bottle holders and wondered why don’t we (in Croatia) offer such different but yet again original useful souvenirs? I know we have one or two pure wood made bottle holders and that’s it, but as you can see, it could be drunk goat in Istria, drunk bear in Lika or even drunk marten (kuna)? OK, maybe not drunk since it holds closed bottle, but let’s say thirsty. 😉

Bottle_Holders

We’ve noticed many nice things, old uniforms, old cameras, watches, fresh food, vegetables, clothes, artworks, bags, old things, new things and everything that you expect from a such place. It would be lovely to live in London for at least a month to explore such places better.

Portobello_Uniform

As we reached the end of Portobello road we found nice bar at Acklam Village Market, where we enjoyed live performance of Innes music and had a cup of mulled vine. We enjoyed our wine and it was time to get back to Paddington, pick up our luggage and reach Heathrow airport.

In the end, train ticket to Heathrow from Paddington was 21 pounds each, while multiple connections subway route cost us four punds (4), so we opted for cheaper version. That means that we were free to be anywhere in London and not arround Paddington area, but we really liked it here. 🙂

ThreeHoursInLondon_Large

Music_Bar

It was a really short visit, but if you know what you want to see, London will make sure to make it even better. 🙂

Dina_In_London

Thank you London!

Till the next one,

Love,

Balky

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