Courtney & Ryan arrived in London Friday afternoon. Shane and I both took a half-day so were ready and waiting for them when they arrived at our flat. After Courtney and Ryan settled in, we headed to our local, Sir Richard Steele, with Martha. Martha was most excited to see Courtney and Ryan, she wouldn't stop wiggling, so she definitely was not letting us leave the flat without her. After catching up with a pint at our local, we dropped Martha at home and walked up to Hampstead for a pub dinner. After dinner,wWe couldn't leave Hampstead without taking Courtney & Ryan to our favorite Hampstead pub, the Holly Bush, so we made one last stop before heading home for the evening.
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast at a nearby cafe and strolled to Primrose Hill to take in the view of the London skyline. After Primrose Hill, we took the tube to Tower Hill to walk around the Tower of London and cross Tower Bridge to Bermondsey. We spent our afternoon on the Bermondsey beer mile, a strip known for its craft brewers and street food market. We made two stops on the beer mile before grabbing lunch at the market. Our favorite place on the beer mile was Hiver, a London brewer who uses local honey in its beers. It started raining when we were at Hiver which enabled us to try all their honeybee products and purchase their honeybee salt scrub!
We headed home after the beer mile to freshen up for dinner and to meet Angie & Eric who were in London looking at flats; they're moving to London this summer! We booked Indian for dinner on Saturday night at one of our favorite, most chaotic places - Tayyabs. Dinner lived up to our expectations - getting seated, and waited on, was chaotic but the food was very tasty! After dinner, we had a booking at a new cocktail bar - The Sun Tavern. I led the group there, via an interesting route, and when we arrived the exterior of the place had everyone a tad worried about the place I had chosen. Luckily, the vibe inside was lively and our Scottish server made our cocktail ordering and taking all the more fun!
We woke up the next morning in time to grab breakfast before Ryan & Shane needed to head out for the Arsenal match. After Ryan & Shane left for the match, Courtney & I headed to Hampstead to collect our ingredients for the Shepard's Pie that Courtney, and I as her sous chef, were making for dinner that evening. We started at the organic produce shop, moved on to the Butcher shop, then the wine shop and made one last stop at the grocer for a final couple of items. After dropping our things at home, Courtney took me on a tour of her old stomping grounds - Courtney spent a summer in London in college. We went to her local off Baker street, grabbed lunch on James Street and wandered through Carnaby Street. After a solid afternoon of walking, we were on the tube home to start prepping dinner for the evening. The Shepard's Pie was absolutely fantastic - we all had seconds!
We were all off to Heathrow early the next morning; Courtney & Ryan heading to Italy and Shane & I on our way to Northern Spain. It was so fun having Courtney & Ryan in London and not as hard to say good-bye as we would be seeing them a few days later in Rome!
No comments:
Post a Comment