🇬🇧 Market meanderings

Today, Sunday 27th we decided to hit some of the markets of London.  We walked to them all.  Another 9 km hike!  As we crossed our street the local squirrels tried to get a head start.

On our walk we walked past the cat cafe.  It hadn’t  opened yet but all the cats were running around waiting for the first customers.

BRICK LANE

Our first stop was Brick Lane. The shops were a bit funky with a gourmet chocolate shop which was a must stop. We shared a great Chilli hot chocolate. We saw some more vintage clothing shops too. The market on the street was full of the usual average stuff.

SPITALFIELDS MARKET

We then went to Spitalfields market. This is a large indoor market with stalls and shops. We tried our next burger place Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  We have already tried Byron Burgers.  GBK was very good – we had a spicy satay chicken burger which was full of flavour.

UK APPRENTICE

We kept walking, each labyrinthine turn revealing more of the culture of this amazing city.  Always something new to see.  We are both fans of the UK Apprentice and were excited to find the building where it was filmed.  Mr Alan Sugar’s office is inside the building which has been nicknamed the gherkin.

It was almost as if we had been fired.  That is what Alan Sugar says. We are huge reality TV fans!

TOWER BRIDGE

Then we crossed over the Thames where it had been redeveloped really well.  Lots of warehouse style apartments.  After that we crossed Tower Bridge, a truly iconic bridge of London.

Yes a stop for what else??? Popcorn!!! Rob can’t walk past a popcorn stand at the Christmas Markets.

WESTFIELD STRATFORD

The queues for the Tower of London on the other side were quite imposing so we skipped that and hopped on a tube (as we didn’t want to face the 2 hr walk) and went to the new shopping centre built for the London Olympics  – Westfield Stratford.

The shopping centre was big and the crowds were horrendous.  This was the most exhausting part of the day and one neither of us enjoyed.  We stayed for as little time as possible, just a little food shopping in M & S.  I found Rob the perfect card to cheer him up after getting trapped in the crowds.  I think I really enjoy online shopping at least you can see what you are buying.

We thought after such a long day we would unwind with a movie.  Little tip for everyone – if you want to unwind after a long day in London – Magic Mike XXL is not your movie!