Easter Weekend in London, Part One

As you may have seen from Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram this past weekend I spent three whirlwind days in England.  A combination of time off of work, a reasonable flight, and a free place to stay made the opportunity too irresistible not to jump on a plane and head to England.   Yes, I do know that it is more than a little nuts that I was in London 72 hours but if not now, when?  If not who, me?  And it was a BLAST. And because I have a ton coming up, including another trip on Friday, I will try and put all of the weekends great photos into one post, let’s go! 

I took off Thursday evening but with the time change it was mid-morning Friday when I landed at London’s Heathrow airport.  After clearing customs I took the magical express train – the Heathrow Express – which in only 15 minutes from the airport to the heart of the city.  The train drops you off at Padding Station where my friend met me and walked me and my small wheely bag to her “flat” in Marylebone. From there I picked up a much needed coffee and we headed to off to visit The Wallace Collection.  The museum, which is free to the public, reminded me of The Frick in New York City – a gorgeous mansion in the heart of the city filled with priceless artifacts.

From there we had a wonderful wander around the city and ended up on Oxford Street where I was able to pick up a few things on my list and we putzed through a few department stores.  I tried not to include too many photos but my entire weekend in London was hallmarked by the most gorgeous purple wisteria – in parks and on the sides of homes it is in full bloom and smells amazing.  Friday night we stayed local and went to a delicious Italian restaurant in my friend’s  neighborhood called Briciole where everything on the menu was perfect – from the Aperol Spritz and the Arancini, to the beef meatballs and Tagliatelle with wild boar ragout – it was absolutely incredible! 

On Saturday morning we got up early and I pretended to be a local (I wish) and thus only had to pay two pounds to go swimming at the local community pool.  The 30 meter distance was a bit odd but it was great to be able to get a great workout in and after nearly 3,000 meters we had worked up quite an appetite. After the swim my best friends flat mate made us breakfast and we enjoyed a leisurely two hours devouring poached eggs, avocado, prosecco, asparagus, bagels, tea, and smoked salmon.  Yum! 

After brunch we went on a long walk around Regents Park and Primrose Hill which was one of my the most picturesque strolls I have been on in a long time but you are going to have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that!  Stay tuned and really, trust me, one post on my weekend in London with 48 photos would have been just a bit too much!