Michelle's Travel Adventures

First Stop, London!

This 16 day trip was Makena’s graduation from Dalhousie University gift, so naturally she got to choose the destination. She picked Spain, so since we have family in London we thought it would be a nice idea to make a touchdown in London for a few days first and spend time with our UK family before heading to Spain.

We flew to London direct from Halifax on April 27 with Air Canada.  I cannot overstate how much we loved having a direct flight.  No back tracking to Toronto or Montreal, no worrying about connections etc, or the dreaded 5:30AM departure from Charlottetown!

We arrived in London around 9pm and Stephen’s cousin Monique had a driver arranged to pick us up at the airport and take us to Uncle Donnie’s flat in Cobham, Surrey where Monique and her partner Mark met us. After lots of hugs, and touring Uncle Donnie’s new flat, we enjoyed a nightcap of gin and tonics before we called it a day and headed to bed.

London: Day 1

On our first full day, we took the train from Cobham into London, getting off at Waterloo station. Thanks to Monique who gave us a crash course on how to “train” (we don’t have trains on PEI so we needed a refresher lol) it was an easy 45 minute train ride into downtown London. We walked over the River Thames on one of the pedestrian bridges and were able to see the London Eye and Parliament. It was a gray sky morning and it looked like it was about to rain on us at any moment, but luck was with us that day and not a drop of rain fell! From the bridge we wandered through Covent Garden. Stopping for photos at at Mr Fogg’s Tavern where they had a beautiful floral door display. We wandered through China Town, exploring the markets and shops. Then we headed to see the iconic Big Ben! We arrived in London a week before the King’s coronation so Big Ben had just been polished and the gold of the clock tower was sparkling! The crowds were bananas down there so we didn’t stay long. From there we walked along the Birdcage Walk to Buckingham Palace. A massive amount of work was being done in the area, setting up bleachers and gating off observation areas for the anticipated crowds for the coronation. The Mall looked spectacular all decked out in Union Jack Flags.

The highlight of our day in London was definitely our lunch at Nopi!  We are big Ottolenghi fans and we were so excited to try out one of his restaurants.  We started with cocktails, Charlie Chaplins (so delicious!) for myself and Macy and an Old Fashioned for Makena and Stephen (of course) had a beer! When we travel we always eat family style. We order a bunch of dishes for the table and then we split them so we can try multiple dishes.  For starters we had:  Burrata with roasted rhubarb, Aubergine with tahini yogurt, Marinated beet root with sumac chutney, and Roasted parsnip with black garlic.  For mains we ordered Glazed pork belly with endive and grapes,  grilled lamb cutlet with almond coconut curry and a side of baharat buttered new potatoes.  For dessert we had a mastica ice cream and a chocolate something…I can’t remember exactly what it was, but trust me it was delicious! Sooooooo good! 

After lunch we headed downstairs to the loo (AKA the bathroom) where we discovered the entire bathroom was wall to wall mirrors. Literally every surface was mirrored! Kinda trippy, but also kinda fun, so of course we had to take some loofies!!!

After lunch we wandered Soho, saw Piccadilly Circus, the Canadian Embassy, crossed the River Thames again and back onto the train to Cobham.  Monique picked us up at the Cobham station and took us back to the flat.  We had a little down time before we headed to the local pub for dinner with Monique, Mark and Ava.

Our night at the local pub in Cobham, we felt like we were an episode of Ted Lasso!

London: Day 2

We met up with Monique, Mark and Ava mid morning and explored the town of Cobham.  We walked along the river, it was so beautiful with all the trees in full bloom and vibrant green every where you looked.  The local shops were so cute, and the streets in Cobham were even decked out with the Union Jacks for the Coronation.  We had lunch and coffee in town and then headed to Monique and Marks for a pitcher of Pimms Cups.

We were so taken with how beautiful Cobham was, and we were saying to Monique and Mark that it reminded us of the movie The Holiday. They laughed and told us that the movie was actually filmed in a nearby town called Shere, and to hop in the car and they’d take us there! We got to live out our Cameron Diaz Holiday fantasies! Shere is an adorable village and the Pub looks just like it did in the movie!

After exploring the quaint village of Shere, we headed back for dinner in Cobham with Monique, Mark, Ava and Mark’s son Sacha. Dinner was delicious, I finally got to try a UK sparkling wine (it was very good!) We had lots of laughs and we were sad to part ways at the end of the evening part we had to Barcelona in the morning!