another day in london, more food, more shopping

Off to Russell gardens for breakfast. A glorious location and great little café with wonderful pastries.

Walk into town and pop into a few shops, including TKM near Covent garden. Quite upmarket. Menus cloths reduced from £3000 to £990. And that's just a jacket.

Gave it a miss, the size was too small.

Into Soho and lunch at ARBUTUS. Excellent food and service, and the wine by glass was very special and value for money.

The starter of crispy pigs head was served as a warm terrine, with pickled radish and mash with seeds

Crispy top, juicy, tender and full of flavour. Magnificent.

The main was even better, lamb breast slow cooked in a wedge with the fat rendered down and served with sweetbreads and grilled costs lettuce. Excellent. Once again the flavours were intense, the meat so tender it melted in your mouth but with a crispy touch.

The set menu at 19.95 was very reasonable and included sweets. Judith chose the egg custard tart, which she adored and l had the creamed pumping with milk ice cream and caramelised apple. Tasty, but the apple was rather overpowering, but that's my taste.

Jut a short walk down to Trafalgar Square and the portrait gallery. Have never been here before and it was excellent.

Only managed six rooms, but they were fantastic. Just wish we had more time. Could have sat and looked at some of the paintings for hours. Only problem, the seats were fill and people kept walking in front. No breeding.

They had great shops throughout the gallery, along with what looks like and is purported to be a very good restaurant, and also a espresso bar with internet and charging posts.


Still running we headed to Covent Garden to see the street theatre and the Christmas decorations. Standing room only. In fact it was a little like being in the scrum at Twickenham.

It was dark by the time we moved away to the ice skating rink at Somerset House. A true Christmas atmosphere.

A pop-up version of the classic Fortnum & Mason Piccadilly store, with prices to match was situated along one wing. Not that it stopped people buying. F&M carrier bags where everywhere. They also had a wine bar and restaurant serving Fortnum’s famous Welsh Rarebit, sweet and savoury tarts, bowls full of piping hot fondues washed down with schnapps, cocktails and champagnes, and their special tipsy hot chocolates and mulled cider.



There was a moving exhibition of photographs of injured military. Wounded: The Legacy of War,

Photographs by Bryan Adams of young British servicemen and women who have suffered life-changing injuries on military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Featuring over 30 portraits on public display for the first time in the UK, the startling series honours the war heroes of today and highlights the plight of wounded personnel.

Brings you back to earth.

Have never been to Somerset house before, another first. The interior was split into pop up shops, exhibitions, restaurants and cafes. . Superb.

We had eaten so much we settled for a meat platter, fresh prawns, grilled peppers, French stick and a chilled bottle of wine from M&S and took it back to the hotel