Last Day in Lovely London

On Thursday, our last full day in beautiful London, we did as any good Anglophile would do and tried our first Afternoon Tea. After months of searching for the perfect venue, I decided on Hotel Cafe Royal and I am so glad I did! Because you don’t just pick any ol’ place to cross an item off your bucket list, my friends!

We passed through an arch of imperfectly yet perfectly arranged garden flowers and greenery into this stunning gilded and mirrored room. The pianist filled the opulent room with an endless stream of impeccably performed melodies, which enhanced the overall feeling of being in absolute paradise. A true delight to all of the senses!

And then came the real fun…

To start, I ordered a Silver Needle tea and Nate had the Triple Mint. Both were the perfect accompaniment to our tasty snacks, of which we were told we could “eat and drink as much as we pleased”. Challenge accepted.

Pictured above is the savory portion of the meal and though those little finger sandwiches don’t look like much, my goodness were they delectable and so filling!

From the top there was cucumber dill and a goat cheese and cheddar muffin (can’t remember the exact name but I ate four of them they were so good LOL).

In the middle row, smoked salmon and coronation chicken salad – my favorite plate if I had to choose!

On the bottom, egg salad and ham and cheese, again amazing.

Next came the really really fun bit – dessert! Unfortunately, by the time we ordered dessert, I had stuffed myself so much on two towers of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had, that there was barely any room left for these little delights. 

Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from indulging in my favorite food group in the past and I wasn’t about to let it stop me today!

So cute, so tiny, but so rich and filling.

With great determination, I feasted on yet more tantalizing treats.

*Worth it*

After eating our body weight in finger sandwiches and tiny gold flecked desserts, we decided to promenade up Regent Street then Oxford Street and all around Piccadilly Circus to use up some of those excess calories.

Later that day we took a little black cab home to drop off our goodies, then hopped on the train to Knightsbridge to…you guessed it, Harrods. What a disappointment. We arrived at about 5:30 pm and every floor of the entire store was SO PACKED with people taking pictures, shopping and just being there to crowd the joint I guess. It was actually difficult to move around because of the volume of people in some areas, not unlike our rush hour ride home on the Piccadilly line.

We saw two floors of Harrods and then as claustrophobia started to set in, made a mad dash for the door. I don’t know if or when there is a “good” time to go to Harrods, but I found Selfridges over on Oxford St. to be much more fun!

On our layover at Heathrow I was able to shop at the airport Harrods and get everything I wanted without hoards of people and tax free! I definitely recommend doing your actual Harrods shopping at the airport store and your sightseeing – if you aren’t claustrophobic – at the Knightsbridge store.

The day ended with a quick stop for dinner in Kensington and a stroll around that beautiful part of London that we called home for the week. I didn’t get any photos of the place we went for dinner on this particular night, but everywhere we ate, we ate very well. Then back to the hotel before the sun fully set for a full night’s rest before our train ride to Edinburgh – stay tuned!

♥Mia