Had an Epic London Adventure Day

It had been far too long since my friend (and fellow bell-ringer) Alison and I had seen each other. Her blog, Hilltop Thoughts and Thinks, is rather good - go check it out!

To remedy the "it's been too long" situation, we planned a Grand Day Out in the Big City. For starters, there are a surprisingly large number of people on the 7:30am train from Stowmarket on a Saturday morning. You're welcome.

My train arrived half an hour before Alison's, so I scooted over to Paddington to meet her (having procured a Starbucks first, of course). 

The roof in Paddington station is particularly excellent.

Alison's train was a little late (love you, National Rail), so I had time to go to the Paddington Shop. My purchase there will be the subject of a future blog post, as it is currently packed in a box, along with most of my other possessions.

We started off at the V&A, as it's my Favorite Museum Ever and Alison had never been. We saw tapestries, jewellery, religious relics, Lion King costumes, and all of the ironwork.

Seriously. All. The. Fences. And Railings.

Alison, with ironwork:

Squiggly fence:

We really enjoyed the Jameel Prize exhibit (and then got yelled at for taking pictures, which are allowed all through the rest of the museum). Oops.

This carpet was utterly brilliant.

And this "tiled" floor is actually made of spices. Shut up. I was about to take a picture of the sign so I could tell you who the artist was when I had to put the camera away. My bad.

Having read about it on Alice's blog, Quaint Living, we had lunch at Tombo. Very tasty.

We continued the Geekery with the London Walks Harry Potter tour. Our guide was excellent, the tour was really interesting, and it was a beautiful afternoon for a walk!

Big Ben.

Leaving Westminster station (thankfully, no Dementors were spotted).

Check out that scarf!

The Ministry of Magic:

Nelson, atop his column:

The Fourth Plinth:

St Martin in the Fields:

Ambulance people with bicycles:

Diagon Alley!

After all of that, we needed a reviving Bubble Tea. YUMSTERS.

We walked up to Oxford Street, down to Hamleys, and back to Chinatown for Korean food, at Corean Chilli. It wasn't the best Korean I've ever had (New York's Koreatown has spoiled me), but it was warm, spicy and thoroughly reviving.

According to my pedometer, we did over 25,000 steps (my normal average is about 10,000, and my previous record was 18,000). It was a super day out and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!