After a two hour delay, we landed at Heathrow a bit late. I'm prone to motion sickness and had felt incredibly queasy during the landing, so I grabbed an incredibly healthy refined carb "breakfast" to quell my stomachache on the Tube ride into town.
These Hula Hoops were chosen solely on their fun name, and tasted like a cross between Bugles and regular potato chips.
By the way, how awesome are our Oyster Tube cards? We all know I'm a little obsessed with the Royal Wedding...
We arrived at our flat at around 1:30 PM local time (we rented an adorable two-bedroom flat instead of a hotel room...pictures to come!), freshened up, and headed straight to a cute little French restaurant called Cafe Rouge for some real food.
Right across the street from Harrod's, Cafe Rouge had a menu full of authentic French favorites with "healthy" and vegetarian dishes clearly indicated.
Both my dad and I ordered salads. I got the salade de courge rotie, with roasted butternut squash & red peppers, tossed with grilled courgettes, lightly toasted pumpkin & sunflower seeds, crisped flatbreads and a seeded dressing.
And Papa Dukes got the saumon a la nicoise: pan-roasted fillet of salmon on a classic Nicoise salad of potato, anchovy, egg and black olive with mixed leaves dressed in a light vinaigrette.
Both our salads were incredible. I'm determined to re-create mine at home!
After lunch, we decided to make our way to Kensington Palace, the former home of the late Princess Diana. To get there, we had to walk through sprawling Hyde Park, which was beautiful on such a gorgeous, sunny spring day.
The Prince Albert monument absolutely blew me away. How regal and huge is this?!
Kensington Palace is actually in the process of being renovated, and while the construction is taking place there's an "Enchanted Palace" exhibit that features a creative interpretation of seven English princesses who once lived in the palace.
No photos were allowed in the exhibit, but the palace itself was spectacular, and the princess representations were really creative. We did get to snap a picture in the throne room, though- don't I look royal? (Prince Harry, I'm talking to you...)
By the time we were done with the tour, it was already 5 PM! Since the London Whole Foods was just a few streets away from the palace, we decided to stop in for a few breakfast and produce staples.
I told my dad I could have spent hours in there. I've never seen so many new healthy foodie finds!
We purchased cereal, quinoa milk (so excited to try this!), a few bars, produce, several random snacks and two bottles of beer. My dad and I split this Kasteel Cru brut sparkling beer when we got back to the flat- it had a really refreshing, interesting taste, unsurprisingly just like a beer mixed with champagne.
Currently, we're just relaxing for a bit before finding a pub for dinner. I can't wait to keep exploring this city!!
What's your favorite city? In the US, I obviously love Philadelphia and NYC, but overseas Paris is my favorite. I have a feeling London may give the City of Light a run for its money, though!
