Day 1 - Thursday 1st December

I am writing this the day after Boxing Day, so I will do my best to recall these events.

We were blessed with very good weather for this trip to London, it was cold and dry which meant we didn't have to pack wet weather clothes.

We had plenty of time when we changed at Leeds to get some pastries from Laynes. I got my usual cinnamon bun and Kathryn had a pecan breakfast bun, which was more like a Yorkshire pudding texture than bread.

We had a good journey down. We were sitting opposite each other, the train got a little busy at one point, and it wasn't helpful that it was two trains joined together. So there was a lot of people 'stuck' in the wrong train until the next station. The weather was the same down in London, and we quickly made our way to South Kensington, after a brief viewing of the shop at St Pancreas.

We had a quick sandwich at Pret, before getting a coffee. Unfortunately the hotel suite wasn't ready and so we dropped our bags and went out.

We got the tube to Knightsbridge and had a look around Harvey Nichols, before walking back via the Ottelenghi deli.

We got slightly caught out, as we hadn't checked beforehand. But it turned out that the 'test kitchen' had closed, and a new 'deli' opened in a slightly different area. We followed googlemaps, but we felt a bit unfamiliar. We eventually found it, and it's quite different than before, with a huge cafe areas for indoor dining. It makes sense, but it was also a bit disappointing as it certainly felt like a hidden spot before. We did get many yummy things to take away.

We got back to the hotel, and even though it was 3pm, our room still wasn't ready. And so, we got to have a complimentary drink in the cafe. This was actually really nice. We usually get afternoon tea down here but have done that loads so opted to not do that this time. But it is a nice atmosphere and we only had to wait 15 minutes or so before the room was ready.

The suite was great, really spacious. We hadn't stayed in this one before. It was on the corner which felt like it was probably the best one. There was a little cute balcony which was totally private. The other ones are usually joined to the adjacent room.