Burritos, backrubs, and a cupcake

Sunday was back to a traditional day of fun – get the tube into London and wander aimlessly. We got off at Charing Cross station, walked to Trafalgar Square and discovered that there was a Hare Krishna festival happening – lots of food stalls around the square and the smells were amazing.

We went into the National Gallery for a mooch amongst paintings that are so well known and yet different each time you look at them. I have several favourites that I like to see whenever we go. The first is a very large painting of the horse Whistlejacket by George Stubbs – it is a huge canvass with the horse against a plain background. The next is any by Monet but especially the Water Lilly Pond – a painting so familiar because of it’s fame but standing in front of the original is still a thrill. The final painting I’ll mention is one by Henri Rousseau entitled Surprised. It features a tiger crouching in the jungle – my beloved is so gorgeous as he bought me a small copy of it for our flat.

If you’re ever in London you must go to the gallery – it’s free to enter and there is so much to absorb you need to give yourself a long time or go back regularly. You’re not allowed to take pictures inside (understandably) but I very cheekily took a picture of the beautiful flower arrangement as it features one of my favourite flowers, the gladioli – they always make me think of Nanna H.

When we came out of the gallery, seemingly out of nowhere three very large carriages had appeared – when we got home I googled the event to discover that the celebrations were for Rathayatra which includes the chariots. This was the 46th celebration in London and the chariots had travelled from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square accompanied by people singing and dancing in the streets.

This is my arty shot – chariots, Lord Nelson atop his pole, and big Ben in the background

We then wandered on and found a lovely little Mexican restaurant for our lunch called Benito’s Hat – we had baby burritos (the normal ones were huge) one with chipotle chicken and one with pulled pork. It was a really good find and will be back again (if we can remember where it is).

On our wanderings after lunch we came across the below waistcoat in a shop window – it has cute coloured sheep all over it, very smart.

Our next mission was to find our usual day out treat – you guessed it, coffee and cake. We walked through Covent Garden where there are always street performers and buskers – the girl below was very good. I was watching her perform while Ken had found a car to perve on.

We finally found somewhere with very scrummy looking cakes – reassuringly they tasted even better.

I forgot to mention that it was father’s day here in England on Sunday so on behalf of the brats and Bertie I was spoiling Ken – that included a back and shoulder massage. It was a walk in centre and I had one as well – it was really lovely.

Here’s a couple of pictures showing some of the interesting buildings that are around every corner in London.

Our final stop was at TGI Friday’s for a drink – mine was a Pina Colada Mocktail and Ken’s was a Virgin Cuba Libre (big bang fans will know what that is).