Day: 13 April 2022

London, April 2022: Tuesday the 12th

Mittens and Sunglasses

Tuesday greeted me with sunshine! From experience, sunny April spring days with +19⁰C isn’t exactly common in London. And I must say, it was really pleasant.


Brick buildings bathed in sun.
Sunny hotel room view
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

A woman with purple hair sitting in the window. In the background you can see brick buildings.
Me at the hotel
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

My first stop was one of my favourite coffee shops in London, Origins. They serve high quality coffee, of a light roast. I had a pour over, i.e. made with a V60. Sitting inside, looking out the window and reading was really nice.


A book on a bench that is a table, the book to the left. To the right a carafle of coffee and a cup of coffee.
Coffee at Origins
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

After having had some coffee, I picked up a light breakfast at a grocery shop, that I had outside on a bench at Bloomsbury. It was nice and relaxing, and a nice way to get ready for some book shopping. The bookshops I was planning on visiting were all close by.


A street with flowering trees
Spring in London
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

The first bookshop to visit was Skoob Books, where I spent quite a bit of time. I love second hand books, and if you’re lucky you might find some really nice books. Not only did I end up buying two books that look pretty much brand new, but I also found some cheap postcards I’m planning on using for postcrossing. Score!


A sign with "Skoob" standing out from the wall.
Skoob Books
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

Next bookshop on my list was Gays the Word, an LGBTQ+ bookshop. It was quite small, and the selection was quite good, but they didn’t have the books I was looking for. I did end up buying some other books, though, as well as a couple of postcards.


A bookshop front, you can see books in the window. The sign above it has pink triangles pointing down, one at each side of the text.
Gays the World
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

I had just one more bookshop to browse before I wanted to head back to the hotel: Judd Books. This bookshop unfortunately came across as a bit chaotic to me. Also it was hard to navigate around, as there wasn’t much room for movement. I didn’t end up buying anything there, nor did I spend much time. When I left the shop, I headed back to the hotel for a rest.


A book shop front, with boxes of books outside. A couple of people can be seen browsing the boxes.
Judd Books
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

In the afternoon/evening I met up with @lovedreadingthis and @always_need_more_books, bookstagrammers I’ve been following for a long time on Instagram. It was really nice to meet them, and having a wonderful conversation of books and more. We had a meal at Art Yard Bar & Kitchen, which turned out to be more of a hotel restaurant than any of us expected, I think, but that’s OK. The vegan burger I had, though, wasn’t great. A bit bland and dense. The chips were lovely, though, so I kind of wish I just had chips.


A plate with a burger on a bun half, the other bun half beside it. Also a bowl of chips on it. Behind it are glasses of water.
Vegan burger at Art Yard Bar & Kitchen
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

After dinner I went back to the hotel. I was shattered tired, and just wanted to relax and get some blogging done. I stopped at Tesco on my way, though, and got some sweets and a strawberry beer that actually tasted OK. It was nice to have a quiet night, and very much needed. I think I pretty much passed out when my head hit the pillow.

London, April 2022: The journey there.

Mittens and Sunglasses

It’s really good to be in London again! The journey here went surprisingly smooth. Since my tickets are SAS plus, paid for with bonus points, I had access to fast track. No queueing at all.

When I arrived at the airport in Oslo, and had checked in, I headed to the lounge. I had plenty of time before my flight to Copenhagen, so I enjoyed some refrehments.

A table with a bowl of crisps, a glass of cola, a glass of apple juice, and a glass of white wine.
Refreshments
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

The reason I flew via Copenhagen, rather than getting a direct fliggt, was that I got my flights on sale. SAS had a bonus point sale, and I was a tad bit late to the ball, so it was either flying via Copenhagen or getting up ungodly early. The choise was easy.

View from an airplane. You can see fields and woods unddr a scattered layer of clouds.
Goodbye, Norway!
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

Arriving in Copenhagen I started hunting for food. I wanted a warm meal. I ended up buying wokked tofu and vegetables with rice, which was supposed to have ginger. I with it had more ginger and less salt, but all in all ot was a totally OK meal.

A white bowl on a table. In the bowl there are rice, and wokked vegetables and tofu.
Dinner
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2022

In Copenhagen I had to go through passport control, and was surprised there was no queue at all. Since I expected it to take a long time, I ended up having plenty of time before my next flight. Fortunately we got to board early, and soon enough I was on my way.

Boarder control at Heathrow was busy, but that’s normal. I think it took maybe 30 minutes before I was out and able to pick up my bag.

Having picked up my bag, I headed to the underground station. I was happy to see my Oystercard was still working, and still containing money. I topped it up, though, just in case, and headed to King’s Cross where my hotel is.

I checked into to hotel, and had the choice of having a room in the ground floor or fourth floor. I definitively prefer it to be higher up, so fourth it was. The room was quite nice, and it didn’t take long before I was under the duvet sleeping.