Mittens and Sunglasses

Friday was to be another sunny day in London, but it was also my last day and the day I went home. I thought I would make the best of it, but I can say it as it was: It did not at all go as planned!

I decided I wanted a really nice breakfast, and headed to Mildreds again. As it was a public holiday, they had the Weekend Bunch Menu, with several yummy options. Unfortunately, many of them included the scrambled tofu. “But you love scrambled tofu?” you might think, and the answer to that is yes. I absolutely love scrambled tofu. But I’m also very intolerant/allergic to bell peppers, and Midreds’ scrambled tofu contains lots of bell peppers. I don’t know why they don’t make their food from scratch, or if there’s some sort of prep that makes it impossible for them to make scrambled tofu without the bell peppers, but it is what it is. So instead I went for the gunpowder toastie, with pea spinach & potato, green chilli, smoked cheez, and mango pickle yoghurt. It was very hot, but very yummy and filling. I also had a glass for fresh juice (pineapple, apple, ginger, and turmeric) and a cup of oat latte. Indulging myself before going back to the hotel to relax, just felt like the right thing to do!

Before I left for London, and also while I was there, the British news told us that the airports were all chaos with huge queues. With that in mind, I checked Heathrow’s webpage, to see what information there was on fast track at the airport. The webpage was a bit weird, and from what I could tell, they didn’t have any, due to Covid-19. Having lived in the UK, and been to the UK many, many times, I knew that this information might actually be outdated. They had lifted all restrictions in England not long before, so I thought that maybe they hadn’t gotten around to update the information on the webpage. (They tend to be rather slow at such things in England). I contacted SAS customer service, and asked if London Heathrow had fast track. They told me they would need to check with colleagues, so I just assumed that meant they had to get in touch with employees at Heathrow (especially when they made me wait for over 30 minutes). When they finally came back to me, they confirmed that no, no fast track at Heathrow. In addition to this, there was work on the Piccadilly Line, which is the tube line that takes you from the centre of London to Heathrow.

After checking out of the hotel, I decided to take the tube to Paddington, and then a train from Paddington to Heathrow. The train wasn’t the Heathrow Express, but a regular train, and it didn’t take as a much time as I thought it would. To my surprise, there wasn’t a lot of people on the train, and hardly any queue at the checking (though travelling SAS Plus helps). When i checked in, I was told “the lounge is after fast track security”. I was surprised, to say the leased, and replied “There’s a fast track?” to which they replied “of course!” Turns out Star Alliance have their own fast track. Needless to say, going through fast track took no time at all, and then all of a sudden I had six hours to kill at the airport. No queueing, no waiting, just everything going very smoothly.

Having so much time at the airport meant I could go to the lounge that is pretty far from my gate. Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, and since I had lounge access, I headed to their lounge at Heathrow. That was the right choice! Often Asian airlines are better at vegan food, and I picked up a poké bowl with veggies and edamame beans, as well as some egg free noodles. There were plenty of snacks and drinks as well. The hummus tasted great, so I must admit I had plenty of it. It was nice to just relax and read while waiting for my plane’s departure.

After spending a few hours in the lounge, I headed back to “my” part of the terminal. It was kind of walking in the wrong direction, so it took quite a while to walk there. And then it was time to board the plane and head back to Norway. I spent most my flight reading and drinking white wine.

It was fairly late when we landed, and I picked up my bags and got the train back to Oslo. London was lovely, and I’m already looking forward to my next trip.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was pleased I had managed to sleep a bit longer. I knew I wanted a proper breakfast, though, and headed to one of my favourite cafés in London. Mildreds used to be a vegetarian café, but since I was there last time three years ago, it has turned all plant based. I originally wanted to have scrambled tofu, but it turned out it contained lots of bell peppers, which make me ill. Instead I went for the sausage bap, with tomato chilli chutney, and a pot of tea. It tasted really good!

After being fed, I wanted some coffee. I went back to Origins, as it was close to Mildreds (and the hotel), to relax with my book.

I decided I wanted to go to Camden. There are always lots to look at there, it being shops, people, or just even street art.

Walking around in Camden Town was pretty exhausting (I’m still struggling with tiredness after Covid), so I decided that relaxing in Green Park would be nice. Wednesday was the least sunny and warm day in London during my visit, but at least it didn’t rain. And the park was surprisingly quiet, even though there was lots of people there. Green Park was not far from the Dukes, so that was also a good reason to pick that park to spend some time before heading for afternoon tea.

As I said in a previous post, I had booked at table at the Dukes. The hotel was in one of those small streets, hidden away from the city’s hustle and bustle. It felt rather posh, and I had to wait in the entrance hall to be seated. The Drawing Room, where the afternoon tea was to be had, was decorated with blue colours, and had a small winter garden in the middle. There were plenty of big windows, that let the sun in.

I had the vegan afternoon tea, and I went for a tea called Royal Flush. Like at many restaurants and cafés in London, I was asked about allergies, and due to the cinnamon and bell pepper allergies I have, my menu looked like this:

A Selection of Traditional Sandwiches:
Avocado hummus, pickled cucumber on beetroot bread
Vegan cheese, fig relish on white bread
Shredded cabbage, carrot & apple on granary bread
Grilled courgette, tomato tapenade on rye & onion bread

Sweets:
Pistachio & polenta cake
Beetroot and blackberry financier
Mango & cashew cheesecake
Brownie

Raisin scones & plain scones served with strawberry preserve & vegan clotted cream

The tea was really good, but I was slightly disappointed by the food. You would think a place like the dukes would put more effort into their vegan afternoon tea, but I wasn’t impressed. A couple of the sandwiches were massively over salted, and out of the four, the vegan cheese and fig relish one was the absolute best. I didn’t care too much for the cakes, except for the pistachio & polenta cake, which was lovely. The mango and cashew cheesecake was OK, but in my opinion, it should have tasted more of mango. The scones, on the other had, were lovely, even though it felt as if I was snowed down with icing sugar when eating them.

After having had the afternoon tea, I headed to Waterstones Piccadilly, where I were to meet up with Olivia-Savannah from the YouTube channel Olivia’s Catastrophe. On my way there, I stopped by Hatchards Bookshop, where I just walked around. It’s a pretty nice bookshop, and I even found some books translated from the Norwegian to the English there. (I didn’t buy them, of course, I’d rather read them in Norwegian).

When I arrived at Waterstones Piccadilly, I felt really tired, and went up to the café on the top floor, where I had a glass of cider and read my book while waiting for Olivia-Savannah. I finished my cider after she arrived, and we headed to do a bit of book browsing. So many tempting books. And I didn’t buy a single one!

We went to Shoryu Ramen for dinner, and had some really good food. I hardly ever find good vegan ramen, so I was very pleased. I had such a lovely time, and it was great to talk about books, food, and other random things you talk about. Time just flew by, and all of a sudden it was time to head back to the hotel. I got back by far later than planned, but it wasabsolutely worth it!

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.

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.

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.

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.