36 hours in the big smoke

When you're self-employed, there's always a reason not to take a week off or even a long weekend.  We live in fear of all the things that could go tragically wrong in our absence whilst all the while knowing that our capable staff don't really need us at all.  But our control freakery has resulted in an unexpected joy - the one night weekend break. It's completely amazing how much you can squeeze in to 2 days when you put your mind to it.

So we thought you might like to have the whistlestop tour of our 36 hours in the big smoke with little & local highlights.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, first stop Spitalfields.  There's a market on a Sunday (mainly clothes and gifts) so worth a wander, although to be honest there's something flat about the atmosphere there and it just doesn't feel as buzzy as it should despite the fact that it's packed full with stalls and visitors.  We didn't quite make it this time round but a visit to Columbia Road is a much better bet.  The Sunday Flower Market is busy, loud and beautiful and the street is lined with little independent shops, many of which only open on the weekends including one of our suppliers, Bob & Blossom, who have a little shop here.

If you love vintage and cakes (and that's a match made in heaven in my book), be sure to visit Vintage Heaven stuffed full of mid century and retro finds with a cafe at the back called the Cake Hole.  Join the crowd stuffing theirs and enjoy.

After the market, we headed off to Covent Garden to the London Transport Museum.  They're having an exhibition of London Underground Poster Art which we wanted to see (slightly addicted to travel posters so this was a no brainer!) with 150 brilliant illustrations on show.

At the risk of sounding slightly train spotterish, the whole museum was fab and would be great for kids.  An amazing insight into London's social history.

Then off to the Manet Exhibition at the Royal Academy for an evening viewing.  The Academy building is beautiful and they always seem to have something good going on.  I think it ends any time now so you'd have to be quick to get tickets.

Finally, and starving hungry, we set off back towards the hotel.  Shoreditch has loads of Vietnamese restaurants and we found one called Cay Tre on Old Street, 2 minutes away from the hotel.  They just about qualify as little and local with just 4 branches in London serving authentic food in simple surroundings.  Don't be put off by the underwhelming exterior - our lamb neck curry and Indochine lamb were delicious.

Then on Monday morning, I fell a little in love.  This is Pitfield London, an emporium of things old and new....

along with a cafe serving up a huge selection of cakes.  We can highly recommend the Cherry & Almond Tart and the Carrot Cake.  If we'd had more time, we may just have stayed put until lunch to sample the delights of their flatbreads and salads.

But our attempt to be committed tourists dragged us away and we headed off to the British Museum under the misguided notion that we could just waltz in and buy tickets to their much-promoted Life & Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition.  It turns out that when they say 'booking essential' on the website, they really mean it.  Who knew?  Apparently, the next tickets available are on 4th May!

No matter.  We got to see the wonderful Great Court with its curved glass roof designed by Sir Norman Foster and enjoyed a stroll through the Egyptian rooms, bringing back childhood memories of learning about mummies and pyramids.

With an hour or so to kill before our train, we nipped over to Harrods.  I'm not a designer handbag kind of a girl so there's a huge part of the shop that's of no interest to me.  But the building itself is stunning.  And I could happily take up permanent residence in the food hall.  It's also an inspiring place to see retail merchandising at its best.

It made our day when we stumbled upon this display....

of jams, chutneys and biscuits from Cartwright & Butler - a company from little old Beverley no less.