It's the weekend!

Bright and early Saturday morning, and off to Bicester Village I went! Bicester is an hour's train ride from Marylebone station. On the way, we passed rolling fields complete with blooming daffodils and grazing ponies. This very English experience was marred only by the numerous PRC students chattering away in the same carriage. We also went past the Bicester town Magistrates' Court, which is a charming little brick building, which cannot have more than 4 or 5 rooms inside. The Village itself is well done, much nicer than Woodbury Common, but with far fewer stores. I hardly bought anything in the end, but it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the sun and countryside fresh air. I had a swedish meatball in tomato ragu wrap from the ubiquitous Pret a Manger for lunch. After shopping for nearly 4 hours, I returned to drizzly, grey London at around 5 to meet WH at Leceister Square for a Japanese dinner.

In the evening, we headed to the Saint Martin in the Fields, a lovely church in Trafalgar Square for their gala concert. The concert was the culmination of a 3 week long celebration to mark the renewal of Saint Martin. We found ourselves tucked away in a corner pew on the second level of the church. We could barely see anything but the acoustics were fantastic! The orchestra of the Saint Martin's Academy joined forces with the church's choir to perform Bach's Fantasia in G and Haydn's Symphony No 44, but it was Mozart's Mass in C minor that really took the cake.

On Sunday, our first stop was to Royal China for dim sum. Royal China opens at 11am, and if you're ever thinking of going, you would be well advised to get there at 11am on the dot. By the time we were halfway through the meal, it was a madhouse outside the restaurant as people queued to get in. By the way, the egg tarts are amazing, as good as the best ones in Hong Kong.




Immediately after brunch, we dashed off to Waterloo station to catch the train to Windsor Castle. We were quite excited as there was a royal wedding at Saint George's Chapel in Windsor just the day before! Peter Phillips, the Queen's eldest grandson married Canadian Autumn Kelly as the rest of the Royal family watched on. Unfortunately, we didn't run into Prince Harry, although it wasn't for want of trying. It was the perfect day to visit Windsor as the sun was out and the temperatures fairly cool. We wandered through Queen Mary's doll house, as well as the State apartments, which contains grand ballrooms that Queen Elizabeth II still uses for official functions. The apartments also contain an impressive array of artwork, including a captivating self portrait of Rembrandt in a turban, and a painting of the young QEII at her coronation.







The castle closed at 5pm, and we headed to an ice cream shop around the corner for waffles and ice cream. We then decided to attend the evensong service at Saint George's chapel. The chapel is fantastic, and the flowers (probably left over from the wedding) were amazing. It has been a long time since I've attended a traditional Church of England service, and I really enjoyed the chorale music. After the service, we caught a train back to London in time for dinner. As the tagline goes, "If you haven't been to Khans, you haven't been to London", so how could we not have at least one dinner at the famous restaurant along Westbourne Grove? WH, WH's friend and I shared butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, prawn briyani, naan, daal and that creamed spinach thing with potatoes. Yums!

Weather:

Cold and rainy in London but sunny in Bicester on Saturday
Cool and windy in Windsor on Sunday