London 2013

The first leg of our trip started at London, There are no direct fights from Singapore to Iceland thus we have decided to go through good old London. We planned a short 3 days in London then took WOW air over to Iceland.

Upon arrival at London, we headed to Burger and Lobster to have dinner with Peko and Weiling. We went to the new outlet at Knightsbridge and were fortunate that there was no queue! It was a good catch up and the food was great :)

The name of the restaurant says it all.. there is no menu as they only serve 2 things - Burgers and Lobsters. Everything goes at 20 pounds. All of us went for the lobsters. You can choose between grill steam lobsters and it will come with fries and a small salad. Yum~

The second day in London was dedicated to the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour.

 It's Christmas time at the studio too.

This may sound stupid but I actually thought that the school of Hogwarts castle actually existed. It does seem possible for the exterior of the castle to exist somewhere in the world right? I've seen so many pics of amazing castle online. Well, I was a little disappointed the castle is just a model but also amazed that a camera can  make everything seem so real.  This is the actual model of Hogwarts school. Camera tricks were used to zoom into model to make everything looked real. Cool huh?

Of course there are other settings that were made inside the studio. For example:
1. The Great Hall where the studios have their meals, receive mails from their owls etc.

 2. Harry Potter's room under the stairways when he was staying with his uncle

3. Diagon Alley.. I love this place the best. It was so real as it was bustling with tourist walking all around, just like how it was in the show hah

We had butterbeer which Derrick says it's root beer. I dont like root beer but I like this drink hahah

And it started snowing! They are fake snow that they used on set and only during the Christmas period that the studio will start snowing :)

We ended day 2 with a must do in London - To watch a play. The Book of Mormon is the latest play to hit the town and the tickets were selling like hot cakes! We managed to get 2 tickets after prowling all the tickets booth at 58.50 pounds each. We didn't expect to pay so much but we were glad we decided to go ahead to watch it. It was such a hilarious play and the tunes were stuck in our head throughout the entire trip. If it ever comes to Singapore, I urge everyone to watch it.

Our final day in London was a day of splurging. We made reservations to the first restaurant that Gordon Ramsay opened at the Royal Hospital Road.

The $ was well paid as it came with fantastic food and service as well. We went for lunch as it was almost impossible to get a table for dinner. Having said that, lunch is definitely more worth it too as the set meal you will pay a fraction of what you will have to pay for dinner. Cheers~

I started off with a very pretty salad. It was sweet salad - Black fig, smoked duck and Muscat grape salad with shaved foir gras, Tasmanian mountain pepper and ice verjus

 Derrick had the Globe artichoke 'a la barigoule' with smoked pork belly and summer vegetables. I thought this dish was a little too salty though.

We also ordered pan seared scallops as an extra starter.

For mains, I had Roasted rabbit loin with Bayonne ham, salted baked turnips, toasted hazelnuts and pickled mustard seed.

Derrick had the Miso glazed cod with black quinoa, squid, grilled Shiitake mushrooms and lapsang souchong broth.

 A pic before starting on our dessert

 Derrick had the Roasted pineapple with coriander financiers, coconut sorbet and vanilla cream

 I had the Banana parfait, peanut butter mousse and bitter chocolate sandwich with caramelised bananas

We also had a little surprise from the kitchen to congratulate us for our marriage. We had these extra desserts which were so good! The white chocolate balls were my fav, it has strawberry chocolates inside them.

 The captain kindly gave us a tour of the kitchen while we were at the restaurant. This is Chef Clare Smyth who made all the delicious and artistic plate of food for us. We were totally stuffed after lunch which was totally unexpected. We read reviews that the portion was small and we will leave feeling hungry. Maybe our tummy is smaller? haha

We did spend some time at the National History Museum this trip. Walking in was a like walking into the set of "Night in the Museum". Just outside the museum, there was an outdoor ice skating ring. They are very popular during the winter season as it can be found in every City we went.

Bye London, till we meet again :)