I’ve just been collating all the posts I’ve done over the years from London (see here). I have a few photos to add, which were taken on my last visit to London at the end of August/September 2022. Most of the time I was up in Yorkshire visiting my family but did have a couple of days in London, one at the end of the trip just after the Queen had died which I posted about before (see here) and one at the beginning.
Since this was Mlle’s first trip back since she’d left London (virtually overnight when borders were closing at the start of the pandemic in March 2020) we revisited some of her old haunts in the Queens Park and Maida Vale districts. It was interesting to be back in London after a long hiatus – it was August Bank Holiday so quite a few places were closed but we had morning coffee at Gail’s Bakery, a pleasant stroll around Queens Park where the leaves were just starting to turn autumnal and lunch (pizzas) at the Salusbury Pub, “Queens Park’s original gastro-pub”.
As usual we walked miles and miles in London, far further than we normally do in our day-to-day lives here in Perth!
After lunch we did take the tube, though, as it was bit too far to walk into central London and we wanted to explore the Covent Garden markets (I’ll do another post about that). Earlier in the day we caught the tube from Heathrow Airport to Paddington Station using the newly opened Elizabeth Line. It was about 6.00 am so maybe not surprising that we had the carriage to ourselves. The rail link had been opened by the Queen just three months earlier in one of her last public engagements (see here). We certainly managed to visit London at an historic moment in time quite by accident – quite surreal to think of the shift that occurred between the day we arrived in London and the day we left just over two weeks later!
Copyright © 2022 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose
Le Chic En Rose 
It is always lovely to visit London and see places that are off the beaten path. Does your daughter miss living there? I used to live in Queens Park, many years ago. I also lived in Bayswater, Notting Hill and lastly in Chiswick. I always love going back to visit.
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Hi Gilda, yes we lived there for 9 years though mainly north (East Finchley latterly). Have got to know west London better in recent years with Mlle living there (though she moved to the east end for a while too). She does miss her friends there and London life but also enjoys and the relaxed lifetstyle here. London is so expensive too! Always love my trips back to London and the rest of Europe but the distance means it’s not possible to go there too often!
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Hi Rosemay! Good to see you here again. Hope you’re all fit and well and things are ok with you.
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Hi Jo yes am back again! All well but it has been a hectic time. I’m going to be more dsciplined in writing the blog as it’s so easy to get distracted with everything else. Hope all is well with you and I will be along soon to see what you’ve been up to. Take care and chat soon xx
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I’d just love to get back there 🙂
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It was rather a whirlwind visit but good to be back again! Hopefully will be able to do longer trips in future! 🙂
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Getting too old for whirlwind visits, but 3 weeks is about my limit away 😉
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I would have liked to stay longer of course but needed to head up north to see my family. Also did 24 hours in Paris with my daughter which was amazing – definitely need the travel connections to all work out on such a tight schedule, which fortunately they did 🙂 Of course we’ve been before so that helped as we just concentrated on our favourite things there. Will be writing that up soon. I agree – 3 weeks would be about my time limit to be away from home these days. This latest trip was just over 2 weeks!
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