Portobello Market

I'd planned our weekend with meticulous precision, and thought I'd organised everything. That was until the wonderful receptionist (with a wonderful name) Sara mentioned how close we were to Notting Hill, and the famous Portobello Market.

We dropped our plans for a day wandering the shopping centres, and headed on over to W11 early on Saturday morning.

Following signposts and groups of tourists until we started to spot the well known candy coloured houses and the markets started to materialise.

The first few streets of the market are full of antique shops and stalls, selling everything from old world maps, to war memorabilla. Fantastic hats and glittering jewelery at every step, and a smattering of creepy street performers.

I love looking at old, musty original books! There were some beauties to be had here.

We weaved our way in and out of the stalls, but not being able to get a very good look due to the crowds, we headed on down to the main event, food!

The stalls seemed to go on forever, and I don't think we ever did quite make it to the end. They run both sides of a street, that seems to run and flow into other streets like a river, make one long thin market gauntlet!

We discovered the stall above, upon which Mr P insisted that he had to try a 'smore crodough' - the baby of a doughnut and a croissant, apparently.

It was pretty good, I will admit. Flaky croissant pastry, but deep fried to give it that doughnut sturdiness, and of course, lashings of sugar.

However my tastes are a lot more...custardy!

The iddy biddy pastel de nata was a little mouthful of delight! A creamy cold egg tart with just the right amount of sweetness for an elevensy!

We countered this naughtiness with some fruit though, just to be on the safe side...

On and on we plodded, taking in more of the sights and sights of the busy market. It's unbelievably busy on a Saturday morning, but it's definitely worth persevering, and going as early as you can helps.

After a while, our feet got weary and it felt like we'd seen all there was to see, so we headed on into central London to do the typical touristy thing of Oxford Street and Covent Garden.

Not without picking up some lunch first, however. It took me a while strutting up and down to decide what I wanted, but the hot chorizo salad was a definite winner. Look at all that lovely orange oil!

If you're in London on a long weekend, then this one is definitely worth breaking the itinerary for!