Things to do in London #2 -Marks and Spencers and Italian lunch

One of the Most important things to do in London is to go to the Marble Arch Marks and Spencers to pick up underwear. They make Bras and underwear (knickers) in every shape and size, I along with Connie have an unusual bras size which in Canada is very hard to find, and often in only limited styles.  But here there are endless choices.

I did not take any pictures of the underwear department of Marks and Spencers, but it is vast and a joy to behold.  There are many other branches, but the Marble Arch store is the flagship and the largest. It is situated at the Marble Arch end of Oxford street close to the Marble Arch tube station and on many bus routes including the 159.

After an exhausting morning of shopping, Nancy and I were looking for lunch and wandered a little down Oxford Street when we came upon Bella Italia on Duke street about half a block down from Oxford street

It was calling to us as we off to Italy in a couple of days and it looked good.  On further research I have found out that in fact it is one of a chain and they have restaurants all over England.  We ordered a Pizza and salad to share.

Pizza peperoni piquant

Things to do in London #1 - Walk along the Thames

Though London is a very old city, things change, and some of them for the better.  the walk along the South Bank is definitely one of the things that have changed for the better in London. This is did not exist when I was a child and the views of London that can be had from this walk are priceless. They are in the process of completing a walking path along the Thames from the source to the estuary, But the part in downtown makes a wonderful way to spend half a day.

Houses of Parliament from the bottom of the London eye

The best place to start is at Waterloo Bridge which is very close to the London Eye across from  the Houses of Parliament. Walk along the South Bank past all the human statues and past the Royal Festival Hall and the National Theatre. Currently they have an exhibition celebrating the Festival of Britain which was in 1951 (Festival hall was named after it).  They are celebrating Summer in England and we walked past a row of bathing huts which used be on the all the beaches here in England.

Beach huts

We stopped along the way for a glass of prosecco to celebrate our safe arrival in London and the good weather we were enjoying.

Daring cooks challenge - Healthy potato salad

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

I love potatoes cooked in any way but potato salad really is one of my favourite dishes so this was a easy challenge, the only thing that made it a bit harder was trying to make it healthy, obviously that cuts out the traditional potato salad heavy with mayonnaise North American style.

One of my go to potato salads is one based on a recipe from John hadmuscin and is a pesto potato salad. In the original recipe he adds peas and yellow bell pepper, and though those both go well, I usualy make it with just potatoes and green oinion.

Florence update

Hell is being in florence Italy with a cold in your nose unable to taste anything.

Loving Florence

Have arrived in Florence but only an iPad no computer so can not blog. back to London an good internet on Wednesday.

Heading to Florence

We are heading to Florence tomorrow, hope the Internet is better I have so much to share

Lovely in London

Arrived safely in London with skirt and dignity in tact. Currently very flaky Internet.