Yesterday was a wonderfully sunny, slightly unseasonably warm October day. We really made the most of the sun and spent the whole day and evening out and about in London.Sometimes you forget what’s on your doorstep, so it was great to go exploring, stopping off at different places for a chance to chill out, relax and taste some wonderful food and drink.

First of all on the list was the challenge of actually getting into Central, given the work going on, on the Underground at the moment – a word of warning for anyone travelling at the weekends… check.your.route! There are way too many closures going on to list, but do check it out!! So, with the boyfriend having no clue as to where we were going (this was my surprise day out, although I have no sense of direction, so it was funny for me to be in control of where we were going!) we set out on the Piccadilly line up to Knightsbridge station. From here we went for a walk through Hyde Park to the Serpentine Gallery to see the last weekend of the structure they build each year – it changes each year, so definitly check it out next year or look online at past structures:

Picture from Dezeen, click for a link.

We then carried on our walk through Hyde Park to High Street Kensington where we called in at one of my favourite food shops – Whole Foods. This is one of the best places my boyfriend introduced me to for gluten free food. They have so much choice it is amazing, I can’t wait to start buying more products from here now that I actually have time to go out and do things at the weekend (I wonder when this will properly sink in?!). We took our time and strolled around trying all of the wonderful food on offer.

First we tried the fantastic Amelia Rope chocolate - rich, creamy and full of flavour, this was delicious and a really new take on chocolate as there was not an ounce of artifical taste to it and no hint of that plastic texture that some chocolate tends to have. This really had that handmade feeling to it. Check out the chocolate at http://www.ameliarope.com/ or click the picture for a link through (this is the salted – yummy -chocolate).

Following the chocolate heaven, we then tried the delicious Bessant & Drury’s ice cream. I was amazed that this was totally DAIRY FREE!! It was brilliant to talk to the owner who is also a nutritionalist and find out about the ice cream. The taste was perfect for me as I have to be careful with the amount of dairy products I have and also, as ice cream has never been a favourite of mine as I prefer sorbet, the texture was somewhere between the two, so it was a lovely taste-surprise. Definitley try some, you won’t be dissapointed. Check them out at this link http://www.bessantanddrury.com/Our-Products or click the picture.

So, after that it was time for a break (obviously), so we headed to the top floor of Whole Foods where I had a Soya Latte and the boyfriend had the most gorgeous looking (and unfortunately not gluten free) chocolate brownie and a bottle of Traditional Lemondade which tasted so fresh and homemade! I managed to eat the entire meringue (somehow… it was huuuuuge, but I think we worked up an appetite with all the walking and also this was the first food of the day! So here’s a little picture of my meringue after I had successfully demolished half of it…

Once we had finished at Whole Foods, we took a tube across to Leicester Square and then walked across the bridge, over the river to the Southbank where we took a walk around Royal Festival Hall and found a lovely Organic Wine stand where we bought a bottle of the Rose and went and sat in the evening sunshine right outside of Festival Hall along with all the other people enjoying the unseasonably warm October weather. The wine was from http://www.dvinewine.co.uk/ which you should definitely check out as it’s great to find well priced, great tasting organic wine. Try it out, no disappointments here and a beautiful way to relax on a Saturday afternoon.

For now, that’s our Saturday up to the later afternoon covered… going to attempt to blast some of the (gorgeous) food and drink away with a half-hour on the exercise bike!

Enjoy the post and your Sunday!

Rubelle’s Moon