I’m back from my long weekend in London – if you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen the pictures, but I tried not to spend too much time on social media and deliberately did not blog at all. What follows is a quick run-down of the trip, in case you are going to London in the near future or just enjoy reading about that city.

Accommodation. Everyone seems to be staying at The Hoxton recently and so did we (as in me and J). I highly recommend it unless you are determined to have the full luxury experience: the location is great (we stayed in the Holborn branch), the rooms look good and the price is reasonable, for London. The mirror in our room was fantastic.

Drinks. A short walk from The Hoxton is the Rosewood hotel with its famous Gin Bar that serves 500 different gins. The whole establishment is rather conservative and very British, but if you happen to go out in a red velvet gown, the Scarfes Bar is not a bad place to have your G&T. The food there is better than in the restaurant (Holborn Dining Room) and the cocktails are excellent and ridiculously expensive. More affordable than the rooms, though.

Food. We didn’t have any grand plans for eating this time around and while the Holborn Dining Room food was nice, it wasn’t brilliant. I did enjoy a lovely mezze restaurant called CERU that we stumbled across in South Kensington. It serves modern Levantine food, so it surprises absolutely no-one that I would like it.

Art. We went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition in the V&A, which is as good as everyone says. Just don’t expect it to be as big and spectacular as some of the previous shows, it’s much more intimate. It’s well curated, however, and Kahlo is simply such a fascinating person – always a plus when showing someone’s life. Be warned: the tickets are still very difficult to get, I had to become a V&A member to get in – not the most sensible way to do it, financially speaking.

Music. We have a tradition of going to the BBC Proms every year, if we can. This time, our expectations weren’t that high, as we happened to be in London when the British National Youth Orchestra was playing. I should not have been such a snob, it turned out to be a lovely concert, with Ligety and Debussy my personal highlights. There is much great music yet to come, including Pärt played by the Estonian festival orchestra and conducted by Paavo Järvi.

Museum. In addition to V&A, we visited The British Museum where I think I haven’t been since 2004. I focussed on the Middle East and saw most of Egypt, Asia, Rome and Greece as well. I adore museums like that and my only complaint this time around was that it was very warm and stuffy. No matter, I need to come back in November anyway, as there will be a big exhibition dedicated to Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king (Assyrians are not my favourites of the ancient Mesopotamian people – too fond of war and segregating their women -, but they certainly are fascinating).

Plants. We spent half a day in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, one of my absolute favourite places in the world. The renovation of the Temperate House has been completed, so if you haven’t seen it (it’s been closed since 2013), I highly recommend going. The waterlily and palm houses and the vistas were as wonderful as ever.

Books. Compared to the last time when I purchased close to 20 books from John Sandoe alone, this was a more subdued affair – I had already acquired almost every book I currently want to read before going to London. I did get a few titles from Sandoe, Hatchards and London Review Bookshop (it was my first time visiting the last two – I really like the bags at Hatchards!) and one from Kew. I was frustrated with the science fiction and fantasy selection at the mainstream stores, so went and spent a significant amount of money at the Forbidden Planet. I really appreciate that they are keeping many older titles in stock and now feel like reading C.J. Cherryh and Lois McMaster Bujold (although ironically, they did not have the specific books I wanted from these two authors).

Shopping. I cannot believe that I did not buy a single beauty item this time. Partly because I did not want to spend too wildly, partly because I simply had other priorities. I did get a leopard print dress from Urban Outfitters to wear in the city heat and a bumbag from Topshop, so that I didn’t have to carry my big bag around. I also got some tea and sweets from Fortnum & Mason and that was pretty much it. Quite pleased with this outcome, actually.

Walking. I always end up walking a fair amount in London without really trying, although the city is too big to walk everywhere. I did over 18 000 steps on Friday, a decent outcome. I did literally listen to London Calling while walking…

I realise that this is a rather traditional take on London, next time I really should make some effort to see the hipper side of it. If you have any London-related recommendations, please leave them in the comments!

Picture of the Scarfes Bar stolen from the Rosewood Group.