Little Venice - An Escape from London, In London

This past weekend, I had a nice walk beginning in Little Venice and ending atop Primrose Hill.  Little Venice is a wonderful, somewhat hidden gem in London.  Closest tube stops are Warwick Avenue or Royal Oak.  When you get to the canal, reminiscent of Amsterdam or Bruges, it's worth stopping at either the Waterway or the Summerhouse - owned by the same group. Both are right on the canal and have good food. On this occasion, we sat in the garden of the Waterway for a pint of Hoegaarden and some sun.
http://www.thewaterway.co.uk/
We then sauntered up to its very close sister, pop-up restaurant The Summerhouse (60 Blomfield Road, Maida Vale, W9 2PD)

Despite some reviews saying it had simply "decent" food - we really enjoyed our grilled swordfish and sweet potato fries - service was nice and relaxed too.
From there, we continued walking along the canal, taking in the beautiful and peaceful scenery.

While you can walk all the way to Camden Town, we stopped off at Primrose Hill - grabbing some cupcakes from a little market and a bottle of cold Prosecco to enjoy with the view.

A perfect Sunday!

A 5 year-long siesta.. and finally back to writing

Having lived in London for 5 years now, I do look back and wish I'd had the foresight and tenacity to write a blog from day one of arriving here... the experiences would be fresher, more vivid.. and there wouldn't be such an enormous backlog of trips, adventures, and memories to recount.  But here goes, because it's better late than never.
I suppose I have to start with the lovely town where I live - Richmond - a small leafy town on the southwest edge of London.  When I first moved here, I had to find a flat quite hastily and didn't have time to really explore the area.  So I was dumbstruck when I took my first walk around as a resident and saw this, the view from atop Richmond Hill:

 and this (Richmond Bridge):

and these cute fellas, running round Richmond Park:

all within 10-15 minutes of my flat!  After 5 wonderful years of living here, it truly feels like home.  It might not make the first round of places to see or visit while in London for someone making a short trip, but it sure makes a great day out of London... it's a great way to escape all the hustle and bustle of a big city, yet only 20 minutes train journey from central London.