Day Trip: Richmond Park; Erin's B-day Dinner

A couple weeks ago, Erin and I made our way to the 3rd ring suburbs, specifically to Richmond, a villagy-like suburb reachable either on overground or underground (district line), about a 25 minute journey from South Kensington. Upon arriving at the station, you are greeted by a cheerful high street bustling with commerce, and even a little Irish atmosphere!

We stopped at our go-to coffee spot, Paul, where we picked up a baquette for lunch along with our coffee, then meandered around the small sidesteets and down to the river Thames, which leads past Richmond from London on its way to Hampton Court. You could easily do a bike trip from central london along the Thames path to Richmond, alternatively, you could hire a boat!

After slowly making our way to Richmond park, which is said to be the largest in London, complete with its own nature reserve, we met a few Red Deer, which have amazing antlers! We added this one for Erin's dad...trigger happy anyone? You can see why Henry VIII used Richmond as his hunting grounds, given its proximity to Hampton Court!

After standing face-to-face with the red deer, we headed deeper into the reserve portion of the park and found this fallen tree, which had a perfect natural table in the middle. T'was the perfect picnic spot!

After getting our fill of bread, fruit and cheese, we wandered the many trails of the park, eventually running into this tree, which looks like it came out of The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I was waiting for it to come alive while Erin was INSIDE of it!!! One of the cool features of the park were all the old, half-dying trees.

We wandered aimlessly around the park for another hour or so before heading back towards the town. There are many many pubs around here so if you want are looking for a great pub crawl location outside of central london, you have found one close to the city, but with lots of picnic and walking opportunities.  The pub we stopped at is called the Roebuck. The pub itself it great but perhaps its best quality is the view across the road where patrons are allowed to hang out with their beers. The barmaid even keeps a rack for one to drop their empty into! I had a Purity Mad Goose, which is one of my go-to English ales. 

The day before the trip to Richmond we went to a long-awaited dinner spot, the River Cafe. This restaurant, which I believe either has or had a Michelin star, is absoutely amazing. This is where Jamie Oliver started his career, and immediately upon entering you can see that the influence of this place has been embraced by Mr. Oliver (who just had his 4th child, Buddy Bear:) and still shows in his cooking, using lots of quality, fresh ingredients. The restaurant was quite pricey, but for a special occasion in London, look no further!

I forget every dish we had, but I distinctly remember the harmoneous combination of flavors in my starter, where the mint and fresh italian black figs with parma ham created an explosion of  tastes that actually caused me to make sound effects once I finished my first bite; like the 4th of July or Rollie's sound effects when he describes how he makes smores. I suggest you try it yourself! Call in advance about 3 months to get a table, the restaurant is near the Hammersmith tube stop on the District or Picadilly line. I should also mention the wine list, which features only italian wines, but an extensive selection. We had a bottle of Badia a Coltibuono, which is where James, Marissa, Erin and I stayed on our trip to Italy (Tuscany) in summer '08.