Bargains, burgers and blockbusters at London Designer Outlet

The name "London Designer Outlet" is misleading. (And for the sake of this post it shall henceforth be known as LDO.)

You'd be forgiven for thinking LDO was like Bicester - namely a shopping centre of designer shops full of discounted stock.

But you'd be wrong.

 Whilst it is indeed a shopping centre full of outlet shops, it's hardly designer. The fanciest shop there is probably Kurt Geiger, and the majority are high street stalwarts - there's H&M and Claire's Accessories, for example. You getting the level I'm talking about?

I went along to LDO for the first time last weekend to find out what it's all about.

I travelled all the way up to Wembley - zone four, people! FOUR! - for a fun day with my glorious old pal, Jess.

Sure, it's slightly in the middle of nowhere and a somewhat random thing to have right by Wembley Arena, but we had a lovely time.

About ten minutes' walk from Wembley Park tube - and well sign-posted, which I appreciated - LDO isn't like most other shopping centres in that it's largely open-air - lovely when dry, a bit crap if raining.

Fortunately, however, it wasn't. It's a rather nicely-done shopping centre and looked particularly pretty when lit-up at night.

We had a peruse in several shops, but were disheartened to find - as is often the way with outlets - the stock that's there is mostly the rubbish stuff that hasn't been sold for a reason.

However we had a few very successful purchases: I bought some gorgeous chunky black leather heels in Clarks that were £20 down from £60, and Jess got a super cute flask from Joy.

There's also a Lindt shop, which is a rare find in the UK - oh my days, I wanted all the obscure Lindors.

We resisted, however, as we were off for a feast of a lunch.

There are tons of restaurants at LDO - largely the usual chains. However they also have a branch of the Handmade Burger Co, which is not a restaurant one stumbles upon too frequently. Naturally it was my lunch spot of choice.

We sat ourselves down and struggled to choose from the 40+ burgers on the menu - I exaggerate not.

The staff were delightful. After I popped my new Russell & Bromley bag (OMG I am in LOVE with it!) down next to me, the waiter came over with an extra chair, because "a bag that beautiful shouldn't be on the floor." That's my kinda man.

We placed our orders and hit the Diet Coke hard - free refills, people! Man, I go to town on free refills. Must've had at least five.

And soon our food arrived:

*hears hallelujah chorus in head*

For me, the Italian: a beef burger with Mediterranean sausage, mozzarella, red pesto, garlic mayo, rocket, tomato and red onion, except I asked for mine sans tomato and plus grilled peppers.

Amazingly, they got it right - I always ask for no tomato and nine times out of ten end up picking it out myself. The struggles.

It turns out I wasn't a huge fan of the sausage but the rest of the burger was diviiiiiine!

Jess had a bacon and avocado chicken burger, which she assures me was equally scrumptious.

Alongside our burgers we shared a portion of sweet potato fries because hello, sweet potato fries. And we were also a tad on the adventurous side with the Mexican chips.

Handmade Burger Co's chips are simply incredible and a bit legendary, and the Mexican ones are topped with melted cheese, chipotle sauce, hand crushed avocado, handmade Mexican salsa and jalapeños.

It was a tad on the spicy side for me (because I'm feeble) but delicious all the same.

After a smidge more shopping, Jess and I headed to the cinema on the top floor of LDO - I was so ready for a digestive recline.

Did we also get popcorn and chocolate though? Oops.

It's a Cineworld cinema and I was so amazed by the legroom. We went to see Passengers which I absolutely loved and totally recommend. J-Law and Christ Pratt tho.

I thought it really fun to combine cinema and shopping, which may sound like an obvious thing to do but I haven't done so in a while tbhqh. And I suppose the fact that there's so much at LDO - cinema, shops and eateries - makes it more worth going all the way up there.

It was also a lot quieter than central London, which is always good.

Outlet shopping is usually a bit hit and miss in my experience, but I'm super pleased with my shoes and had a great day.

Our lunch and cinema tickets were complimentary but all opinions are my own.
SaveSave

The best bits from my trip to Madrid, part 2

So, lovely people, shall we pick up where we left off on our virtual weekend in the beautiful city of Madrid? I think we shall.

The Palace

The Royal Palace of Madrid is an incredibly grand building, although it's only used for state ceremonies nowadays. If you're v keen and don't mind queueing (in high season anyway), you can pay to go inside, but having done that when I visited Madrid the first time, five years ago (with the parents, who obvs paid), Holl and I were quite content to just marvel at the building from the outside.

We couldn't help but imagine arriving in at the palace in years gone by and stepping out of a horse-drawn carriage in a fabulous dress to dance the night away at a ball. I reckon that would've been pretty fantastic.

Malasaña

Malasaña is, as far as I'm aware, the hip zone of Madrid. Did I really just use the word 'hip'? I'm fairly certain no one hip would ever use the word 'hip'. Oh well.

It's incredibly colourful, which I loved, and full of quirky cafes-cum-bars and little independent shops.

Cupcakeries, vintage shops and cocktail bars all make for an area beloved of Madrid's cool young people. Malasaña came particularly to life at night (as one might expect in Spain) and the vibe was abso buzzing. I loved it.

Retiro Park

Absolutely huge and incredibly beautiful, I could not recommend exploring Retiro Park more. Considering its size, however, I suggest you do as we did and hire bikes - it's just 2€ for an hour and there's a docking station right by one of the main entrances, conveniently.

Be warned though: we had numerous issues actually getting the bikes out - you need your passport number for some reason - but once we had them it was great. Particularly fun was that the bikes are electric, which you can turn on and off. 

Most of the time we cycled as normal, but when the terrain got even slightly uphill, on went the electric and smoothly we cruised. It was most leisurely and extremely enjoyable - who wants to physically exert themselves on holiday? Not this gal.

The bikes allowed us to cover so much more ground than we'd have been able to on foot. Witness the pretty crystal palace, complete with turtles.

Probably the most famous part of the park, however, is the lake. I'd been out boating on my first visit to Madrid but I was still mad keen to go again, as it's so pretty.

It's also super cheap in comparison to doing the same in London so yay Madrid!

Yeah, it turns out rowing is not my forte - I'm not cut out for physical labour tbh - so luckily Holly was happy to take the lead.

We sipped sangria and soaked up the sun. It was dreamy.

And that, amigos, is the end of my Madrid highlights. It's such a fantastic city though and I'm rather jealous of my sister (and brother for that matter) having lived there for nine months. I mean to be fair my year abroad was also awesome, but still.

What are your thoughts on Madrid? Let me know!

Herman ze German, London

If you're a newish reader of this blog, you may not know that I am absolutely in love with Germany. But I am.

I miss it so much (oh, I lived there for six months, in case you didn't know. Many antics over on the Travel tab.)

It's been over a year since I was last in Deutschland and that is simply far too long.

However, the pain of missing Germany has been slightly eased by one particular London eatery: Herman Ze German.

I mean, the name alone is just great, don't you think? It really sets the tone too.

I've been a couple of times and thought I should tell you guys all about HzG, as it will henceforth be known, whether you're a total Germanophile or not.

HzG is a mini London chain with three branches across the capital, serving quick, simple German fare in an informal setting.

They've got a good selection of German beers, but unfortunately no Radler (essentially shandy, but it's a big thing in Germany, and I'm a fan.)

I can recommend starting off your visit with a chilled beverage and a bowl of pommes - I'd translate but I think the picture below renders that unnecessary.

The chips really are fantastic at HzG. I know they look like standard fries, but they're cooked to perfection. I'm usually much more of a chunky chip gal, but I demolished these.

Even better than the plain fries, however, are the cheesy fries. Obviously. Because covering carbs in cheese is a sure-fire way to improve them.

Oh yes.

And alongside that cheesy potatoey deliciousness we had classic Currywurst, topped with crispy onions.

The Currywurst tastes just as I remember it does from street vendors in Berlin - that perfect weird but delicious mix of ketchup and curry powder.

Slightly less authentic to my mind, however, was the Schnitzel.

Schnitzel should be super thin, like this, but HzG's was more like a breaded chicken breast. Still very tasty, for sure, but a little disappointing when you're expecting a traditional Schnitz.

Naturally, we also had Sauerkraut, as any self-respecting German would.

Despite the fact that it's currently being lauded as a health food, I don't go wild for Sauerkraut. This one wasn't overly special.

If you are after something slightly lighter - German food is often pretty stodgy, as you can probably tell - HzG offer the option of Wurst with salad instead of chips, which I had on my first visit.

I love this idea actually - the sausage was lovely with none of those thick skins you often find, and the salad was good too. No limp lettuce and I loved the addition of apple. I recommend you top yours with crispy onions too - they're free!

Herman ze German is a great spot for a relaxed dinner with friends. It isn't fancy - there are no white tablecloths and the loos are a bit grimy, but I can deal with that. It's fun, affordable and the food is great.

Plus, it takes me back to Germany! *sob*

What do you think? Do you like the look of Herman ze German?

A sunny spring weekend in Oxford (in pictures)

I really enjoy my job, don't get me wrong. But by Jove! When you work Monday to Friday, the weekends are amazing!

Last weekend I waved goodbye to London and ventured up to pretty Oxford. My old uni pal, the lovely Stef, is now doing a PGCE there (I know, get her), and as it was her birthday, we decided that was the perfect excuse to get a group together and have a weekend in Oxford.

Oh and I recommend the X90 bus between Oxford and London. It's amazing and super cheap.

I'd only been once before and had barely seen the city so was super excited to explore, not to mention to see my lovely friends again. I do feel lucky to have such wonderful people in my life, and I love that now that we don't all see each other every day like we did as students, everyone makes the effort to travel across the country to meet up.

Anyhoo, we were lucky with the weather. I'm pretty sure the gorgeous architecture in Oxford would look magical in any weather conditions, but when bathed in warm spring sunlight the city seemed to glow. It was gorgeous.

I actually kinda fangirled when thinking about how many great people from throughout history had studied at Oxford and walked those same streets.

On Saturday night we celebrated as 23 year olds do, doing each other's hair and make-up in classic girly fashion. If you're ever in Oxford, I recommend a trip to the cocktail bar Freud. Steffi had warned us that it was pretty pricey, but for me and Frankie (the two Londoners of the group), it was amazingly cheap. Lolz for London prices.

Sunday started with all the carbs followed by meandering through the town and a stop off at a lovely pub for lunch.

Oxford also has this incredible big park which was nearly totally flooded last weekend (you'll see what I mean if you scroll down, mes amis). We wandered through, past swans, dogs and joggers, feeling as if we were miles from the city.

It was the best weekend!

(Some photos stolen from Sophie and Frankie)

What are your thoughts on Oxford?