London's calling - with Millennium Hotels

I was feeling a little frazzled because of work, and having not taken any holiday in ages, decided to take a well deserved couple of days off. I’ve lived in London all my life but there’s so much to see and do, I’ve barely scratched the surface. When researching London hotels, I discovered that Millennium Hotels were having a massive sale on rooms – meaning that the nightly rate was far cheaper than that of a Holiday Inn or Travelodge. RESULT. I stayed in Kensington which is a lovely little area, even when it feels like it’s -10 degrees outside. The room was a warm and cosy haven:

...with an amazingly comfy bed:

Some sneaky mirror pics whilst checking out the bathroom:

For lunch we went to Ask and had their Mediterranean Terrina. It’s warming. It’s tasty. It goes amazingly with a carafe of Shiraz. It just ticks all the right boxes:

Kind of lost track of the time – I blame the wine – so there wasn’t a whole lot of daylight left to sight see in. Instead we kept warm and chilled at the hotel, drinking copious amounts of green tea. We braved the chill later on to go out for Brazilian food:

We ate devoured chicken, bacon and pineapple skewers, ribs and sweet potato fries, all washed down with a Brazilian twist on sangria. After a good night's sleep in the world’s most amazing bed, we went to The Riding House Café [as reviewed here] for chorizo hash browns:

Our plans to visit the Tower of London were put on hold as there was a little bit of a blizzard going on. And the Imperial War Museum is closed until July 2013 which I was really gutted about :( Instead we sought refuge in the British Museum where they have awesome exhibitions on Japan and Egypt. Later in the afternoon we went to the London Aquarium as I’d never been before and have always wanted to go:

We stayed until closing time and walked along the Southbank watching the sun set:

 Having built up a considerable appetite, we went to Maxwells in Covent Garden for burgers and milkshakes:

I hadn’t been to Maxwells since I was little and their burgers were amazing. Seriously, like Meat Liquor good. Maybe better. Maxwells do MONDAY MADNESS where there is up to 50% off meals… highly recommended. I wasn’t a fan of their shakes though so grabbed a hot chocolate on the way back to the hotel:

Hot chocolate... the perfect way to warm up. That plus a bath. I really over did it with the bubbles. Bubbles EVERYWHERE. Think housekeeping would’ve had a heart attack if they saw quite how many bubbles were in that bathroom. The next morning we ate porridge in bed...

… meaning that we could get out nice and early for the V&A museum (another first which we’d never done before). I loved the fashion section with Givenchy lace:

… lacy collars:

… statement jewellery from Dior:

But I would’ve preferred this dress without the ostrich feathers....

Everything else about the museum was a photographer’s dream:

By late afternoon, our shoulders were aching from having rucksacks slung over them all day. 

It was time for a well deserved rest:

We sat in the most beautiful surroundings:

… and ate an incredible steak and ale pie:

A pie that was so satisfying, and so coma inducing, we didn’t stay for much longer after that. Back to mine for films and – you’ve guessed it – more food. Because you can never have too much food.