Friday
After a busy day at work we hit the road straight after clocking-off time! It was a pretty uneventful drive down to Brentford, only getting hungrier at the prospect of dinner.
La Rosetta was recommended to us by the organisers of a Brentford FC charity and we come back here whenever we can. The restaurant is split into a “restaurant” and a “café”, though food and drinks menus are the same, except there are table cloths in the restaurant and the café is a little rowdier!
After being torn between the amazing options, I followed my gut (pun intended) and had the lasagne; Rosie had the ravioli special and they were both delicious. I always think you may not be WOW’d by having a lasagne, but you’ll never be disappointed. But this lasagne had me WOW-ing!
A couple of glasses of wine and we headed back to the hotel to crash.
Saturday
We had no plans for the morning so we walked the couple of miles from Brentford to Richmond in search of Ted Lasso and his local. The Crown and Anchor is actually The Prince’s Head – no sign of Coach Beard today but we did find Ted!
We grabbed lunch in a little Lebanese café, though we just stuck to some fresh-filled baguettes, and headed off to the Richmond Theatre. I had a ticket for the Chelsea game but couldn’t get one for Rosie so she had a few hours to kill while I sang myself hoarse. On the walk into Richmond we unsuspectingly found the theatre – it’s not on the high street but is just off the green. Finding a cheap ticket for the matinee of Cludeo 2 – the sequel to the board game-cum-movie, I jumped on the bus back to the stadium and left Rosie to potter around Richmond until curtains up.
The show was very entertaining and funny, and the game ended 2-2, so a good afternoon all round! A quick pit-stop at the hotel to change and then it was back out again.
We were booked to do an escape room in Shepherds Bush but were running short of time to have dinner beforehand. We stopped on the way to South Ealing station at a tapas restaurant we’d been to before – Tapinos. We weren’t impressed last time but our choices on this occasion more than made up for it. The four dishes we ordered didn't last long and we were soon on the tube and heading for Shepherds Bush.
In the W12 shopping centre there is Doyle's Opticians, but don't be fooled! You are buzzed in but only after claiming that you have a "routine examination" - the opticians is merely a front for a covert intelligence training centre!
We were a little early for our Sherlock escape room so were shown through to The Mind Palace - a bar that specialises in Sherlock-themed cocktails, as well as a few normal beers as well.
We were just two so we were teamed up with another two people as the room is really designed for 4-6. But an amazing hour whizzed by, interspersed with instruction and taunts from the cast of the BBC series, that meant we only narrowly failed to escape.
With time getting on we got back on the tube and then the bus and collapsed into bed after a very productive day!
Sunday
It's the beginning of March, so who knows what the weather could be! If it was raining we had decided to go to Kensington and have a day exploring the museums there, but the sun was shining, if a little cold, so we drove down to Richmond and explored the great Hampton Court Palace - the home of Henry VIII and subsequent monarchs up to to George II 200 years later.
We got our free audio guides and started making our way around the Tudor kitchens and apartments, through the chapel and on to George I's suites, built for his son, George II and Queen Caroline.
Stopping for a quick bite in the Privy Kitchen - Elizabeth I's private kitchen though updated a little to provide some tasty scones - before finishing off with a walk around the gardens, immaculately presented, including a lake that's three-quarters of a mile long, imaginatively named The Long Water!
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