2026 Trip: London Richmond Park

l spent an entire day at Richmond park in London. It is a huge park, and there are about 600 free-roaming deer in it. 

 I walked around a lot and would just lay in the grass when l got tired, it was a wonderful day and l so enjoyed seeing deer so close.

They were being pestered by ravens, plucking their hair for nest material 😂

London Trip: Kensington Palace to Notting Hill

I had a lovely walk from Victoria, where I'm staying to Notting Hill on my first day.

I walked through Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, right near Kensington Palace to Notting Hill. The walk was very green, with lots of horseback riders, dog walkers, runners, but also birds and squirrels.

It was such a great start of my trip, but I did walk 16km that day as I went to all kind of other places after this.

 

I had my 300mm lens with me so I could zoom in and avoid the crowds.

Carrying around a camera is a bit out of fashion and gets heavy, but it does result in much better photos, so I'm glad that I did carry it with me.

As the park is very large the number of people does not bother you. I did find the runners a little crazy, as they tend to run right towards you, a little annoying to be honest :)

I liked this art installation as it looked perfectly at home yet was different.

Notting Hill was absolutely lovely.

But the Portobello market did disappoint me, not much vintage, and what was there was very highly priced. Most things were trinkets, new or handmade things, and clothing, kind of what you can buy on all the other markets.

But the streets were lovely and I even got to see the Bookstore that inspired the movie I love so much with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.

This colorful street with the cute little car looks like a movie set.

I've had very warm weather until now, only rained once, but it was at night, so I was at the hotel, fingers crossed for it to continue for the rest of my trip!

Shabby Flea Market

This past Sunday we went to İzmir again for a second trip to IKEA, but we went on the busiest day as we wanted to combine it with a visit to the Flea market which is only on Sundays. Izmir is more than a 3-hour drive so we usually combine a few things.

The Flea market had moved to a new location, and it couldn't be shabbier. Absolutely adorable, the way to it was a very narrow road, and looked totally like a village but Izmir is a huge city with more than 6 million people!

A few vendors were on that street

Among laundry that was not for sale :)

But most activities were in an old factory building.

All kind of stuff was for sale, lots of total junk but there were also some great treasures.

Despite the shabby place lots of vendors were asking too much, still we had lots of fun and found a few pieces.

A very attentive cat selling drills :)

It was busy and messy but super fun and had a great atmosphere. Izmir is the most democratic city (and province) of Turkey and has a pretty relaxed and warm vibe.

It was worth getting up at 6am and we are definitely going to do it again!

There was also a woman making Gözleme, a typical Turkish food, thin dough filled with cheese, or vegetables or both, it was warm and fresh and the woman was hilarious.

Turkey keeps us surprising of the fun and exotic places we keep seeing. Izmir is always super messy, shabby but loads of fun.