AN AFTERNOON IN RICHMOND (UK)

After a long day of museum explorations, I decided to give my feet a bit of rest and spend the morning with the family, then go out to Richmond which happens to be one stop away on the Tube. So we left shortly after lunch, and walked to the main shopping street from the train station. On my first visit to Richmond 3 weeks ago I had seen downtown Richmond and stopped for a Sunday roast at a pub by the river, but today I got surprised by a different side of Richmond: green, slow, and relaxed. 

First, we headed up the Richmond Hill which is lined up with cute little shops...

The decorations on the wall are old books

 

                                                                                                        why didn't I think of that?     

             
 pretty homes that overlook the meadows and the river...

and pretty cars:

BMWs always stop me in my tracks, and make my heart skip a beat!

Aston Martins are pretty cars (and not seen that often)

Before we knew, the sun was setting in the distance (yeah, a stroll after late lunch generally coincides with sunset here in the winter): 

Who could've known that I would end up seeing one of the best sunsets ever? Unfortunately the camera doesn't do any justice (which is another sign to update the camera) but what we saw today was better than even the sunsets I'd seen in Hawaii earlier this year, mostly because of the pretty sky and the cloud gathering on the horizon at the right time...

One thing that happens when the sun goes down this time of the year is it gets cold almost instantaneously and taking photos definitely make your hands cold - especially when the temperatures are close to freezing point! When we packed up and headed back down the hill, we couldn't stop the allure of a small pub (which might be one of the smallest one would ever find in the UK I think) with the fireplace so we had to (!) stop for a drink :-) It was small but the fire was warm, the owner was friendly, and the beer was good, what else can one ask for after a nice sunset?

           

When we got outside, it was already dark, but with pretty views of the city:

While walking back to the train station, we couldn't help but step inside a newly opened bakery, Bread Shop, and walk away with 3 little "quarkinis" (the golf ball sized doughnut holes, made with quark -which makes them much lighter than the ones I had in the US- and rolled in cinnamon sugar) which you can see on the top shelf below:

They were so light, only one of them made it back home (and because as soon as I had the first one I began to contemplate about cutting it in half and smearing with raspberry or strawberry jam to accompany a bold coffee in the afternoon, there was another trip made to Richmond later in the week... with very satisfactory results!!)