The recipe for the perfect specialty coffee shop sounds simple: great coffee served by friendly baristas in a beautiful, relaxed setting. In practice, though, it's all too easy to miss the mark on one or more of these ingredients. Commons at Old Street Works nails all three and scores plenty of bonus points for their Oreo canelés. Yes, you read that right!
Update: Commons at Old Street Works is permanently closed.
Last Saturday, I took a day trip to Leigh-on-Sea: a new-to-me seaside destination that's just a 45-minute train journey from London. Once a busy fishing port, Leigh has stacks of character with cobbled streets, historic buildings and wide array of restaurants, cafes and shops, as well as a lovely sandy beach.
The Barn has long been one of my favourite European specialty coffee roasters so I was excited to hear they were opening their first London coffee shop. I've been to several of the German roaster's coffee shops in Berlin and visited their Mallorca café the week the London location opened. Since my return, I've been a couple of times. It's a great addition to Fitzrovia — already an excellent neighbourhood for coffee.
When I planned my recent trip to Mallorca, I decided to stay in Palma and explore other parts of Mallorca by taking day trips. During my stay, I visited four of Mallorca's most beautiful destinations by public transport and small-group tour. Warning: this post contains beautiful beaches (platjas), stunning coves (calas), charming mountain towns and much more!
My Osprey Daylite Expandable 26+6 Travel Pack had its second foreign excursion this month when I took it on a five-day trip to Palma de Mallorca in Spain. Once again, I was impressed with how much I could pack in and how comfortable it was to carry. Read on to discover how the backpack worked as a personal item on a BA flight and what I packed.
