Caving, Climbing, Fun

Vauxwall Climbing Centre – I’m scared of heights, but this is totally doable and great fun!

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We checked out Vauxwall Climbing Centre next to Vauxhall tube station earlier today and it was great fun. The Centre is run by the award-winning Lakeland Climbing Centre, which was established in 1993 in the Lake District. A GREAT SUCCESS STORY: VAUXWALL CLIMBING CENTRE Their first climbing wall immediately became one of the top three climbing walls in the UK. It was only in 2014, that they opened their second wall: Vauxwall, now: Vauxwall West, or simply VauxWest. Four years later, Vauxwall East, or VauxEast, next to Lambeth Bridge, was added. And today, the Centre operates four more centres in Harrow (Harrowall), UK’s largest bouldering centre and Europe’s largest artificial cave system (170m length), Croydon (Croywall), Ravenscourt, Hammersmith, West London (Ravenswall), and, since last month, Canary Wharf (Canarywall). Seems like they’re unstoppable, well done. CLIMBING CLOSE TO THE GROUND WITHOUT GEAR Those of you that regularly eyeball this blog know […]

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Art and Culture, London

Ai Weiwei’s Roots Exhibition at the Lisson Gallery – Only until 2 Nov!

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We have been huge fans of Ai Weiwei for many years. We find his art immediately intuitive and aesthetic, we love the versatility, the materials, (in many cases) the sheer physical scale, how he’s often at the forefront of what’s technically possible, and not least of all we love angry art and this feller is angrier than a dozen wives whose wedding anniversaries have been forgotten. Weiwei’s art always comes with a message, he’s risked more than most artists for his beliefs, suffered at the hands of the Chinese regime, but nothing will stop this one-man army. What’s even more: he doesn’t stop at the message and actively runs projects worldwide.   The Roots exhibition at Lisson Gallery mainly consists of giant, rusty iron sculptures cast from tree roots collected in Brazil for Weiwei’s biggest exhibition so far, which took place in São Paulo last year. To be more precise, […]

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London, London restaurants

Pimlico’s Delizie D’Italia – Great Spot for Brunch

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We used to live in Pimlico (near the beautiful Vincent Square, on the other side of Vauxhall Bridge Road), and we always loved Delizie d’Italia, a tiny Italian delicatessen with a small amount of indoor and outdoor seating. It isn’t located in the best part of Pimlico, right on Lupus Street, opposite the notorious Churchill Gardens estate. But the area has gone a long way and is perfectly safe during day time. A lot of great places have opened in the area during the past decade, including, for example a vintage clothes store frequented by A-listers. The famous 1930s neo-Georgian Dolphin Square apartment complex is only a stone’s throw away. A fabulous Michelin-starred restaurant is just half a mile away towards Victoria station (our review here). From Pimlico tube station Delizie is less than five minutes’ walk.   The quality of the service very much depends on the mood of […]

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England, London, Water sports

Riding Horses and Jetskis – A weekend trip to the New Forest & Poole

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Ms B & I love the New Forest and usually try to visit at least once every two years. This post is about our stay last summer. Sometimes it takes us forever to finish a post. But rest assured, the New Forest hasn’t changed a bit since we first visited 8 years ago. We do double-check each venue and activity provider to make sure they’re still rated the same and up and running. In this case, for example, we are happy to report that The Terrace has hired a new, Michelin-starred head chef, since our visit (links below). Our apologies that the photos are not aligned with the headlines of this post. This is because we wanted to spread the photos evenly and chronologically, while there are simply way too many animal photos to squeeze in. The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t great, which is funny, because during most […]

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Fun

Our 2018

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I guess it’s time for the Barbarians’ year end review. 2018 has treated us well. We had more wondrous and wonderful collaborations in New York, Malta, Frankfurt, London, Cambridge, Kent, and our prime weekend destination: the Cotswolds. We met up with some lovely fellow bloggers in person and made friends on social networks. Winter Wonderland Our 2018 started with a few fun days in Vienna. It was our fourth time together in Vienna in winter. In our book there’s no better place to enjoy this time of year than Austria’s glorious capital. We made a point in ordering Viennese schnitzel every time we ate out and our favourite turned out to be Cafe Englander.    Gobbling like a Gourmet We also started shopping for discount deals at Michelin-starred restaurants and on average dined at such culinary temples twice a month, sometimes for less than £20 per person, hardly ever for […]

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