Strange Women Lyin’ In Ponds…Hello, London
Ladies and Gentlemen
“We apologize for the fault in the” regular updates. “Those responsible have been sacked.“
If you got that reference, I like you better already. If you didn’t then, maybe this will help you identify the film. "Your Mother Was A Hamster And Your Father Smelt Of Elderberries!"
If that still didn’t get the job done, “You make me sad. So be it. Come Patsy.”
Ok enough bad jokes and silliness. We do sincerely apologize that we are absolutely terrible about getting updates posted regularly. That being said, this post is being made in a timely manner but is posted out of chronological order. I will work on stealing Beth’s notes to write the stories of our summer vacation in the French regions of Alsace (the region of France bordering Germany) and Bourgogne (Burgundy to the rest of the world) written over the next few days. So just know that during the summer we spend our 3 week trip exploring Alsace and Burgandy, had a few adventures, since then went back to Lyon, and this tale will catch us all up to what happened this past week as we explored the city of London.
We set out on our first British adventure by heading off to the train station. We traveled to Paris where we connected to the EuroStar train which provides services from London to several cities in Europe. All in all it was a lovely way to travel and had the delightful option of being able to prepurchase the public transport “Oyster” cards on the train so we were ready to go on arrival. All in all it took us 8 hours to get from our apartment to London. The first thing that struck us after the train emerged from the Chunnel was, “where did the sun go?” In our mental geography we both had failed to account for the fact we were now considerably farther north than normal and that the sun would be setting about 4:30 PM during our trip.
Our first time on the tube was uneventful, save the newness of navigating another new public transit system and figuring out how people flow through it. When we emerged outdoors for the first time we were greeted by the traditional British rain-fortunately we were prepared for this-and each popped out our new umbrella. We reached our hotel after a brief stroll and were checked into the Premier Inn Southwark Station.
A brief aside on bags… while still looked on as a bizarre in the US, its relatively common in continental Europe and growing in popularity in the UK for men to carry a small bag. The need to carry an umbrella with me at all times gave me the practical incentive needed to give it a go. I wanted to keep my hands free and decided carrying an umbrella all the time was best left to bag. It is a nice leather bag with 4 pockets and long cross body strap. The cut and style of the bag is simple and rectangular so it was a very gender neutral design. All that being said, for the first couple of outings the decades of US cultural machismo took a bit to overcome. I’m happy to report that I’m quite over that now and the little bag is quite useful. I will be figuring out over the coming days how it works with my commuting by bicycle.
So back to our first afternoon in London, we didn’t spend but a minute in the hotel as we needed to scurry off to reach the location of our bus tour. It was Halloween when we arrived so it only seemed appropriate to take a ghostly but tour. Fortunately for us, the rain moved off as quickly as it arrived, and we enjoyed our tour from the open top of bus. It was a perfectly amusing ride around the city at night and the departure point really set you off on the right foot as we started, just across London bridge on the south side of the Thames looking across the river at the houses of parliament and recently uncovered clock tower most of the world refers to as Big Ben. Fun fact that is not the name of the clock nor the tower, but actually the largest of the bells in the clock. After our tour, we scurried to the other side of Southbank, the London neighborhood of our hotel, to a Pub called The Garrison where we had an 8:00 PM dinner reservation. We started our meal with 2 of their signature gin cocktails and a “snack” of Prawn Croquettes. For the “small plate” Beth enjoyed a vegetarian plate featuring a poached egg and Chris indulged in the house Mettwurst Sausage. For the “large plate”, Beth had the Cornish Fish Stew and Chris the porkchop. For “pudding” Beth had a custard with fruit and Chris the lemon tart. We accompanied the meal with bottle of a white Austrian wine.
The following day began with us meeting a new friend for the first time. Beth has a social network she discusses hobbies on called Discord and through this network she was introduced by a friend to a gentleman named Irving who happens to work in the House of Lords at the British Parliament. Irving was very kind to give a private tour of Parliament that morning, sharing more interesting anecdotes and details. We took a small snack of coffee and cakes in one of the restaurants for the House of Lords. After that, he let us visit the House of Lords gift shop which is generally not open to the public where we purchased a few commemorative souvenirs including a 12 year aged House of Lords Scotch Whiskey. After our tour of parliament, we explored some unique shops areas with boutique shops in the Covent Garden neighborhood. We each found a new flat cap hand made in England by Laird Hatters and had lunch at a local pub. Beth paired an apple cider with fish and chips while Chris sampled a small cask pale ale paired with sausages and mash. So far the food was turning out to be as much fun as the sights. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring different areas. Chris was searching for a good shoemaker to purchase a new pair of black oxfords. He succeeded in finding such a shop but they didn’t have the black pair in his size but the shop could have them transferred from another store in London for the next day. We returned briefly to the hotel to drop goods off before we headed off for our next experience, the London Eye. We decided to go full silliness and book it with champagne as it as only £9 more. We had a lovely time as that small extra expense also meant we only shared the pod with 7 other people. Overall an excellent investment.
We failed to make any plans for dinner that evening we scanned google and Beth identified a restaurant called The ArchDuke. We were able to make a 7:15 reservation so killed some time before returning to the restaurant. We had a delightful supper starting with cocktails, a house signature cocktail for Beth and a classic Tom Collins (gin) for Chris. For appetizers we enjoyed breaded shrimp and smoked salmon. For the main course we shared a 600g (19oz) Coté de Boeuf which turned out to be a thick sliced bone in ribeye accompanied by non other than more Chips. It is truly astounding how much Europeans love their fries, but pay attention as each area has their signature version. For the English Chips are very thick sliced potatoes that are cooked a total of 3 times to have fluffy interior and an exquisite crunch. We finished the meal with perhaps my favorite discovery of all, Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. Our meal was accompanied by a jazz pianist. Overall a lovely find for dinner and the best steak we’ve had since arriving in Europe 6 months ago. From now on I will listen to my wife when she makes suggestions, won’t I?
The third day of our explorations began in search of more food. The quest this morning was to experience the Full English Breakfast. Our search led us to a well-reviewed small local restaurant styled café, but felt like a classic meat and three diner in the southern US. You ordered your meal off a menu board and they took cash only. Between Beth and I, we got all the elements with way too much food. We sampled bacon, sausages, ham, fried eggs, seared tomatoes, beans, chips, and sourdough toast. We accompanied the meal with 2 gigantic cups of coffee served with milk in the English fashion. We were admirably impressed but are certain this can’t be a normal occurrence as it was a truly massive amount of food and we had ordered strategically to limit how much we had!
Post breakfast found us returning to bus touring as it has proven to be a nice way to identify what you want to go take a closer look at. We have personally had good luck with Big Bus tours, but I will say the commentary on the London one featured more silly commentary than meaningful content. That being said, a bus tour is a decent way to see a city. We spent a couple of hours riding the red route which took us past may landmarks and shopping opportunities. We had a leisurely lunch at another pub, but dined more simply following our massive breakfast. Lunch consisted of simple sandwiches, cheddar and mango chutney for Beth and beef brisket for Chris. We paired our sandwiches with more local brew, a berry cider for Beth and a brown cask ale for Chris. After lunch we returned the shoe store to let Chris try on the shoes transferred in the previous day. Chris is now the proud new owner black oxfords from Joseph Cheaney and Sons. They were a bit of an investment but are quality shoes that can be resoled allowing for many long years of service. Also, they are extremely comfortable and will only get more so as they are broken in.
We took the shoes back to the hotel and set off for our next adventure. We were heading to Camden to walk about the local markets. We found ourselves in an area with tons of local flavor and unique shops. We discovered tons of little food shops, but already had a dinner reservation for the evening had to opt for saving grazing across Camden market for a future visit. We had the impression that we could find anything one imagined there. It was a bright and colorful place filled with amazing smells. While we were content to just explore this time we will be back.
As the early sunset of late autumn approached we headed back towards our hotel, but in search of a proper cup of English tea. We have determined that for us a bit of milk is quite nice, but sugar has no place in a proper cup. That’s of course our taste-yours is up to you to find. We opted for the milk first side of the debate and it has worked well so far. It is supposedly the more traditional way as it was purportedly done to protect delicate china cups from thermal shock of the hot tea. Regardless of your stance on when milk should be added, we enjoyed the charm of getting a small pot filled with hot water and a strainer of loose leaf tea. We now completely understand why neither of us have cared as much for bagged hot teas in the past as fresh teas are much more intricate and flavorful. That or we have just become stuffy jerks and now are obliged to use specific vocabularies to describe our new sophisticated pallets for wine and tea. I like to think we are still mostly normal folks, but ones who are fully embracing our opportunities to broaden our collections of experiences.
A while after our afternoon tea, we set headed for our evening reservation, but arrived in the area a bit early so found our way into the TWG tea shop in Soho to escape the cold rain and blustery wind that made exploring less than ideal that evening. We were immediately struck by 2 things. The numerous varieties of tea available are truly something else and some tea shops are astronomically priced. They might be amazing, but we are not sophisticated enough for that yet. Our dinner for the evening was at a local wine bar and restaurant recommended to us by Irving-The Cork and Bottle. It has operated in London in the care of several owners for 4 decades now and can be found secreted away in a basement hideout in Leicester Square. We had a delightful time enjoying reds wines from Argentina, Chile, Portugal, and even France. We dined on baked camembert with olive oil and basil. Chris had braised pork belly with salad and potatoes dauphinoise while Beth tried another English tradition of Shepherd’s Pie. For dessert we shared absolutely nothing because well, we’d had a bit to eat this day already.
Day four of our exploits found us beginning the day in search of our next quintessential British treat, a scone served with clotted cream. We found it at an installation of Gail’s bakery just a few blocks from our hotel. Our breakfast wound up us sampling many treats-The aforementioned scone with clotted cream (similar to butter but more white in color and sweeter), a cinnamon pecan muffin, some baked eggs with streaky bacon, and 2 pots of English breakfast tea. It was a delightful start to the day and a nice change of pace. It was during this meal we really appreciated how much faster the pace of life in London was from France. London and the US both are in constant motion without it feels any opportunity to stop and breathe. One of the best parts of our time in France has been the opportunity to slow down life and just enjoy sitting at a café or taking a bit longer with a meal. Even while we sat in repose and sipped on our tea, the vast majority of clients at Gail’s popped in grabbed a pastry and a flat white (espresso and microfoam cream if we found the right description) and were off coffee in hand.
From there we headed off to explore Piccadilly Circus. Following Piccadilly Circus, we stumbled upon Whittard Tea of Chelsea and found two delighful blends of loose leaf tea for a much more approachable price. We took home a tin of Piccadilly Blend and also their Christmas tea which has all the scents of the season to come. We’ll open it a bit later this year. Our bookworms crawled as fast as they could to take advantage of the fantastic Waterstones bookstore where we purchased a cookbook resplendent with several hundred British recipes. It is a new book just published this year, but had recipes for all the items we knew we wanted to try and make ourselves. Loaded down with tea and book we headed back towards the hotel, but made our planned lunch stop at the Fishcoteque, for a proper Fish and Chips from a dedicated “chippy.” It was a delightful meal and the malt vinegar sauce of a real chippy was excellent. I’ve never like one in the US but I very much enjoyed the one here.
Following lunch, we dropped off our parcels and set off on tube to catch the blue route bus tour to explore the area of London around Paddington. When our tour concluded we found ourselves on the northern side of Hyde park and elected to stroll through the park to take a peek at the London icon of Harrod’s the store where one can supposedly find anything. We poked around just a bit in that massive edifice of commerce and left feeling in awe of the fashion industry and trends. I’ll stick with timeless classics, less chance I’ll make mortal enemies in the fashion world. From Harrod’s, we jumped on the bus to our dinner reservation at The Curry Room. We had a fantastic meal starting with champagne and a sampling of chutneys. Then an appetizer course of a lamb dumpling with a delightful drizzle of sauce on it. For the main course Beth tried the most famous English curry, Butter Chicken. Chris opted for the traditional lamb curry. For dessert, Chris enjoyed a plum crumble and Beth savored a steamed date and banana pudding. We each enjoyed a glass of red wine with the meal, Chris a pinot noir and Beth something from the Loire Valley of France. After dinner we took a short stroll around the corner to the Apollo Victoria Theatre for the highlight of the evening, a performance of “Wicked”. We loved the show and encourage anyone else who has failed to see it since it opened in 2006 to go whenever the opportunity arises. It is an excellent story. We were very surprised by the London theatre scene allowing snacks in the auditorium. I think I prefer the option without, but we did take advantage of the option of having some water, prosecco, and souvenir magnet delivered to our seats during intermission. It as a bit warm in the theatre so a cool beverage was lovely. After the show we intended to take the tube back to the hotel, but when the crowds from 2 shows were backing up so far that you couldn’t even get on the platform, we opted for plan B. We walked to a bus stop about 2 blocks from the theatre and took a basically empty bus back to our neighborhood. Definitely the best choice and a much more pleasant way to end the day than on a tube train with everyone else’s closest friends.
Our fifth day was our last day to explore London but commenced much as day 4 had with a trip to Gail’s. This time Beth stayed with a scone where Chris branched out and tried a mince pie. We only shared 1 pot of tea this time, but added some fresh orange juice and an americano for comparison’s sake. The baked eggs and streaky bacon got a reprisal as well. All in all, a very pleasant breakfast. After breakfast we headed off to the Tower of London and spent several hours exploring the grounds and listening to Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters) tell their tales and using an interactive audio guide. We opted to skip the crown jewels as the line was rather ridiculous and as one of the Beefeaters said “go in there, look at his majesty’s jewels, look at your jewels, and feel poor.” For us the fascinating part was walking through the white tower and getting a better look at the historical artifacts and up-close looks at how truly ornate the engravings were on medieval weapons and armor, especially that of English kings. And if you saw some of the cod pieces you could tell that just because they didn’t have big trucks they found plenty of ways to compensate for their, umm, inadequacies.
We left the Tower of London and headed in search of some lunch. We wound up wandering around a small wharf before setting on a burger shop called Honest Burgers. While it was a chain, it had one of the best burgers we’ve had in Europe and was a nice little taste of home. After lunch we took a stroll across Tower Bridge, the one you see in every movie to tell you it’s in London; yep that’s Tower Bridge. London bridge is a modern concrete thing after a guy in Arizona bought it thinking he was buying the Tower Bridge; sucker. We strolled about a few shops before ultimately realizing our week was catching up to us and catching a little down time.
It was a good thing too as we ended up with a late night. We headed back to Parliament about 6 as Irving had invited us to have drinks he and some colleagues at the House of Lords bar. Beth enjoyed a Pimm’s with Lemonade and Chris tried the House of Lords Lager. We enjoyed our drinks on the Lord’s terrace along the Thames. After our drinks, we headed off to the Civil Service Club for dinner. We enjoyed the most reasonably priced steak as well as a nice bottle of Malbec from Argentina. After dinner we headed back to the Tower of London for a truly special event. Irving got us admitted to watch the Ceremony of the Keys. It is the longest continuously running military parade in history and is the ceremonial locking of the Tower of London each night starting at precisely 9:53 PM and concluding just before the clock strikes 10. The waiting list to observe this ceremony is roughly 18 months so it was truly something special to be invited to see. After the ceremony, we walked just a brief distance to the Wetherspoons by the Tower of London and started with a hot chocolate to warm up as it was a rather cold evening. After that Chris sampled 1 more cask ale, a red this time, as we sat and talked with Irving. We headed back to the hotel around midnight, but took a slight detour at Irving’s suggestion to see St. Paul’s cathedral at night.
The next morning, we packed up our bags then headed off to Gail’s for one last scone before venturing back to St Pancreas station to commence our journey home.
