London Day 5: Sun to Rain and a London Walk or Two

Despite the overnight rain, we woke to sunny skies and promptly go out to Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. It's a good thing we were there first thing in the morning because by 10am, the area was seething. Notting Hill is a an area made famous by the movie but known best as an affluent and older fashionable area with lots of trust fund babies with an equally thriving "alternative" culture (per wikipedia's description) with lots of second hand clothing and antique stores. On Saturdays (like today), vendors set up stalls with fruits and vegetables, meats, clothing (new and used), antiques, silver, art, accessories and more. All sorts of items were here and mostly divided up by category.

I finally found something affordable to buy in London at Portobello Road, a new cute wrap top for only £10 from a new designer called Emily and Fin. And I tried it on in the market behind a little sheet...in 40 degree weather. As the morning went on, the day became more lovely and the streets of Notting Hill more crowded. We wandered some side streets and took pictures of the multi-colored house fronts until stopping at a bagel store. The English may admire a New York bagel but they haven't learned how to imitate it yet.

More later including our adventures with London Walks in the rain...

London Walks is a GREAT company that provides guided walking tours of London, with very professional, knowledgeable and somewhat theatrical guides. We joined up for an afternoon This Is London! tour with Judy. This is the Flash-Bang-Lightning Highlights tour that includes a visit to the biggest sites that London has to offer including a ride along the Thames, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. James's Park, Whitehall, Buckingham Palace, the Mall and Trafalgar Square. What London Walks specializes in is giving you the keys to the areas that you would never find on your own and stories that you will never read in a guidebook. Only have one day in London? This tour is a great introduction.

We liked this tour so much that we decided to take another £6 a person London Walk to the Old Hampstead Village Pub Walk with Peter G. This walk covers the high hill above London, looking at areas where history ranges from Keats and DH Lawrence to Elizabeth Taylor and Jamie Oliver. We punctuated our historical (and rainy) adventure through Hampstead and the border of the Heath, with two great pubs - the Holly Bush and Ye Olde White Bear. At the Holly Bush, we played tour guide for a young man whose wife was taking her mother for a two week holiday in the States. He wanted to know where they might travel between Boston and DC. Funny that we would be very familiar with that area! We were led by the Admiral's House, on top of which are 12 cannons which the original owner used to fire to claim victory in naval conflicts, the inspiration for a certain scene in Mary Poppins. Our travels also took us past the oldest known house in Hampstead - the Fenton House, as well as past the home of the late George du Maurier, now owned by Ridley Scott. We ended up meeting a great couple from Amsterdam, Jacob and Femke and stayed on at the restaurant above the Holly Bush for dinner after the pub crawl. W had his first English sausages and mash! Smoked salmon, salad and crusty bread for me. Butter served on the slide in big slabs like cheese. And the oddest small WC (toilet or loo in the UK) that I have ever seen. Four steps inside the front door including one to get to the commode. And the sink in a corner in front so small and close you could wash your hands while sitting down! I guess fire codes are different in the outer reaches of London, the restaurant / pub had candles sitting open on every other stair up to the second floor.

Finally back to the tube, agreeing to a possible meeting for the next evening's New Years' Eve walk with our new friends.

London Day 4: And the rain came down....

We've been in London for almost four days and the rain (and wind) finally made an appearance. Unlike Bermuda, where we were expecting nice weather and didn't get much, we were mentally and physically prepared for total crap weather wise here in London. We were pleasantly surprised by the first three days and expecting today to finally come.

Turned out that it didn't begin to rain until we stood in line at 10am at the TKTS booth at the south end of Leicester Square. 45 minutes and £25 Chicago 4:30 matinee tickets later, we'd changed our plans from a walk through the neighborhoods around Chelsea to a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum off of the South Kensington Tube station. We joined what seemed like all area schoolchildren and their parents in the looooong walk from the train to the exit (see yesterday's post about the distance from tunnel to train and stairs), but luckily nearly all of them departed for the National History Museum.

The Victoria & Albert was just what we needed on a rainy day for several hours of viewing interesting sculpture, historical artifacts, clothing, painting, furniture and more from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and many other eras in human history. I even tried on a hoop skirt (and tried to sit in it!)

We wandered around downtown for awhile then hopped on a VERY crowded Tube back to Paddington and on to the Bakerloo line for our ride to the flat. W and I stopped at the Tesco again for a refill on soda, beer (Strongbow Cider for me!), sponges for the flat (aka wash ups in the UK), digestive cookies for our friend Katherine, and some afternoon snacks. While waiting outside we noticed a dog barking its head off down the street. Turned out to be a woman having her afternoon tea outside with some Bichon type fuzzy white thing and a shop owner yelling at her about calling the police. It seemed the shop owner and the woman were in disagreement about the dog's behavior and the shop owner wanted her to leave. She refused. Police dispatched. Ahhh...nice to know that people are people no matter where you go.

After a snack and a change of clothes, we took off on a mad dash for the West End and a production of Chicago with a bunch of BBC stars like Ian Kelsey and reality TV stars like Aoife Mulholldand. Not bad for a 4:30 matinee!!! Choreographed by Ann Reinking, one of my heroes, the dancing was great! The only bother was that many of the leads and minor characters kept varying between a slightly Southern / Texan accent and their native Irish / English / Scottish brogues. It seems that the instruction on how to be American includes adopt a twang!!! Otherwise, really nice production!

Spent the rest of the nice at a local hip chain All Bar One. More about that tomorrow. Early day at Portobello Road in Notting Hill tomorrow (in more forecasted rain.) Pictures and details to follow....

We spent the evening after the theatre at All Bar One, a restaurant/bar chain designed specifically to give women a place where they can feel comfortable ordering a drink and having a bite. Open and airy with large seating areas with tables and couches, pillows and stools, this is an obvious 20-30 something locale. One of the oddest things for W and I is the fact that only quite expensive restaurants have table service with waitstaff. Most places like the Porterhouse and All Bar One, while serving decent food, require you to order and pay at the bar. Then based on your table number, typically carved or stickered onto the edge of your table, the staff will deliver your meal. Want another drink? Go back to the bar. We enjoyed several types of beers and some tapas (not real tapas, more lots of little appetizers.) If this is a chain, I'd like to franchise it in the US! One funny moment came when I ordered a 'red beer' for W, intending to receive an amber ale. No such thing really in the UK, at least at All Bar One. Bitters, ales, lagers, ciders, whites - yes. But ask for a red beer in London and you'll get what I got and sent back, a framboise or strawberry flavored beer, much like the Fruli that I enjoyed our first night. While I would have liked it, I had already received my cider so I promptly ordered W a lager. Hilarity inducing for the English lad next to me at the bar. The barkeep was understanding and I was reminded by the observer NOT TO TIP! We sat, ate, drank and people watched for the rest of the evening.

London Day 3: Stairs

Started off the morning at about 8:15am by taking the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral. Even more majestic than Westminster Abbey and far more accessible. This Christopher Wren masterpiece was once the tallest building in the London skyline. It houses the graves and memorials of many Royal servants, as well as a memorial to Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale. We climbed up 259 steps from ground level to visit the Whispering Gallery, then an additional 378 steps up to the Stone Gallery, which is the round vestibule visible at the base of the dome and stands at 173 feet above ground level. Finally we braved the additional steps (total of about 530) up old wood, stone and spiral staircases to the Golden Gallery, the smallest of the galleries, which runs around the highest point of the outer dome, 280 feet above the ground. (Look at the photo on your right, look at the top of the dome and see the stone gate type architecture. We were up there!) For those of you who know I don't like heights, I'll just say that it was worth it for these irreplaceable views of London!





We then walked slowly down the steps and across the Millenium pedestrian bridge to the Tate Modern, a large free modern art gallery. We both realized that we weren't really crazy about surrealism, took a respectable journey through at least 20 rooms of modern art, said hello to Warhol's Marilyn Diptych and Double Elvis and promptly left for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.



We had a very entertaining walk through the Globe on the South Bank of London, standing in the groundlings' area, sitting in the 2-3 penny seats, listening to our tour guide explain the particulars of Edwardian and Jacobean theater.


Next came a late lunch of panini from a small shop in Gabriel's Wharf, next to the OXO Tower. Then we walked to Waterloo tube and train station, possibly one of the largest (and most dodgy) train stations we've ever seen. There's a reason why almost everyone in London is trim, you have to walk everywhere! From the Tube entrance to the actual train is typically at least 20-50 stairs and nearly a quarter mile. (W says - more like a half!) Thank heavens - no rain yet and good shoes = no blisters.


We took the Tube back to the other side of the Thames and attempted to secure West End theater tickets at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square. Nothing was available that we wanted to see so we vowed to arrive by 9:30am tomorrow morning and wandered around the Strand until we found a pub recommended by one of my co-workers who is a native Londoner. We grabbed some much needed rest and a pint at the Coal Hole.


After much cajoling, I finally got W to try the bus, recommended by most travel books as the way to see London. Included in the cost of our TravelCards for the Underground, these double deckers are the way to go. If buses were only this clean in the states, people might voluntarily ride them. We took the bus down to Knightsbridge where we braved the Harrod's sale for about 45 minutes. This is like no other department store in the world - Cavalli, Lauren, Burberry and Armani 'salons,' specialty themed areas like the Egyptian room and escalator, appointment only shopping services and more Harrod's teddy bears and tea for tourists than you could possibly know what to do with!!!


We strolled down through Kensington in search of restrooms (loo's or WC's here) and vowed to visit the Victoria & Albert once we passed in this evening. We took a very crowded Tube back to Covent Garden and wandered again for about an hour before finding the Porterhouse Brewery for dinner. Seats are rare in this order at the bar for all type of brewpub and we ended up sitting next to two young Brits, one of whom resides in San Francisco and is a chemist for a pharmaceutical company. We picked their brains about football vs. cricket vs. rugby, UK vs. USA costs and received recommendations about where to travel to outside of London this weekend (Cambridge or Canterbury.)


After a twelve hour day, we're back in the flat and ready for bed!

London annoyance of the day - small children (4-5) racing on scooters across the Millenium Bridge, nearly taking out all those walking across

London joy of the day - the view from the top of St. Paul's

London: Day 2 Walking, walking, walking

Aaaaah! Life is good after 12 hours of sleep. After a quick breakfast at the flat, we took the tube to the Whitehall area around 11am. We walked in a very, very cold London to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. A little too expensive for a museum, we moved on down Whitehall Street to the Horses' Guard Parade Grounds and had our photos taken with what looked like Her Royal Majesty's 12-16 year old guards on horseback. Then through the archways to the largest open space in London, the actual Parade Grounds. This large pebble landscape is next to the very modest home of the Prime Minister and backs up to St. James Park. The lovely stretch of green, complete with joggers, fountains and swans, looked like a small stretch of Central Park.

Walking on, we reached Westminster Abbey where for 10 pounds and less than a ten minute wait, we were treated to some of the most impressive architecture we've ever seen. The Abbey, still a working church, is the gravesite and memorial to royal subjects and contributors to art, literature, politics and even science. In Poet's Corner, most people paid attention to the memorials of Dickens, Keats and W.H. Auden, but missed the crypt of Goeffrey Chaucer behind them. We moved outside into the Cloisters (photo coming soon) and into the narthex, lighting a candle and asking a very polite guide where the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton might be. Interestingly, the globe and sculpture memorial stands above his grave and nearby is the barely noticable tomb of Charles Darwin.

After Westminster Abbey, we walked around the Whitehall area a little more and viewed the London Eye, Big Ben and Parliament. "Look Kids - Big Ben....Parliament" Clark Griswold.

Back up Whitehall Street to the Silver Cross (a traditional English pub) for lunch of fish & chips and tempura battered chicken. And of course, beer. Strongbow Cider for me and an IPA and a Bombadier for W. The second one was free as they ran out 3/4 of the way into W's pour. There was a half hour wait on food and only one bartender. When I asked politely if they were understaffed, the unflappable bartender replied, "No - only undermanaged." We smirked as we watched a French family yell at the staff about the slow service. It seems as if half of the French population is here on holiday as that is the main language we heard at the Abbey and at local restaurants and shops.

By the time we reached Trafalgar Square, it was nearly sundown at 4pm. We wandered through and took pictures before entering the National Gallery. The crush of people inside this free museum was incredible. And they kep closing gallery after gallery, making it even more crowded. We did find some respite in the basement at the Manet to Picasso Exhibition. W really liked the work of Pissaro, Manet and Degas. We were waiting around for the free 6:30pm tour and asked at the information desk about it. Good thing we did as we found that it was cancelled (and the portions of galleries shutting down) due to 'industrial action' by the staff. English politeness for a strike. Now we understood why curiously no one could tell us which galleries were closed or why?

We left the National Gallery around 6pm and spent the next several hours criss-crossing through central London and the West End, stopping at the Times Square craziness that is Picadilly Circus, browsing the markets at Covent Garden, viewing the Americanized Leicester Square and accidentally wandering into a gentleman's area in Soho (whoops!)

We finally settled on a little Turkish restaurant that sat about 12 people, Opuz Kitchen, for kebabs and beer. At about 9:30pm we stumbled home, chatted with our fellow Elon roomies and wandered back out to Robert Browning's pub in our neighborhood (Little Venice) for a final pint courtesy of Sam Smith's brewery.

Back in the U.S. W has now decided that I can swear at home, but only in an English accent. It just sounds cuter and more sophisticated.

London: Travel and Day 1 - Can we just find a pub?

Also known as Damn that Marky Mark

Because of his flowing hair, abnormally large biceps and underdog working class Philly story, W and I got stuck watching Invincible on the plane for the first two hours over and barely slept a wink. We soldiered on in London, deciding to stay up until at least 9pm to fight the looming jet lag. After successfully navigating the tube pricing, maps and international travellers with little regard for personal space, we arrived at the hotel that gave us our flat keys. We weren't in the mood for more tube stops with luggage so we took an official black cab to our flat at 29-31 Clifton Gardens. These are two old buildings combined into a series of rental flats. We have a two floor flat with one bath, two bedrooms and a combined kitchen and living area (approximate sq. footage of 600). W and I decided to be nice and give the two twins to our incoming Elon flatmates and took the bunk beds for ourselves. It's like camp, but in England and free!

First adventure: the London Underground and a trip to Bond and Oxford Streets. And we thought that Times Square was crazy!!! Never have we seen such a melting pot of people and cultures all in search of one thing....a post-holiday sale. We experienced British department stores such as Selfridges at 50% off (still expensive) and all pulsating with 3am type club music. More people watching and less shopping due to the horrible exchange rate.

After wandering through the shopping district, we landed at The Three Tuns for an afternoon snack of beer, potato wedges with cheese and yummy roasted tomato soup. W had a Guinness and I discovered a new favorite in Kronenbourg Blanc, a Belgian style white beer from France! Warm fire, super friendly barkeeps calling us dear and love and some food kept us going another couple of hours.

After nearly falling asleep on the tube, W and I visited the Tesco Express - a mini grocery store down the block from us for some cereal, juice, soda and bananas. And although we're not in New England and it's not Easter, he found his favorite breakfast treat - hot cross buns. Hooray!!

So a shower to wake us up and we set out again from the flat for a traditional English pub style dinner. We tried the Prince Albert, a recognized favorite among Elon students, but the food was a bit out there and dear for us. So then we tried the Robert Browning pub on the other side of our flat, but they weren't serving food on Boxing Day. What does a person have to do to get gastro-pub food on Boxing Day?!?! We ended up across the street at Cafe Rouge, a French cafe style 'fast food' restaurant described by Frommers as so 'uncool' that it has become 'almost fashionable' again. Didn't seem fast food to us....great baguettes with chicken or steak and special sauces inside, true French servers with barely passing mastery of the English language and the best fries since the Fryeburg Fair in Maine according to W. Of course I discovered another new beer called Fruli, a wonderfully light strawberry flavored drink. Cringe at will you beer snobs...I'm happy with my beer adventures.

Off to sleep in the bunk beds for us....more to follow!