Monday, June 18, 2012

[Tourist] Day 35: London Calling at the Top of the Dial

It has become almost a running joke that despite having spent almost a month in England, I've not really "done" London. On my last trip I passed under London, coming from York and meeting my group at Gatwick and then departing by bus to the SW. And I did have my one day earlier in the trip when I paid my respects at the Emirates and Highbury. But as of the morning of this particular day in the trip, I'd still never laid eyes on any typical London sites. That was all about to change.

We hopped in the car and made the 90-minute drive into London. The weather was in constant flux: pouring one minute, misting another, windy and cold a third, sunny a (very brief) fourth. Seemed appropriate to me. The plan for the day was to walk the south bank of the Thames and then come back a few days later to do the north side. 


Times are tough. They had to sell the "B" to turn a profit this quarter.

London is drowning and I live by the river!

#&@! Spurs

It's like some sort of strange Microsoft-inspired asylum?

This was random and beautiful. It's like someone was playing with a life-size Lite Brite.

Our first stop, both for Lucy's sake and because I love my food - I'm sure you've picked that up by now - was at Borough Market. If we had anything even half as cool in my part of Florida I'd either be a much healthier eater or as large as a house, with no possibilities in-between. Here are some photos:

Wonderful!

Double wonderful! Sorry, vegetarians (I'm not really)!

Largest paella I've ever seen; I do believe I could swim in that.

It's not as good as the Thai Temple green curry, but it was still quite good.

"Olives. Nothing but olives. Mountains of olives. It was a good ten days. I like olives. I like you too".


It's like I went to Tsukiji Fish Market? Right?

Just like New Orleans.

I'm definitely not going to have nightmares about that. No. Not at all.

So tasty looking.

I wanted one really badly. I did not get one. 

I bitterly regretted not going to Macao after eating this


I think I can make these.

Least sweet cider I've ever tried.


We then wandered along the Thames, complete with crossing of the Millennium Bridge (dear lord was it cold and windy at that point - in June!) and then onward to the Eye. Some photos:

Francis Drake sailed thousands of miles in this. Amazing.

I know nothing (oh wait, that's Klink...shut up, I'm 30, this reference is decades before my time anyway).


Shakespeare: overrated or very, very overrated?

Modern art: more overrated than Shakespeare or more overrated than everything ever because god it's awful?

Tower Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral...and the top of Lucy's head. Your choice about which makes for a better photo.

The Thames. Historically important? Check. About as scenic as the East River? Check.

I think the pink pants guy from Tokyo would just about die if he had access to this tree

World Showcase?

That looks vaguely familiar


Things I apparently now take photos of: bathroom signs, my crotch, carousels. There's absolutely no relation between those three, I assure you. 

London Eye. London I. London Aye. I'm going with London Aye.

We found a nice enough restaurant for lunch, my Welsh rarebit was quite tasty, and then we stepped outside the restaurant to the small market going on outside:



Welsh rarebit. Quite good!

Eggs benedict - it was just aight

Cheese board. Guaranteed 80% as cheesy as me.

You took the gluten out of macarons? WHY GOD WHY?!

Fine. I'll try one. 

Delicious. Wish I could remember what flavor it was. All I remember thinking was "delicious". Well, that and "needs more gluten".

Holy crap look at the size of that thing! I'm feeling just a wee bit inadequate right now. You know what will make me feel better?

Ice cream. Makes everything better.

Goat's milk ice cream? I'm game.

Strawberry and balsamic vinegar goat's milk ice cream. Oh. My. God. MORE PLEASE NOW THANKS.

I loved this building

At that point made the walk back to the car. The drive home also included stopping by the Tower of London - very cool!

Tower of London

Sky looked awful...and then five minutes later there was sunshine. Ah, England, I do love you so.

Dinner was one of the more unexpectedly delicious meals on the trip. Over my few days with the family we'd accumulated quite a lot of food from market and store purchases, plus leftovers. Time to lay it all on the table and go to town:
A little bit of this and a little bit of that



3 comments:

  1. I have had some ouzo tonight. I thought I should include that as a preamble to my admission that I initially read "Welsh rarebit" as "were-rabbit", and thought that London had gotten quite a bit more awesome than I remembered it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great Report Gooner !!!

    And Michael, I read the same: "were-rabbit" ... I had to go back after reading your comment to see that I read it wrong.

    Sounds delicious....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I believe the first time I ordered it on my last trip I thought it did have rabbit in it and was sorely disappointed. Were-rabbit would be even tastier?

    ReplyDelete