[Tourist] Day 32: Raining? In England? Do tell!

Day 32 might be the shortest entry of the lot. After another delightfully relaxed morning, Phil and I decided to head to one of the more upmarket pubs in the area (in fact the local pub of Guy Ritchie). The day was dreary and rainy, which made the lush greenery in the area stand out even more.

I believe this was the classiest pub I've ever been in

Tiniest bottles of Diet Coke on the face of the plenty. I suspect I could have drank six of these in a row.

I am sure you are getting tired of me calling every food delicious. It's like I'm Guy Fieri on Diners, Dives and Drive-ins and everything is fantastic. But really, this meal was fantastic. The bread was so good that I think we had thirds or fourths. It may have even outdone all the bread I had in France.

I've run out of words to describe how delicious food is, but the bread was some of the best I've ever had.

Asparagus, two-ways.

My salad delivered on the promise of some tasty greenery, with the unexpected benefit of having the best croutons of my life.

Look, I'm being healthy! The croutons in particular were fantastic.

I decided on fish and chips. The best fish and chips I've ever had was at a fish and chips shop in York. This was not on that level, but the batter had a rich, beer-like flavor that seemed quite fitting of the surroundings. And the tartar sauce was full of capers.

Fantastic fish - the batter was wonderful!

We raced through the rain to the train station and got there twenty minutes early, or nineteen minutes earlier than Phil's ever been for a train. I said goodbye after a brief but fun visit, and made my way by train to Waterloo Station in London.

Awww yeah, crotch shot on the train

The train to Waterloo got in five minutes late, cutting my 24 minute transfer to a more tight 19. It seemed simple enough: arrive in Waterloo, leave from Waterloo East. Except there was construction going on and the area was poorly signed. I wandered for ten minutes before finally remembering that I spoke the language and asking someone for directions. Once in Waterloo East (tiny station) there was no board showing the stops for the trains and so while I was pretty sure I wanted the 4:13, I asked someone to verify. Good thing I did as the front four cars went where I wanted to be and the back four did not. A minute later the train arrived and I was off to Kent.

One of my favorite drinks on the whole trip

Allison and Bob met me at the train station and drove me back to their house. While not technically related to me, Allison and Bob have always been like an aunt and uncle. Who doesn't want English relatives?

Yet another lovely view!

Park Hyatt Tokyo didn't give me a pink lampshade. Love it!

I settled in for my first homecooked meal of the trip. I'll let you guess what I thought of it (here's a hint, it starts with del and end with cous).

Home cooking

The prize of the meal had to be the duck fat roasted potatoes. Where can I get duck fat? It would be a bad idea to be a duck living in my neighborhood on my return.

Oh god these potatoes - these potatoes were absolutely fatal to any diet

I headed off to bed, hopeful that I might finally sleep past 4:30 (hah!).