Stop #3, Part 2

Day four in London, we were still basking in the glow that was seeing Phantom of the Opera the day before. Literally, I woke up singing Phantom songs, and had several of them stuck in my head throughout the day. And we're listening to the soundtrack right now, as I write up day four's itinerary.

We'd planned out day four during day three's brunch, so we knew exactly what we wanted to do and how long we had to do them. We'd even taken the time to set up reservations for what we wanted to do at the end of the day, since it's a Friday and we really didn't want to deal with finding a place to go on a Friday night. Reservations make life so much easier, let me tell you. Really wish we'd thought of that back in Dublin. Oh well.

The day started at the Mansion House stop on the Bakerloo line, for those of you who were curious. We picked up an americano for Mum and a chai latte for me, and walked across the Southwark bridge toward the Anchor and Shakespeare's Globe, of course, taking pictures along the way. I took several hundred pictures on day four, so it may take me a while to weed through them and post the highlights, but I will get to it within the next couple of weeks, don't worry. There will be highlights posts after we get back, for those of you who haven't wanted to read the lengthiness of these, and for those who'd like a little more condensed information later on, in case you're looking for something in particular from an earlier post and can't find it. I know, I have a lot of words. I have trouble condensing myself. And I digress a lot. Obviously.

Getting back on track...

I really wanted to walk across the millenium bridge. I'd seen it online, and it's just a really cool bridge. Not to mention the fact that I'm extremely tickled by its story. It opened at the millenium, but that had to nearly instantly close it, as it was very  wobbly. It opened again two years later, and it's just a very cool bridge. It's also just across the way from St Paul's Cathedral, which allows for some really great pictures of the dome.

It's probably obvious, but our next stop was St Paul's. We didn't go inside, being that we were mainly interested in getting pictures of the ornate details outside. I think I took about a hundred pictures just there, standing in front of the cathedral, and I could've taken far more than that. There's just so much detail in every single piece of the exterior, that you can stand there looking at it for hours and notice new things with every single minute. There's that much to it. I didn't come close to getting pictures of it all, but I got a great many.

We walked around the area, down the street, through an archway off to the side of the cathedral and took pictures of anything and everything interesting enough to photograph. Hundreds of pictures, I'm telling you.

Something I should mention: we've been using the underground to move around the city. Obviously. But it's not exactly the best way to get from point a to point b within the city center. If you use the underground in these areas, you'll miss a lot. And I mean a lot. So, I highly recommend walking. By our calculations of how much we walked today, we've probably walked between six and ten miles every day. It's a lot of walking, but you don't really notice it until the end of the day. Why? Because you're looking up the whole time, at the beauty of the architecture and the fascinating things that surround you. It's beautiful to be in the midst of that much history, and I do not recommend taking the underground so much that you miss it. But if you're staying a bit away from the city center, the underground is a great way to start and end your day.

While we were photographing things around St Paul's, it started to rain. Ah, time for the umbrellas again! We'd purchased them specifically for London, because everyone says that it always rains in London, so we figured we'd need them. And now we finally got to use them in London! ...while we hurried down the street to the oldest pub in London, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

Our waiter was the most adorable little old man you've ever seen. He was like the classic English butler kind of guy, super sweet and really cute in the way he moved around the pub. He seated us and brought us a bottle of water, and we sat back to watch the birdy (yes, there's a parrot in the pub). We ordered a duck and port pate to start, which was the perfect combination of sweet and savory when mixed with the light jam it was served beside. Super. Yummy. To be followed shortly by fish and chips, which you'll have seen if you've been following me on Instagram. Also very delicious, especially when doused in malt vinegar.

Another note: I think what people really mean when they say British food is bland, is that they don't use enough salt. They really don't. But, that's easily remedied. And once there's enough salt, it's fabulous.

We left very happy to have finally had fish and chips in London. You definitely have to do that if you're ever in this town. I think it's a requirement.
From there we walked down to the Thames and followed it up to the Houses of Parliament, where we diverted to none another than Westminster Abbey.

Okay, I know I say this a lot, but you really have to go see the Abbey if you're in London. There's just so much history there, so much to see and so much to experience. It's a bit annoying because there's almost always a crowd, but if you can get past that, it's really something you have to do. I can't even describe the feeling you get while you're standing a few feet from the place where the Queen herself was crowned, and to see the coronation chair itself. If you haven't been, you need to go. If you don't do anything else I've suggested, do this.

Outside, we asked Google to lead us to Covent Garden, where we'd made our reservations for the evening.

Another thing I should mention: we've been using Google Maps to get everywhere. Literally everywhere. We used it in Reykjavik, Keflavik, Dublin, and now in London. It's great. Use the walking map. It will glitch sometimes, but if you know how to read a map, you'll be fine. However, Mum did lead us completely in the wrong direction today... but I suppose that's beside the point. ;-)

After getting turned around a few times, we ran into the Queen's Cavalry! We could hardly see above the crowds watching them, but it was still a cool thing to see. Two of the soldiers were mounted on horseback, the rest on the ground. We only caught the tail end of what they were doing, but it was still a really cool thing to see. Look it up if you're in the area.

Google led us through Trafalgar Square, and we found ourselves suddenly recognizing where we were. When you're not in your home city, it's a great feeling to know where you are, I swear. I think that's what made the Temple Bar area in Dublin so great. Once you've been through it once or twice, you know your way around. Parts of London are like that too. Trafalgar Square isn't one of them, unless you're used to people driving on the left and roundabouts. We're not.

Now we get to the fun part.

The day before, I'd gotten to take my Mum to see Phantom of the Opera. Now, on day four, I got to take her for afternoon tea. We'd made reservations at Kingsway Hall the night before, and planned to have a slightly early dinner/afternoon tea, to make things easier for the rest of the night.

What did we have, you ask? Well, I'll tell you!

It started with Kingsway Hall Blend Tea, keemun black tea with coconut flakes, chocolate pieces, and cocoa nibs.

But then there was more!

A glass of champagne, along with grilled chicken caesar wraps, sandwiches of cucumber mint on basil bread and egg, watercress, and mustard mayonnaise on white bread, a cumberland sausage roll with mustard seeds, plain and fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry jelly, an orange and chocolate delice, honey madelines, a chocolate eclair, and a summer berry tarlet.

Oh. My. Goodness. We each had our own pots of tea, which we both finished. And we both ate everything put before us. Literally everything was delicious, and I don't even like tea sandwiches! Seriously, I would never eat cucumber unless it was pickled. But I ate these, gladly.

I know I've already said this about something else, but if you don't do anything that I've suggested while you're in London, you simply must get afternoon tea. There are literally hundreds of different places you can go to get it, many of which don't require reservations. It's a little pricy, but worth every penny (and yes, pennies are still called pennies in England).

Next day, we let ourselves sleep in just a teeny bit. No sense going full speed for days when your body needs a break, so we took a little one. Plus, we knew we had a full day of walking ahead of us, and we thought it best to start out slowly.

Saturday morning, our first order of business was to walk to Kensington Palace. We're staying only about twenty minutes away, so it seemed simpler than to ride the underground. Besides, it meant we had the opportunity to walk through the gardens on our way to the palace itself. Great fun.

The gardens are huge. I mean huge. There was so much to see that there was no way we could've fit all of it and the palace into one day. We did get a lot of pictures in the areas where we were, so I should have a wide array of pictures for you. Kensington Palace, however, is a great deal of fun -- and a must see, if you're a fan of Victoria and Albert.

We walked quickly through the gardens on our way to the palace itself, only taking minimal pictures at that point. The palace was so cool to get to see. I don't know much about Victoria and Albert, myself, but I know they were an arranged marriage and that they actually deeply loved each other. The walls have been decorated with words from Victoria's journals, the rooms filled with objects from her life, and it's really truly beautiful. Paired with an exhibition about the style and fashion of the Queen and Princess Diana (among others), which was a great deal of fun if you're as fond of fashion as I am, Kensington Palace has made its way to be one of my favorite things that we've done while we've been in London.

The gardens were also just so much fun. I should mention, to clarify, that Mum is a bird-watcher, and that because of that, I've become a bird-spotter. It's like a game, really. Listen to the tweeting, find the bird. It's harder than it sounds! We played a lot of this game, looking for birds we didn't know the names of, because we hadn't thought to look at anything like that before we came out here. Trying to take pictures of them is even harder though! I have pictures of absolutely nothing, at the fault of a bird who hopped out of sight right as the shutter closed. Boo. Hopefully I'll have some decent shots for you. We'll see.

After going through the palace and the gardens immediately outside, our stomachs reminded us of that ever-important thing that we'd neglected to do thus far. Lunch.

At this point in the day, it was getting really nice out. The clouds were starting to clear, it felt nice and warm, and we'd even considered taking our coats off. It'd seemed a waste to bring our umbrellas along at all.

...And then it rained. And rained. We hid under a tree, hoping it would block the rain. It didn't. So we ducked into a parking garage, only to be joined by dozens of other people and get pushed out into the rain. And so we found ourselves standing outside Arcadia, a quaint little Italian place. They had a charcuterie plate, so we were sold. You know how it is. ;-) We followed it with a plate of linguine and clams, which were delicious enough and filling enough to mean we wouldn't have a real dinner that night. Homemade charcuterie plates for the win! They're seriously convenient if you're not very hungry and don't have the time for much more.

By the time we left Arcadia, the rain had ceased and the ground was starting to dry, so we went back into the park. This time, we didn't take as many pictures. We strolled around in no particular direction, until we came upon the Albert Memorial.

That memorial is one of the most beautiful that I've ever laid eyes on. Somehow, in that memorial, I could really see how much Victoria loved her husband. She wouldn't have had such a beautiful memorial built for him, so ornate and so highly detailed, so full of richness and beauty, if she hadn't seen all those things in him. It nearly moved me to tears.

From there, we found a map that led us to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. I've seen a few memorial fountains in my time, but this one was like nothing I'd ever laid eyes on. It wasn't big and awe-inspiring like most of the memorials in London. Instead, it's simple and understated, something you could easily miss if you weren't paying close attention. It's a place to sit in the quiet and relax, a place where I could easily sit and write. If you're ever in Kensington Gardens and you need a place to think, go here. You won't regret it.

When we'd finished in the gardens, we decided that it was time to shop. Logical progression, right?

Oxford Street is just off Hyde Park, adjacent to Kensington Gardens, so that was where we went first -- in search of none other than Selfridges.

If you like shopping, designer stuff, and more things to look at than you could possibly have time to look at, this is one of the stores you'll want to go to. There are even cafes inside, so you won't have to leave in search of food. Trouble is, if you go on a Saturday, there are zillions of other people inside. The store was hot and crowded, and we didn't feel like dealing with it, so we left and walked back across Hyde Park to Harrod's.

Honestly, the two stores are very similar. But Harrod's has a feel of class to it, while Selfridge's really didn't, to me. Harrod's was all lit up with Christmas lights, most of a level of the store set aside for Christmas stuff, and everything about it was a lighter feel than the prior store. We spent a lot longer here, enough time for Mum to find a couple tea cozies and me to find a notebook to add to my collection.

All in all, both fun stores, both with more to see than I could possibly look at in less than a couple days, and both are probably ones I'll go back to. But you might want to plan it better so you're not there in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday.

In leaving Harrod's the sun was already down, and our feet were ready for the day to be over... but we were about half an hour from where we're staying. We didn't know that we really wanted to walk all the way back across the park at night, so after deliberation (and discovering that there was very little cell service near Harrod's) we hailed a cab. We'd never done that before! the cab took us to Paddington Station, where we promptly felt completely lost, because nothing looked like it should've. The driver had dropped us off on the other side of the station, which at Paddington just so happens to be a ways away. *sigh*

The moral of the story? Tell your cab driver exactly where you want to go, or plan a way home before you walk a half an hour away from the place your staying.

Or, shop until you drop, and figure it all out on the fly! Apparently, that was what we thought was our best option.

We spent the rest of the evening in foot recovery mode, glasses of wine in hand.

For our final day, we had nothing planned. That meant we could do whatever we wanted -- so, like the good women we are, we went shopping. Literally. That was all we did, all day. So for today, I don't have much to tell you. We didn't even really eat until dinner, except to have pastries at Paul Depuis again. So I only have two places and three places and three things to tell you about.

1. Cadenza

This is a store we actually found a few days ago, but both of us regretted that we hadn't bought anything when we were in there the first time. Also, we didn't know what it was the first time. We just saw sparkly jewelry and ducked inside, without looking at the name of the shop. Yeah, that made it harder to find in the future. But find it we did! And I highly recommend it, if you haven't been before.

It's a part of the Swarovski family, so all the crystals are Swarovski but the designers are from all over the place, so you'll see things very different from what's in the usual Swarovski stores. We both found earrings, and we were on our way.

Definitely worth a stop, especially if you're like us and you like sparkle. Some things are a little pricy, but it's worth it even to step inside and take a look around.

2. l'Occitane

If you walk around London at all, you'll notice the smell of rose. Everywhere. It's because that's the Queen's favorite scent, and everyone likes to smell like her. Well, l'Occitane has the best rose scent in town, if you ask me. They also have a plethora of other scents that are downright amazing. Scents in the US tend to give me a headache that will last into the next week, but the scents here are so nice and pure that I could walk through this store all day and feel nothing but happy.

If you're a perfume person, check it out. Again, some things are a little pricy, but it's worth it for higher quality goods.

3. Simpson's in the Strand

For our final act in London, we wanted to do something spectacular. And we had one particular food dish that we really wanted to try while we were here.

Yeah, my final note in London is about food. I like food. And I know you do too, so no complaints. ;-)

Simpson's in the Strand is an absolute must if you're visiting London. Now, I should mention that it's a nice place. It's in a hotel, and a very nice hotel. So in order to be seated in the restaurant, you have to be dressed at least decently nicely. A nice pair of jeans and a sweater or blouse should be fine, ladies. Guys, a nice pair of pants and a dress shirt. This place is niiiiiiice.

When you're seated, a waiter comes by to ask what you'd like to drink, followed by another who left us the wine list, and another carrying a tray of bread, which he served with a pair of silver tongs. You're seated at a table covered in white cloth, with silverware already laid and a fine white napkin laid out in front of you and a bread plate to your left. The waiters wear suits with white gloves, and treat everyone with the utmost respect. It's a place where you come to feel pampered, and boy did we.

And then there was the food. As I already mentioned, Mum and I knew exactly what we wanted to eat from before we'd even gotten there. And for the first time since coming to London, we weren't sharing.

Beef Wellington.

If you haven't had it, it's basically the most delicious cut of beef known to mankind, wrapped in puff pastry and served with a black peppercorn sauce.

We were in food heaven.

I've had Beef Wellington before, but never one as good as this. It was a very sad moment when the plate was empty, and there was no more to eat. But we were both very thankful that we hadn't decided to share here. Too good to split between two people.

What followed was a sampler of English desserts, most of which I don't know the names of. If you go to Simpson's, I highly recommend getting this. It's five little desserts, all of them light and not to sweet, so you won't feel extremely stuffed when you're done. And every bite is still decadent and delicious, worth every penny.

I will certainly be going back to Simpson's in the Strand. No doubt of it.

After dinner, we took a stroll through the brisk evening air to get some (mostly blurry) pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye in their lit-up splendor.

All in all, London has so far been our favorite stop of the trip, and though we're excited to move onto our final locations, we'll miss what we've left behind here. I could live in London and be a very happy woman -- that's how much I've enjoyed this beautiful city.

[love]

{Rani Divine}