London

October 23, 2019

We are happily ensconced in London.  London may well be our favorite city in the world.  Every time we come here we feel like we have come home. Part of that feeling may be the fact that we can actually read and understand the signs and nearly everyone is speaking English. We have an Airbnb apartment just two blocks off of Tottenham Court Road and just two tube stops north of Leicester Square.  Each time we are here we try to stay in a different neighborhood.  On this trip we are staying in the Fitzrovia area of London.  It is a wonderful neighborhood filled with interesting shops and a large selection of restaurants representing a wide range of cuisines.  It goes without saying there are also several wonderful pubs.

Lynda did the planning for London, finding a contemporary art gallery named White Cube. This gallery is located in southeast London south of the Thames River in an area called Bermondsey.  It was a bit of an adventure locating the Gallery but was worth the find.  Contemporary art can occasionally push the envelope of what is truly creative and what is just stuff thrown together.  For example, yesterday there was one “work of art” that looked like the artist had bought 8 black shelving units at IKEA and put them in an interesting geometric shape and called it art.  But that was the exception at the White Cube Gallery.  One stunning work was a globe of the world done as a mobile. It was hung in a 9 foot square room and took up most of the space.  Each of the continents was cut from large pieces of glass.  One needed to walk about the room looking at the mobile from different angles to recognize each continent.  They were cut in straight lines and sharp angled corners but still recognizable. In another room Tim was standing in front of a large ball resting on the floor that appeared to be covered with some sort of fabric that the artist had arranged in an interesting pattern. Tim asked a docent about a nearby sign that warned people with pacemakers that there was a light magnetic field in the room.  The docent told Tim that the ball he was standing next to was actually made up of magnetic plates and what Tim thought was fabric was actually millions of metal filings. This led to a discussion of how long magnetic plates retained their magnetic properties. Tim wondered if some morning they would open the gallery and find all of the fillings laying on the floor.  This was not a particularly large gallery so our stay was short but enjoyable.

Borough Market

Our plan on leaving White Cube Gallery was to somehow make our way back to Borough Market where we would have lunch. The people at the gallery said it was just a short walk and pointed us in the right direction and off we went.  We ended up walking along a street full of art galleries and museums. We spent a few minutes in the gallery of what was said to be the oldest glassblower in London.  The work area where the glass was being blown was open at the back of the gallery so visitors could stop and watch.  There was actually more then one glass artist at work and none of them were particular old. As you know we have  several glass objects de art in our house so we were very interested in the works on display. They were beautiful. Unfortunately, those works that caught our eye were well beyond our budget.

Borough Market is a place we discovered on one of our last trips to London.  It is a combination of shops selling meat, cheese, seafood and produce along with a number of food stalls. We separated briefly agreeing on a place to meet and set off to find lunch.  Lynda ended up with raclette. Raclette is a type of Swiss cheese that melts easily.   A large half round of the cheese is placed under a heating element and the melted cheese is scraped off of the round onto various food items.  In Lynda’s case it was scraped over boiled potatoes.  She had eaten this on our previous visit to Borough Market and she made a bee line to the same food stall on this trip. Tim found a stall selling Argentinian empanadas.  He had two ham and cheese empanadas that were also delicious.

Raclette

Lynda Enjoying Raclette

After a delightful lunch we crossed the Thames and visited the Monument.  That is its name: the Monument.  It is a large column that commemorates the Great London Fire of 1666.  The fire started near the location of the Monument and burned for 4 days destroying much of the city.  The rest of the afternoon was spent in our apartment doing the usual, napping and reading.

In the evening we went back to the Monument area to visit a new skyscraper.  In recent years Londoners have started giving names to new buildings based on their shape. A few years ago a new building was built that had a rounded shape to it. Everyone now refers to it as “the Gherkin”.  Another building across the river from the Gherkin is called “the Shard” because it looks like a broken piece of glass arising out of the ground.  The building we visited is called “the Walkie Talkie”.  When we first saw it we thought it looked like a cell phone but decided Walkie Talkie is more descriptive and more fun. The reason we visited it was because the top floor has several restaurants and bars, a garden and a large viewing area with spectacular views of London.  While we did not eat or drink here, the views were all they were cracked up to be, particularly after dark.  We finished the evening at a local pub eating fish and chips.

Tower of London and London Bridge (still standing)

The Gherkin

St. Paul's Cathedral

October 23, 2019

Today was a fairly leisurely day. We first explored several home goods stores in the area, looking for new duvet covers.  Ended up buying a new serving bowl. Go figure.

Pick and Cheese

After Tim returned the bowl to our apartment, we took the tube to Covent Garden. Years ago Covent Garden was home to a fruit and vegetable market. Now it is a tourist area, home to a plethora of shops, restaurants and street performers. Our destination was a restaurant called “Pick and Cheese”.  It consisted of a long bar with stools. The bar contained a conveyor belt that ran constantly in a circle. On the conveyor belt were small plates of cheese with an accompanying condiment.  Each plate had a glass cover with a number attached.  We were given a menu that explained what type of cheese and condiment each numbered plate contained. The color of the plate indicated the price ranging from 3 pounds to 6 pounds. Once we decided which numbered plate we wanted we waited for it to come by on the conveyor and lifted it off.  When we were done a wait person came by, collected our plates and brought us our bill. We tried two different cheeses, one a gorgonzola, a type of blue cheese, and the other an English variation of a Swiss emmental cheese.  If your entire meal was going to be eaten at the Pick and Cheese it would get pretty expensive in a hurry.  But it was a nice appetizer for a full meal someplace else.

Leaving Covent Garden, it was a short walk to Leicester Square. Last fall when we were here with Jeff, Heather, Cole and Kelsey we discovered a store dedicated to M&M’s in Leicester Square. The store is full of all sorts of products with the M&M logo. Tim even saw golf balls for sale.  In the lower level there are individual dispensers of every type and color of M&M’s produced. Much like going into a donut shop, you get a bag, or bags, and fill them with whatever type or color you would like.  Tim stocked up on green and white M&M’s for upcoming tailgates. After wandering around Leicester Square a bit more we took a bus back to our apartment.  We finished the day with a pub dinner.

Tomorrow morning we will take the tube to the airport for our flight home. As always we find ourselves in the same place mentally.  While we both thoroughly enjoyed this trip, Lynda would be more then happy to prolong it for however long. Tim, on the other hand, is ready to be home.  For those of you who have followed the blog, thanks for being along. We hoped you enjoyed it too.  Here is a heads up. We already have a trip booked in January that includes both Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, Victoria Falls and 6 different safari experiences. We will let you know when we are leaving.

See you in January.