Air travel, back to work, out of a UK mindset, laziness…all have contributed to your not getting a final day in London entry. Now on Phoenix time (and it stays the same time here on Sunday…hmmm, that is true at the Royal Observatory as well, maybe we are still in the UK in a time / space sort of way…) I will fill in the missing day. Then over the next few days I will take a real step back and fill in the 2009 Valentine’s Weekend.
Day Eight: 
By now you may have wondered about the hotel we stayed in while in Harrow. It is a part of the Comfort Inn chain and in an easily accessible area near Sarah’s flat, close to a Tube Station, University of Westminster (Harrow Campus), and Andrew’s flat. It is much more hotel than B & B and it was just what we needed to share Sarah’s experience in the London area.
Our final full day began much the same as our other days with not meeting Sarah until late morning. But we did add a small change by my getting out early—for some, not for me—and walking up to the Town Centre early in the morning. I did this for two reasons, one to determine the location and walking distance (and time…another one of those time /space things, but on a different intellectual level) to the bus stop Cheri and I would use early the next morning, and two to get an early morning cafe latte (which for us coffee drinkers is always a great experience) with the other early morning Saturday risers.
When I got back to the hotel Cheri was up and reminding me that we had other errands to do that morning besides my getting my coffee. We headed right back out to find our way to a Sainsbury Grocery store in Harrow. We had a list of cheeses, chocolates, cookies, and, surprisingly, prawn crisps—something we had tried at the Thai restaurant in Hampstead, see the Day Five and Six entry—that we needed to pick up and pack for the next day’s travels. Not to eat on the way, but to bring back to the colonies. I did wander through the Scotch section, but was reminded of my limitations—I’ll let you figure out which.
Back at the hotel, Sarah showed up and we headed out to meet Andrew at the Tube station. Weekend train service was accommodating more rail repairs so we had to use a different station. Regardless of that we found our way onto a train to London.
It was a beautiful day with the sun out and temperatures getting up into the 50’s (10’s for those of you thinking in centigrade). So Sarah was once again sleeveless, although I found this true even when it was in the 30’s and 40’s (0 to 5), but this day it made sense.
We headed first to Harrods, which is a huge, high end, luxury department store in London. This seems to be a ‘thing to do’ in London and I think Cheri and Sarah would have spent much more time there if Andrew and I
weren’t being dragged along. This picture of the ceiling is only one quarter of one area that is called the Food Market. In this case it covers foods from around the world and some people use this as a primary market place or as a place to pick up the unique. Did I mention that the Food Market is on the third floor and next to an equally sized area devoted just to chocolate and chocolate products, and combined they occupy less than half of the third floor? In other words this place is huge and it seems that if you can’t find it in Harrod’s it must not be made.
As stated, we didn’t spend as much time in Harrods as Cheri and Sarah would have liked, but we had things planned for the day and it was already approaching noon. So off we headed into Hyde Park and up to Speaker’s Corner—this is a bastion of free speech in the UK and a site for people to set up a soap box and spout off their thoughts. Unfortunately for us, there was no one orating at the couple of times we walked through.
Since it was noon, we decided to find a place for some lunch. After a couple of false start
s we came upon the Three Tun pub. We knew it was the right spot when we went in and there was an empty table right next to the fireplace. Cheri ensconced herself right next to the fire and we were ready to go. The food was very good and I tried the Splendid Tackle ale which was right up there with the Doombar ale I had earlier in the trip. Following on the advice of my good friend James—if you try anything and you like it, try it again to make sure the first time wasn’t a mistake—I even had a second…and it was not a mistake.
After the excellent lunch, we headed back across Hyde Park (still no speakers) and caught the Tube to the Science Museum. We were in search of a Robot Exhibit that Andrew had heard about and besides the museum being no cost it seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon. It was only too bad that the exhibit had closed earlier in the week, but we had a great time wandering around the museum.
As the afternoon wound its way down we found our way back over to Trafalgar Square. This time we went into the National Portrait Gallery and looked around a bit before deciding to strike out for someplace to have a nice dinner together before heading back to the States.
I had seen a couple of nice restaurants near St. Paul’s Cathedral earlier in
the week so we decided to move in that direction. Sarah pointed out buildings and sites to us along the way and I tried to get a picture of the St George’s dragon that marks the entry to London from Westminster, but the light was getting too dim—so it’s out of focus, but you get the idea. This area is also the area where Dickens described Scrooge’s house and the Sarah pointed out the clock that Dickens used to foretell the coming of the spirits…she’s such a smart girl.
Along the way we had another opportunity to take a picture of St Paul’s only this time by the evening light. I was able to brace myself against a building enough to get this picture in the low light. We found the restaurants only to find one closed for the evening (Saturday night…go figure) and the other not really what we were looking for to have a final meal in London for this trip. So we headed back up the Strand to find a restaurant that Scott had recommended to Sarah on one of his many trips to London.
The place is Simpsons on the Strand and it was wonderful. Definitely worth the recommendation and a place we will eat when again in London. We were fortunate to arrive before the theater crowd and get a table by walking in. I think if we had been 30 minutes later we would have had to go someplace else.
One of the waiters heard our accent and introduced himself as an American as well and from DC. When I asked where in DC we got into a discussion about the area and my time at the Academy. It turns out he was a Marine 2nd Lt. (I think in the active reserves), and he made sure we
had great service—although I think the service at this restaurant is excellent for anyone. Following his recommendation I had the beef which was carved at the tableside by Guiseppe (shown with me and the plate full of meat, the roast is under the dome). It had the fixings of Yorkshire Pudding and au jus and was wonderful. The picture also shows the plate of Beef Wellington that Sarah had for dinner. It was a wonderful meal and topped off by the Maitre de wishing me a “Good Evening Commander”—it’s still nice to have the title and it is recognized and used much more in the UK, the Marine must have told him.
We took the Tube out of London, said goodbye to Sarah and headed back to the hotel. The bus picked us up at 7:20 the next morning and we had an uneventful trip to Heathrow, Newark and back to pick up our car at Deb and Scott’s. After visiting there for awhile we got on the road and headed back home arriving in Connecticut later that evening.
All and all another great adventure. You can click on the picture below to go to the web album of all the pictures taken (good and bad). Watch for the Valentine’s posting and more notes from Phoenix in the future.
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| London Feb 2009 |
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