On Thursday the 19th we headed down to London again for a day of walking around the city. The first stop was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Just prior to getting there we wandered past an ice cream truck and snagged a couple of 99 Flakes (ice cream on a cone w/ a Cadbury Flake). Yum! We decided not to go into the tower itself, but instead wandered around it, hit a souvenir shop for some postcards and ideas about where else to go.
From there we headed to Covent Garden where we saw a delightful street magic show and then wandered around the shops for a while. We then walked for a bit out of the neighborhood to find a place to snag lunch and ended up in a pub, where I got the most delicious pie and mash, along with a pretty good British ale.
Following lunch we ventured south toward the London Eye, which we had 4PM tickets for. Unfortunately after days of unusual sunny weather, the clouds came out shortly before our ride on the Eye!
Even with the clouds and fog, the view from the London Eye was pretty impressive.
As the evening wound down we decided to take a walk down to Trafalgar Square, which was a bit under construction, but one of the must see places in London. Then spent a bit of time wandering around the National Gallery for a little bit before heading home.
That wraps up the sight-seeing in the first week of my trip. The weekend was spent relaxing a bit (my feet were quite sore after so much walking!) and exploring the neighborhood. During my trip I managed to get some pizza, which was quite sub-par when compared to much of what I can get here in the States. Got fish ‘n chips a couple more times, which I never managed to finish, so much food! And had one of the most amazing Indian food dinners of Curry King Prawn and a stuffed naan from one of the five Indian places within walking distance from the house, chosen randomly. I really wish there were more Indian places in the US, a quick search showed the closet one is in King of Prussia, and they don’t even have a real shrimp curry! I also was able to hit a local shop and pick up a decent Bombardier Bitter, and a really fantastic Bulmers Cider, the ciders in the US tend to be a bit sticky-sweet for my taste, but this Bulmers was nice and crisp – yum! I also fell in love with National Confectionary Jelly Dinosaurs and Cadbury Crunchies. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I had good company during my whole trip :) Still have to post about the conference and the Wallace and Gromit exhibit…
Saturday, Apr 4th, 2009 at 10:16
the bbc had a few stories in the last 6 months about the lack of chefs for curry restaurants because of immigration restriction. no jelly babies? looks like a splendid trip!
Saturday, Apr 4th, 2009 at 11:15
Ah jelly babies! I knew there were a few “English things” I missed, and that’s one of them!