London was always a hard sale for Clay. He doesn’t care for the royals, warm beer, or expensive cities. He also doesn’t think London has enough history to warrant a visit. So how did we end up there? One word…Brexit.
London was also the cheapest way to get us from Montenegro to Scotland, where we’d already made plans.
So here we were making a pit stop of a few days before heading North. Clay put me in charge of planning London. He wasn’t interested in being there so it was my job to make it interesting. Both of us agreed that no matter what, we would enjoy getting back in an English speaking country.
True to form, we arrived at the airport many hours before our flight was to leave. Clay grew more paranoid as we traveled that we would miss our flights, trains and buses. To combat his paranoia we arrived at airports hours before the suggested hours normal people would arrive. We will never miss a flight because we arrived late.
Flying midday, we made it to London in time to see a bit of the city and eat dinner. First on the list was a free sunset walking tour along the south bank side of the Thames. One of the first sights was the London Eye. As Clay is not a fan of Ferris wheels, I knew it would be best to skip a ride on it.
While we didn’t catch a ride on the Eye, we were still able to catch a view of the Parliment building and Big Ben (excuse me… the Elizabeth Tower, as everyone will tell you Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower…Whatever). We enjoyed our little tour and getting the history of the Thames, visiting the Globe theater, and catching a glimpse of Tower Bridge.
We only had three days in London and after this first tour, I realized we needed more time. For dinner we had our first taste of the British diet, fish and chips. Although the chips were a bit soggy (thanks to a dousing with malt vinegar), it was as good as expected if you like fried fish.
The next morning we had another free tour. This was with our trusty tour outfit, Sandeman’s. It covered the opposite side of the Thames. We visited Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, one other smaller palace, and Trafalgar Square. We learned the grisly details of Guy Fawkes, Jack the Ripper, and a few of the manipulations behind the Crown. Our guide also did a great job of condensing the WWII history of the UK into a few brief but powerful minutes as we sat on the steps next to the Churchill Museum. If you ever needed a reason to travel, you should so that you can experience history coming alive.
He closed our tour describing what exactly consisted of being drawn and quartered. He did all this as we stood in front of Big Ben and the Parliament building. As he was somewhere around the bit about cutting out the insides and allowing them to now be outside your body as you are still alive to realize it, a young teenage in our group decided it was all a bit too much for him. So he fainted, right there in front of Queen and Country. It was awkward, but as he survived with no ill effects, quite humorous.
In the afternoon, we made plans to cross another London “to do” off our list – High Tea. I booked us a tea for two at Sketch. This two Michelin star restaurant is know for tea, but I think I visited more for the decor. A bathroom break at this restaurant should be required. Just look at it.
If you are unfamiliar with High Tea, you basically spend a small fortune to indulge in tea sandwiches, sweets, scones, and tea. At some places (like Sketch) these treats are all you can eat. Of course that appeals to the American in me (Clay’s note-for what we paid for tea, we better have gotten anything we asked for).
We devoured Coronation Chicken, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese, Pesto and Mozzarella, Quail Egg and Caviar and a Cucumber something tea sandwiches. We had scones with clotted cream, jams and butter. There were too many sweets to count. The tea topped it all off. High Tea is really only for special occasions, but we were hooked and looked to have afternoon tea at least a few more times before leaving the UK.
After eating our weight in finger sandwiches, we wandered around the city walking down Saville Row, Oxford Street, and Piccadilly Circus. We ended our wandering around the West End theater district to see The Mousetrap. Clay and I love live theater so we couldn’t miss seeing the longest running show on West End. Although it is more popular with tourists (as we ran into many London dwellers who had not seen it), this Agatha Christie murder mystery has been running for 64 years. It was a wonderful production and it is impressive that after all this time the twist ending is still kept a secret among those who have seen the performance.
After the show we headed out to our first English curry house. The British are known for their Indian curries and after our initial taste at Dishoom, I can see why. The curry was the cherry on top of our touring, wandering, High Tea adventure filled day.
The next morning was a little less structured. We started with a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum. A great benefit of visiting London is most museums are free. The V&A museum was no different but we did pay a little extra so we could visit their exhibit on the history of underwear. Both the exhibit and the museum collection were wonderful and informative. Although we could have stayed for hours, we still had plenty of sights left to see in the city so we only stayed a few hours and then moved on. All in all we enjoyed our brief (pun intended) visit to the V&A.
In the first day we marked fish & chips and curries off our “To Eat” list next up was meat pies at The Pie Shop. As an American, I am familiar with a chicken pot pie, but that is about where my meat pie education ends. Meat pies with lamb, pork, and beef are more popular in the UK. White or red meat, these are delicious. It feels like a home-cooked meal all in one handheld pie.
What goes well with heavy stomach of meat and potatoes? Why ale of course. After our Sandeman’s Free Tour the previous day we were told about a new ale tour they have organized. They market the tour as a more adult pub crawl. We are not crazy about pub crawls but we do enjoy a good beer so this tour was perfect for us.
Our tour started in a historical area that we had not yet visited in London. This area held the hop exchange where merchants purchased hops for their household brews. On the tour we visited the actual hop exchange and separately the building called the hop exchange but was never used for its intended purpose.
We visited The George Inn where William Shakespeare and Charles Dickinson had a pint. Next was The Rake, a pub that was known for the many wild and wonderful ales they keep on tap. The last pub (possibly the Market Porter) was once used as a filming location for Harry Potter but is known for its selection of small batches of ale. The tour combined history and beer and allowed for a lot of camaraderie within our tour group.
After the tour we wandered over the Millennium Bridge to celebrate another successful day with Shake Shack burgers. I know some people do not like SS, but I love it. I was spoiled when one set up shop in Atlanta. When I saw the Shake Shack on our first day in London, I knew somehow, someway I was going to get my fix. We did and then I was disappointed because the Atlanta Shake Shack is better.
Our last day in London began with some meandering around Tower Bridge. We planned to visit the Tower of London and see the crown jewels, but after seeing the line and the price we decided we could live with out seeing some diamonds and armor. We then continued our Sunday ritual and headed to Mass. I was thrilled to finally be in an English speaking country for church. I understood the homily and all the readings. It was so great that we decided to stay for tea and coffee with the congregation
We spoke to the priest for a bit and he even told us a little secret on how we could have gotten into the Tower of London for free that day (it involves praying and then sneaking about). Overall we enjoyed the hospitality of the parishioners. When we were ready to leave, the priest pointed us to the exit and casually mentioned that the alley way we will come out to was where one of Jack the Ripper’s victims met her demise. I’m not sure if he was telling the truth or just trying to scare us, but I did a little research and think it was the latter.
Our final hours were spent eating Chinese dumplings and more curries, visiting the national art gallery, Harry Potter sightseeing and getting ready to catch the night bus to Scotland.
It was a whirlwind but I think we made the most of the few days we had available in London. Clay even said he had a lot of fun and was surprised at how much he enjoyed it. Mission Accomplished.
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