Next Stop, Loverly London

On the long train ride back from Cornwall St. Ives to London's Paddington station, KO and I hatch the clever plan to check our cumbersome bags at the station and head right out to Windsor Castle.  Rushing from the train in the busy station, we find the Left Luggage booth and store our suitcases for a reasonable twenty pounds for the first three hours.  Negotiating our way across the multitude of platforms and  the teeming crowds, we hop the train and settle in for the fifty minute ride to Windsor.  The castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world closes at five so we had to make haste to see it all.  Starting with the gothic St. George's Chapel, built in 1348, we walk where pilgrims journeyed in the Medieval period.  The Order of the Garter, honoring all the knights, is housed here and colorful banners fly above each of their honorary seats.  The famous are buried right under our feet, including Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.  Leaving the chapel, we head up the hill to the impressive home of Queen Elizabeth, built by William the Conqueror in the eleventh century.  Notable are the early nineteenth century apartments built in the Georgian style.  The enormous St. George's Hall dining room hosts the State Banquet and can seat one hundred and sixty people at one long table. Glad we don't have to cater that dinner!  The Queen uses the castle on the weekends and at other times and her residence is across the courtyard from where we are able to tour.

 

Heading back to Paddington Station to retrieve our bags and then venture on another train to our hotel near St. Pancreas, we are exhausted and hungry.  We opt to stay near this station because it is the hub for many different tube or subway lines and we can travel easily throughout  London from here.  All over this area are row houses which host numerous bed and breakfasts.  Ours is named Alhambra Hotel and includes a small room with private shower and an ample breakfast of oatmeal, croissants, beans, vegan sausage, optional eggs and toast.  The ever present Nutella, a chocolate and hazelnut spread, and various fruity jams are always on the table.  

We choose to dine at Mildred's, a vegan restaurant in Soho.  It is a colorful thirty five minute walk from our hotel, and it is wonderful to stretch our legs after sitting on the train for so long.  Mildred's has delicious food served in a bistro atmosphere.  The Porcini and Ale Pie,with earthy giant slices of mushrooms swimming in a rich broth and then covered with delicate layers of pastry dough, is a favorite entree.  They also serve a Detox Salad, for those of us who have over indulged in rich food, stir fried vegetables, risotto and bean burgers.  Mildred's is a safe choice for travelers on a plant based diet and an excellent and delicious choice for everyone else.

The next day, refreshed from a whole night's sleep and fortified with our English breakfast, we board the tube to the Tower of London.  The Tower of London was the scene of many gruesome executions back in the day.  If you displeased the King, you ended up here to be tortured with either the Rack(stretches you), or maybe you would be folded like a Tripod and squeezed tightly til you confessed.  Other fun included being hung upside down. One time they got a butcher to do the beheading.  He was drunk and after trying nine times to unsuccessfully separate the person from his head, he got his butcher knives and hacked the head off!  This is just one of the stories we enjoy on a Yeoman tour where, along with one hundred others, we are entertained with tales of the Tower.  The Tower of London was built in 1078 when William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower to be built inside the city walls.  At that time there was already a Roman wall surrounding the city and it remains in parts today.  The Tower of London is now home to the Crown Jewels.  Herding past them, we note the crown worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation. It boasts 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, and five rubies.  Among these stones is the famous Black Prince's ruby at 170 carats and the Cullinen II diamond originally 3106 carats when it was found in South Africa.  The rest of the collection includes scepters and swords encrusted in gold and jewels.  The Tower of London is both a magical and disturbing place to pay a visit.

 

There are many highlights to the trip and I will just mention a few so you won't zone out while reading this blog.  While in London it is easy to get tickets to a Broadway quality show.  The Half Price ticket booth in Gleicester Square sells same day tickets to that day's shows.  We attend the very enjoyable musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels while we are here.  

The markets in London are outstanding.  We find one near the Tower of London at St. Katherine's Docks.  Multicolored tents shelter the vendors who are selling lunch to the workers and tourists as the boats in the harbor moor nearby.  Choices include lacy boreks filled with spinach and herbs, gluten free and vegan crepes stuffed with mushrooms and greens, Spanish empanadas, Portugeuse fish and potatoes, paella in huge woks and Thai street food.  Beautiful homemade chocolate chip walnut cookies and Raspberry White Chocolate brownies are stacked high to the sky and Sticky Toffee and Fig, Carmelized and Orange cakes call out to us.  We almost resist!

 

The other impressive market we discover is the Borough Market near the London Bridge.  Our last morning in London we hustle over there to pick up fortifications for the long plane ride and find some last minute gifts.  Since the thirteenth century, farmers and vendors have been selling their quality goods here.  Brightly colored fruits and vegetables, daintily decorated tartes, salty olives in barrels, English meat and veggie pies, and the bean and rice salads I choose for my dinner on the plane can be found here.  The place is humming with excitement and I wish I could roll it up and put it in my suitcase to take home with me.

For our final meal in London, I choose Rules, an old establishment on Maiden Lane, where Charles Dickens dined.  Situated on a well trod cobblestone street, the 200 year old restaurant has only had three owners.  Rules specializes in game cookery, oysters, pies and puddings.  Stuffed animals grace the walls.  In addition to Dickens, Thackeray, Galsworthy and HG Wells, have dined here over the ages.  It has appeared in the novels of Evelyn Waugh, Rosamond Lehmann and Graham Greene.  Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin and Lawrence Olivier sat on these velvet couches.  So those of you who know what a movie and theater buff I am will understand why I want to eat here.  I am not disappointed.  The atmosphere is regal and the waiters are right out of Remains of the Day.  KO and I share a delicate vegetable soup and Yorkshire pudding, a type of popover.  We order a Sticky Toffee Pudding to go and head for the airport.

It has been a wonderful journey, from the hills of Tuscany, to the busy streets of Rome, to the Roman baths of old, to the azure blue sea and overflowing flower boxes of Tuscany, to London's rich history of Kings and Queens and marketplaces and now back to the good old U. S. Of A.  I am so pleased so many of you have shared our journey and I hope I was able to make you feel like you were right there with us, enjoying the sites, history and food.  

A shout out to KO, who lugged our luggage (apt word eh?) everywhere without complaint, urged me on "just one more tour today" when my feet felt like they would fall off, stayed good natured most of the time, and took these most beautiful photographs with his keen eye.  He is an easy person with whom to spend two weeks of walking, learning, eating, and sharing experiences.  

So until our next journey....keep traveling healthy.  Susan