England 2019

I got up and went for a walk/run up Cuckoo Lane to Bury Knowles Park. Then I showered and packed my bag for London so I could walk Linda to the bus stations for her bus to Heathrow. One more trip up Cuckoo Lane, my favorite lane.

We had arranged to meet the owner of the houseboat we are staying in in Kings Cross at 1, but he called Ed and asked if we could do two instead, so we walked to the London Road and had breakfast at a ‘brasserie’ which turned out to have a Moroccan flavor (presumably Moroccan owners). I had the Moroccan breakfast which had wonderfully fluffy eggs, merquez sausage, olives, feat and both French and flatbread with a little jar of honey, which I remembered from my last trip. It was quite good.

We finished packing up at Jenkins’ and then walked up Cuckoo Lane yet again for the bus to London. We took the X90, different line than I took with Dad but same idea. These buses are very nice, wireless and charging outlets, seatbelts, nice seats, bathroom, double decker. 

As we still had a bit of time, we hopped off the bus as traffic slowed in London (at a stop!) and walked to Kings Cross. I just had my small backpack but Ed had his backpack plus his leather duffle and the almost two mile walk was more than we bargained for. But we did get there on time to meet Matthew, the boat owner. He was in his late 30’s, long blonde hair and had a Liverpool or other northern accent. He walked us through instructions for the boat – namely charging the battery and using the inverter to power the outlets, and flushing the toilet. 

Ed ran the motor for awhile to charge the battery, and I went over to the Waitrose Grocery to pick up ice, water and yogurt for the morning. Waitrose is a new grocery store since I was last here, pretty nice. 

We walked around checking out what King’s Cross has become. The houseboat is in Regents Canal, and the area around is the former coal yard. Now it’s Hipster City. There is a giant Google headquarters going up just across the street; we could tell because the elevator shafts have android logos at each floor (11 floors). The top androids have their arms in the air.

Ed had made three dinner reservations for our stay, based on recommendations from Tiffany. There were so many good looking restaurants that we decided to cancel tomorrow’s reservation at an Italian place. Tonight’s was for a place called Frenchie, and when I was googling the walking time, I saw that the reservation was actually for tomorrow, meaning that it was tonight’s reservation that was cancelled. Well, we had seen an upscale Indian place that we wanted to try away, but when we got there, there were about 50 people queued up. We tried another place which had a 40 minute wait and looked too trendy, so we headed a block off the main square and landed at Spiritland, which had cocktails and small plates and a female DJ playing jazz, etc. on turntables, and an excellent and striking looking sound system.

We woke up on a boat! The houseboat is moored very tightly, so it seems like there is no motion, but there obviously is some. I think it made me sleep well. It was chilly in the morning (47℉ outside) but we couldn’t get the little gas stove to light. We had instant coffee and passionfruit yogurt (new favorite!) as well as some pastry.

We decided to go to the Tower of London today. It is nice being so close to Kings Cross station – we can get to anywhere easily. We took the Northern line to the Bank station (the Circle line would have gotten us there, but they were announcing service delays). We got Oyster Cards, which we preloaded with £20. They are easy to use.

Ed was taken aback by the cost to get into the tower of London (£30.30) but I knew he would like it. We really spent most of the day there.

All of the exhibits seemed spiffed up quite a bit since I was there last (1976). I seem to remember more of a focus on torture back then. Now they stress how little torture actually happened in England at all! Seeing the Crown Jewels really highlighted how obscene the monarchy is. Not just the ridiculous jeweled cross but the enormous salt cellars for each monarch, the solid gold punch bowl that holds 144 bottles of wine, and all the swords and maces.

We had bleu cheese and broccoli quiches at the Tower Cafe – it was quite good.

One thing I didn’t remember that much from 1976 was the Line of Kings, a display of armor of various kings and other royalty. They had Henry VIII’s armor. Some of the armor was displayed on horses carved by Grinling Gibbons, an English-Dutch woodcarver I have been reading about.

After the Tower, we walked over the Tower Bridge and took the tube to Westminster. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were covered in scaffolding so not even picture-worthy. We walked around Whitehall a bit. Ed was not interested in seeing Westminster Abbey but we might come back and see the Churchill War Rooms tomorrow.

We finished our walk at Trafalgar Square, now pigeon free! Apparently (according to Greg) they have just stopped encouraging pigeon-feeding there. We took the tube back to Kings Cross from Piccadilly Circus to get ready for dinner. The boat shower just uses a fine mist, but it does get hot!

Our dinner reservation was at Frenchie in Covent Garden. We were given a table downstairs next to the kitchen. The young waitress was a little snooty, pretending to be French I guess. We had martinis and some Cornish oysters to start. I had Pumpkin & Ricotta Tortellini with Sage, Parmesan & Smoked Egg. Ed had Welsh Lamb with Green Harissa, Pearl Barley, Feta, Heritage Carrot and Cumin. All delicious. The chef, Greg Marchand, was working right near me.

After we got back to the boat, I went for a little walk along the canal. There were so many people out.

Ed had made a brunch reservation today at Darwin Brasserie, one of the restaurants at the Sky Garden, a 37-floor glass building with an observation deck and a conservatory at the top.

We got the ultimate breakfast which was the Continental breakfast (buffet) plus a hot dish. I had the wild mushrooms on toast (with fried egg). It was too much food, but good.

After eating we spent some time on the observation deck picking out landmarks. We could see the Tower of London virtually next door, Parliament, the Tate Modern, Wemberley Stadium, City Hall (a glass egg), The Shard – a newer skyscraper, etc. 

We walked a bit after breakfast, considering going in St. Paul’s Cathedral where there are Grinling Gibbons carvings, but Ed felt churched-out and it was £17 to boot. He really did want to see the Churchill War Rooms so we hopped on the tube, getting off at St. James Park.

Since we were so close to Buckingham Palace, we walked over so Ed could at least see it. He was not interested in waiting around for a changing of the guard, and it was crowded enough there so we just looked, took a few photos and then walked along the lake in St. James Park on the Birdcage walk. It is a pretty lake with pelicans and unusual (to us) ducks and geese.

We had tried to prebook tickets to the War Rooms online but they did not allow same day booking. The line for non-reserved tickets grew long as they allowed all of the reserved ticket holders in. We were almost ready to  give up. We talked to a couple in front of us who had lived in Kenya a few years in the seventies and eighties who were nice. Finally, the line began to move and we were in!

We spent more than two hours in the museum. It includes the bunkers where Churchill and his military men lived and worked during the Blitz. There was a BBC broadcasting room, a map room with multiple phones and large maps on the walls with pins showing where convoys and boats were. Also a kitchen, conference room, typing pool room and multiple bedrooms.

The bunker was actually not that well fortified, although a thick layer of concrete was eventually laid in on top of it. Churchill only slept three nights there; he would go upstairs to what was called the 10 Downing Annex where there was real plumbing. Apparently he took two baths a day.

The rooms were well-preserved. In the map room the audio tour guide said that on the day after V-Day, they turned off the lights and walked away, leaving everything behind.

In addition to the war rooms, there was a museum dedicated to Churchill. It was very thorough, on the level of a presidential library in the US. It concentrated on the war years when he first became Prime Minister, but also included his childhood and retirement, even displaying a few of his oil paintings. They also had the old wooden door from 10 Downing Street, which was replaced by a blast-proof door in 1991 when the IRA attempted to blow it up. On the one hand, seeing this museum makes me want to see The Darkest Hour, the movie with Churchill played by Gary Oldham. On the other hand, that was a boatload of Winston and it was overwhelming.

We had to head back then to the boat to get ready for the evening. We had reservations for an Israeli restaurant called Bala Baya in the Bankside neighborhood. It is in a building constructed of the arches of an old railway bridge called Old Union Street Arches where each arch contains a different restaurant or business. The trains still run over it; we could feel them rumbling and I could see the reflection in the windows of the building across the way.

The restaurant was small plates. Here is what we ordered!

Green Tel – Summer greens, Galia melon, macadamia, blossom honey, aromatic seeds, rosary goats cheese. This was good, included mint, basil & cilantro.

Chickpea hummus – Mixed spices, pine nuts, pickled chiles, tomato pulp, pits

Cauliflower & Roe – Cauliflower florets, fermented harissa, sweetcorn, black pepper, cured fish roe.

Prawn baklava – King prawns, kadaifi, bitter lime syrup, lime cream, Persian lime & Nori dust, pistachios. This was cool – not layered but whole prawns in kadaifi with a dipping sauce.

Crispy, Sticky, Crunchy – chicken thighs, bitter orange, harissa, kimchi, butternut squash puree, hazelnuts, sumac. This was more for Ed.

Dak Dak – West country reared venison loin, grape lemon thyme, green chili, Parmesan. This seemed to be a carpaccio. Yummy. This was more for me.

I believe we had an Israeli Chardonnay as well.

After dinner we walked to the Globe Theater to see A Midsummer Nights Dream.

The Globe is basically open air but the seats are covered with a roof. Airplanes flew over frequently but the players plowed through. It was a very nice evening for the venue.

They made a weird play even weirder, but it made for a fun night. There was a New Orleans style jazz band and costumes and floats that looked like something from Mardi Gras. The actors were all good, and Puck was played by all of them; they used a t-shirt to indicate who was currently Puck. We did think it went a little long though. We were tired by the end.

We walked afterward from the Globe to the London Bridge tube station. A lot of people were out walking. We passed the Golden Hynde (Hinde), a full-size reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake’s ship The Golden Hind, which was built in 1973 in Devon. The original sailed from Plymouth in 1580. It was pretty cool to come across it suddenly in the dark.