London

A few weeks ago Matt and I spent a long weekend in London. This was Matt’s first trip to London and my third. Matt found a nice hotel that was conveniently located just a few minutes’ walk from the Earl’s Court metro stop. Our visit consisted of sight-seeing, eating, more sight-seeing, some drinking and then more eating.

I’ll start with the food because that’s always a highlight for me. When in London fish ‘n chips are a must, so that’s what we ate the first night. Matt ordered an entrée called the ‘Codfather,’ which consisted of a huge piece of fish, chips, mushy peas and bread. It was a lot of food and I could tell he was proud that he ate it all. Our best meal was a steak and ale pie at a pub in one of the little neighborhoods around London. I wasn’t too sure about the pie when we ordered it but it was very good. We also had a jacket potato (baked potato) with cheese and chili. The only thing we didn’t eat, which London is known for, is curry. I guess we’ll have to go back at some point to fix that. It was a good thing we did so much sight-seeing as we needed to walk off all the calories we consumed.

Our sight-seeing consisted of a hop-on/hop-off bus tour because it was part of our hotel package. We were definite tourists as we sat in the cold and wind on the open part of the double decker bus. It was a good way to see the city though and it got us to our destination, which was the Tower of London. After seeing the Crown Jewels and hearing the gruesome stories of people losing their heads at the Tower, we climbed the many, many steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. We also took a boat ride down the Thames River. In between the sight-seeing we stopped at several pubs so Matt could try out the different ales. One pub, the Lamb and Flag, dated back to 1623. We also timed it just right to go to a Christmas Market in Hyde Park. I was hoping for an English-themed market but it ended up being German.

Another highlight was meeting up with a friend of Matt’s who is now living in London. We met Devon and her boyfriend, Andy, for drinks and dinner. We didn’t time our visit very well though because we ended up missing the last train and they had to drive us back to our hotel, which was in the opposite direction from where they lived.