And 6 points to Gryffindor!
I apologize for the terrible bad no good joke/wannabe pun. I have to show my excitement somehow though! This is my first time in Europe and I am enjoying every bit of it so far.
London is a fabulous place. I can easily say this is my second favorite city now, behind Seattle. It has the East coast vibe, the West coast chillness, beautiful architecture, and way more history than the US will ever have. It’s clean, efficient, easy to traverse, full of life and activities… Clearly, I am very enamored by it.
We started our day nice and early, landing at 6:35 AM in London Heathrow. First sign of awesomeness – bathrooms with no toilet seat covers or paper towels, all hand dryers, automatic flush and sink, hooks to hang your bags, and doors with no creeper gap to accidentally make eye contact through!
The journey to our hostel was easy, a ride on the tube from the airport to Earl’s Court. We stayed at the Barmy Badger Backpackers. That alliteration is a mouthful and quite silly, but the location was great and we crashed in the TV room to take a quick nap before we could check in.
Time/Location: August 22, 2014 – London, England (Day 1)
Agenda:
- Covent Garden
- Lunch
- Walking Tour of London (by Sandemann)
- More food and sleep
- The Greenhouse (Dinner)
Covent Garden
Refreshed (not really) and partially recharged, we headed over to Covent Market for our walking tour of London. The surrounding buildings of Covent Market are home to your typical brand name shops (e.g. Apple store), but there’s also a walkway with local vendors, and lots of food. We picked up a quick bite to eat and relaxed in the sun before our tour at 1.
Lunch @ Covent Garden
- Food cart – Jacket potato with butter (what we know as a baked potato)
- Le pain quotidien – Organic brioche roll with carrot, apple, pear juice
Walking Tour of London
Here’s a link to the Sandemann site detailing where we went and how to book:
http://www.newlondon-tours.com/daily-tours/royal-london-free-tour.html
It was a really well done tour, touching on the main attractions in London as well as lesser known ones, sprinkled with some fun facts and tips. We learned that we would just miss out on the Nottinghill Carnival (note to self to plan better next time), and that the pelicans in St. James Park eat pidgeons!
More Food
After 3 and some hours of walking, our stomachs were protesting and we decided to grab a quick snack before our fancy dinner that night. We dropped by The Clarence on Whitehall and chomped on some classic British grub – fish and chips with a minted pea puree.
A little food coma and jet lag knocked us out until dinner time came around…
Dinner @ The Greenhouse
What better way to celebrate our arrival in Europe and the start of an amazing adventure with a 2-Michelin starred restaurant? We had a lovely time at the Greenhouse, though I do have to say that the environment was not completely to my liking. I can’t say there is a huge difference between 1 and 2 starred restaurants in terms of food quality; rather, it’s the little details in plating and lighting and service that really stand out.