Life in the Fast Lane

Monday, May 21, 2018

London Part 2

The event that prompted this trip was Seth's friend James's wedding. James is a racing friend of Seth's that lived in the US for 15 years, but is from London. The wedding was Saturday in Kent (Chislehurst to be exact), so we left around noon and stayed that night at the wedding venue.

Wedding ready!

This is the Bull's Head Hotel, where the wedding was held and where we stayed. It was a small, charming venue. They used the banquet room for the wedding (chairs in rows with an aisle), the dinner (round tables and chairs), and the dance floor. They would simply usher the guests to the patio and rearrange the room.

The wedding was at 2 pm. This was followed by dinner, a trio singing 40s music, and then a dj. The bride was beautiful and it was really fun to attend a British wedding.

Dinner was chicken and vegetables but later they brought out bacon sandwiches, sausage links in buns, and "chips" (fries). And they had British candy bars for the all the American guests to sample. Nicely done! It was 11:30 pm when we left the wedding!

I NEED this floor!!! The next morning, a delicious breakfast was served for all the guests. This was the restaurant.

Seth and I spent the day in Chislehurst and walked all around the town. We cracked up at this sign!

We toured the Chislehurst Caves- it was fascinating! It was literally an underground "town" created during WW2

Obviously, these are wax figures to show what it was really like. This was the church

Families were given beds. They couldn't trade or sell their spots (so if a rich family wanted a more desirable bed they couldn't buy it from a poorer family)

At one point (60s and 70s), it was a music venue. Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd performed here!

This town was so neat! You could walk on the main road, or they had wooded paths.

We had a late lunch back at the hotel. It was hopping! They had a garden patio and everyone was dining at the picnic tables enjoying the beautiful day

Hey, look.... Seth got MORE fish and chips. We took an uber back to Heather and Trevor's after this and then enjoyed a chill evening at their house.

On Monday morning, we did the East End Food Tour. This is one of my favorite things that we did! This area is culturally diverse, rich in history, has unique architecture, and the restaurants in the neighborhood reflect this. It started at Old Spitalfield (used to be a hospital...hence the name... SPITALfield) Market.

Our first stop was St. John Bread and Wine. Their breads and homemade granola looked out of this world!

We sampled the bacon sandwich. YUM!

Next, we went to The English Restaurant. Everything inside is old.... reclaimed wood, pews for bench seats from an old church, original furnaces and fireplaces, etc. So neat!

We had their bread and butter pudding, and it was to die for!

Between restaurants, the awesome tour guides would give us the history of the East End as we meandered through the streets

Our next stop (not pictured) was The House of Androuet, a cheese shop. We sampled some English cheese.

After this, we went to Poppies

Of course, we had fish and chips with mushy peas! (Side note, fish and chips were "invented" in the East End. The chips are from Belgium and the buttered fish is from Portugal, but it was a young Jewish boy who began selling them together in the East End.)

I loved this unique shutter holder

This building was super cool and has been used in several movies

Next stop.... Pride of Spitalfields. We sampled a cider beer at this pub

This is Lenny, the resident cat

Cider Beer

After this, we walked down Brick Lane. This street had several curry restaurants.

We sampled 3 different types and they were all excellent!

There is grafitti all over the East End. Most of it is extremely artistic!

There is a lot of Jewish influence in this area. We went to Beigel Bake

I thought this was going to be disgusting, but it was AH-mazing! I want another one now. It's salt beef and hot English mustard on a soft bagel with sweet gherkins on the side.

The last stop was Pizza East, where we ended with tea and a delicious salted caramel tart.

The tour lasted about 3 hours. I was definitely not hungry afterwards, but wasn't as stuffed as you might imagine. We walked back to Old Spitalfields Market and shopped around for a bit. When we were done, we headed back to Heather and Trevor's for a low key evening. One of my favorite parts of the trip was just "doing life" with Heather and Trevor London-style.

One more recap to go :)

London!!

Seth's friend, James, invited us to his wedding. He's from London, so we gladly accepted the invitation and spent the week with Heather and Trevor! We went April 18-26.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 Wednesday evening. Well, our takeoff didn't go as planned. There was an engine malfunction. The pilot circled over Atlanta and let us know that we'd be landing shortly after takeoff. He also let us know that emergency vehicles would arrive upon arrival, but that it's standard procedure. When we landed, the engine caught fire and they had to foam the plane to put it out! Agh! Amazingly, this was a very calm situation despite it being most people's worst nightmare. Our flight made the news (since it was a couple days after the Southwest incident). Picture above: me having a glass of wine to calm the nerves after it was all said and done. We ended up getting on another plane at 9:30 pm.

Thursday morning: First stop.... COFFEE. We slept horribly on the plane and needed some fuel. But, it was a beautiful, WARM day in London so we didn't lack of sleep get us down! We grabbed showers and a quick lunch at Heather's

We went walked around Hyde Park. It was unseasonably warm and everyone and their brother was at a park sunbathing or just enjoying the sunshine.

Next, we walked to Kensington Palace.

The gardens were GORGEOUS!! Wow!

I've known this girl since I was 12 years old.

I thought this store was hilarious! It's filled with American candy and junk food

Our dinner goal was eat outside and have fish and chips. It took a minute to find a place that wasn't packed, but we did it! Seth loves fish and chips!

On Friday morning, we went to Tower of London. Favorite part? The crown jewels for sure!

This place was a castle, prison, and once held a zoo!

I love my silly man!

Queen's House (built for Anne Boleyn)

Afterwards, we walked across Tower Bridge while eating ice cream

We went to Burrough Market. The blueberries were HUGE!

Sampling homemade peanutbutter

If Burough Market were near me, I would be in serious financial trouble! The meat and produce was amazing! Our plan was to come back later in the week and buy steaks and veggies for dinner. We met Trevor after he got off work several days later... only to find out the place shuts down at 5:00. So much for that idea!