Trip to London

[livingdeb]

Looking back on that list of things to do, here's what really happened:

• Visit a pub - We tried twice. Once the pub was too crowded to find a place to sit; once the pub was closed.
• Visit at least one garden - Done. We visited Eltham Palace and saw some great gardening there as well as in another park in Eltham. Shockingly, that was pretty much it.
• Eat fish and chips - Done. We ate at two highly recommended chippies plus one fast-food chippy (my favorite, and the cheapest), and one lunch place that sold fish and chips in addition to the other stuff. The fish is delicious and is cooked my favorite way: batter-dipped and deep fried. The chips (fries) were not so great.
• Eat Indian food - Done, but we got it from the deli of a grocery store rather than from a restaurant. Yuuummmy.
• Walk around pretty areas, such as up and down the Thames - Done. People go jogging along the Thames. London has buildings as pretty as Belgium, except that the brick is dark brown instead of red, so more people paint their brick. Also, the sidewalks are boring. But all the cars are so tiny and cute.
• Visit a grocery store - Done. My favorite finds were "digestives," which I've been told are available in Austin at Fiesta Mart, and all the cheeses we tried: Red Leicester, Cheshire, "Mature" cheddar, and of course (in honor of "Wallace and Gromit") Wensleydale.
• Buy a dictionary - Done. And so far it's had all the words I've looked up. Like the famous chips in one place were fried in "groundnut" oil, which I got to learn means peanut oil. Also, the neighborhood where our hotel was is supposed to be totally "naff." Turns out that just means uncool, unhip, not dangerous or anything.
• Visit a thrift store - we whipped in an out of one quickly; no big thrill.
• Look at umbrellas, raincoats, shoes, and wool things - Done, but mostly in expensive stores. Robin actually bought an umbrella; he got one with the underground map on it.
• Go to at least one park - Whew, barely did this one. We walked straight through Hyde Park once, walked along Green Park, and looked into a park in Eltham. Not exciting, but then we missed the parks I heard were especially nice (St. James and the one south of Nottingham).
• Go to at least one museum - Done, but we spent less time in museums than I expected to. We visited the Victoria and Albert, the Tate Modern, the Courtauld Institute, the Natural History Museum, and probably a couples of smaller ones I'm forgetting about.
• Check out several museum shops - Robin found lots of good books in these.
• Visit the Globe Theatre (replica) - We got a great tour of this place.
• See at least one play - Nope. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with Christian Slater attracted my attention but looked depressing to Robin.
• Eat at a sandwich shop - Done. The ubiquitous Pret a Manger is great--affordable with plenty of fillings and it's easy to get wholewheat bread.
• Visit a bakery - Nope, but I did try baked goods from grocery stores. I found good "biscuits" and things with custard in them.
• Look at Buckingham Palace and some of the cool bridges and other famous old buildings - Done. Buckingham Palace went wonderfully overboard with the gothic decor.
• I really, really want to try to meet some people - Nope. We mostly just walked around gawking.
• Hang around with Robin - Done. I saw lots of Rodins, visited Harrods and other big department stores, and looked at modern art. We didn't find many bookshops, just a few huge ones. We didn't ride a double-decker bus or the Eye, but we did admire them.

The best things we brought were a good map and a list of things to do. We never got lost and we got to see and do all kinds of interesting things.