London: Greenwich

Years ago I took my year fives on a very educational and carefully planned trip into the centre of Melbourne but unfortunately along the way we saw a possum in a tree and a Ferrari. Then on the way home two very drunk adults covered in tattoos were sitting right in the middle of our train carriage so all the learning was forgotten and there was no point having the students write a recap the next day because the museum wouldn’t even get a mention.

See if you can pick which event from this excursion was equivalent to a possum, Ferrari and drunken strangers all rolled into one.

We left home at 10:30 and headed to Greenwich, which meant taking the brand new (to us) Elizabeth line! Look at it in all its futuristic brutalist glory.

So shiny, clean and purple (all the tube lines have a colour, this one is purple so there was a bit of purple in the upholstery).

We stopped at Custom House and walked to the cable car. It takes passengers across the Thames to the O2 arena. It rises 90 metres and has great views.

Lea loved it and was keen to stay on it for several trips in a row.

I’d made the critical error of having two cups of tea before leaving the flat so I was dying for the loo when we got off at the other side. Luckily there was a cafe so we stopped for a coffee and pastry.

I’m no connoisseur, but the Portuguese tarts (pastel de nata) were the best we’d had yet. They seem to be very fashionable right now. Lea had a custard croissant that was also the best she’d had.

Unfortunately the cafe was also the place where Lea disgraced herself by admitting she had not brought the teaspoon I had SPECIFICALLY bought for her to use in cafes that don’t offer spoons (she likes eating her cappuccino foam first) and I shook my head and tut-tutted for at least a whole minute. I also said I’d shame her and write about it in the blog. I have kept my promise! TUT TUT!

Anyhow, after I made a big todo about nothing we went out to look at a big headless statue outside the cafe.

We caught the bus to Greenwich.

Front seat up the top! I wonder if we’ll see anything interesting along the route?

Later we read that apart from one person who was treated for smoke inhalation, no one was injured.

Anyhow…

First stop was this unusual sculpture.

‘Sculpture of a Dead Parrot’ (obviously not a parrot but a cockatoo) is a work by a local artist who is thought to have taken inspiration from Monty Python. It’s in the grounds of a hotel and there’s no plaque, I had to look up information online.

Next we walked to the Maritime Museum.

While everyone else browsed the general exhibition, I paid for a ticket to the astronomy photography competition.

It had several categories and entries from around the world.

It didn’t take long to see all the pictures so I went for a look around the general exhibition. They had a replica of a very interesting ship.

The Rawalpindi is one of four ships of the same class that brought immigrants to Australia. Its sister ship, the Himalaya, brought my mother and her family! The display had photos of cabins and ship life that I think Mum would’ve enjoyed seeing, so I took some photos.

After the Maritime Museum we decided on The Kings Arms for lunch, a pub that was almost across the road from the museum.

It was a very cosy and beautifully decorated pub and the food was terrific.

Luke and I both got the steak and ale pie but could have easily shared one. Pete very kindly had a slice of mine, which I would’ve sorely regretted eating if it had stayed on my plate.

Yes that is a quarter of a cabbage. Surprisingly tasty!

After lunch we headed to the Queens House.

You’d think, from my photos, there was almost no one in London.

The building was used by royalty at different times but also for housing soldiers, artists and was also used as a set for Bridgerton. It was currently housing an exhibition of paintings with a nautical theme.

The building itself was very interesting, with some lovely wallpaper (which seems to be a motif of this trip) featuring monkeys and pomegranates.

Also a notable staircase, the first of its kind built in England.

Lovely!

Next was a short walk up a steep hill to the Greenwich Observatory. We didn’t pay to go in but managed to find a spot where we could stand on the meridian line.

Somehow this got the biggest smiles of the day.

Back down the hill to the Old Royal Naval College, where Luke and I left Lea and Pete in the cafe while we went into the Painted Hall.

The Painted Hall is an enormous room with a painted ceiling and far more impressive and interesting than the Sistine Chapel… in my opinion, anyway!

It also has far fewer people jammed in. and padded benches visitors can lie on and mirrors for ease of viewing.

The painting is full of references to history, mythology and legend.

Christopher Wren designed the building and also St Paul’s Cathedral

There’s plenty more to do in Greenwich but it was getting towards 5pm so we walked the short way to the ferry and caught a boat back towards the city.

Lea and Pete went to have dinner with Mark, Luke and I went back to the apartment for a quick change and rest before heading to our evening’s entertainment.

Austentatious was an improvised comedy performance where audience members shouted out possible Jane Austin titles. The suggestions were ‘Pride Month and Prejudice’, ‘Bloodbath in Bath’ and the one that was chosen, ‘Perspiration’.

The story was so convoluted that I’m not going to attempt to retell it, but it was very funny and the audience loved it.

After dinner Luke had booked us a table at Berenjak, a restaurant his old workmate, Mark, had recommended.

How nice to turn up and find out it’s in the guide! Also to find it was worth booking a table, because people were turned away ahead of us at 9:45pm.

The cuisine was Persian street food and the flavours were fantastic.

A great way to end an action-packed day!

5Jun2023

London: War Rooms and the Mithraeum

by Miss Penny Black

On the advice of a large number of people, we bought tickets to the War Rooms, the tiny rooms and and tunnels that Winston Churchill and the British government used as their operations headquarters in WW2.

After a breakfast at home we caught the tube to Embankment and then walked via St James Park.

The War Rooms were very interesting, even for someone like me, who will actively avoid war-related things. We got audio guides and then walked through the narrow and dim corridors, peaking into rooms and trying to imagine what the space would be like when full of tobacco smoke and people rushing around.

In between the historical sections is a large room with lots of detail about Winston Churchill’s life. When buying tickets they said to allow 2.5 hours, but if you really wanted to see and read everything I’d say 3 hours minimum. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve found those sort of estimates usually overdo it and I’d booked a table at 1pm at a nearby pub. Lea and Pete had to rush a bit, which I felt bad about, but it’s hard to predict these things.

It was quite dark the whole way through.

Winston Churchill, a man after my own heart, had noiseless typewriters installed.

We had lunch at the Blue Boar, a pub not far from the War Rooms. It had recently been voted the best pub in London but, being in an office area, was quiet on Sunday.

I left before everyone had finished eating as I was going to meet a friend and everyone else was going to see The Play That Goes Wrong. Luke and I saw it on our last trip but he wanted to see it again.

Luke and I had met Patrick on our Haggis bus tour last time we were here and added him on Facebook. He’d offered to come meet up in London as he only lived an hour away so we arranged to meet at The Crosse Keys.

The Cross Keys is one of the Wetherspoons chain of pubs, which are somewhat notorious for being downmarket but this one was in an old bank building and quite grand.

Patrick hadn’t changed a bit and we had a good catch up about all our travels then headed to the London Mithraeum, which was just around the corner.

Patrick had said he’d wanted to see it so I invited myself along. It’s a Roman Temple that was unearthed by developers and remained a mystery until the last day of the excavation when the head of a statue of Mithras, a Roman god, was unearthed on the site. Not much is known of the cult except that it was male-only (I have no idea how they know this) and there would have been a statue of the god slaying or wrestling a bull at the alter.

The exhibition was in the original location, under an office building. Before going down to the site we looked at an installation of urns, all suspended from the ceiling by rope and fitted with microphones. As we walked around them the microphones picked up the vibration of the urns and each one had a different note. Two of the urns were from Roman times.

Downstairs, the temple was in a dark room. Once a group was in they lowered the lights and played sounds of people speaking Latin and the atmosphere became a bit smoky. There was an outline of the god statue and it was all very evocative. Apparently the cult lasted around 400 years.

Next we walked to Postman’s Park via St Paul’s Cathedral and the ruined church park.

The park has a very sad memorial to everyday heroes who died trying to save someone – a mosaic wall with names and short descriptions of what they died doing. For example, people who died trying to save someone who was drowning.

After that we said goodbye and I caught the tube back to the flat, where Luke, Lea and Pete had just returned. They enjoyed the play a lot and reminded me of many of the funny scenes I’d forgotten.

We all had a rest before finally heading to Dishoom for dinner.

We arrived at almost 10pm and, unsurprisingly, were seated straight away. We shared some rather spicy curries, cheese and chilli toast, broccoli salad and naan. It was at the high end of our spice tolerance but we all coped and no doubt it made us stronger.

We walked home, glad Friday and Saturday nights were past and our noisy neighbourhood would be a little quieter.

4Jun2023

London: Portobello Road and Kensington Palace

by Miss Penny Black

First on the agenda today was Portobello Road. Possibly London’s most famous market and one I hadn’t been to in my many London trips.

We caught the bus there and encountered what was possibly London’s crankiest bus driver. We tried to pay with coins and he exaggeratedly gestured at the lack of a hole for us to hand them to him and snidely said ‘It’s 2023, use a card’. Well excuse us, but every bus we’d caught in every other part of the country took coins. What a jerk! Anyhow, apart from a child with the plague sitting right behind us, the bus journey was otherwise uneventful.

When we got there the markets were just setting up so it wasn’t crazy-crowded. We got a coffee and pastry (no point having a boring breakfast at home when there’s market food to be had) then decided to spilt up.

I ended up buying two spoons – I wanted a large one for learning to make rochers (when fancy food comes in a little roll) like this:

I found a really good one and I also found a little teaspoon for Lea because sometimes cafes don’t offer spoons and she likes to eat the foam off her cappuccino before drinking it. Also the little teaspoon would be perfect for making tiny rochers.

Fake flowers around doorways seem to be a big thing here.

One of my highlights of the markets was a laneway next to the vintage end where there was a giant wall of climbing roses. The smell was unbelievable and several people were stopping to take photos. Imagine having this along your fence!

My new cardigan did clash with it somewhat.

After a wander up and down we found the main food section. There was food from all around the world.

I went for a Peruvian arepa, which always reminds me of Charmaine as she taught me how to make them – although so long ago I’ve forgotten. This had plantain in it, which I haven’t had for ages.

The lady making the arepas put all the ingredients on the grill, including a big handful of cheese and cooked them all together. Watching people at stalls work with bbqs makes me realise how limited our use is at home and it makes me want to be more creative.

By the time we’d bought food and walked to both ends the market was getting very busy. We met Lea and Pete again and Lea and I headed to Kensington Palace, a short walk away.

On the way we saw some interesting fashion!

And some very bland fashion. I’ve given up taking photos of people dressed entirely in white as there are so many, so then I was taking photos of couples dressed entirely in white and now I can’t even be bothered doing that. It’s a mysterious trend. Also.. how do they all stay so clean?

On to the palace, which looked pretty dull on the outside (albeit with lovely gardens) but inside was very interesting.

We’d come to see an exhibition on fashion.

Apart from booking tickets I didn’t actually know that much about the building or the exhibition. It turned out to be a combination of iconic modern pieces, such as Met Gala costumes, combined with examples of historic royal gowns and suits that illustrated the origins of modern trends and inspiration.

But first a visit to the toilet and a look at some wallpaper designed to commemorate Diana, who lived here for many years.

I think the wallpaper was one of my favourite items of the day, actually!

Some of the modern items were really amazing art and political statements, such as Dan Levy’s beautiful Met Gala outfit, which celebrated the LGBTQI+ community and used fine embroidery and interesting techniques to create a really joyful and also comfortable outfit. I loved it!

I don’t really know a lot about the Met Gala but some people seem to use it for good, like Billie Eilish collaborating with a designer on the proviso they stop using fur.

Other pieces were funny, such as this piece worn by Katie Perry.

And some were just stupid, like this Beyoncé piece which was designed to make her look like a goddess for her VMA performance (fine, whatever) but has her own face embroidered on the front. If you need to know someone has reached a level of celebrity where they have no one left around them who will tell them the truth, this is an indicator.

Anyhow, as beautiful as many of the old and new pieces were, the exhibition seemed very focused on glamourising fashion and even going so far as it to say the need for specific items enriched communities around the world. No mention of the devastation of animal populations such as beavers for hats or the slave trade that funded/allowed these lifestyles (and still does), no mention of current ills such as the blinding of the children who sew the fine detail in dark workrooms on India, let alone the global impact of fast fashion.

Art like this is beautiful, but only a handful of the displays were ethical in any way. Emma Watson’s dress was fashioned from Oxfam-collected wedding dresses and Tan France’s Indian outfit, that celebrated his immigrant roots, was another favourite.

After all the slow shuffling along with the crowds my feet were aching so we walked in the direction of the nearest tube station and found a pub for a drink. Lea likes lemon, lime and bitters but it has been impossible to find anyone here who will make one so this time I asked if the barmaid had any angostura bitters and could she please add a dash to the lime and soda… voila! Almost as good as the real thing.

There was a Waitrose near the tube station and so we popped into to compare it to Booths, the fancy northern supermarket. It wasn’t bad but didn’t have a cheese counter so I’m going to have to say that Booths is still my supermarket of choice, although one of the cheeses we bought there was possibly the meltiest Brie-style cheese I’ve ever tried. For future reference it was:

Despite the rail strikes on the day it was a quick trip home to rest our feet. Pete and Luke were not long in getting back, they’d been to see the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

We had planned to go to the pub up the road, The Camden Head, for dinner and their free comedy night. Luke and I got there first and ordered dinner, which was late and unremarkable. What was remarkable was how little the bar staff were doing, particularly one young guy who spent all his time looking at his phone, vaping, drinking and high-fiving the security guard while the female bar staff cleared tables and served customers. My parents would have fired him in minutes if he’d worked at one of their pubs!

Unfortunately it turned out that, although this pub was called the Camden Head and there was comedy on, the free, unticketed comedy was at a different pub, also called The Camden Head, which was in Islington, not Camden. The comedy at the one we were at was ticketed and sold out. Sigh.

We ended up going back to the apartment and eating cheese and playing cards until about 10:30.

Not a bad way to end the day!

3Jun2023

London Day 3: Dishoom and Oxford Street

by Miss Penny Black

Today was Lea and Pete’s theatre marathon – both parts of The Cursed Child in one day. Luke and I returned to Kings Cross to see if we could get into Dishoom for breakfast.

No wait this time and we had a lovely waitress who told us she was very hungover. The restaurant is certainly the most upmarket decor I’ve ever seen in an Indian restaurant. It manages to capture a very historical feel while also being opulent and fashionable. The menu had Indian takes on western breakfast items as well as more traditional fare.

I had an omelette with coriander and spices, Luke had the egg and bacon naan with chilli jam.

I know photos of food aren’t all that interesting but I want to remember these dishes so I can add some of these ideas to my own cooking when I get home.

After that we parted ways. Luke went to have lunch with a former work colleague who is now working in London.

Luke and his friend Mark. Apparently the film they were working on did some filming in Regent Street.

I had thought to go to the gallery but I wanted a better-fitting pair of leggings from Primark so I thought I’d do that on the way. Oxford Street was heaving with people and when I got into Primark the line was about 50 people long.

I tried Next next, where there were far fewer people and they had a cafe with a toilet in their two storey shop, which I needed to use. I tried on leggings and some jeans and ended up buying the jeans (this really isn’t my most interesting post ever, is it?) and bought a drink at the cafe, only to find the toilet was not working.

This is the third time in two days I’ve been into a business where the toilet was unavailable and I don’t think I’ve ever once seen this at home. It feels like people put the sign up just to avoid having people use their bathroom… I’d be fascinated to know if it’s patrons making a mess, a lack of staff to clean the facilities, actual broken plumbing or what.

Anyhow, after getting changed and whatnot on a day that felt quite warm (it was 19 but my body has adjusted to the cooler weather) I was feeling a bit annoyed and decided to have a quiet afternoon.

Luke met me at the Prince Arthur for a drink then we came back to the apartment and just lay around. Somehow I still managed to walk over 10km, every day has been between 10 and 15, which is pretty good. I’m glad I’m keeping up the distances even though the hiking part of the holiday is done. we’ve both noticed our feet get more sore on the hard concrete but I do prefer walking to catching the tube, you get to see more and get better orientated.

We had a late dinner (8:30! This holiday is changing all my habits and routines) at Frida, which is right next door to the Greek place we are at last night. They do Mexican and it was very nice, and even nicer when a table of 20-something British and American girls left halfway through – they’d been shouting their conversation to each other despite being in a tiny restaurant. The relief in the room was palpable.

The main excitement of the meal was watching a bus driver get out of his bus and shout at the driver of a black van right outside the restaurant window. Earlier a fight had almost started at a bar just down from our flat.. I don’t know what was in the air last night but it was very rowdy for London!

Lea and Pete got back around 10 and said they really enjoyed the show. Luke had booked them a table for dinner at an Italian restaurant very close to the theatre and it ended up being a great idea because apparently there were hoards of people trying to find dinner in the theatre district.

Portobello Road Markets tomorrow, something I’d not seen in any of my previous visits but Lea and Pete have been before so they get it be tour guides tomorrow!

To finish here’s a photo for Mum. She’ll know why.

2Jun2023

London Day 2: Camden Markets and Hamilton

by Miss Penny Black

We eschewed our usual breakfast at home for an early wander up the road to Camden Markets. So early that half the shops weren’t open but we found coffee and sat for a little while.

I bought a bead necklace (blue of course) and a hand-painted tile for the kitchen wall.

I had a delicious bowl of salad for brunch. Luke got a Shake Shack burger. I really feel like there haven’t been enough salads and vegetables in my diet lately. I’m getting to that point in the trip where I miss my own kitchen.

After a couple of hours at the markets we went back to the apartment to get ready for…. Hamilton!

We got to Victoria Station early and had time for a drink in a roof top bar. Everyone else decided to play it safe and not have a drink before the show but I had a glass of wine.

The sun came out for a little while but the day was quite cold. In the city every alleyway is a wind tunnel but the underground is always boiling hot. It’s very annoying!

The building looks big but inside it wasn’t huge which meant that, even though we had seats fairly far back, we could see pretty well.

Luckily the family in front weren’t too tall.

The songs were catchy and the singing was great. I enjoyed it but I still can’t say I’m a fan of musicals in general. My favourite song was Washington’s first song and my least favourite was his final song, which felt like a waste of time. A controversial opinion, no doubt!

After the show we walked past Buckingham Palace. It really is a very boring building.

I like the shiny gold thing over the road better.

Then we walked to Soho via Pall Mall (Paul maul or Pal mal??) and then caught the tube to King’s Cross. No less than three independent sources had recommended we try Dishoom, a chain of Indian restaurants. there’s one in Kings Cross. We headed there only to find there was a 1.5 hour queue. They don’t take bookings so we decided to try again another day.

Instead we walked to our suburb and chose a little Greek restaurant that did lovely food. All very simple but tasty.