Hello London! We left York and it's barely drinkable coffee for the lovely town of London.
London Eye After we checked in to our hotel, we got lunch and ended up at the London Eye. Like I said last week - "it's really big". And by "big" I also mean "tall". It's almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. My pics will be up soon - but this guy's images are spectacular
Dinner with Giles So, I have to give a big thank-you out to Jeremey's (AKA the groom) brother Giles who got us on the right train in York and then went out with us for dinner and drinks the first night (and last) in London. We went to a swell Thai place for dinner. I had duck with something, but Giles had this curry that he let me try and it was much better - paving the way for the food theme of my trip: I ordered the wrong thing
Dive Bar Giles took us to one of his favorite bars which is sadly closing very soon (or did already - the 6th of March I think): the dive bar - at gerrard street. Apart from the rather goofy 'stating the obvious' name - it was a great little bar.
Scotch There was a swell scotch store up the street from our hotel that I spent a while browsing in. I ended up buying a bottle of Mortlach to try, but the real story is about the poor clerk who helped me. I approached this fella to get some ideas...
ME: So, I am looking for something interesting and rare, preferably done with that nice sherry cask thing because I am a big girl who likes their single malts on the fruity side.
HIM: Oh, sure. We have many, such as blah blah blah and blah blah blah.
(at this point, he seems to of lost his balance and puts his hand on the shelf for support)
HIM: you'll have to exscuse me, I am really hungover.
ME: really?
HIM: yea, I passed out at the bus stop and then woke up this morning in the hospital.
(I notice he has a nice scar on his chin)
ME: wow. I tip my hat to you.
HIM: heh, thanks. Um, hang on one sec.
(he looks suddenly very ill)
HIM: I'lll be right back
(he races to the back of the store and down some stairs)
(5 minutes later he returns)
HIM: right. OK. I feel much better. So, what you might want to try is blah blah blah......
I bought a bottle and a bunch of little airplane sized bottles for Evan & I on our respective trips back.
Green Message to HonkyCracker: Yes, I got some of the green!
Banzai My favorite show ever, Banzai, still alive and well on TV in England.
Everything else Let's see... we saw a play called 'World Music' which thankfully was not about aging NPR hippies dancing around. It was actually about genocide in Africa - basically. Or as I described it, "a lighthearted look at Rwanda".
We ate at a fine Phillipino place. Went to Harrods and had a hot Krispy Kreme donut. Did the War Room, the British Museum, and strolled through the Victoria & Albert Museum. Ate at Belgo's, a fun Belgian place where I of course ordered the completely wrong thing. I stopped by the London office of the company I work for and gasped at how cool it all was. Had some kick-ass Indian at Masala Zone with Giles the last night we were there.
Fox! Walking home from out last night out in London, we saw a fox chase a cat across the street and then up a tree (er, I mean, the cat went up the tree and not the fox). We scared the fox away and hopefully saved the cat from becoming a fox dinner. Apparently there are lots of foxes (oh yea) in London.
Barefoot Tell me. Why do people think it's a good idea to go to the bathroom on the plane barefoot? I saw three people waiting in line for the bathroom who were barefoot. Am I just a germ freak or is that F'd up?
