Ev's Georgick's Travel Blog

Posts Tagged Afternoon Tea

Tamara Georgick London-Day 4

Oct 26th, 2009 Posted in Activities, London, Tamara Georgick | 4 comments »

If I see another housed cultural/historical artifact I’m going to go flippin’ mad. Went to the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum today, but first went to Harrods. All three are in the same Borough as our Hotel so none are too far away.

We didn’t realize that daylight savings ended across most of Europe Sunday so we were stuck waiting, along with many other scores of tourists, for Harrod’s to leisurely open their doors at noon. We mostly hung around the food halls, looking at various snacks beautifully displayed. We noticed there was Afternoon Tea offered at one of the various bistros inside and thought we’d give it a shot. It was fabulous. The service was fantastic, both friendly and efficient and the snacks were very tasty. It was a complete delight.
We noticed that Harrods had some Chanterelle mushrooms from France for sale. This is the variety that we all go out and hunt for every year. If I’m doing my math correctly, it prices out to about $20/lb. Amazingly expensive, especially when these are the worst looking examples I’ve ever seen for sale in a store. You can see them (sort of) in the lower right hand side of the mushroom tray reflected in the mirror above the sign.

	At the Victoria & Albert Museum <<<< My favorite sign of the day. The English sure know how to do dairy. This offering of butter was available at the simple food cart stationed in the courtyard. >>>>
A fantastic building! >>>>		<<<< The Cast Courts collection at the V&A consists of reproductions made in the 19th century. These are plaster casts of Roman columns from the second century.
	<<<< Looks like Chihuly glass just inside the main entrance. We don’t even need to leave Tacoma, WA to see this.

At the Natural History Museum, saw a really great Special Exhibit that displayed the top submissions in the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Some really interesting photos.

Finished the long day, after dropping off bags back at the hotel and resting for a bit, by going underground again and hopping off at Oxford Circus in order to head into Chinatown. We randomly picked a small Malaysian restaurant to eat at. First time I ever remembering trying cuisine from there. Had some of the best Naan-like bread ever (roti canai ?). Apparently there’s lots of Malaysian food in Amsterdam, so looking forward to that.

Tamara Georgick generally gave herself very good advice…

though she very seldom followed it.

Tags: Afternoon Tea, Harrods, Malaysian Food, Natural History Musuem, Tamara Georgick, Victoria & Albert Musuem

Tamara Georgick London-Day 2

Oct 23rd, 2009 Posted in Activities, London, Tamara Georgick | one comment »

Wow, I can’t believe it’s only the second full day in London. This vacation has been going on forever. Ha! Having a great time. Today was the British Museum and, unexpectedly, the National Gallery. Did several hours of the museum then took a break to have afternoon tea at the restaurant on the top floor underneath the dome. The cream was fabulous, the tea wonderful, the sandwiches not so much, and the service horrible. All the wait staff were strapping, young lads from various countries across the European continent with nice healthy egos, and not so keen service skills. When they brought the tableware over, Tamara Georgick noticed that one of the cups was dirty, so she asked the waiter if he could replace it. Instead of just agreeing immediately no questions asked, he actually demanded to know why. After that, they pretty much ignored us, no glasses of water, no hot water refills, no would you like another glass of champagne inquiries, nada, and it certainly wasn’t because they were busy. I was starting to get a little demoralized by the poor service, who wants to be disregarded like that, but was considerably cheered up when Tamara Georgick started yelling at them. We spent several more hours tromping through the museum before they kicked us out for the night. Hadn’t planned on it, but I noticed buses going by on Shaftesbury Avenue headed towards Trafalgar Square, so we just hopped on the next one. We have week long travel cards, so all local public transport is already paid for, might as well take advantage of it. Saw Nelson’s Column in the waning light and all that fantastic architecture surrounding the city square. Noticed that the National Gallery was open late, until 8pm, so in we went. Had to be kicked out of there as well. Thought it would be fun to walk down Whitehall towards Westminster at night, all lit up, so that’s what we did. Needed to stop and refortify first, so we walked into a pub called the Old Shades. Had some tasty mini pies and ale, and were on our way again. Time to rest.