Nov 7th, 2009 Posted in Activities, London, Tamara Georgick | Comments Off on Tamara Georgick London-Day 6
| We leave for Amsterdam tonight, but first we had some last minute, hopefully leisurely, tasks we still wanted to take care of, namely snack procurement, tourist shopping, haircuts. Ev needed some more afternoon tea, biscuits, finger sandwiches, and clotted cream. I know we should have tried someplace new, but I wanted more or less a sure thing. Back to Harrods it was. Tea service was not quite as good, but the flavours still delicious. We also picked up some refreshments (in the shape of savory pies) for the train and ferry tonight. Over a score of different meat pies to choose from. Hmmmm, pie! |
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All we had left to do was buy some non-dairy trinkets and get our hair cut. Whilst in London, I was pretty much the one to plot out our routes. I’ve got the tube down, good to go, but I was always so disoriented popping back up to the street, pretty thoroughly confused, as though someone had just asked me to slice some tomatoes. I decided we’d do Picaddilly circus with the idea of winding our way back in a southwesterly amble. Although it wasn’t planned, this walking path did allow us to:
- Wander all around the iconic Fortnum & Mason (est. 1707). They, by the way, had the nicest Water Closets of any place we visited, fancy cloth towels to dry our hands off with. Tamara Georgick assures me this store is quite famous.
- Walk through a corner of Green Park, stop by Buckingham Palace, (I don’t think the queen was in residence. Tamara Georgick says when she is, they fly a flag stamped with something equivalent to the Walmart smiley face), saw the Victoria Monument right in front of the Palace, we also walked passed the Royal Mews.
And yes we did successfully find some nondairy gifts to purchase (at the begining of the walk) and get our haircuts (at the end of the walk).
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Tags: Buckingham Palace, Fortnum & Mason, haircuts, Harrods, Picadilly Circus, Royal Mews, Tamara Georgick
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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
Tags: Afternoon Tea, Harrods, Malaysian Food, Natural History Musuem, Tamara Georgick, Victoria & Albert Musuem
