Sorry about the rather large delay in my story-telling. What can I say? Actually living my life must take priority over talking about my life. :-)
Anyhoo, I was telling you about our trip to England, or as my friend/student/commenter called it: "Britland" After our chocolate-enhanced slumber on Sunday evening, we got up Monday morning and headed down to the hotel's restaurant. We got the general impression that when one secures accomodations in England, breakfast is included in the price. So, down to the main floor for a "Full English Breakfast" (click for a photo of the real thing!). This consisted of a buffet of what we later learned are standard English breakfast items: two or three different kinds of meat ("bacon", which was less Oscar-Meyer and more Canadian in nature), black pudding (which does not resemble pudding at all, and is essentially a blood sausage patty), and eggs. Then there were the usual assortments of cereal, pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat, etc.) and yogurt. The best was that every breakfast we had during the week included two or three little grilled mushrooms (like mini-portobellos, they might have been cremini) and oven-roasted tomatoes (cooked just until sweetened and the skin starts to break), and baked beans. Yes, that's right! Baked beans just like we have at summer picnics here in the States. So fun!
That day was a bank holiday, but seeing as we were in London, plenty of businesses were open. We were staying in an area called Russell Square, and decided to walk until we couldn't stand it anymore or we'd seen lots of stuff - whichever happened first. We headed off past the British Museum and toward the shopping street that would eventually lead us to Buckingham Palace.
Neither Rob nor I are much for shopping, so we mostly people-watched and enjoyed the walk. As pedestrians in a big, strange-to-us city, we were glad that every curbside had a "Look Right" or "Look Left" written on the pavement so that we could make sure to look for oncoming traffic. We walked and walked with no real plan in mind. It was cold and drizzly, but we were dressed appropriately for that so we happily walked off the 8-hour plane ride from the day before.
Eventually we came upon a park, so we veered off into it. Well, lucky us, we had found Hyde Park! It was lovely, the daffodils were in full bloom and definitely cheering up the otherwise cold and gloomy day. We walked through Hyde Park until we came to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace.
We decided against a Palace tour, as the place was crushed with people and we were quite happy just walking around. After all, we weren't interested in seeing the sights - we wanted to get a feel for the town and its people, and that requires being amongst them. So we decided to start looking for a not-too-touristy pub for lunch.
That close to the Palace, it was hard to find anything that wasn't touristy. We perservered, however, and after a few twists and turns off the main drag we came upon a place that was warm, still serving lunch, and had an open table. We got inside just before the hail began, and were very glad for the warmth of the pub. The food was fine, surprisingly good for pub fare, and we took our time (waiting out the storm) before heading back out onto the streets of London.
Fed and warmed, we headed back toward our hotel and realized just how far we'd walked! I think that in the end it was a four-hour walking tour of that part of London. It felt so good to walk, and was so fun to hear all the accents (few English speakers, when all was said and done, but I suppose that's how it is in Europe), and let our senses experience this new place.
Back at the hotel, we freshened up and laid down for a much-needed nap. Later we walked down the street to a little cafe for some tea and pastry for "dinner" and then came back and settled in for bed. We watched some fun English TV...which somehow didn't seem as horrible as American broadcasting is. There weren't continuous commercials for drugs, nor obnoxious local ads for car sales (or, really, name your annoyance). We were hoping for a better night sleep that Sunday, since Tuesday was to be another big travel day. We slept well enough, and on Tuesday we went down for our second "Full British", checked out, and made our way to Euston Station to catch a train...
(to be continued)
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