London - Round One
For our first trip in England, we had to go to London.
We trained into St Pancras International, so the first this we had to do was run across the street to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4. We checked out the store that was stocked full of Harry Potter swag, even the coveted Hufflepuff(Jenn) and Ravenclaw(Alex) merch that is so difficult to find in Canada.
We didn’t have plans until 2:30pm so we spent most of the morning and early afternoon wandering London, heading in the general direction of the Queen’s Theatre. We passed the British Museum, but it had an hour long line up just to get in. We continued wandering until we ended up in Covent Garden, there Alex found a coffee shop that he wanted to try. Monmouth Coffee is a tiny hole in the wall coffee shop, the coffee was good, but even better was the amazing almond croissant, A++ would recommend.
The inside of the Irregular Choice store-houses some of the world’s most tacky and brilliant shoes, bags, and accessories.
It wasn’t long after that we made our way out to SoHo and did a bit of shopping, making a point of stopping by Irregular Choice.
After a bit of shopping we had just enough time to grab some Chinese takeout and rush over to our matinee showing of Les Miserables.
What can I say, Les Mis had both us crying within minutes. The singing was brilliant, the performers are very talented, and the story is heartfelt. There were a few bits of confusion as an audience member, namely both Cosette and Eponine were played by white girls for the child characters, and grew up to become Black and Asian (whom we understood to be understudies after the performance). Honestly though, it was the first time Jenn understood the ending of the film, despite having seen it quite a few times? The song orders and ending are somewhat different from the film, but we enjoyed the order a bit more in the play, as “I Have a Dream”, sung by Fantine, comes across as much more hopeful.
After Les Mis, it was nearly 6pm so we made our way to China Town and had a wonder. The streets were PACKED, and finding dinner was difficult, but we eventually settled on Olle, a Korean bbq restaurant. After wandering around a bit more, we got BubbleWrap for dessert.
Bubble Wrap is a Hello Kitty themed dessert place that sort of resembles a Marble Slab/Coldstone Creamery in layout (long thin aisle, meaning a constant line-up out the door). It is essentially ice-cream and toppings in a crepe wrap cone, only the crepe has pockets of air in it, much like bubble wrap. It was DEVINE, and a one-in-a-lifetime treat (your wallet would be aching to have these on a regular basis!).
Bubble Wraps in tow, we began to head back to our B&B, stopping by Buckingham Palace on the way. We would definitely suggest seeing this in daylight, as there is very little street-lighting in England in general, and the shiny gates and statues just don’t hold the same appeal without the opulent shine of the sun.
The next morning it was an early rise and shine, with cereal, coffee and orange juice at our B&B, and a foggy walk that quickly cleared up into a bright and sunny morning at Buckingham Palace. Again.
We then took a very long walk to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, going through James Park on the way. At least, we think it was James Park? There are a lot of parks in London. Either way we grabbed some hot chocolate and said a friendly good morning hello to very human-attracted squirrels.
We got to Baker Street, grabbed a few souvenirs, and took a tour of “the real Sherlock Holmes flat” of 21B Baker Street. Let’s be real, it’s a fictional character, why are they trying to sell it as if all the things in the rooms (that you can touch!) are genuine Victorian artifacts owned by a man who never existed? Oh tourist traps…
We said “Hello” to some Canadian friends as well!
From there it was a ferry tour on the Thames to the London Tower, where we grabbed Wagamama’s for lunch (Jenn’s chili-prawn and kimchi ramen was especially delicious!).
At this point, we were both exhausted and decided we were ready to go home for the day, so we grabbed the ferry back to the train station and went back to Gillingham.