England Diary - 10/4/15

The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Bussing About London

Two days in London -- today the only one likely not to be raining -- and we started it by sleeping until 9am! Granted we must have needed the rest and granted we'll be back here again ... but 9am? Really? We didn't let that slow us down, though. By the time we left the hotel for a little something to eat it was 12:30! I'm sure glad we're not rushing into anything!

After a quick breakfast (or would that be lunch?) at a non-descript coffee shop around the corner, we walked along Shepherd's Bush Green for about seven minutes to catch the tube toward central London. You can call it either the Tube or the Underground but never the subway - those are under-street pedestrian walkways. After a brief primer by a friendly attendant on how the new electronic system works, we had two new Oyster cards loaded up and could tap in and tap out of the underground, public busses and all manner of public transport.

With limited time, limited mobility, and perhaps only one dry day to work with, the obvious answer was the Big Bus, an open-topped bus that makes the circuit around all the major sights in London in about three hours. The closest place to pick it up was Marble Arch, five stops along the Central line from Shepherd's Bush ... so off we went. The London Underground system itself is a fast, easy and inexpensive way to get around. The only problem we encountered was some strong wind, I suspect from a passing train in another part of the Marble Arch station, blew the hat right off my head and onto the tracks.

There was no way to get it, so I resigned myself to the loss and headed for the exit. When we got there, a couple of Muslim ladies who had witnessed the event had reported it to one of the attendants and they already had a Plan B worked out. When the line shuts down tonight, they pick up everything that's fallen onto the tracks. Assuming my hat hasn't been blown all the way to central London, it should be available in the stationmaster's office tomorrow morning. (If it isn't, I wonder if the Tilley guarantee will give me a new one!)

The Big Bus is a convenient way to get around town and see the sights. More expensive than the Tube, of course, but way less than we'd have to pay for a cab and certainly more informative. We could get off anywhere that seemed interesting, poke around a bit and jump back on the next Big Bus that came by. They come about every 20 minutes. We just stayed on the bus most of the afternoon, finally walking through Hyde Park to Marble Arch to catch the tube back to our hotel and a bite of dinner.

The bus was a great way to see most of the sights and the running commentary from the on-board tour guide helped us understand what we were seeing. It was not, however, a great way to get photos of all these sights, both because the bus was moving all the time and because you didn't have the opportunity to pick your angles and frame your shots. So we'll show you someone else's photos of the things in London you've already seen in pictures. Yes, we saw all these places and a lot more today but you deserve better photos than we were able to take ... with the exception of the Tower Bridge photo - Margene took that one!

There's SO much to see in London, so much history, so many stories. The landmarks are just buildings, though. The important thing is the stories behind each one and the role it played in the evolution of the current society. I can show you the buildings. The stories are a history book and I won't attempt to write one of those.

So here are the answers to the quiz questions starting from the top left: The Tower of London, home to the crown jewels and one-time prison and execution site; the houses of Parliament and Big Ben (Big Ben is actually the name of the biggest bell in the tower, not the tower itself; Buckingham Palace where the queen has NOT been in residence most of the summer (she's been in Scotland); Tower Bridge (where the center section is actually a drawbridge to allow ships to pass. You can see two in the foreground, the one on the right a permanent mooring, the other a visiting navy ship); the London Eye, a 15-year old landmark built for the millenium; and Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, where any fool can bring his ladder and rant away (usually on religious or political issues) and often to good-natured jeering from the assembled crowd. It makes quite a din when there are a dozen or so such loud encounters happening around you at the same time!

A few interesting (and not-so-interesting) restaurant ideas to round out today's report. I rather liked the wall-mounted TV in a picture frame on the wall of this fish & chips shop, showing what was happening in the kitchen. I would have rather seen it in color and showing some real action, but it at least shows one way to do it. It might also keep the kitchen crew on their toes. There are thousands of these rather nondescript coffee shops in London, all seemingly staffed by immigrant workers. A tea shop in the downtown area was sampling their products to passers-by. Not only does this get people to try your product, but it also creates a subtle obligation to reciprocate by making a purchase.

Alfresco dining at the Serpentine (lake) in Hyde Park was a big draw on what may prove to be the last warm day of the year. The rains start tomorrow. The Rugby World Cup is being held in England at the moment and filling the pubs with fans. The NFL also had a game in town today (Jets over the Dolphins 27-14). My dinner was a steak and chorizo pie with fresh veggies and a super flaky pastry top bigger than the casserole of stew! It was a WOW kind of presentation but I had no idea how one was supposed to eat it politely. The stew was tasty, though!

We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, so we'll be looking for inside sports (as, I suppose, will every other tourist in London!) I need to recover my hat from the Tube tracks, Margene wants to see the Tower of London and I imagine there will be a museum or two in our future. Fortunately, most of the London museums have free admission!

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