We Find Food! day 6j

We continue on our quest for the oldest pub in London. We trek through some of the darkest and scariest streets in London. Luckily, we have Heather to protect us. She might be the smallest but I wouldn't want to meet up with her in a dark alley if I had nefarious designs on her purse or backpack.

But, we have met with success and found our objective.  The only serious obstacle is the fact that The Anchor will not open for another half an hour. We will have starved to death by then.

However, we notice an intriguing and very much open restaurant just across the way. We have no idea what or who Nando is but hunger is a great motivator.  

The decor is interesting, to say the least. African-inspired paintings on the wall.

 Very cool. Very brightly colored. Very unique.

And the food did not disappoint...     Rachel and I ordered lemon herb Peri Peri chicken wings, with garlic bread and a salad that had amazingly tasty tomatoes. I am not a tomato connoisseur or even much of a tomato lover, but oh, my, those were some good tomatoes. And the chicken was absolutely to die for...   Our taste buds had a party and we have never been the same. 

We have both craved Peri Peri chicken ever since.

Several varieties of Peri Peri sauce.

And we had a fantastic view of St. Peter's across the river.  Magic, pure magic.  

The Eternal Quest...For Food day 6i

Hunger descends upon us all. Well, mostly Sara. Also the desire to see something notable and historic. Like the oldest surviving pub on this side of the Thames. So we decide to eat at The Anchor,  where such notables as Dr. Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens and even (well, of course!) Shakespeare dined and drank.

We wandered for awhile and we stopped and sat on the curb near this sidewalk cafe. Just because it was so pretty. And to get our bearings and figure out where we were and where The Anchor was and how best to get ourselves there.

                                  We noticed this little Fish and Chips place but since we had already                                             consumed our requisite fish and chips a day or two earlier, we continued our search.



the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

Still looking for food...but enjoying the view along the way...

A nod to Shakespeare day 6h

Only a nod because neither place was open...sigh


We didn't realize that our wanderings would take us by The Shakespeare, but it was a neat thing to see.  In my usual way, I wondered at his name.

Some of my research turned up the following quote from Dr. Who. And I was delighted to discover I wasn't the only one who has a quirky mind...

Leela: 'To be, or not to be, that is the question.'          That is a very stupid question!
The Doctor: It's Shakespeare.
Leela: And that is a very stupid name. You do not shake a spear, you throw it! Throwspeare, now that is a name.

~John Dorney, Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor 

ahem...

From the opposite side of the Thames, we saw a very familiar sight, a sight we had only seen in pictures but one that we knew:   the Globe Theater!!   Another serendipitous moment in our wandering.

There's not a whole lot to say about Shakespeare...mainly because he says enough himself!!

And so I continue this blog post with much of his help (thanks Will!)

With my heart upon my sleeve, we march on toward what may well be a wild goose chase, as our journey this eve seems to have neither rhyme nor reason. With bated breath, I discover we are only a river’s width from the brave new world (to us, anyway) of the Globe Theater.  With our feet begging for a rest, we know we are made of sterner stuff and although our wanderings seem too much of a good thing, we will not take a break nor sleep one wink until we have arrived at the be-all and the end-all of the foregone conclusion of our next destination. And by then, we are comforted knowing what's done is done and all's well that ends well.

               “You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”      ~Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

                                           “And nothing is, but what is not.”   ~Shakespeare, MacBeth

"And though she be but little, she be fierce."  ~Shakespeare

"The last taste of sweets is sweetest last."

~Shakespeare, Richard II

                                  “Educated men are so impressive!”    ~Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet



And in an effort to prove myself educated (well, at least knowing my way around some of the classics) I close with these two quotes:


“England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare,but the Bible made England.”          ~Victor Hugo



Not like Homer would I write,
Not like Dante if I might,
Not like Shakespeare at his best,
Not like Goethe or the rest,
Like myself, however small,
Like myself, or not at all.        

~William Allingham

Victoria Station Day 6g

At this point we are homeless wanderers. If you will recall, we had to check out of the hostel. Just thought I would throw that out there.

It was time to get sorted for the next phase of our adventure. We were soon to be on our way to Bath! That is, if we could find a way to get there. A bus is good, and there was one that went there. But we had to get our bus tickets and for that we had to find the National Express Bus Station which was somewhere is Victoria Station.

So we trudged through this slightly sketchy tunnel to get to the tube that would take us to Victoria station.    Yeah, it was a little scary and you would think I would learn to keep up with my bodyguards!!!  I know they are tiny and skinny lil bodyguards but that fact that I am writing this blog after the fact is proof that they were very effective bodyguards...

Our destination. Sighs of relief.

Until we get inside. How are we ever going to find the National Express Bus kiosk? Well, to make a (very) long story short:  we did find it but it was closed. End of story.

 

Well, not quite the end because we had to figure out how to get to Bath. From some intensive research on the internet, one of the girls discovered there was a way to buy tickets online and that way would be much cheaper. However, remember the part about us being homeless wanderers??

Yes, there is that.

We ended up finding a little shop where we could order our tickets and even print them out. As I recall, it was some type of copy shop, along the lines of Kinko's.

My girls are nothing if not intrepid, enterprising, smart, enthusiastic and...hungry.

 

St. Paul's cathedral

We are on the bridge, I am looking backwards, taking this picture. Those girls were such troopers. And as I mentioned before, pretty good at keeping me alive.

This is the part of the story where Sara gets hungry again so she buys some hot roasted nuts...

And generously shares with all.

This is also where we saw the man with no head.

 I didn't manage to take a decent picture so you are just going to have to believe me.

The Millennium Bridge, with St. Paul's in the background

Trafalgar Square day 6f

And here we are, at Trafalgar Square. The one you see in the movies.

Lunch. Or was it dinner?   

We found this adorable pub, checked the menu and gave it a thumbs-up.

We really had no choice. Sara was starving.

We went downstairs and found ourselves low seats beside a low table.  It really had a "pub atmosphere" as everybody was just drinking. Except us. We were eating. Unapologetically.
Because, you know, Sara...

My yummy salad.  It was called the Tricolor Salad and it was avocado, Mozzarella cheese and sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with basil. I was expecting a bit more greenery but, aside from that, it was scrumptious.

Bruschetta. Not mine. I rather wished it was....

We wander up The Mall Day 6e

.

After the guards satisfactorily completed their changing, we wandered away from the palace, up the mall.  Which I suppose I should capitalize...as in The Mall.

We saw buildings but didn't care enough to find out what they were. Because my girls were in a h-u-r-r-y. And we were hungry, thirsty and tired. Well, make that SARA was hungry and thirsty. The rest of us were just plain tired out.

We caught a glimpse of Big Ben through the trees. You know what's funny, I don't remember ever hearing the clock chime while we were there. Hmmmm. I wonder what's up with that....

Lovely statues. Not sure who they were, though.

Annnnnnddddd the Winged horse.   Randomly placed above a gate, amongst the tree tops.

I can't even describe how much I loved the memorials, statues, buildings and all the history. Even though I wasn't familiar with the history. Just knowing how old and historic and meaningful it was meant so much and was so fascinating.

The Admiralty Arch which is the entrance to The Mall--the road that leads to Buckingham Palace         (but as we were coming FROM Buckingham, I guess that makes it the exit)          

It is off to the corner of Trafalgar Square and was commissioned by King Edward VII

in honor of his mother, Queen Victoria

6d Buckingham: the changing of the guard

We arrived at Buckingham Palace with a little time to spare before the Changing of the Guard Ceremony began. So we amused ourselves as best we could. 

Lining up in front of the palace--hordes of people on this rather dreary day

A front view of the palace so you can see the fab gates and the balcony from which the royal family stands and waves.  I was kind of impressed to see it in real life!

Bobbies on horseback, charged with keeping us off the statues, out of the fountains, and off the streets.  They also were in charge of periodically telling us to watch our belongings 

 because "there are thieves among us."     If it were up to me, I'm not sure I'd be advertising it...

This is a scary picture. Not sure which is scarier, though:  the bobby with the assault rifle or the bloke in the bottom right hand corner...

or the fact that they continued to remind us about the thieves among us.

The iconic gates of Buckingham Palace and the guards, busy guarding up to the very last minute until they were marched off to do whatever it is royal palace guards do in their free time.

Now we began to see some action on the outside of the gates! Mounted guards, swords drawn, ride up to the gates. But they didn't enter by the front gate but rather by a gate off to the side.

On their way to the side gate, paying no mind to the traffic signals.

This picture cracks me up. Notice the guy in the middle; it looks like he realizes he's a bit behind and he is double-stepping to catch up.

He has now recovered his composure and is right where he is supposed to be, hoping no one saw.

 And we were treated to a bit of a concert there at the end. I was surprised by the songs they chose to serenade us with. I couldn't tell you now what they were but there were definitely not British songs, more like American pop songs. Of the 80's.