London

We were in London for the long holiday weekend. For a terribly expensive city it wasn't terribly expensive, as I'd won a travel voucher at work for the train tickets, and we have a friend who lent us his apartment on Great James Street in Holborn. We spent plenty of money on shopping and eating out however...

The highlights of our trip were probably the New Globe Theatre show of King Lear, shopping at Fortnum and Mason, and my quick expedition to see Peter Doig at the Tate Britain.

We walked all over the place, and that was fabulous. We had some rain the first few days, but it was still nice to walk around. I don't know how many miles I walked in total, but it was a lot, most days I was on my feet from morning til night only sitting down for lunch and dinner... It felt good.

We found a great coffee place just near the apartment - Caffe Nero (which has outposts all over London). One of the best coffees I've had in my life, though - it stands out along with a memory from a cafe in Madrid... Yum.

On our first evening we walked around in need of a late-closing grocery store and ended up buying a bunch of stuff at Sainsbury. We then wandered around until we found a pub not too far from home, and E enjoyed a beer there.

On Tuesday we walked across town to get to Nahm for our lunch reservation. Nahm was the Thai restaurant recommended to us, and we really liked it even if we were one of 2 sets of customers... it was a rainy Thursday and apparently most of the lunch crowd had canceled.

From there we walked around in an arc and circled over to Harrods, which was fun and expensive, not just for the food halls, but also for the stops at the perfume counters and at Molton Brown... A quick cab ride home to drop off the packages and then we headed to see Shakespeare at the Globe. We walked home which was fun, but were so surprised to find no restaurants or pubs still serving - we ended up eating hot dogs on the street as we walked by Covent Garden.

Friday we had lunch reservations at St John, which we'd been really looking forward to, especially as E likes offal (I do NOT, but to each his own) and it was supposed to be great both according to our friend and also everything we'd seen in books and online. But we were really disappointed, nothing was that good and what I ordered was actually pretty bland. Friday afternoon I went walking around hitting some old favorite stores of housewares before losing myself for a while in an English-language bookstore with a great selection, something I can't do in Paris and I seem to have little time for on my trips to America. I'd spent the morning shoe shopping, picking up a few pairs of Clark's as they are comfortable and not terrible-looking...

Saturday we walked again all over town and had lunch at Fortnum and Mason, having shopped our way there and then shopped all over the store. E took a cab home loaded down with our purchases and I was torn between going to the Tate Modern for a quick tour (I didn't have much time before closing) or trying to get another shopping errand done - unfortunately I chose the shopping, which was a mistake as the area of Oxford Circus is ugly and unpleasant in the best of times, but on a Saturday afternoon was a huge zoo and in addition I didn't even find what I was looking for. I did not make the good choice - I definitely should have gone for the Tate Modern.

I raced home to meet E and head out again for dinner, this time we'd reserved at what was supposed to be one of London's top Indian restaurants, the Red Fort, but unfortunately we again were disappointed. I actually was pretty happy with it - it's better Indian food than we find in Paris, and although it was expensive and not Fabulous I was happy with it - but E was not, and it put a damper on the evening.

This morning I ran around like a crazy woman crossing London in 45 minutes to spend 45 minutes at Peter Doig and then run back to the apartment for another 45 minutes before racing to the train -- but it was such a great exhibit that it was worth it.

I left as I came - Loving London. Next trip there - more time in museums, much less time shopping.