In Honour of the City of London - Days 2 and 3

Day 2 - Tim2 managed to find his way from Heathrow to the tube station where Ted met him and guided him back to the flat.  So happy to see him again and have four of our five together - just one more to go!  Jet lag be damned, Tim was ready to take on the city.  We again asked Ian to take the lead, and headed off to see the sights.

Near Leicester Square we passed the Nickelodeon store and M & M's World, a four-story emporium dedicated to everybody's favorite shareable chocolate. Both places were teeming with tykes and school group tours.  We strolled through Leicester Square where a Busker Festival was taking place; in fact, this was an event all over London.  We passed a not-so-talented young woman attempting to entertain with her ukulele.

We saw the National Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where Neville Mariner conducted much of the classical music one hears on radio stations dedicated to that genre.  We also stumbled across the Institution of Mechanical Engineers where I insisted on a photo of my mechanical engineers.








We came to the wide-open space of the Household Cavalry Museum and the  Horse Guards Parade.  On the far side of Buckingham Palace we enjoyed the company of some pelicans and a black swan - not something one sees everyday!

We queued up for entrance to the Churchill War Rooms, recommended to us by a worker at the Cavalry Museum.  It was quite warm in the sun, and my sweet men held our place in line while I stole some shade.  We were surprised by the cost of entrance - we understood that many of the museums were free of charge, but this one was quite pricey.  Located beneath Whitehall, this was the bunker where Churchill and his staff worked, ate and slept for much of World War II.  Very close quarters, not for the claustrophobic, but with quite a modern air conditioning system.  Along with the meeting rooms and living quarters, we saw many artifacts, including an enigma machine like the one in the movie, the Imitation Game.  The museum adjacent to the bunker is full of details from Churchill's life - a treat for history buffs.  One could easily spend hours there.  Tim2 picked up a great mug in the gift shop, with the Churchill quote: Never give in.  Never, never, never, never.

The War Room

Enigma machine

Amen.

Back out into the daylight, I found that some of our party had been waiting for quite a while (some of us tend to linger more than others).  We continued on, got up close to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, and enjoyed a lovely walk along the Thames.  After a challenging search for a place to eat along the river, where every location was full up, we wandered into another standard pub, Westminster Arms, where we squeezed into a tiny, enclosed booth for lunch.  It felt a bit like we were eating in a phone booth, but it was fun.  Afterwards we stopped at a little cafe that sat right out over the water for an ice cream and enjoyed the view and the sound of Big Ben chiming the half-hour.

Not the actual pub we ate in, but a shiny one where
they were no longer serving food.

Our "phone booth" lunch

Tim and I decided to head back to the flat after that, and grabbed a taxi.  The guys continued on their way to see more of the city before they called it a day.



Day 3 - Walked a few short blocks to Clifton Gardens for breakfast at Raoul's, a nice little cafe/restaurant, where our server had a distinctive French (?) accent.  Lots of businessmen in suits and ties, or perhaps coming from church services?  Ted and Ian noticed a fair number of men were wearing blue and orange striped ties.  We wondered if this was part of a university affiliation, fraternity of some kind, or just a favorite color combination?  After breakfast we stopped for coffee at Cafe Nero, which we took to calling Cafe Nerd as this is what I thought the sign said when I first saw it.  "Cafe Nerds" are everywhere in London, as plentiful as Starbucks in the states.

Little Venice in Maida Vale

Ian left us after breakfast, as his girlfriend was arriving in London that morning.  Tim had to tie into some meetings for work ~|~ , so Ted, Tim2 and I walked to the nearby movie theater to see Ant Man.  The theater, Everyman Cinema, was tiny, just two little screening rooms upstairs.  The building has a retro feel to it, and the snack bar is quite full-serviced, with many options of food, coffee, even alcoholic beverages.  The screening room felt like a deluxe home theater, with perhaps five or six rows of four large, comfy chairs, and tables on the side.  Quite a nice setup, but it should be at that price!  Ant Man was entertaining enough, though not my favorite Marvel movie by any means.

After the movie, Tim2 and I headed to Baker Street for the nearest Post Office, where my British classmates in Pattaya recommended I change currency.  The rate was much better than at the airport, and no service fees.  After a quick currency exchange, we strolled up Baker Street to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum, where we met up with Ted and Tim Sr.  We didn't go inside, as it was not recommended to us, but enjoyed a walk around the gift shop.  I think the popularity of the place has probably grown tremendously in the last ten years with the Robert Downey Jr. movies and the Benedict Cumberbatch series, as well as the program, Elementary.  Just next door to the museum was a Beatles Gift shop, as Abbey Road studio is just around the corner.

Next we wandered up the road to Regents Park.  It is a lovely green space with lots of beautiful gardens, ponds, fountains, trails and such.  It also has an outdoor theater and the London Zoo at the north end.  It was very tranquil and lovely.

We looked for a bite to eat.  Deciding we'd had enough "authentic pub food," we instead opted for some pizza at a prime location on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone (pronounced Mar'-lee-bone).  This is a very busy, lively corner, and the pizzeria was also busy and lively.  In fact it was so "lively" we could barely hear each other speak, perhaps due to the high ceilings in this building that used to be a bank - cool architecture, though.  The food was pretty good and the waitstaff was friendly, but the noise did not encourage us to linger.




Ted and I had both heard about a jazz club called the 606 Club, and he led us on an expedition in search of the place.  We took the tube, then a bus to Chelsea, then walked and walked in what we all hoped was the right direction.  Ted can be a man of singular focus and was undaunted in his search.  After a few wrong turns, we finally arrived at the unassuming entrance.

We had to knock on the door and wait for someone to come up from the basement.  They shouted up to ask what we wanted.  When we said we just came to hear some music, they came up to open the door, and we felt quite privileged to be let in.  Down a dark stairway and into a dimly-lit speakeasy kind of ambiance, we were warned that we could only have soft drinks, which was fine with us.  Other tables clearly had beer bottles and such, but we surmised one had to be a member to imbibe.  The club itself is exactly what a jazz club should be - nothing fancy, it is all about the music.  This particular night featured the grainy, gritty blues of John Fairhurst, occasionally accompanied by Joe Strouzer on harmonica.  Truly a sublime evening that made us forget the long journey there.