I bought my trip as a package through lastminute.fr, and I was a little nervous about the hotel, but it turned out to be a good location and it was pretty standard relative to the norm for inexpensive hotels in Europe, though not memorable enough to recommend. The hotel itself was on a side street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which sounds pretty impressive, doesn’t it? The neighborhood was quiet, but it was close to a tube station, so I could get to the heart of London without much trouble. My first impression of England was that British people are more friendly than the French, because the subway drivers are so polite (‘please, mind the gap’) and that I actually got valuable assistance from one of the ticket cashiers at the tube station, something that I have yet to experience in Paris.
Friday night, I had dinner with a bunch of students, professors, and alumni from Harvey Mudd College. The students and professors were concluding a two week trip that was the capstone of a semester-long course on Dickens and Hardy. Having dinner with them was a real treat because they had a lot of interesting stories to tell about their trip and about life at Mudd. We were at a well-known pub called the Albert, near the Victoria tube station, that has a restaurant on the upper level that features a carving station of roast beef, turkey, and pork, with all the traditional English trimmings. After the dinner, I went with some of the students to another pub.The atmosphere in English pubs is really convivial and appealing, compared to the bars and brasseries I’ve been to in France, where I never have felt quite comfortable. It doesn’t hurt that good beer is pretty darn cheap (less than two pounds for an English pint).
Saturday, I met up with an American friend who works outside London, and together we visited the Tower of London. Our tour, led by one of the caretakers of the tower, who themselves live on the grounds, was fabulous.
The guide was very engaging and gave a lot of interesting insights into the history of the tower, which is actually a castle of multiple towers, of course. They keep a flock of ravens there because of the traditional superstition that the tower would fall if the ravens all leave. The ravens will sometimes let you get pretty close to them, but they are not so appealing when you are watching them tear apart a piece of raw meat.
After the Tower, we had lunch in another pub, where I had a rich and juicy venison stew with potatoes. Then we browsed the National Gallery, including the current special exhibition highlighting the relationships various impressionist artists and artists in later movements in painting. Just outside, Trafalgar Square was completely mobbed with people celebrating a Russian Winter Festival, which seemed more like a rally since all we saw were speeches being given in Russian and a lots of vodka advertisements. Finally, we went over to St. Paul’s for the evening vespers, which was a lovely experience, but after a busy day of sightseeing, I admit that I nodded off for a few minutes.
On the way to dinner, we stopped to walk along the river and got some nice views of Parliament and Big Ben.
For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant across the street from the Lambeth tube station. It’s not a big, well-known, or fancy looking restaurant, but the friend I was with had been there before and knew that the food was really good, which was absolutely true. I had one of the night’s specials, a seafood risotto, which was really memorable for the perfectly cooked rice, with pieces of squid and octopus that were tender and not rubbery and overcooked. I had imagined it would come in a creamy parmesan sauce, but it was in fact based on a lovely rich tomato sauce. The prices were very reasonable for London, with starters averaging 6 pounds and main dishes around 10 pounds, and all of the servings were generous. The name and address are Cotto Restaurant, 89 Westminster Bridge Road.
Saturday was a lot sunnier than Sunday, but you’ll have to forgive all of the shadows in my photos, because the sun didn’t really get very high, even at mid-day. After taking some photos at the Tower Bridge, I decided that it was a nice day for a stroll, and as I walked from The Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster to St. Paul’s Cathedral the bells were ringing in the beginning of the service, which was awesome. From there I went over to the Covent Garden Market and checked out Neal's Yard. It was really a shame that the Neal's Yard Dairy was closed, since I've read so much about their delicious cheeses. Next time, I'll be a more dedicated food lover and go shopping on a market day!
Anyway, then I walked over to Soho, took a picture of the Palace Theater,
went through Chinatown and on down to Leicester Square. Recently went to an exhibition of Hogarth’s works at the Louvre, so I had to photograph his statue in the square. I’d like to imagine that he’s turned away in disgust from the Starbucks across the street behind him.
I guess my walk took me by some of the more cheesy touristy places, but it was fine with me. You can’t spend all your time in museums! Eventually, though, I was pretty cold, so I spent a few hours looking around at the National Portrait Gallery. After a couple hours, I thought I had the lineage of all the kings and queens straight, but unfortunately they didn’t stay that way very long. In general, the portrait gallery is really worth seeing, especially with the audio guide to give a few entertaining stories about the portraits and their painters as well as their sitters. It was somewhat disappointing to me to see JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe among their more recent portrait acquisitions, but I guess they hold a pretty important place in the cultural scene, at least for now.
Oh, there are so many other cool places to go in London. I’m eager to go back to go to the theater and the Tate Modern, and several other museums, and cathedrals, and go to Greenwich, and… Maybe I should do another postdoc over there. Just kidding, Matt!
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