London: Shopping, Dining & Skyline

Markets and Malls

Our first shopping expedition was to Harrods.

• But as mentioned before, Harrods is not really for us. We like ogling expensive things now and then but we like the option to buy high quality reasonably priced things as well. And the latter option seemed unlikely from everything we checked out there. The Food Court (several promising restaurants) and Food Hall (OK but not awe-inspiring) were really the only appealing features.

after our 1st visit to the Covent Garden Apple Store (which ended up with Pat doing a total clean install...without solving the problem) we wandered through Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus and stopped at 

• Fortnum & Mason, founded in 1707 and now a landmark in Piccadilly Square,. is noted for it's high quality and wide variety of foodstuffs including ready-to-eat luxury meals such as poultry or game served in aspic jelly. It is much more to our liking than Harrods. It helps being food oriented, of course. We can't resist fine food. We selected a few tasty morsels at one of the bakeries plus cassoulet.

We spent a day or two wandering Kings's Road from Sloan Square to Jeroboam Wine Shop (about 1 mile)

• Kings Road, located just outside of our apartment is one long shopping street. Near us were the popular stores that we see in shopping centers world-wide. Nothing wrong with them. In fact their selection and prices are reasonable. According to the signs, a Whole Foods will be opening in the area soon. Further along the street there are more Designer Shops. We are not big fans of these.  
• We did find a great wine store, Jeroboam. They have a small selection (very small) of California wines, it had one of Pat's favs (Ridge Lytton Springs). They also had a small (very small) collection of tequila including the Dragones line. For those not in the know, Dragones is a very expensive (and presumably good) tequila from San Miguel!

On another day of exploriation we walked to Battersea Power Station (about 1 mile)

• Battersea is a trendy south-of-the-river hotspot physically dominated by the repurposed Battersea Power Station. The former power station now houses a shopping center, a cinema and restaurants, as well as Lift 109. 

• Lift 109 is the glass "lift" inside one of Battersea Power Station’s chimneys. The concession starts with an exhibit on the history of the Power Station. Quite interesting. Then there is the ride up (109 meters / 358 feet, helping to explain the name) for a 360-degree views of London including Wimbledon and it's arch.

Before our afternoon visit to the Frameless show (the digital illumination extravaganza) we spent the morning investigating the shopping along Bond Street. We returned a few days later for some serious shopping in Selfridges.

• Selfridge's is a huge department store with a seemingly endless number of designer boutiques ranging from the more common brands to exclusive fashion and luxury goods. Currently Voted the 3rd best department store in the world, ...the English version of a Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's. It was overwhelming at first. But then we found Customer Service and explained our interests, And they provided us advice on the areas to most likely appeal to us. 

Further afield but still a convenient tube stop, we went to

• Eataly for lunch of pasta and sautéed greens . After lunch we wandered around Eataly shopping their wide selection of Italian food and wine. Then on to neighboring Spitalfields Market, a "1-stop destination for food, fashion, art, music, and events". 

Along the streets in Spitalfields are Sculptures of rescued sweet baby elephants. The area combines shopping options in normal market format along with the usual shops found in shopping centers WW.

Dining

Our experience is that to find a pub look for the floral exterior. 

In addition to the Fish & Chips, Pies, and other traditional pub food there are some Gastro Pubs that have a selection of very fine seafood and other dishes with excellent wines to go with them.  We also appreciated the 1/2 liter carafe or 250 ml glasses of wine - they were the perfect size for lunch.

Pubs we tried and enjoyed the results...

• The Cadogan Arms (we dined here twice), menu included mussels & sea trout which we ordered with a white wine from the Alentejo region of Portugal. We also quite enjoyed the yummy Sticky Toffee with Sandeman's Tawney Port and Chateau Lafon sauternes.
  
• The Admiralty where we enjoyed Steak & Ale Pie and pan roasted salmon.

• The Brompton Cross - Fish & Chips, Rarebit, and Padrons. All fine.

• Bag'O Nails - Duck Hash with egg, Mac & Cheese

• And Ye Olde Rose & Crown in Greenwich

As usual we ate at several Italian (pizza, pastas, risotto) restaurants. 

• Pasta Evangelist at Harrods in their version of a Food court. This and the adjacent Food Hall are the only reasons we would go back to Harrods.
• The Wine Place in Covent Garden Market where we enjoyed the Eggplant Parmigiana and Lasagna, along with the lively entertainment.

• Ask Italian -  a family of restaurants across the UK with quite acceptable food.
• Bella Italia
• Cento alla Torre
• Sebastion's Italian in Richmond - Gnocchi, Pasta and one of our favorite wines Negroamaro

• Eataly - Pan fried black cabbage, garlic, chilli flakes & salt, short pasta with pork cheek guanciale, eggs, black pepper & Pecorino Romano cheese sauce and Fresh filled pasta with truffle and ricotta served with Parmigiano Reggiano DOP sauce

• Sicily - Salsiccia È Friarielli Pizza Bianca with fior di latte mozzarella, wild broccoli, Sicilian pork & fennel sausage and a bottle of Valpolicella Ripasso

And of course we had some French food.

• La Garrick (visited twice) - Pat had cassoulet twice and Bill went from rabbit to duck and on one of the occasions, we shared sticky toffe pudding accompanied with Château du Breuil Calvados VSOP and a Réserve du Château Breuil 8 yr Calvados
  
• Boulevard - Pinot Noir with Escalope de Veau a la Normande from the menu (Veal escalope with calvados glazed apple, mushrooms and cream) followed by Tarte Normande (Apple and almond tarte with Calvados chantilly)

• Cote - this is another small chain, this one with quite fine french food. 

Also we enjoyed several other cuisines:

• Greek - The Real Greek (note the interesting delivery mechanism) and Nostimo.

• Turkish - Sofra (Turkish Kavaklidere wine humus with bread, lamb tagine with  basmati rice, broad beans and cheese pide, an oval, pizza alternative)

• Mid-Eastern - La Bab (tasty mezze and k-babs for lunch at Battersea)
• Mediterranean - Apero (Octopus, Croquets, Salad)

• Georgian - Shoty (Kuchmachi - Chicken livers with Georgian spices and walnut, steamed vegetables, and bread with Georgian wine)

We lunched with Mark and Rosemary (friends met when Mark & Pat were attending Stanford Business School) at Lasdum in the National Theater before going to see Coriolanus.

At Kew Gardens the Botanical Brasserie offered seafood and risotto to accompany our Cremant.

London Skyline 

Traditional architecture including a shot of an escalator on the tube system extending multiple stories underground. Alright, that escalator is not the skyline as it extends in the opposite direction. That said, it reflects a comparable architectural effort.

Modern architecture including the redeveloped Battersea Power Station.

London and Greenwich Mean Time

Most of us likely only think of Greenwich as the location from which the time everywhere else is measured. So a visit to the Royal Observatory is essential. But there are a few other interesting reasons for visiting, making it a good trek for a lovely day. And surprisingly enough, we got a gorgeous day.

To get there we took the underground to catch an Uber boat to Greenwich. Upon arrival the most obvious feature is the Cutty Sark.

Cutty Sark Clipper Ship

Its sails measure 32,000 square feet in total. There are 11 miles of rigging altogether. The main mast is 153 feet high. The hull was sheathed in a copper and zinc alloy. This was to prevent things like barnacles and mollusks from burrowing into the ship.

Cutty Sark was built exclusively for the China tea trade. Tea had been enjoyed in Asia for centuries, but it did not reach Britain until the 1650s. It was also huge business, with over 30 ton imported in 1869 alone.

The drive to be the first to have the new tea fostered intense competition, hence the Cutty Sark was designed to be fast. But the opening of the Suez Canal meant that steamships could dominate the tea trade, which was previously handled by clippers. The Cutty Sark found greater success in the 1880s as a wool runner. In 1895, the Cutty Sark was sold to a Portuguese company and renamed the Ferreira. In 1954, the Cutty Sark was towed to Greenwich and restored, opening to the public in June 1957. 

Across the Thames is "The O2" Arena, aka "The O2". It is a multi-purpose arena (events, shopping and dining). The arena was built under the Millennium Dome that was constructed originally to house an exhibition celebrating the turn of the third millennium. 

Old Royal Navel Academy

Founded as the Royal Hospital for Royal Navy Pensioners (1604-1869...) it provided luxurious accommodations "to reflect the wealth and power of Britain". Formerly the site of a royal palace, the facility was designed by Christopher Wren. Noted for it architectural beauty and for it's spectacular Painted Hall. The stunning ceiling and wall decorations of the Painted Hall were conceived and executed by British artist Sir James Thornhill. The epic painting scheme, known as ‘Britain’s Sistine Chapel’ took nineteen years to its completion in 1726.The Hall was originally intended as a dining room for the Naval Pensioners but, due to its beauty, it soon transitioned to a ceremonial hall.

The last Greenwich Pensioners left the site in 1869 when it became home to the Royal Naval College, an officers’ training academy. From 1937 to 1997 the Painted Hall functioned as a dining space for trainee officers of the Royal Navy. The full complex is now home to the main campus of the University of Greenwich.

We stopped at Ye Olde Rose & Crown pub for a quick bite before touring the Observatory.

Royal Observatory, 

Since the late 19th century, the Royal Observatory is the historic source of the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude 0° 0' 0''. It marks the divide between the eastern and western hemispheres.

The Harrison clocks

The Harrison clocks were designed to keep accurate time relative to the prime meridian (longitude 0° 0' 0''), thus keeping track of longitude while at sea.

John Harrison designed 4 clocks, each being more accurate than the previous ones. The clocks compensate for changes in temperature and, thanks to extensive anti-friction devices, run without any lubrication. He unveiled H-1 in 1735. In 1761 he developed the H-4, a much smaller portable round "watch" with a diameter of only 13 cm. Below areeamples of H-1, H-2, and H-3.

Prime Meridian 

The Prime Meridian is key but there are other Meridians in Greenwich. All of which are close to one another. 

• The Prime Meridian is the standard for longitude. 
• The UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) meridian, agreed upon in 1960, is based on the Airy meridian established in 1884. It is the standard for time. From what I can tell, the acronym UTC was chosen before the name Coordinated Universal Time was agreed on.
• The Bradley Meridian established in 1750 is still the reference point for Ordnance Survey maps today.

We homed in on the Prime Meridian for our photos, standing with one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere. Pat also noticed a cool 24 hour clock and Bill caught her taking its photo.

And finally you might think your phone is inaccurate in it's longitude measurement. Instead of longitude 0° 0' 0'' it will show you being at longitude 0° 0' 05".  This results from the coordinate system used for satellite navigation in phones and other devices taking into account later data on the Earth's slightly irregular shape. 

Royal London

You are in London, the home of the Royals. So of course you will check out the life of the Royals. At least we did. 

St James Park

We started by walking through St James Park, the oldest royal park in London. We were on our way to somewhere and it seemed like a promising route. It was quiet with the usual birds and flowers, as well as some nice views, To the east there appeared to be a castle which turned out to just be an area of government offices. To the south we could see "The Eye", 

In 1532, King Henry VIII added St. James's to his royal collection of deer parks, fenced it off to the general public and built the hunting lodge that would become the Palace of St James's. The park was a Tudor playground for jousting, fetes and festivals. Today St. James’s Park is the home of ceremonial events. Seeing a pelican was unexpected but  pelicans have been kept at the park since 1664, when a Russian ambassador presented them to King Charles II

Buckingham Palace

We signed up for a tour of Buckingham Palace. At least it seemed like it would be a tour. In reality is was a combo of paid admission and guidance to get us fast track access to the Palace. No photos were allowed inside so all we have are our memories. And basically my memories of most ceremonial palaces are that they sure look uncomfortable. Clearly they are only ceremonial. No one would want to live there. We did get to pose with the King and Queen (sort off) after the tour. 

Royal Mews 

The Royal Mews is home to the horses, carriages and grandiose Rolls Royce (and likely other cars that weren't on exhibit. The highlight of the visit is the carriage collection. Only a few horses are housed here regularly but usually a couple for exhibition purposes. Unfortunately the stalls are so high you can't really see the horses. Consequently we focused on the impressive carriages.

 

- clockwise from top left 

• The Gold State Coach, "one of the most magnificent royal coaches in the world, was commissioned by George Ill in 1760. It was delivered to the Royal Mews and trialled on 24 November 1762. The next day, huge crowds turned out to see the king use it for the first time as he travelled to the State Opening of Parliament. It worked well, although a pane of glass cracked and one of the door handles broke.
• The Diamond Jubilee State Coach "is the newest coach in the Royal Mews. It was created for Queen Elizabeth lI to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee ... The coach is postilion-driven by a groom on each pair of horses, and is almost five-and-a-half meters long, over three metres high and weighs over three tonnes. The body is aluminium which gives it strength and stability."
• The original Irish State Coach "was built as a speculative venture in 1851 by John Hutton & Sons of Dublin, who held a Royal Warrant as coachbuilders to Queen Victoria. Exhibited at the 1853 Great Industrial Exhibition, it was admired by the Queen, purchased and delivered to the Royal Mews. It was damaged by fire in 1911. It was restored in 1989 by the Royal Mews carriage restorers."
• The Glass Coach "was originally acquired for the 1911 coronation of King George V. Its name comes from the use of glass in all the top panels except for the back. The coach has been used for several royal weddings, usually to convey the bride to the ceremony.The interior is lined with blue satin and the exterior panels are painted with the royal arms in the centre, flanked by the heraldry of the Order of the Garter.

Changing of the Guard 

We were positioned to catch the replacement guards as they were leaving the barracks. Then we went through Green Park to catch the off-duty guards as they returned to the barracks via The Mall (along the north of Green Park).

Westminster Abbey

Benedictine monks founded Westminster Abbey in 960AD. Formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, it has been the setting for every Coronation since 1066 and for numerous other royal occasions, including sixteen royal weddings. It is the burial site for 18 English, Scottish, and British monarchs (and some of the most significant people in Britain's history including Lewis Carrol, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking). The interior is truly lovely and well loved. There was a large crowd but it was well managed. 

The Tower of London

In 1070 William the Conqueror built a stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. The Tower served as a "surprisingly luxurious palace" for 500 years. Over the centuries it has proven to be safe place to keep precious jewelry and worrisome enemies. It also housed the Royal Mint, the Royal Armories and even a zoo. Today, as home to the Crown Jewels, the Yeomen Warders and its legendary guardians, the pampered ravens, the Tower now attracts over three million visitors a year.

We arrived early and headed straight to the Crown Jewels. When we arrived we there were a few others around but we were able to make two full passes around them without waiting, Pat needed a third pass. By then the crowd had picked-up and we had to patiently wait our turn. Aside from the 3rd pass at the jewels, our tour of the walls and the exhibits on the history of the tower was pretty sane and enjoyable. 

When we noticed the Ravens, we were reminded of the legend that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, the kingdom and the Tower will fall. (Note: Less romantic but practical - The ravens are also scavengers and help clean the grounds.) 

We were charmed by troupe of monkeys made of thick wires. And later a huge bear also made of wires. These appear to represent when the tower served as a zoo. The monkeys made us think of the live moneys we would have seen if this were in India.

We had intended to take a Beefeater Tour and made it through several stops on the tour, along with our fellow audience of at least 100. It wasn't as bad as I would have expected but it became too much for us and we escaped to wander on our own.

The Mystery of the Throne in the Throne Room -- It's a lovely throne and looks to be a replica of the Coronation Chair which dates back to 1296 when King Edward I seized the Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation seat of the Scottish kings. The Coronation Chair, a Gothic-style high-backed armchair was made by order of King Edward I to enclose the Stone of Scone in about 1300. It has been at the centre of English coronations ever since. The lovely throne we saw here is not that. We saw that in Westminster Abbey. So what is this?  A replica in style but unlike the original wooden throne it is decorated in lovely gold or bronze. Or maybe it has more of a story. We don't know.

St Paul's Cathedral 

A Roman temple to Diana may once have stood on the site, but the first Christian cathedral there was dedicated to St. Paul in 604AD. That cathedral burned, and its replacement (built 675–685) was destroyed by Viking raiders. 

The present structure, which was completed in 1710 was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The cathedral's reconstruction was part of a major rebuilding program initiated in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London.

St. Paul's Cathedral serves as the Anglican Episcopal see in London and thus has figured prominently in many major cultural and religious events, from the funerals of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill to the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.

Royal Albert Hall 

An impressive space for all kinds of events with special rooms for the Royalty to entertain before or after. performances. The Royal Albert Hall was built by Queen Victoria to fulfill the dream of her husband Prince Albert of promoting understanding and appreciation of the Arts and Sciences in the heart of South Kensington. Everyone who is anyone has performed and /or spoken here. There is a great tryptic mural with 400 of them included, along with Albert the cat honored for keeping the organ safe from rodents. 

Here's a enlarged view of the center of the tryptic with Bill Clinton and cute little black and white Albert the cat behind Bill's left shoulder.

Kew Gardens / Royal Botanic Gardens

It's a direct underground ride from Sloan Square to Kew Gardens. Easy peasy. 

We visited Kew Gardens in1986. We had no maps or books, just personal recommendations to go there. A lot of time has passed, and while we remember that garden as being impressive and having an amazing glass house, neither of us remember there being 3 amazing glass houses or the garden being as massive as it is with 330 aces. 

The Palm House has an indoor rainforest with tropical plants from some of the most threatened environments in the world.

The Hive is a striking art installation that recreates life inside a beehive.

It is 56 feet high with 1000 LED lights that glow according to the vibrations of bees that live in the Gardens. 

The Botanical Brasserie is a fine restaurant with a view of the Palm House.

On the grounds are several stainless steel artworks by Marc Quinn, who, after touring Kew's Palm House, was inspired to create three monumental artworks that "celebrate the palm tree's spectacular sculptural form and striking silhouette."

The Princess of Wales Conservatory (10 controlled climate zones, desert to the tropics), the celebrated giant waterlily Victoria Boliviana floats in the wet tropical zone. Its spectacular flowers open at sunset, close in the morning, closing in whatever insects are on them. But they are not carnivorous because when the flower open again at night the insects are free to continue their pollination efforts. Nearby is, however, a great display of carnivorous plants.

The nondescript brick Kew Palace, was home to George III and Queen Charlotte. Grandmother of Queen Victoria and great-great-great-great grandmother of Elizabeth II, is the oldest structure on the property. Later the house became a refuge for George III, when he fell ill and was thought to have become mad. The gardens were cultivated as an idyllic pleasure ground for the royals. 

The Tree Top Walkway, nearly 60 feet high walk passes through the canopy with views of the treetops and of the Temperate House, home to 1,200 species from Asia, Australasia, the Americas, and Africa. Most of the species grown in the Temperate House are unable to tolerate temperatures below freezing with a preferred minimum temperature kept at around 10F.

Nearby is the Giant Pagoda with 80 dragons; a Chinese building built in 1762

and restored in 2018. Inside is an exhibit of its history.