Josh, Evan and I had a great time visiting my old San Francisco roomie, Liz, in London for the weekend. Liz moved there for an adventure as she always wanted to live in Europe, and well, we decided to experience the adventure with her for a weekend in her new city.
London is fabulous, and her neighborhood, West Hempstead, was a great place to call 'home' for the weekend.
A snapshot of our itinerary:
-Arrived Friday afternoon and experienced the 'fast train' from Stanstead airport to Liverpool Station, and then had our first "Tube" ride to Liz's neighborhood. We got settled into Liz's apartment--a great, garden apartment with lots of space inside, and outside--she has a patio area/garden and access to a huge open meadow out back--unusual for London living. After getting settled, we headed to Covent Garden, the core of the "West End", watched some street performers, browsed the market stalls with vendors selling all sorts of items from foods to crafts, and then dined on some fish & chips and English Ale at a typical British Pub. The food was good..even the 'mushy peas' that when we looked at them, thought that our fish was accompanied by guacamole, but they were in fact the English veggie staple of mushy peas which were quite delicious. Following dinner we walked to Piccadily Circus--a super crowded area..especially on a Friday night, lined w/ theatres, crowded with theatre go-ers, tourists and 20-30 somethings, and some swank restaurants. We sat outside at an Argentinian steak house for dirty martinis, and then we called it a night.
-Day 2 in London started w/ a great walk to the Primrose Hill area for breakfast of pastries in the park, stroll through the neighborhoods, gorgeous walk along one of teh canals that they refer to as 'little Venice', and then headed to The Thames for a lunch-time picnic in the park..right in the shadow of The London Eye. We bought all the fixings for a perfect picnic--cheeses, olives, breads, hummus, wine, salami etc, and truly loved the people watching and the view of The Eye, Parliament, Big Ben and The Thames. After lunch, we walked across the river to Westminster Chapel which was very impressive from the outside, and probably more-so from the inside, however, we couldn't go in. That night Josh was dying for some Indian food--diverse restaurants extremely hard to find in Naples, so we finished our Day 2 adventure with some curries, tikka masalas and nann bread before heading back to Liz's cozy apartment, just a short walk from the restaurant--and lots of other shops, cafes etc.
-Day 3 Josh and I got up early...well, Evan got up early, so we decided to as well, and we headed out for a morning stroll to Starbucks..another U.S comfort that we sometimes miss in Naples. We enjoyed the walk through Liz's neighborhood, had coffee and some amazing scones, then went back to Liz's so that we could all head out for a longer walk, exploring another neighborhood close to hers. After a great walk, we headed via taxi...the taxis that you can fit the entire stroller in w/o having to collapse it--very convenient-- and headed to Notting Hill's Portobello Market for some people watching and shopping. Both sides of Portobello St are lined with antique shops, some souvenir shops, vintage clothing/jewelry stores etc. It reminded me a bit of Haight Ashbury in San Francisco in a strange way. We explored some of the shops, and then settled into an English Pub for another round of Fish & Chips. It was a perfect afternoon, capped off by a fun BBQ at Liz's house later that evening..complete with Pimms..a popular British cocktail.
The weekend flew by and we vowed to definitely visit Liz again soon, since she's really only a short plane ride away.
Side note: The red phone booths and double decker busses are everywhere and really make you feel like you are in London:)
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