Day 2: London

I think my favorite part of London is the mix of old and new: the medieval castles and the high end shopping, the old pubs and the McDonalds, the beefeaters and the punk rockers. We saw a little bit of everything today, and somehow, despite all odds, it all really just works.

After sleeping off our jet lag comas, Carl "The Hero" Childs (his words, not mine) brought coffee with pouring cream. After just two days in London, we're starting to pick up on the small, but meaningful differences in speech and custom on this side of the pond. "Half and half" is simply not a thing. Coffee drinkers here use either skim, semi-skim, or pouring cream, which is (surprise!) straight cream. While not the healthiest of choices, it certainly makes for a good cup and is a more comfortable and delicious transition from half & half.

After coffee, we grabbed a quick breakfast/lunch/reallyitwaslunch/itwasbasicallynoon from the Café Deco, down the street from the hotel. Perusing the window of the shop, we chose from a selection of sandwiches of that oh-so-British blend of English and Indian: chicken tikka baguette next to chicken salad next to lamb samosa next to (seriously) an egg-and-mayonnaise sandwich. Another interesting tidbit about food shops here in London: there are separate prices for eat-in and carry-out, a good 50 p difference.

After picking up breakfast, we meandered down towards the underground station, eating our carry-out-priced sandwiches. I would also like to note that we have made progress on the understanding-the-public-transportation front; we have a vague sense of where we are and can sort of navigate the underground station without suffering or inflicting serious injury. Baby steps.
We decided to spend the early afternoon strolling through London's arcades, which I soon found out were not glorified pinballing establishments, but rather shopping arcades. We got to walk through what are essentially covered alleyways with dozens of shop windows full of all sorts of beautiful things. We saw some vintage Rolexes, some choice pajamas, and a shop selling macaroons. We saw the 2 major arcades in London, the Piccadilly Arcade and the Burlington Arcade, both of which were well worth seeing.

 

We hopped on the metro to the Tower of London and took an hour-and-a-half tour of the fortress. To be completely honest, I wasn't thrilled about spending another day listening to tour guides, given the on-a-tour-bus to not-on-a-tour-bus ratio of yesterday, but it was actually so, so interesting. We learned all about the grisly history of the Tower (plenty of prisoners, torture, and beheadings) and even heard the Tower's most famous (and perhaps only) love story. We wandered the White Tower, chatted with the beefeaters, (official title: The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary) and stood over the flagstone of Anne Boleyn and the bodies of 1,500 other unknown traitors who were buried at The Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. The sheer amount of history within those fortress walls was truly impressive.

After we finished up at the Tower, we lost our way into what appeared to be the financial district, found a slightly more authentic pub than yesterday's, and drank among the locals. The pub, called "Hung, Drawn, and Quartered," was serving another English classic: pies. We shared the chicken and the lamb pies, both of which were quite good, and ordered a couple of rounds of drinks.

Feeling as though we'd had enough hanging, beheading, and other execution-related festivities, we moseyed on down to Harrod's, a city block-sized, 7-story store filled with all of the high end shopping  you could ever, ever want. It was like a labyrinth of expensive purses, cigars, jewelry, wine, food, and cosmetics, and keep in mind, we only made it to the first two floors. Also, I got lost about 6 times and actually had to ask directions. I literally asked directions in a store, to another part of the same store. It was the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. Aside from my directional mishap, Harrod's was awesome. Highly recommended if you want to spend a whole lot of money in a very small geographic space.

After Harrod's, we headed back to Gloucester, where  we're staying, and got some food at an Italian restaurant on our street. (I know I've mentioned 3 placed on our street where we've gotten food. There are still two Indian restaurants, one Thai place, a French place, a Georgian place, and another Italian place that have gone unsampled, as of right now.) We ordered a nice sauvignon blanc and had some genuinely tasty pasta. The highlight of my evening, however, came after the meal.

Now, you have to understand that throughout the entirety of this trip, my family has been joking about a Pimm's cup. I think the fascination with the drink came from the movie "Ghost Town," in which one of the main characters orders (I think a couple of times) a Pimm's cup. The drink itself isn't super integral to the plot, but it's mentioned a few times and for some reason, it stuck with us. Upon our arrival to London, we saw a sign somewhere advertising a Pimm's cup, and thus the obsession was rekindled.

After dinner, we decided to grab a drink at the pub and not wanting to get a full pint, I saw that the special was a Pimm's cup. After all this talk about it, I couldn't not try it, right? I liked it well enough; it mostly tasted like lemonade. Mom, however, was really excited about it, so she proceeded to drink about four-fifths of it. It was a beautiful moment in time.

That pretty much covers today, I think, and it's pretty late (about 12:20) so I'd better get some rest. Big day tomorrow!!!

Also, because this lion statue we saw at the Tower was so ugly: