We are really getting too far behind on blogging these days, so we are switching to a more summary format. Apologies to all our fans that have loved our cutting humor and powerful insights, but we want to make sure we keep some memories without wearing ourselves out typing.
- As our first holiday outside of Belgium this year, we took a half day and went to London for the weekend.
- We stayed in the East End for a chance to experience a part of the town we hadn't seen before. Qbic hotel: funky themed "green" hotel with modular "cube" bed and bath
- Friday night dinner: Meat Mission. Greasy and spicy burgers and hotdogs. A little taste of home aka gut bomb
- First East End observations: We weren't hip enough to be there and wow, hipsters like to get their hair cut (almost as many barber shops as pubs)
- Saturday was supposed to start with a food tour, but our guide called off sick and we got bumped to the lunchtime tour so we took a walk to see the Borough market and Shakespeare's Globe.
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| Borough Market |
- Borough market: Neat street market nestled under a mass of overpasses. Great street food and treats.
- Shakespeare's Globe: we saw it from the outside...not much more we can say than that.
- We took a nice walk back to the hotel across the Millennium bridge and past St. Paul's Cathedral.
- Up next was the beginning of our food tour! We started at Spitalfields market and toured the gastronomical offerings of the East End.
- St. John's for a bacon sandwich (great bread and homemade "ketchup" - more like apple butter), The English Restaurant for bread and butter pudding (Tyler's favorite stop), then a French cheese place, then Poppies for traditional fish and chips (fried perfection), Pride of East End pub for ale and cider, Aladdin for three curries on the famous Brick Lane curry capital, Bagel Bake for the classic salted beef bagel and mustard (perfect mix of flavors - The winner for Molly), last stop: Pizza East for salted Carmel tart
- Hung around a few hip pubs for the rest of the afternoon
- Saturday evening: Book of Mormon at Prince of Whales Theater (great production and lots of laughs)
- Finished the evening with (you guessed it) a late night snack at Wahaca, a local Latin cuisine chain (nailed the Guac and tacos)
- Sunday morning: the line around the block prevented us from eating at The Breakfast Club, but St. John's turned out to be a great plan b
- Olympic Park was the rest of our day (with a pit stop for Shake Shack milkshakes). We rented city bikes and toured the park grounds. The velodrome was especially fun to see.
- Biked back across town on the CS2 (the "cycle super highway") to pick up our bags at the hotel and catch the train.
- Engineering works gave us some heartburn, but we made out train just in time
- Summary: Amazing second time experience in London. We really enjoyed staying outside the touristic centre and getting to eat and drink like a local. Also, the theatre experience did not disappoint. As per usual, we were left wishing we had another day to enjoy this great city.
