Visitors

Monday, July 9, 2007

Southwark and city photo tour



We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel: tea, croissant, and eggs benedict. Our first stop on the streets of London was to purchase some tops for me at a huge athletic shop called Lillywhites in Piccadilly Square. We went first to the 3rd floor, which is three flights of stairs. Nothing that worked, so we went back to the ground floor to look around. I was able to purchase three shirts for £3.00 each. I also bought a few pairs of socks so that I could wash and change the one pair that I have. We took a few photos in the area and decided to take the Underground to London Bridge Station and go to Southwark to look around and have lunch. This is an old area of London along the river where my favorite market (Borough Traders) and the Shakespeare Theater, The Globe are located. The market was closed today. Nando’s was our target restaurant. It is built under a bridge using the arched construction of the bridge as the ceiling. The food was worth the walk.

We walked along the river past the Globe. The tide was very low and Kalen said that the Thames is one of the few rivers affected by the tides. We walked down to the Tate Modern and then across the Millennium Bridge, up to St. Paul’s Cathedral and through the narrow and winding streets. I found a few more of my favorite corner pubs that I hadn’t yet photographed and added them to my collection: The Cockpit and The Black Friar. Kalen said that the Black Friar was on his Circle Line pub crawl, so if you are interested see his London Blog.

It was a nice sunny day, so we decided to go to the Westminster area to get some photos of Big Ben. The crowds were very heavy but we were able to get some Big Ben shots and some of Westminster Abbey. We stopped in the Park and relaxed for a while, chatting and solving the problems of the world, and our own.

We returned to Victoria Station and walked through our “old Belgravia neighborhood”. We walked past our other London Home, The Lime Tree. It looked beautiful with all of the flowers and greenery. I was a little saddened to see that the little grocery store across the street had closed. We continued on to see if our Italian restaurant was open, but it was not. We asked some locals about another recommendation for dinner and they recommended La Poule au Pot, further down the street on Ebury. We went to check it out, and were surprised when we walked past a home with a marker which said “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his first symphony here in 1764. Wow! We found the restaurant and decided to return tonight.

Hello to the friends at La Grande Orange. I thought about you today when I saw this little corner spot: The Orange Brewery.




2 comments:

B Eichberger said...

Oh how I miss London. You are conjuring up memories of such wonderful times had there. Ride the London Eye? Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy!

Ladee said...

We were in London for two days, and did a photo tour. We had been on the London Eye in 2006 so we opted to see some other sites. We'll have to compare London notes.