I hate to brag, but once again, I'm ahead of the dessert curve. In London, I fell in love with French macarons (pictured here is the pistachio). I thought about blogging about them, but decided against it. But Heidi did. The only time I'd ever seen them prior to my London trip was when I was visiting Jason in Montreal, although I didn't try them then. In the few short months since that London trip, macarons are everywhere . I have seen them in the bakery across the street from my office, in a bakery up the street from my hair person, and in the Time Warner Center. According to this article, not everyone is happy about it. And from the few macarons I've had here, I'm with them.
Yes, the cupcake craze has made it across the pond. I did my usual online search for cupcakes and found three places, and one bakery was even featured in our guide book. However, we stumbled across Ella's bakehouse while shopping in Covent Garden and decided to go ahead in. We got this specialty cupcake which was called "Maltese" or something like that because it was malted flavor.
The verdict: No good.
It pretty much exemplifies why the cupcake craze has gone so wrong. They had a fantastic location. The cupcakes look good (they even have some kind of glitter that you can't see in this photo), but don't taste good. The cake was dry and tasteless and the frosting was not any better.
Next, we tried the cupcakes at Harrod's. Betcha didn't know they had them at Harrod's! I certainly didn't. We visited this most famous of department stores and literally never left the food court. Of course, this was Heidi's decision to go to this place in the first place and she was in heaven! I finally just gave her my camera because I didn't want to take picture of vegetables.
Each room has a theme (meat, vegetables, what have you), but I was not interested... until we found the chocolate room and then the baked goods room.
Here is their display of mini-cupcakes (the top photo is of the regular sized cupcakes). We asked for a vanilla/chocolate and a coconut cupcake. We received a chocolate/vanilla and vanilla/vanilla. Many people that work there are from elsewhere, but the woman that waited on us was the only one that appeared to actually speak English as a first language, so I don't know what the problem was.
The verdict: Okay.
Despite not getting what we asked for these cupcakes were a step above the last.
Last up was Hummingbird bakery. This is the only place that we actually sought out (featured both on the cupcake blog and in our book) and they were worth it! Heidi thought these were some of the best she'd ever had, although I don't think I'd go so far. Still, good taste, texture and moistness.
She got red velvet (left) and I got vanilla/vanilla. And then I said, "No more cupcakes!" ... For now, anyway...
In 1998, Esther and I did a British Isles survey, visiting London, Wales, Dublin, Edinburgh and Sterling, all in about a week. I left that trip feeling a little underwhelmed by London because it didn't seem all that great in comparison to the other places we visited. At the same time I was overwhelmed because it is so big and we barely scratched the surface, so I felt like I didn't really get a sense of the place.
This time, I felt totally different. It is a very fun and exciting city, with lots to do. I kept finding myself saying, "Well, we don't have time for that this time, we'll have to do it next time," whereas last time, I never even thought there would be a next time. In fact, that first visit, I may have even spit on the ground, as the people of Scotland did, whenever we mentioned London. We had (mostly) great weather. And it's the first time that I came back from a vacation and didn't think, "How do I live in this crazy city?" because London is kind of like this crazy city in a lot of ways.
My top three things:
1. Does it sound lame to say that my #1 is their subway system, the tube? It is so easy, fast, clean and comfortable. With the unlimited fare cards, it could not be better getting around. Anytime we arrived just as a train was pulling away, there was another one 1 minute away and a third train 3 minutes away (I know because there is a sign that says when the next train is due to arrive. although this was nice, I still think it's a little bit pointless and I don't think we need them here in NYC, which has been discussed. but that's another story.) The only negative thing I could say is that we almost never got a seat. But that wasn't too bad because we usually were only on for a couple of stops.
This is a picture of me at the Waterloo station (obviously), where I went to see the play Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic Theater, which was great.
2. The National Gallery. This is one of the most interesting and best-laid out museums I have been to. Here I am in front of it. I also enjoyed the Portrait Gallery next door, with an awesome museum shop.
And here is Trafalgar Square, which faces the museum
3. Shopping. Everyone knows that I'm a sucker for an outdoor market and/or street fair and we went to two in one day. When we arrived, Heidi and I had some slight disagreements about what we should do. She said we had to go to Borough Market and I said we had to go to Portobello Market, and neither of us had heard of the other's market. The conversation went a little something like this:
Me: "The Rough Guide said that Portobello was their #1 pick. We have to go."
Heidi: "My Time Out says that Borough is a foodie paradise. We have to go."
So, we did both.
Here is Borough Market from above. Although this is a "foodie paradise" we ate at a regular restaurant first, so this is a picture from their window. Then we got a piece of cake from the market afterwards, but there was a little bit of everything there.
You can get a sense of the market, divided up into stalls, here:
Behind the market you can see a pub, which will be revisited later in this post.
This is Portobello Market. The stores along this road are open all week, but on Saturday and Sunday, they put some of their wares outside on tables, and more vendors fill in the gaps. I bought some china at the market, and Heidi bought a Shetland wool scarf.
The advantage of going to this market is that we got to see the area of Notting Hill, which turned out to be my favorite neighborhood. So cute! No wonder they made it the background of the silly and annoying, and yet watchable, movie starring Hugh Grant & Julia Roberts.
Heidi's faves:
1. The Tube (seriously, it's awesome). Also note on this sign: public bathrooms all over the city. Which is something that I really appreciate in a city. They are clean, had soap and TP and were almost always empty (which would not be the case here, I'm sure).
2. The Thames Pub walking tour. My friend, Trevor, who visits London often, recommended taking a guided walking tour. Our first night we decided to do this one. It appealed to me because the views along the Thames were supposed to be great (and they were). It appealed to Heidi because she was interested in the pub culture, which is huge. Here is Heidi in front of pub #2, with a local beer. This is also the pub that was pictured behind the Borough Market above. Isn't it quaint looking? I didn't try the beer, but did use the bathroom.
Along the tour, the guide pointed out some of the sights, including this one. This was Bridget Jones' apartment in the movie, which is a much better movie starring Hugh Grant.
The last pub that we visited had also been featured in some movies, including some Jane Austen movies (my favorite!) and maybe the books, too, but I didn't get a picture of that.
3. Regents Park. It is a lovely park, that was only about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying. Despite all the walking we did, we decided to go there a couple of times to run the track around the perimeter (believe it!!). The reason being that we did a lot of eating. A lot. Which is what I thought would be in Heidi's top three, since she's a foodie and all, but it wasn't. (more on the food, including cupcakes, to come.)
So, since the visit was technically supposed to be about exercising, I didn't take pictures, but there are plenty online, and here are some of them:
Here are some examples of conversations I have had with Heidi (who is traveling abroad for the first time) leading up to our trip:
Heidi: "my friend Susan told me that I should call my bank and credit card company and tell them that I will be out of the country so that they will know that my cards are not stolen when they see activity coming from London." Me: "Yeah, I've heard that, but I've never had any trouble before."
Heidi: "I am going call my bank today." Me: "okay. I'm not going to do that, though." Heidi: "Really? I read that we should." Me: "I'm not worried. But you can."
(At the airport in New York.) Heidi: "Oh, there is an exchange place. Should we exchange some money now?" Me: "You can if you want, but I'm just going to get money from the ATM at the airport."
Heidi: "I called my bank and credit card company, so I'm all set for the trip!" Me: (thinking 'Good for you!')
We get off the plane in Heathrow. I head straight to the ATM to take out some money. My card is denied. I figure they are just out of cash. I go to a different ATM, where my card is denied again. I go to a third ATM, and my card is denied for a third time. Heidi has to pay for our cab. Once in the city, I try the ATM of a bank that is partnerned with mine in The States, figuring that the problem must be that my bank card is not recognized by their ATMs. Again, denied.
I call my bank, on the verge of swearing up a storm, and am told that they saw some suspicious activity on my card and put a hold on it.
Me: "WHAT??" Heidi: "Told you so."
(Can I just add that in 2009 alone, I have been to Rome and Montreal twice and have not had a problem?? Grrrrrrr......)
Guess which one of us is Joey (super excited) and which one of us is Chandler (Westminster crabby) in this scenario.
So, tonight I leave for London, and it got me thinking about the other times I have been there. The first time was many years ago and it was the first of several fun trips that Esther and I took together. She was planning to go to visit her friend, who was doing a study abroad program there, and invited me. She was traveling from Washington DC and I was traveling from New York, so we had to meet up there, obviously, where we would stay two nights at her friend's place. When I got off the plane and went through customs, the guy looked at my passport and found that I had a visa from the time that I lived in Norway. He asked if I planned to stay in England for a while, as I had in Norway. I said no. He asked where I was staying. It wasn't until this point that I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was staying. I was being picked up at the airport by Esther and her friend. I started to wonder what would happen if, somehow, we did not find each other. I didn't have an address, a phone number, didn't know which school she was at and didn't even know her last name! All I knew was that her name was Becky, which may or may not be short for Rebecca. This was not very smart of me, and yet pretty typical. Fortunately, they were at the airport waiting for me as soon as I got out of customs, and it was the beginning of a super fun week touring the UK.
The next time I was in London was just a stopover on my way to Ireland. My former roommate, Julia, had been in Ireland all summer, once again for a study abroad program, and I came over at the end of her program to tour the countryside with her. My plan was to meet her at the dorms where she was staying in Cork, and this time I had all the information -- address and phone number. But somehow, I left all the information safely posted on my refrigerator at home. The bigger issue is that I missed my connection from Heathrow to Dublin and had to call her to let her know that I was not going to be there until the following day. As luck would have it, at that time, Julia and I had a subletter, who happened to be Jason, recently of my Montreal postings' fame. I called him from a pay phone to get Julia's phone number. Since I did not even have a pen on me, I had to use my eyeliner to write the number down. Talk about being prepared! It all worked out, though, and again, we had a fabulous time.
Trip number three begins tonight. I am traveling with Heidi, who befriended some Londoners who were in NYC for work some months back. They decided to do an apartment swap. So, once again, I'm traveling to London with no idea where I'm going or where I'm staying. I just hope she remembers to bring the information with her!
