London
London is a city I still love. There is so much going on and to see and wonderful food a plenty. This strip was my fourth visit to London and each time I have seen different parts of the city. I did arrive this time with the UK – particularly England – in a state of great flux and conflict due to Brexit. On our short visit to London we would here the polar opposite views of Londoners on the topic and see the Parliament in a constant state of debate.
We arrived in London on a beautiful, sunny first day of Autumn. Catching a taxi to drive through the streets of London past palaces, historic buildings and famous districts is a highlight. We stayed at a fabulous little hotel The Zetter in Clerkenwell which was a fabulous area to stay. A bit away from the tourist center of London so quite a bit quieter and a bit more of a ‘local’ feel, but easy enough to catch a Tube ride to anywhere. The area also has fantastic eating options.
I’d highly recommend The Zetter. Lovely comfortable rooms – we went for one of the rooms with a balcony which gave us fabulous views of the city – friendly and helpful staff, great information on where to go, what to see and where to eat, and very nice breakfast. Thanks again to Mr and Mrs Smith for this one!
The Zetter is an easy walking distance to Exmouth Markets which has fantastic cafes, restaurants, bakeries and bars. We went with Macellaio where the menu focuses on read meat and read tuna with lovely salad and potato sides – plus others – and a lovely wine list. It was a great location and meal for the first night in London.
On our first full day in London, we decided to walk rather than Tube down to the Thames to go to the Tate Modern and the area around there. It was actually quite an easy walk as you literally get to Farringdon Road and just head straight down until you hit the river. One thing very noticeable about London this time around as the amount of construction work happening and the city skyline looking like a sea of cranes. The city did have a different ‘feel’ to it that the other times I had visited. It sounds strange but we did think Brexit was obviously having an impact and creating a very much divided city and country, which you wonder if it can bridge.
We got to the Tate Modern just before opening so sat outside and again enjoyed another beautiful Autumn London day. I had been to the Tate Modern before. It is one of my favourite museums anywhere in the world – the building is just magnificent. It’s somewhere I always urge people visiting London to see as not only is the museum wonderful, but it’s located in an area with many other sites right near or a short walking distance away.
Just a short walk from the Tate Modern is Shakespear’s Globe – also know as the Globe Theatre – somewhere I hadn’t been before. While the theatre is a recreation, it is a fantastic one and was a site I really enjoyed seeing. We had an excellent guide and you get a good mixture of information about the building itself and the history – including about Shakespeare (obviously), who and how people attended plays. We didn’t get to see a play – which I would have liked to have done – but seeing the theatre itself is well worth the visit.
After Shakespeare’s Globe we made our way to the Borough Market – which is any easy walking distance from the other two sites. Borough Market was also the site of a terror attack in 2017 when a van was driven across London Bridge into pedestrians and people were then attacked with knives in the Borough Market area. Clerkenwell – w= the area where we were staying – was not far from Finsbury Park Mosque also the site of a terror attack in 2017 where again a van was driven into people. A reminder that all people are impacted by terrorism.
Borough Market is the oldest food Market in London and in a location which meanders under bridges and along cobblestoned walkways. There are many great markets in London but if you’re in the area – and as there are so many sites not far – it’s absolutely worth a visit for lunch or to pick up some yummy things to eat.
We walked back again to our hotel in Clerkenwell past great sites such as St Paul’s Cathedral. Dinner was locally in Clerkenwell – there are so many great options in this area and it’s s a nice experience to go for a walk after dinner. We went to fabulous place called Polpo – which was recommended in the information from the Zetter. Polpo focused on Venetian small share plates.
On our second full day we caught the Tube to Kensignton to visit the V&A Museum – surprisingly somewhere I had never been to on any of my trips to London, and it was top of my list on places to visit this time around. It was instantly one of my favourites – a gorgeous building externally and internally, with the gorgeous Rotunda Chandelier dominating the main entrance to the museum
The other fantastic collections which we saw included the Islamic and Japanese, jewellery and photographic. The beautiful internal courtyard – site of London’s oldest café – was a a very pleasant mid-morning stop.
The V&A was where we got our first taste of one side of the story of Brexit. A volunteer who we asked directions for and told us about an Islamic Art exhibition coming up – which we would miss – and made the comment ‘well if England is still here by then’ He wanted to have a chat and we love politics so were up for the discussion. He was anti-Brexit and was dismayed by the racism and division that he felt had driven the decision. We had been watching BBC each afternoon and evening totally enthralled by the Brexit debate and then proroguing (and then court challenge and recall!) of Parliament, particularly the Shakespearean figure of the them Speaker of the House of Commons John Berkow. We saw the protests outside of Parliament, but as per our mantra we kept away but watched it all happening at a distance on TV.
We then headed off in the Tube to Camden markets. I had been to the markets all those years again when I first visited London and it was a very different experience this time around. I have to say the area is now pretty seedy and the older market area was quite trashy. Again, any place you visit has something good about it, but I reckon there are much better markets in London that I would go to next time around. The better part of the markets are near Camden Lock where there were some great food trucks and vans with food from all over the world. This part also had some better quality markets and would be the place to head to if you did want to visit Camden markets.
Dinner was again locally in Ckerkenwell tonight– back up to Exmouth Market where we met an ex-work colleague of my husband’s for dinner. We went to a great gastro pub called Coin Laundry.
For our last day in London we headed off on the Tube to another part of London to see the Spitalfields Markets in the East End area. I had been here in 2008 when I came to London and thought they were just fantastic, particularly the colourful and lively food markets with people from all over the world. These markets had also changed a lot. They were a lot more high-end and had some quite expensive permanent shops around the outside of the main old market area and the food markets had been gentrified and ‘cleaned-up’ up which had lost the very lively atmosphere they had on my last visit. The food hall area still had excellent food – I had some delicious Sichuan noodles with dumplings – but the dressing-up had lost something. We had also got there a bit early so the market stalls were just starting to set-up.
We went for a walk around the area, walking along Brick Lane, and seeing some the fantastic graffiti art. We then caught the Tube to Piccadilly, mainly to go to some of the big bookstores around there. We also picked up some lovely little petit-fours for afternoon tea back at our hotel at Fortnum and Mason – first time I had been here too.
For dinner we came back to Piccadilly to have dinner at Nopi – one of the now many restaurants in London by Yotam Ottolenghi. I have been an Ottolengi fan for some time and booked Nopi months before we came to London. Eating at Ottolenghi’s restaurants was on my must do list. The décor was beautiful – mostly white, very classy – with a bar sitting area at the back, and downstairs an open kitchen with a big communal table. The food was delicious and service friendly and helpful.
The next day we left London and got the other side of Brexit on our taxi ride to Kings Cross station. This time the view as that Brexit would eb great for England – no mention of the UK – and that things had been good after the war. He also said there was one person who spoke sense about this all for England and that man was named Nigel Farage. There were many other comments – including about aspects of Australia which we politely and firmly refuted – needless to say the comments we were refuted were, well, racist. It was however an education in the divisions in this country and how this country was going to be brought back together.
As I said, I still love London and if I was travelling over to this side of the world would make a stopover here if it was on my travel route. It is a great city but it is one that has changed much over the years and where there is great division, but then that’s like many parts of the world now which we have to confront both as citizens and travellers.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities and Scotland is one of my favourite countries. I love the Scottish fierceness – it’s people and landscape – and a country that seems confident in who it is in all respects. Making our trip to London and Northern Europe I thought we should at least make a quick trip to Scotland as my husband had never been here. I know Edinburgh isn’t enough – I would have loved him to see the Highlands and Glasgow – but we had limited time and at least a few days here would give a taste. I had been many, MANY years ago on my first sole backpacking trip and had travelled to Edinburgh, Isle of Skye and Glasgow and had just loved it.
I love train travel as it’s a way to see the countryside of a place and even thought it might take longer than a plane flight, you actually get to see more of a country when you have limited time. We took the train from London to Edinburgh which was a wonderful trip. We saw some lovely parts of the English countryside including places like Newcastle, travelled along the rugged coastline and then of course got to see some of the Scottish countryside and see the rather spectacular entrance into Edinburgh by train.
So much of Edinburgh was familiar. It is such a beautiful city – the beautiful old Georgian buildings, the views from Calton Hill across the city and out to the ocean and of course the spectacular Edinburgh Castle looming over the city.
We stayed at a great small hotel called The Inn on the Mile which was above a bar/restaurant right in the middle of the Royal Mile. Now staying right, smack, bang in the middle of the Royal Mile comes with noise – which I knew would happen – but the benefit is being close to the train station – we could walk up to our hotel – and being walking distance to just about anywhere or at least the main city sites. It was a huge, spacious light filled room looking out over the Royal Mile. Lovely touches like tea and cake in you room, the staff were lovely and helpful and the breakfasts in the morning were great. Take some earplugs and you’ll be fine!
We arrived mid-afternoon so had some time to walk around the streets of the Old Town including Grassmarket, Flodden Wall and Greyfriar’s Kirkyard. Dinner that evening was at a place along the Royal Mile at Cannongate not far from our hotel, Whitehorse Oyster and Seafood Bar. I do my research before we travel – a I have said – and look to book at least one restaurant in a city. This place had been recommended in Lonely Planet and online. The meal was excellent – great service, nice ambience and superb food. The menu was built for sharing with small plates and sides and seafood platter for the brave. It was all good!
We only had two full days so made the most of our time and stuck to the central part of Edinburgh. In the morning we walked up to Edinburgh Castle and once inside, did one of the tours provided. We had also pre-booked entrance tickets with the view of saving time – many people seemed to have had the same idea. Edinburgh Castle is a spectacular site and with such a fascinating history, like much of Scotland. The views across the city are also fantastic. It was a coolish day in Edinburgh so up at the Castle was extra cool.
After the Castle we walked down to Real Mary King’s Close – which was recommended in Lonely Planet – and it was worth the visit. On my last visit to Edinburgh I had done a tour of the underground tunnels, which doubled as a ghost tour, and it had scared the shit out of me, so I wasn’t really up for this again and fortunately husband wasn’t either. Real Mary King’s Close is a very popular site as it’s an easier way to visit the underground, lower levels of the Old City whilst not being scared witless, and you can do it during the day in a reasonable tine. As it’s popular the tours do fill up. We hadn’t booked in advance -0 which at peak times would eb good to do – but we got a ticket for a later tour and sat in the quite nice coffee shop for snack while we waited. The commentary is a bit cheesy but it’s fun and gives you enough history to learn about life in the lower levels of Edinburgh.
That afternoon we were fortunate to a get a special private tour of the Edinburgh Parliament. Both husband and I are political nerds, and I have been a ‘follower’ and admirer of the Scottish Parliament which is one of the youngest and most innovative Parliament’s in the world. It’s innovative in the design of the Parliament itself – which is meant to bring the Parliament to the people and invite them to be a part of the decision- making, and in the joint party committees which make and implement legislation and policy.
The design internally evoked the land and coastline of Scotland. The offices of MPs also made them a part of the community with no big offices separated off from staff and people – the offices were small and a part of where staff sat. There had been a concession in meeting rooms where Minister’s met by putting frosting on the glass so that they could have more private meetings.
Dinner was at a popular ‘gastro’ pub and in a cobblestoned, steep laneway off the Royal Mile called Devil’s Advocate.
Day two was our last full day in Edinburgh. We spent the day walking down to New Town, walking to Charlotte Square and viewing the beautiful Georgian row houses, past the lovely (but private unfortunately) parks, and up to St Andrew Square passing the shopping streets of New Town. Lunch was at Dishoom not far off St Andrew Square – a fantastic Indian restaurant – this being their first off-shoot from England into Scotland – with the design based on the Irani cafes Mumbai. We had been to Leopold Cafe in Mumbai which was the site of shootings during the Mumbai terror attack. The guide book said it was always very busy, but fortunately we got there early and got a table straight away – when we left there was a queu out the door. The food was great and a excellent stop for lunch or dinner.
After a massive lunch, we needed to walk it off so walked our way back through New Town and up to Calton Hill. Along the way our progress was halted by a film shoot for a new Fast and Furious – can’t recall which number. We were able to quickly move through during a break in filming and made our way up the stair to Calton Hill. I hadn’t been up here last time and it had fantastic views of the city and King Arthur’s Seat. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon in Edinburgh. We decided for dinner we needed a real, cheap and cheerful pub meal so went to a pub not far from our hotel and have to say the food – as with most pubs in the UK – was very good.
The next day we left mid-morning to head off to the airport for our flight to Berlin. It was wonderful to come back again to Edinburgh. It is a place for me that will never lose it’s charm.
There was more to this trip – Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Singapore. Go to that blog for more!!
