London Day 3

So, to continue from where I left off, we woke up at that shabby apartment early the next morning and left to hunt for some local breakfast. I was curious as to what normal Londoners eat for breakfast...

As it turns out...
It's just white bread! Below shows the most luxurious breakfast set you can find in the local cafe. The bacon sandwich that I ordered was just white bread and bacon, full-stop.

On the bright side, they do serve a decent cup of coffee.

Move to our hotel: The Blandford Hotel. A modest, homely hotel which is just off Baker street station. Does Baker street ring a bell yet? It was the street where Sherlock Holmes used to live.

Well-fed and happy with warm bellies, we resumed our sight-seeing plans.

House of Parliament

Westminster Abbey
You can imagine how excited we were to view the inside of this historic church, more so given the recent, highly publicized marriage of Prince William and Kate. My maid, an avid British Royal Family fan, is forever telling me: "Girl girl, you must go take picture of the church okay!!" However, to our horror, the church was not open for viewing until much later, and there was a huge queue surrounding the circumference of the church already waiting. (not to mention the substantial entrance fee!) Therefore we had to satisfy with the smaller St. Margaret's Church just outside of Westminster Abbey.

Note to self: Do check in advance the opening hours of the church to avoid disappointment!

St. Margaret's Church

Sights recorded as we passed one park and a few gardens, on our way to our lunch appointment at The Ritz.

Highlight of the day: Tea at The Ritz, Piccadilly.
Well, if you do come to London, you HAVE to do a High-tea at The Ritz. It's the royalty experience you are going for; after all Queen Elizabeth did choose to celebrate her 80th birthday and golden jubilee there. Do book weeks and weeks in advance to be sure you get a table. Reservation can be done quite simply through their website at http://www.theritzlondon.com/tea/london-,default-en.html.

In Wikipedia, it says that The Ritz is build in a neoclassical style, which is a style that draws inspiration from the Renaissance and Baroque period. Quite charming and elegant in its setting. My mum and I can't resist taking a picture with its furniture.

At the famous Palm Court.

The Ritz offers an extensive 17 types of teas, of which I ordered Elderflower and Earl Grey. (You may change the flavour of your tea as many times as you like, in fact all 17 times if you have the capacity)

Each table is given a pot of clotted cream and strawberry jam each to go with the scones. Generosity rocks.

On a three tier stand:

Top deck- Petit fours
Fig butter cake, Dark chocolate cake, Mont Blanc, Millefeuille, Banana Macaron, Fruit tart.

Bottom deck
Freshly cut sandwiches with smoked salmon, cucumber, egg mayonnaise, roast ham and Cheddar cheese fillings

Middle deck
Warm scones and two slices of heavy fruit cake.

May I inject my own opinion here that the scones at The Ritz are by far the best I have tasted. They are different from the usual scones. They are alot smoother and softer and has this milky sweetness to it. Tastes heavenly with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

By the way, all of the above are refillable.

After the very fulfilling Tea at The Ritz, we took a leisurely stroll to the Buckingham Palace.

Sunbathers.

Buckingham Palace.

Back to Marylebone High street for dinner.

Dinner at an Italian restaurant whose name I have forgotten. Ha.

End.

London Day 2

Day 2: Crisp morning, clear weather, a little chilly, perfect for walking!

First to Harrods
Castle cake: ₤1,995 converts to $3,899.39. It is by far the most expensive cake I have come across.

Bonbons!

Hunt for breakfast: my mother's hungry face

Breakfast at Quarter (cafe cum delicatessen)

(A really flat) Pancake with mascarpone and honey- Not too bad at all given that I was really looking forward to a fluffy pancake. I suppose the more-of-a-crepe-then-pancake was saved by the fabulously fat-rich mascarpone. I fell in love with mascarpone that morning.
Assorted danish pastries with clotted cream, jam and (Echire!)butter.

After breakfast treat from Harrods: Salmon Roll, which looks really good, but alas! the salmon was not fresh!

A walk along Cromwell road to Knightsbridge interspersed with a good deal of (very expensive!) shopping.

Followed by an exceptional lunch at Harvey Nichols at their roof garden.

A French classic: Sole de Douvres à la Meuniere

Antipasti- Prosciutto, two kinds of salami, sundried tomato, olives and some kind of very nice tasting marinated pepper.


For every good that comes by, something bad will happen. Do you believe in that? I am starting to see some truth in it. Something dreadful did happen after that splendid morning. You see, we wanted to have the experience of living local, eating local and shopping local. So we thought: why not get a local apartment and live like one? Therefore, after all that wonderful shopping and lunch, we went to pack our bags at the hotel and went to meet the owner of the apartment at her place, Bryanston Square. I should have known something wasn't right.

First, it was the taxi ride. The taxi brought us into a neighborhood of Middle-East. I'm not racist, I'm just not good enough at this racial co-existing thing. So no, not comfortable. Second, the owner was an hour late. At this point, I should have ran and got us a decent hotel while it was still early, but nope, I foolishly held out hope that the apartment would at least be like what I saw on the internet: clean and nice.

When we got into the apartment, after four flights of stairs while lugging our luggage, we saw a total mess. It was obvious that the apartment is a work-house being hurriedly tidied (with no success) into some semblance of a living area. Cracked tiles littered the not-too-clean, not-too-functional kitchen, junk being swept underneath the stark four-legged table and huddled into the cabinet, and that omnipresent smell of spice and incense that faintly reminds me of an Indian temple.

It was too late to seek for new accommodation for it was late into the evening, and we were just figuring how to establish an internet connection. Hence, we had to make-do for the night, barely even using the toilet, and had to very carefully sniff our way through the neighborhood for dinner. Moral of the story is (something we are all so familiar with) never be fooled by appearances.

In spite of all the crap that happened, we found this gem of a pub that (very surprisingly) serves Thai food.
This pub is filled with memorabilia of the British Royal Family in the form of plates, photographs and little sand-bottles. Really cute!

Green Curry with rice.

Phad Thai.

Nothing like a taste of home.

End.

A First Trip into Europe: London

17 May ~ 31 May 2011

When I was younger, whenever someone says "why not go Europe for a holiday?", I would feel a pang of fear and apprehension. Don't know why but I had always have the idea that Europe was a dangerous place. The people are so big and athletic that I can never hope to outrun them (if they try to rob me that is). Their many national languages (and accents) are so different from mine that even though if it is English, I can never hope to understand them. Their culture is so opposite with my Asian roots that when I say I'm in a foreign country, I mean a 100% foreign. Scary. Or is it?

Heidi. You bloody idiot. You don't know what you have been missing.

Europe is a wonderful place.
For food, for sights, for art and music, for its culture, for its people.

I am already planning a second trip back, next year perhaps?

This trip began with my first week in London. Traveling companions: my mum and my college friend A.

We went to bed the moment we arrived in London on a Tuesday evening, tried to sleep off the 7 hour time difference, and get our bodies adjusted to London time. It seemed to work for me for I woke up the next morning feeling very fresh and eager for breakfast.

Patisserie Valerie at Oxford Circus for breakfast. London morning is cold. Brr.

Latte. I had to find out if London has coffee the same way as Sydney does. Answer is yes, but Sydney does it a lot better.

Wow, even in a common chain patisserie they serve you Lescure butter? (Little did I know I would be eating a variety of excellent butter in days to come.)

Eggs Benedict. The eggs were really huge and round, like a pair of b-cup breasts..

Croque Monsieur, first of the many more to come.

First stop: National Gallery. Did I mention most art galleries in London have no entrance fee?

View from the National Gallery. Off we go to gaze at Rubens, Rembrant, Monet, Van Gogh and Cezanne.

A and I.

Next, shopping at Soho! My mum's favourite past-time. My favourite time is lunch time, which brings us to White Horse, a recommendation by a sales assistant when I asked for the best fish and chips in the area.

Fish and chips + Beer = Pub food.

Fish and chips as it is with a bit of pea mash on the side. Condiments include your regular tomato ketchup, malt vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper.

More shopping till our feet command us to stop at this quaint teahouse in a small shopping square.

We got a very good Chai latte, orange white tea and a slice of homemade orange almond cake.

That concludes our first day in London, for we were too full after high-tea for dinner, so we returned to our hotel for an early night.

End.