17 & 18 May - Back to London

Our time with Blanchie was at an end and it was time to go back to London. We returned the rental car & got a taxi to the train station. With small but heavy suitcases we needed to use the elevator to cross to the other track. This was where we got delayed. The elevator arrived, 6 people with suitcases and baby buggies got out and as the last person stepped out, the doors closed before we could get in. Up went the elevator (very slowly). Down it came again. It emptied and before it could close again, Bruce stepped in and blocked the door. We raced across the bridge to the other elevator and, predictably, the elevator doors had just closed. Down it went, up it came, just as our train pulled out of the station. Oh, well, another train came in 20 minutes and we boarded. About 15 minutes into the trip the train stopped and the conductor announced that one of the rails ahead was broken. After sitting there for another 20 minutes or so, we were rerouted around the broken rail turning our 48 minute trip into a journey of just short of two hours. That, as it turned out, was lucky, because by the time we got to the hotel our room was ready. Yay! We popped out for a quick lunch at the Cod (the Admiral Codlington) and I went back to the hotel to unpack then went out for a walk. Not eventful, but a lovely day.

The next morning was spent mostly online making train reservations for the rest of our journeys. We're moving about quite a bit this trip and rail reservations are a bit complicated; because I didn't pay close enough attention I have been stuck with nonrefundable tickets in the past. I had picked up a wonderful little book on my last trip to the V&A called "Free London". Not a political manifesto, it lists lots of places to visit and walks to take for free. Holland Park was my afternoon destination as its description was delightful and it turned out that the park was, too. Leaving the tube I was caught up in the foot traffic making its way to the Portobello market. I had considered stopping there but seeing the sea of people convinced me to give it a miss. I walked to the back entry to the park enjoying the rows of lovely posh houses along the way

but was stunned to see one modern block which seemed so jarringly out of place in this area.

Once inside the park I was enveloped in the peacefulness of the surroundings.

The scent of these roses was heavenly.

It turned out that I was there before most of the new flower borders had been installed.

Those that were planted were lovely.

It was a lovely walk topped off by a cone of passion fruit gelato. Nom nom.

As I was leaving the park, I came upon another free London attraction: London's Design Museum.

It's a fascinating place and almost indescribable. The best word I can think of is eclectic/ On display were the winners of a school children's design competition (genius!),

an Enzio Mari retrospective, and Future Observatory which highlighted ways in which design can respond to our changing climate. There was a special exhibition on Skateboards, which I didn't attend and a huge feature called Designer, Maker, User which I found fascinating. The entryway was a wall of tiles spotlighting design movements over time.

The exhibition focused on how design affects our daily life, from highway signs to apps, to fashion to entertainment.

The walk home yielded some interesting sights, from cheeky adverts

to memorial statues

to royal memorials

to the dear Royal Albert Hall

For the first time, I walked to the back of the hall and discovered that there had been an addition made to the hall between 1996 and 2004. Among the things added were statues of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II.

That evening we were off to the theatre.

first, though, we dined at Faber, a seafood restaurant in Hammersmith. It was a lovely light and airy place and the staff was terrific. They use British products almost exclusively and even feature British wines which are surprisingly difficult to find on English menus.

We started with cocktails with a seaside twist. a sugar kelp old fashioned for me, a Cornwall plum gin spritz for Bruce. The old fashioned had a distinctive taste of the sea, with a salty minerality; the plum gin spritz was one we classify in the "dangerous" category, as in so smooth you could down any number of them.

We shared two plates for dinner. The white crab, mushroom and potato terrine was wonderful. The potato was crisp and buttery, topped with mushrooms and Cornish crab and decorated with oxalis leaves. The monkfish was described as "poor man's lobster" and I can see why. The texture was nearly identical, and it had a lovely rich flavor. It came topped by cocco beans and a sobrasada sauce. I had seen a samphire salad on another dish and they were kind enough to serve it as a side dish. I had samphire for the first time two years ago and love it, especially because we don't have it in the States.

We couldn't resist the temptation of pairing British wines with them; a New Hall Vineyard Chardonnay and a Bolney Estate Lynchgate Bacchus, both from Sussex and both delicious.

Dinner finished, we made our way to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre to see the closing performance of "Minority Report" based on the book by Philip K Dick.

The review in the Standard describes it thus: "a sci-fi thriller by turns smart and daft, mindbending and lame" I can't disagree. Lots of running around on a futuristic set wanted desperately to evoke panic and excitement but just looked like lame choreography to me. The cast tried their best to make it compelling but the play's warning about the dangers of technology were anything but subtle and left me strangely unmoved. Bruce agreed. It made me want to read the original story to see why someone felt the need to stage it.