SHOCK! HORROR! HIGHLANDERS INVADE LONDON!
Day1 Saturday 2nd April 2022
London was calling.
Which, given that it wasn't even 5 o'clock on a Saturday morning, was a little inconsiderate. It wasn't even close to getting light outside.
Nonetheless, we had a date with a taxi. It was due to pick up Elain, Darren, Liam and Cameron, before getting us on the way to the airport.
We were going to London. Neither of the boys had been before. Cameron had never been on a plane, Liam was less than a year old when he was last on one. So, it was going to be a big adventure for all of us.
All we needed was the taxi to turn up. It did, eventually. Not before Bob and Darren had a slight malfunction at the thought of being late for a plane. Elain and Sharon were just annoyed that the perfect plan was not going according to, well, plan.
We managed in plenty of time and Darren, Bob and Liam all managed a roll before take off. There was a little hint of brightness behind the tail of the plane as we walked out on the tarmac - perhaps a sign of good things to come!
There was plenty of sunlight above the clouds.
In hardly any time at all, we were in London. All was going well, until the children's case failed to appear on the luggage carousel! That was a little unfortunate. It was eventually tracked down and returned to Darren.
Late taxi. Lost luggage. Not a fabulous start.
It got a bit better, when we had a seamless journey to our hotel close to Tower Bridge.
Liam and Cameron really liked the cowhide stools in the hotel lobby.
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But, you can't be a cowboy forever. So, once the bags were dropped, it was time to go and seek out some lunch. It is a bit easy to become distracted in the big city, especially when there are dancing fountains just appearing in the street.
Where were they?
There they were - and they stopped and started in mid-air.
Really?
Wow! Yes they are!
Next, there was a knight in the day - on a horse.
This sculpture is a representation of one of thirteen knights granted a large area of land hereabouts by King Edgar. Edgar was King of England from 959 to 975, so a bit more than a thousand years ago. Nobody actually knows why he granted the land to thirteen knights, although it may have been to ensure that they would defend this part of London for the King. The knights were granted the land on condition that they fought three duels, on land, below ground and below water. That can't have been easy!
Liam was interested, Cameron, not so much!
The knights would not have recognised the area if they had been about today!
We managed to find room at a Pizza Express for lunch, which we were all needing by then. It was a long time since breakfast. The cold beer was pretty welcome as well.
It had been some time since I have been to Pizza Express, but the BBQ Burnt Ends pizza would certainly bring me back again.
Our next intended stop was the Science Museum, but we saw this larger than life spaceman in art gallery, so we had to have a wee look. The astronaut wasn't wee, though!
The cakes along the road were a bit smaller and they looked very tasty.
The stone on the outside of the Victoria and Albert Museum, close to the Science Museum, was quite damaged. It turns out that this happened during the Second World War, with one bombing in particular causing most of the damage still seen today.
The Science Museum was quite busy, with lots of old engines and the like to look at.
Most interesting, however, was the story of the planets, which Liam seemed to really enjoy.
The MacRae family went into the Wonderlab, Sharon and I had a wee sit down, then decided to walk towards our dinner venue of Wahaca via Hyde Park.
You get great views along the Serpentine on the way. The Serpentine isn't a natural lake, although it is one of the first lakes ever designed to be curved to look natural rather than being a straight lined canal type of lake. It was formed in 1730 at the request of Queen Caroline, wife of George II. It has been altered a lot over the centuries.
It was clearly natural enough to attract this Great Crested Grebe.
We arrived at Wahaca via Pret A Manger, where we had a desperately needed cup of tea!
The others arrived soon after, but they had taken the tube instead of the long walk we had done. We felt much more virtuous in eating our meal than they did.
It was all pretty good and Liam especially liked the churros!
Remarkably, Cameron didn't.
By now, everybody was getting a bit tired. It had been a very long day. So, we made our way back to the hotel and we were all in bed pretty early after a full day.
Day2 Sunday 3rd April 2022
Apparently, everyone was hungry this morning. Elain had found Peter's Café on the web and decided that this would be just the place for a Full English. It certainly was for me, although I didn't expect the ocean of beans that came with it! It was pretty tasty, it has to be said.
No gherkins for breakfast, though.
Back down towards the river, now that we had bean fed!
Time for a quick photo stop beside the Tower of London.
And a view up to Tower Bridge.
And across to the Shard.
The Shard is the tallest building in the UK and the second tallest free standing structure, being beaten by a communications tower in Yorkshire.
It was a controversial structure before it was built, with lots of people feeling it would spoil the London skyline. It was described as a shard of glass through the heart of historic London, and this is how it came to get the name.
The glass on the outside is enough to cover 8 Wembley football pitches.
It was designed by an Italian architect Renzo Piano and it has featured in a number of films, including Spiderman - Far from Home.
Poor Darren had to wear a hat. Not to protect his head from the sun, but so that nobody would notice that he hadn't treated his hair that morning, having left all his products at home!
Sharon and Elain didn't care about their hair.
We were soon on an Uber boat (who knew such a thing existed?), racing under Tower Bridge and along the river.
It went quite fast at times.
We got off at the O2 arena and walked round to the entrance way.
We were looking for Toca Social, which we found easily.
We had to enter by a lit tunnel and every time you walked into the tunnel, you could hear crowds cheering. They must have known who we were.
We were there to show off our footballing skills.
Here is Cameron showing some style.
This is Sharon with just one leg! Always difficult for a footballer.
Elain had 2 legs, but struggled to get the balls to go more than a few yards by the look of things.
On the other hand, Darren was ashamed of his performance!
Not so, Cameron.
Sharon and Elain thought a cocktail might improve their accuracy.
Like their shots, that was misplaced.
In fact, Sharon could hardly walk properly.
Liam was another winner on the day.
As it happens, I won a game at the very end, but the screen cut off before I could get photographic proof of my brilliance. Honest!
Despite being winners, it was an early bath for the boys!
It was a bit early for lunch. We had booked TGI Friday, so felt able to sit on the motorcycle outside the restaurant any way..
Even Hell's Granny had a go.
We did have time to go up in the Emirates Air Line cable car across the Thames. Elain ignored the spectacular views, preferring to do Wordle instead.
She got the word in less than 6 moves, so celebrated with a selfie.
The views were pretty smart.
Sharon couldn't take her eyes off them.
The views were everywhere.
After the cable car it really was time for lunch.
Even though TGIF had taken our booking, they couldn't really take us. A shortage of staff meant that there was a very slow service and, to compound matters, they had no beer. Darren and I were out of there as quick as you like.
We went across to Frankie and Benny's, which has similar types of food to suit the boys. A gourmet destination it wasn't.
My chicken burger was edible.
No hanging about after lunch - it was back on the boat and back to Tower Bridge.
We were all a bit tired after yesterday, so we had a bit of a rest back at the hotel, before it was time to eat again. This time we were off to Flat Iron in Spitalfields.
The boys liked the look of the beer, as did I.
Sharon and Elain went for the gin.
As you might guess, Flat Iron is a steak restaurant, selling only a limited
range of dishes, but the steak is the thing.
People were getting excited at the prospect.
Elain could not stop looking over her shoulder to see where the meal was.
We all had the same - steak, chips and a side. I had the healthy green salad as you might expect. For this type of place to be successful, it needs to do what it does well and it did. A very good meal.
The Tempranillo was pretty good too.
At Flat Iron, everyone gets a free chocolate ice cream afterwards. The boys managed to get theirs a bit early, while we finished our wine.
We had to wait until we were leaving for ours. Very good it was too.
We wandered across to Old Spitalfields Market for a look.
Spitalfields is not as bad as it sounds. It takes its name from the hospital and priory of St Mary of Spittel which was founded in 1197. There was a market hereabouts from the 13th Century until 1991, when the market had to move due to congestion.
It is now a different kind of market, selling all sorts of goods and it is home to shops and artists.
It also has elephants on the pavements!
These are life size baby elephants and there are 20 of them. They represent orphaned baby elephants rescued by a trust set up to save them in Africa.
Even Darren got in on the act, when he should have known better. Perhaps he was emboldened by having found some shampoo.
Elain, on the other hand, was attracted to the sign in the window, which she felt applied to her.
Liam found the mother elephant. She is supposed to represent the mother and family that each of the baby elephants lost when they became orphaned.
We were heading here. Two floors of Italian restaurants and food and wine shops under one roof. I was really happy to be going inside.
You could buy any Italian food in here that you could possibly want.
Even old school Lambrusco!
There was meat galore.
A plethora of parmesan.
Oodles of olives.
And oil.
Lots of wines and beers.
Freshly made pizza.
Piles of dried pasta.
Once I had loaded up on food that was easy to carry on a plane in a couple of day's time, we headed back to the hotel for some sleep before another full day tomorrow.
Day 3 Monday 4th April 2022
Much as a full breakfast can be a wonderful thing, it really isn't the sort of thing to be eating every day, so we crossed the road from the hotel, to have something a bit more appropriate. I had avocado and tomatoes on toast and, for the first time in my life, an actual smoothie - orange, mango and ginger. Could this be that beginning of a pure and healthy day for me? Darren had the eggs Benedict on the other side of the table.
After breakfast, the MacRaes went to some shops and Sharon and I walked in the rain to Borough Market, passing the Shard on the way.
Borough Market is one place I always try to get to whenever we are in London. We haven't been for a while, but we enjoyed our visit as much as always.
First stop was to pick up some fresh red and green pesto for Elain and Darren and some Harissa and Chermoula for ourselves.
There are fabulous smells everywhere - including from this mushroom risotto.
Loads of exotic, fresh fruits.
Some fairly ugly fresh fish.
There was also a new area for street food. It smelt amazing and it was a bit of a shame it was so close to breakfast time and we weren't staying for lunch!
Who could resist offerings like this?
Or this?
After stocking up on some food, we headed for Piccadilly where we were to meet the others for lunch at the Hard Rock Café. We nipped into a Waterstones to get an Eye Spy London book for Liam. We ran into a Lego Harry Potter, unfortunately, he was not the last HP we saw on this trip.
Hard Rock Cafe and Elain and Sharon cannot resist a Malfy gin. Nor, as it turned out, could they resist the branded glasses, which the waiter almost invited them to nick.
Another burger for me, but this was streets ahead of Frankie and Benny's. Surf and turf burger. The surf was crispy, spicy prawns and they were utterly irresistible. A very good burger lunch, indeed.
Sharon had some kind of healthy salad thing!
Liam is still to young to understand what is wrong with this photo!
We had a bit of time to spare, so we walked across Green Park to Buckingham Palace, like real tourists. Cameron was utterly enthralled by the guards.
The barbarians are at the gates!
No hanging about and hobnobbing with royalty, we had a train to catch.....
....to the Harry Potter studios.
I don't think the dragon wanted us to go any further - we should have listened.
I had a bit of hope at the start, but the caption was a lie.
Liam was completely floored by it all.
Being the only person on earth to have never seen a Harry Potter film or read any of the books, there were lots of things to see that I knew nothing about.
I can appreciate the art and craft that went into the making of the sets and props for the films, but the hysteria around it all is anathema to me. One woman had been 7 times!
This guy looked quite interesting, but I don't know who he is.
Liam, Cameron and Sharon all got a shot on a broomstick against a green background. They cleverly turned all that into a video of them flying through streets, over the Glenfinnan viaduct and the likes. They then charged a fortune for you to buy a code to watch the video or a smaller fortune of you just went for a single still photo. I got a row for trying to take photos of them while this was happening.
Who is this weirdo?
Why would you hold your hand out for this thing to bite it off?
Giant spiders!
How could anybody push a trolley through a wall?
There was a huge range of wands to buy from only 30 odd quid! Alternatively, you could just get an air guitar like the girl in the background of the photo. Much cheaper.
Halfway round, and I think we were all feeling a bit tired.
There was, however, no escape.
There were more treasures to see.
Here be dragons.
Told you! It is there behind the flames. Honest.
Getting near the end, now, with a giant model of Hogwarts.
There were fireworks as well.
It wasn't long before we were back on the train and heading for the hotel and, of course, dinner. We had checked out the dinner menu at the Natural Kitchen across the road and it looked like it had something for everyone. We certainly didn't want to start looking around for somewhere to eat when it was quite late for the boys.
So, a quick freshen up and across the road we went.
I started with Thai fishcakes and they were really good.
Sharon had a crispy cauliflower starter with spicy mayo.
My main was a crispy, spicy chicken take on a Caesar salad and all the better for that.
Sharon had a halloumi and quinoa salad, which she really enjoyed. Everyone enjoyed their meal and it was a fine way to end a very long day.
Elain had the crispy chicken with a leaf and parmesan salad.
Darren had Teriyaki salmon and oriental salad.
And, so to bed.
Day4 Tuesday 5th April 2022
Our last day. Time for more food and back to the same restaurant for breakfast, because it was good and it was very handy.
French toast, crispy bacon and maple syrup for me.
Avocado, tomatoes and poached egg for Elain.
Then off to our next destination. Yep, up there!
30 odd floors up to the Sky Garden.
Great views from up here, for sure.
Curvy.
Yes, I was there as well.
There was a great view of the Tower, which wasn't far away from our hotel.
You already know about the Shard, if you were paying attention.
There were different views over the other side.
Nearly time for a cup of tea.
Catching up on the Eye Spy book.
A boat going through Tower Bridge.
Once we got our happy socks onto the ground again, we were off to Covent Garden.
How can the silver guy float above the cobbles?
The magician was funny and good.
Just as well Darren had got his hair sorted for his big moment.
It clearly wore him out as he made a bit of a hash of pouring his beer.
You can see where the rest of the splooter boys got it from. Cameron shaking his drink and it fizzing all over him in the tube and then Liam throwing my glass of water over himself in Wahaca.
A nice plate of spicy pasta for lunch for me. It was Zizzi and nothing to do with Russians in Ukraine.
Elain had a pizza.
After lunch, Elain and Darren went back to the hotel to pick the bags and we kept the kids entertained with some dubious knife juggling...
....and some nail biting tricks.
Then a very busy tube journey to the airport once the Sherpas came back with the luggage. Not much social distancing going on here.
We managed a snack and a drink in the airport, before we took off for home.
The sky was amazing.
In fact, it was downright surreal.
Soon we were on the ground and home via taxi.
Luckily I had found a plastic bag for the pesto, harissa and, most particularly, the chermoula. As soon as Sharon opened the case, the overwhelming smell of garlic and herbs told her that one of them was leaking - it was the chermoula. Luckily there was plenty left in the pot, so most of it was salvaged.
Oh! and yes the plastic bag had done the job and there was only one wee leak onto one of Sharon's blouses.
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