Fond farewell

Our London flat was awesome. Apart from the fact that its decor was uncannily like ours and my sisters', its location was really good. We were in the Paddington part of town, and to go anywhere was so easy by tube. The Paddington and Lancaster Gate tube stations were each about a 4 minute walk from us. There was a wee grocer around the corner, so we were set for sundries. 

2 1/2 bathrooms with the absolute best water pressure you've ever felt. 3 bedrooms, mod cons... it worked so well. 

Final Foodie Event

You know how we love our food and our celebrity chefs. Well, if we ate at a Jamie Oliver restaurant or two already, what better way to cap off our trip than by eating at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. 

Here we are at his Maze Grill in Mayfair. POSH. Here was the view across the street:

I counted two Ferraris, a Lambourghini, a Bentley, and a Rolls. The rest were just Mercedes. 

Expectations were high going in. 

Expectations were met. 

Only people who can afford Ferraris and the like can eat there regularly. Brace yourself--my champagne cocktail was £14!!!  Crazy!  The restaurant website said it was casual. Casual for whom?!?!  

Here are the girls' fruity drinks; they're drinking their inheritance. 

No sign of GR himself, but if we'd seen him, I would have let the f-bomb fly, in a good way. We're so glad we ate there. We loved checking out the decor and ambience. The staff were plentiful and so friendly and fun. For the record, Maze had amazing music, including a Doobie Bros. song that is also in my music library. 

Good times. 

Follow up of London Street Art

Dad and I went on our street art tour today, and I was rather impressed by the amount of artwork that was on walls everywhere. Here are some pics. 

This is done by Otto Schade. He does pieces inspired by Banksy (who you will see later), which consists of stencils and adding a touch of humour. He also added the whole kids with weapons aspect which was a phase of banksy's a few years ago. 

This is a piece by Jonesy. He does metal sculptures on poles. 

This is a piece done by Banksy. He added his signature policeman and added humour by adding his 'watchdog' aka the poodle. 

This is a piece by Gregos. He's French and decided to make molds of his face out of modelling clay. 

There's a sticker on the no entry sign that looks as if the person were carrying the white line away. 

This tile is a rolling fool. The rolling fool is a stop motion video that the artist made when he took still pictures of each piece that he made. Each jester is on a different angle, making the overall stop motion video look like the fool is moving. 

This is a cubist inspired piece by Alo. He does a lot of pieces similar to this. 

There are a lot of small pieces of the queen. Some show the queen smoking a cigar, but this has transformed her into a man. I don't know the artist or the story behind it, but I believe that it is meant to be humorous. 

On the plane now, but there's more to come

We have a few more posts in us, but for now we have to say farewell to the homeland.  Stay tuned.   Here's a teaser:

Guess whose restaurant. 

The last full day

We slept in, then corralled our gear to get our heads around packing. We've done a good job keeping it simple. 

Scott and Frances are on their street art tour. That left the two youngests to go shopping. We hit Oxford St., which is a bit of an assault on the senses, but what a heck. We travelled many funky side streets in pursuit of perfect gelato. 

Coffee flavored party in our mouths. 

But wait, there's more Thursday

Refreshed after an afternoon of lying down, we went to THE COOLEST RESTAURANT called Inamo.  Frances found it.  It's in Soho. It's interactive. 

Yes, your table is a computer, and you order using the menu projected onto the table. 

A picture of a dish you select gets projected onto your plate so you can have an idea of what's coming. 

You can change the virtual table cloth, too. And play games. Frances hosed me at Battleship and Memory. 

The food was delicious. And I LOVED how you clicked on the service icon to summon your bill. Brilliant. 

But wait, there's more!  A short walk from the restaurant was THE THEATRE!

We saved up a mortgage payment to go to a play in the west end, where all the hip and happening live theatre happens. Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Hamlet somewhere at present. At the glorious Gielgud Theatre (formerly The Globe), we saw 

and it was SO GOOD. 

Here's the beautiful lobby. 

Here we are waiting to go in. 

The stage. We had wicked good seats.  It filled up, and I think it was sold out. 

At intermission, you can take your refreshments outside. Very civilized. 

Today, start to finish, was a real tank-filler. 

AWESOME second to last day

To say we've hit our stride is an understatement. I do not want to come home. This trip has been a wonderful fire under our backsides (even though we're at risk for rickets and scurvy due to overall lack of vegetables). 

Yesterday was just so great. First up: ultimate touristy visit to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. 

Here I am with Benedict Cumberbatch. 

His is a good likeness; mine, not so much (except for the lip gloss). 

I think Scott looks more like Robert Downey Jr. Than RDJ does. 

The Prince Harry figure is a dead ringer. 

After you go through celebrities and sports and political and cultural icons, you get to a wild 4-D movie of Marvel comic book characters. We got sneezed on by the Incredible Hulk. Gross!  Then you take a crazy little tram ride through a display called something like The History of London, which is full of moving characters and great sound effects, and then you see Star Wars. 

Here's Frances having a chat with Chewbacca. 

I loved it there --good time cheesy fun. 

But we can't sustain this pace without some respite, so we came back to the flat for an afternoon of rest. Scott and I each napped about two hours!

Beautiful Baths

Bath is more beautiful than I remembered. Next time we're here, we'll spend a few days. The atmosphere is so inviting, much like York. 

Shops and restaurants are everywhere, offering some familiar brands (Gap, Banana Republic) but mostly unique ones. 

For years I had a Roman Baths poster in my classroom. Now I have my own pics. 

The engineering is mind-boggling. And to be surrounded by this 1st century work was truly awe-inspiring. 

But of course my favourite view is our girlies mucking about. 

Avebury and Bath photo top up

The views, the lushness, the stones, the sheep all make Avebury heavenly. The gorgeous pub too.  We saw our first thatched roofs on the drive. 

On to beautiful Bath. Scott and I came in 1993 for our honeymoon. The fashion museum is smaller than I remember, but its contents still pack a punch. 

18th century wide loads.  Craftsmanship galore. 

My next grad dress. 

I quite dig this Cindy Lou Who number. 

Anti-toilet device, I swear. 

What's significant about this 1920s-1930s fashion?  Hello, Waltons' era. 

Bath and Beyond

Stellar day Wednesday as we decide to rent a car for the day and head west to Bath. Train fare is ridiculously expensive and I think it would be really neat for the girls to see some standing stones, too, though Nancy isn't sure. You can't frolic around Stonehenge any more and Avebury is pretty much on the way to Bath, so choosing was easy. No automatic transmissions at the Europcar down the block, but I reason that I'm practiced at UK driving now, so the added variable of the shifter shouldn't be an issue. I get the car early while Nancy rouses the sleepyheads.

Quick breakfast and we're off, though later than planned. The lack of GPS in our model makes navigating out of London a little challenging but the wheel in one hand, the shifter in the other, Google Maps on the phone between my teeth and we get along. We make Avebury by noon and run headlong into a gem of a pub, the Red Lion (shout out to Bob who frequently plays its West Van namesake). Food won't be served til 1230 which gives us a little time to spin around the stones. Unlike Stonehenge, Avebury's henge consists of many stones standing in an oval of approx 500 yards. There are separate smaller circles also within. It's a nice day for marching about and there are sheep grazing in the monument grounds. Nancy was right, the girls could care less about the stones but are content to wrestle and run and goof around. But I secretly believe they're taking it all in and enjoying it as much as I am.

A really nice, but leisurely lunch makes us worry about time. Nancy declares she doesn't care if we miss the Roman Baths but would be heartbroken not to see the Museum of Fashion (formerly the Museum of Costume). Interesting collection of clothes from the 17c and upward. 18c gloves particularly fascinating and on loan from one of the most ancient trade associations in Britain, the Glovers. Who knew? Both girls are taken with dressing up in period costume, complete with corsets (fitted with quick release life jacket buckles to make it easy on the masses). Only one is ham enough to be photographed.

Time does allow for us to see the Roman baths after all. I love it and get swept up in the walking tour for a while. They were extraordinary engineers those Romans. I learn that the Cauldarium was constructed with raised floors supported by columns of terracotta tile and walls of hollow brick. Heat was forced beneath the floor, super heating it, then up the chimneys in the walls heating those. Small pools of water in the room then steamed away creating a steaming-hot sauna. Olive oil was applied to the skin and once good an sweaty, the Romans scraped the skin and dirt and oil off with an iron tool. Gross, but effective.

An amazing supper found by chance at the Firehouse Rotisserie up the hill from the baths. Awesome handmade and wood fired pizzas, confit duck quesadillas and the most gorgeous heirloom tomato salad with buffalo mozza I have seen. With darkness descending it's time we rolled home. A few hours of straight M4 motorway and a couple navigational complications as we get back in London, but we arrive home weary, but content.