I did not miss out on anything in London
Doctors HATE this one trick to grow super strong calves.
London tourism is not for the weak. There will be sweat, there may be tears, there will definitely be aching legs, feet and backs. There may even be swollen ankles, not for any reason except overuse.
I thought that splitting Jordan and my London adventure into two parts would be easy enough. Five days for the first part and five days for the next part. I did not account for the second part actually being six days, and these six being by far the busiest.
I wrote too much and did too many things. So the London adventure will be three parts. Organically I did write it in two parts, but my message was too long for email. Since most people read these in email, I decided to split it into two parts so everyone could read it!
Part two will come out tomorrow, at the same time! (8am EST)
Part 1:
Friday: 5 miles
Today started with a bit of drama at the rail station while we were trying to get to Dalston, a neighborhood on the Northside of London. There was a guy in front of us on our way to the station who was throwing a tantrum, throwing bikes into the road and attacking people on his way. The cops were called and eventually we were told to get off our train while cops were teeming through the station. Apparently, seeing the cops were after him, he jumped onto the tracks, and delayed multiple trains for the rest of the evening. He was completely fine, because no trains left the station for an hour, and was later taken to the hospital.
Eventually, we made it to Dalston, it was a super cool area, that apparently has grown a lot during the past few years. We visited the Ridley Road Market, filled with grocery stalls, food stalls and clothing. It is famous for its low prices in comparison to grocery stores. I’d say they have a right for that fame, we bought three cartons of strawberries for one pound!
After seeing the sights and smelling the smells, we walked over to the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, a small green space in the center of a highly cemented and paved area. It was beautiful, I can only imagine it in full bloom.
They have a coffee and alcohol bar there to support the maintenance of the garden, which is free to the public. After our delays on the train, I decided I deserved an Aperol Spritz!
Jordan and I thoroughly enjoyed the gardens, and once we were done we walked down the street to an area filled with Turkish restaurants. Famously, I love mediterranean food, so I was very excited. We went to Umut 2000, they were cooking kebabs and the pita bread on a grill right next to us. I think if I had to choose, this would be my favorite restaurant we ate at. Everything was just so dang good, and filled us up for a pretty reasonable price.
After a long train delay, lots of walking and crowds, and a great meal, Jordan and I headed home.
Saturday: 7.5 miles
Today we visited Portobello Market, a very famous and very busy market in London. It is most well known for its vintage clothing market. Jordan and I thought we would be able to walk the whole market in an hour and boy were we wrong.
The whole market is over a mile long, and in some places very wide. We walked as much as we could in an hour, but we did not get to see the whole thing. We enjoyed seeing all of the artisans and different vintage clothing stalls. We also enjoyed some food here before heading to our next activity.
Next, we went to a comedy show at Top Secret Comedy. Funnily enough it is one of the more famous comedy places, so its byline is “London’s Worst Kept Secret.” We saw four different comics and had an amazing host. Lots of laughs were had. Ive only been to two comedy shows in my life (other than the countless ones I helped put on in high school) and this may have been the best!
Lastly, we went to Cecil Court, which is a side street filled with different book shops and galleries. All of the book shops had different themes, so we went into one which was all about metaphysics and religions and another which was all about music. I really wanted to go here because Jordan loves books, and I think he had a great time looking at everything!
Sunday: 8 miles
Sunday was part one of our London Day Pass outings, so naturally we walked a lot in order to see everything possible.
We started out the day in Little Venice, where we took a guided tour of the canals in a trip that ended off in Camden. We learned a lot about the history of the canals, and despite the seemingly serene landscape near us, found that we were actually very close to the city center. You could only tell by the occasional siren disrupting the silence. Conveniently, the tour ended right at the Camden Market which was the next stop on our itinerary. We walked around and looked at the stalls filled with jewelry, clothing and more!
After we had enjoyed the market, we biked over to the postal museum (easily the best bike route in London, because there were actual bike lanes) and rode the mail rail to learn about the history of the Royal Mail in this country which is way more interesting than it sounds. We spent a bit of time here looking at the museum before we had to head to the more adult activity of a brewery tour.
The brewery tour was cool and very historical. Fuller’s is the oldest brewery in London and still practices historical ways of making the beer. People always say that beer in the Uk is warm and flat, but that is because they store their ales in casks. Once the tour was done we got to taste the beers.
Afterwards we did a Sherlock themed escape room. Neither of us have actually seen Sherlock, so if there were any references, they went right over our head. Also the entrance to the escape room was “Doyle’s Opticians,” and we walked up looking like fools saying “hey, uhhh… we’re here for the escape room?” Anyways, it was a very fun escape room. I thought it was pretty hard but we finished before another group that went in at the same time as us.
Finally, it was time for dinner and we headed over to the Churchill Arms, a pub famous for its floral exterior.
The interior was pretty snazzy too, filled to the brim with different knick-knacks and pictures, there was a lot to look at! We got a pint of Fuller’s London Pride, after learning the significance at the brewery tour, and made our way to the back. In the back of the pub there is actually a really good Thai place of the same name. Jordan and I got some delicious food while enjoying a pint. Then we called it a day and headed home to prepare for another busy day tomorrow.
Even though this post was pretty long, tomorrow’s post will be even longer, filled with even more adventures, so stay tuned!!
Thanks for keeping up with all of my going-ons!
I love the idea of the street with different-themed bookstores. I could probably spend a whole day just browsing!