Hot on the heels of our trip to Chimay, we were off to London. We stayed at the Motel One at Tower Hill. Anyone travelling to London should stay in this hotel, we highly recommend it for the quality, price and location. We arrived by plane, figured out how to get from Heathrow to the hotel by express train, and got checked in, all by 3:00. We were hungry (and thirsty for a London ale), so the concierge recommended a pub down the street called Mary Jane's. It was a nice place that featured imported beers. They only carried one English beer on draft, which was out of stock. So I had my choice of Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada, Rook Hook, and Guinness. Yea, I came all the way to London to have my choice of American beers! They did have one English micro brew in bottle, an American Style IPA from Meantime (Greenwich Mean Time reference I believe), so I went with that.
When you go to a pub, you always need WiFi and some Cars cars (and a sippy cup), and a server with a lot of patience:
We finished the evening walking around the area, which was on the edge of the financial district, very upscale, to get our bearings and organize our thoughts for the next day. A few nice pics from the district:
The old London Stock Exchange (now a shopping gallery and cafe):
London Eye with Westminster Palace
Our first day was a visit to the Transportation museum, one of the only museums that is not free. Marissa loved it. We though it was going to be a 1 hour visit max, but she did not want to leave, and we were there over 3 hours.
The next day Heather took M to a puppet show (Three Little Pigs) on a barge in an area called Richmond. Heather said the area reminds her of NY Hampton. M would recommend the puppet show, she talked about it for days. The show was so lively that it managed to capture the attention of 30 toddlers for 1 hour plus 10 minutes of intermission. M was just laughing and laughing. Unfortunately, no pictures of the visit to the puppet barge. On the way, however, they stopped at the Natural History museum (a free museum):
While Heather and M were off to the puppet barge, I had a chance to go to the Imperial War Museum (another free museum). Awesome stuff there, especially their WWI exhibit. A must see for anyone visiting London with an interest in war history.
After the museum, I went back to the financial district to visit a pub I had noticed while walking around. It was an independent pub owned by Shepard Neame & Co., London's first brewery commissioned the King of England. This brewery makes Bishop's Finger, a favorite English ale of mine. While hanging out there, I was talking beer with the bartender, I told him about drinking Bishop's Finger in the US, and other beer geek speak. After talking with him a while, he disclosed that he happened to be a great, great, great grandson of the founding Neame family. He admitted that he does not tell anyone this, but I seemed really enthusiastic and well informed about beer. He went on to tell me about the history of the brewery and what they are doing nowadays to survive in this wildly competitive industry. I went back to the pub the next night to buy a couple of beers "to go", and in the crowded pub, full of "suits" from the financial district, three deep in line, he saw me and said "what'll ya have?", so dressed in my tee shirt and running shorts, I made my way past the suits in line, and got my beer. I got some looks, and I know what they were thinking (because I was one of those suits in a past life), and it made me feel pretty good. And one of the beers I bought was a Bishop's Finger, ... for the "suits" ;)
Our third day, another museum. This time the Maritime Museum, in Greenwich. M loved this one too, and really raised a fuss about leaving. Greenwich is a nice college town, on the river outside of London, about a 40 minute train ride from the hotel. This is also the place where time begins (GMT).
Playing at the play seafood market:
The Cutty Sark, docked in the Greenwich harbor:
On our final day we went to the Borough Market, just over the London Bridge from our hotel. Good food from the various vendors, and quite popular with the tourists. There was also a glassblowing studio (Peter Laytons) nearby. Although the furnace was closed for maintenance, the glass work was on display. They had some of the most impressive glass work we have ever seen. Heather was very impressed!
We flew back later that day. Thank God we did not take the train to London, because this happened to be the week when 2,000 African and Syrian refugees tried to enter England illegally by walking through the Channel Tunnel. The same tunnel that the train uses to cross the English Channel. Trucks and trains were at a standstill for days as a result of this issue.
Honorable mention to the Thai Restaurant across the street from the hotel, which had great food.
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