Day Eighty-one thru Eighty-five

We arrived in London very tired and went straight away to our hotel and dropped off our bags. Since it was still early, we decided to walk as we've found walking really helps mitigate the jet lag and after sitting for ten hours with little exercise, it helps to start the adventure off with physical activity. Our three days here were full of tube hopping, walking and general site seeing. The British Museum was on the top of our list as it seems one cannot see everything and it's good to concentrate on a special area of interest each time you come. Bob loved the Viking collections and I tarried at the Medieval period displays. It's like being in a history themed candy shop. We included tea at Fortnum & Mason, the London Eye which gave us a wonderful nighttime bird's eye view, a jaunt out to Hampton Court as I'd always wanted to see Harry VIII's digs outside of London and a fortuitous tube hop which brought us out right under the "Wicked" marquee near Victoria. Caught the show that evening and what a show it was! We sat right in the front behind the orchestra about eight rows back and were even commenting on the artistry of the shoes the performers were wearing! It was fantastical.

Weather was perfect - only rained on us once for about 10 minutes - and the food in London is truly a gastronomic's delight. We had said we would, of course, do Indian and ended up at Delhi in Soho. The food was aromatic, hot and full of the essence of East Indian flavors. We really felt we stumbled on a good find (actually having my iPad with a London area app was sooooo very helpful). We also ate one evening at our hotel, the Windermere near Victoria Station, which ended up to be an above-average London B&B considering the city is notorious for bad B&B's. I had chicken with bubble and squeak - Bob had a rib eye that was perfectly cooked lightly flavored with a delicious black pepper sauce. We did have a rather marginal and quite expensive meal at an Asian restaurant called Bam Bou in Soho. I had sea bass which wasn't bad, but the chef had chopped up lemon grass which were like fish bone shards over the top of it and the cilantro was so tough you couldn't even pull the leaves off the stems. The bok choy it was crowning was tough as well, in fact, so tough you couldn't even eat it. I should have known what the food was going to be like when my champaign cocktail arrived at room temperature. I would not recommend this place to anyone. We always had a full English breakfast at the B&B, would end up skipping lunch in lieu of tea, and make our dinner meal the star attraction of the day. Two meals a day is quite enough for the two of us.

Our next stop is for two nights in Leeds.