January 25, 2008 (Fri)
We set out a bit late this day. I had meant to visit the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral, but either one would cost over ₤10. Well it isn’t that they’re not worth it, given the Tower’s UNESCO heritage status, but in our rather tight schedule, it’s not economical to spend a whole lot of money and stay there for just, say, an hour.
Just as we were about to go over the Millennium Bridge, I glimpsed the sign “Café Rouge” at the street corner! That’s the French restaurant C had a delicious orange wine duck dish. Of course we grasped the great discovery and went for lunch. We couldn’t find the duck dish on the menu, so I asked the waiter if they serve such a dish for lunch. He pointed it out – Confit de Canard. We ordered that along with a fillet on top of RATATOUILLE (oh come on, you get what I mean here) and some clams/mussels (I can’t distinguish between them) for entrée.
The mussel further raised our expectation – it was better than average. The duck leg was absolutely delicious! You can easily split the meat with your spoon. It’s not in the least overcooked. Dip it in the orange wine sauce. Heavenly. The potato that came along also matched well with the sauce. The fillet and ratatouille can’t compare with the duck. Not because they turned cold when I started eating them, but I thought Remy the rat would’ve cooked the ratatouille better. It’s unfair, I know. By the way, Café Rouge has branches all over the UK.
The Borough Market was a bit smaller than I expected. I was charged with the mission to buy farm honey back home. We went past a stall that sold burger (presumably a famous one), the “fish market” which sold fish & chips (not bad, we tried the fish finger). I couldn’t resist the temptation of some freshly made yogurt with fruit, despite the fact I had yogurt almost everyday. The little plump glass bottles were just too cute, and you could see the fruit in the bottom. I bought four bottles for ₤3.5, including my favorite blueberry flavor, strawberry, orange/tangerine/mandarin and a remaining flavor which I can’t recall. (Memory, you see, is unreliable.)
We had a roasted cheese sandwich along the way. That was not what we intended to have. A stall was selling a whole plate of burned cheese. They basically burned or heat up the intersection of a half piece of cheese and mix it with other veggies. The roasted cheese sandwich was a little bit overdone.
Ah ha, there it was, the honey. I asked the gentleman where the honey came from and he said it was from Somerset. From the Sedgemoor Farm. He went on to tell me if I continued west from Somerset, I’d arrive at Devon and further west, at Cornwall. It was a nice country in the west. He was a nice gentleman! I smiled and told him I’d like very much to visit that part of England some day. Oh yes he advised me to try putting in honey in porridge. That’s why when I saw a stall selling organic porridge with prunes, I bought it almost instantly, despite a price tag of ₤4.5.
Some people asked visitors to try out olives. I wish I had tried. The snack called “Turkish delight” was no delight at all. It was just some over sweetened marshmarrow-like candy. When I passed by the yogurt stall again, a lady with a sandwich in hand went over to the yogurt seller and said something like, “Have a bite and tell me what you think.” The guy ate it and thought for a moment. I guessed the lady had a new delicacy coming out and she’d want to have her friends try out first. It’s a tiny episode, but you get the feeling that people in this market are all very friendly.
At South bank the wind was strong. We looked for the bus stop of RV1 that would take us to the Royal Festival Hall. We asked a gentleman at another bus stop for direction, and he kindly offered us. He said, actually if you walk along the river, you’d be there in just 15 minutes. We said, but it’s too cold to walk there. And then he made a gesture and joked like “No way!”. But it was really freezing.
The name “Royal Festival Hall” deceived me. The place looked just like Shatin Town Hall to me. Over 80% of the visitors and audience there were again, old people. It was like a cultural center for the aged. The London Philharmonic Orchestra concert began at 7:30 and I had my yogurt as dinner. I hate that you have to pay ₤3 for the program note for whatever show. I was clueless about the first song. It turned out to be Beethoven’s overture, but it sounded very modern. The Bartok violin concerto was a real trial. My eyelids were drooping. Old people fell asleep and so did N.
Dvozak’s Symphony No. 9 was what I went there for. I’d say the rendering this time was a bit faster and more passionate than the previous recordings I had listened to. It was 9:30 when the concert finished. We took the Bakerloo line at the Waterloo station to King’s Cross. The rest was like the previous night.
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7/17/2008
London Adventure - Part Five
January 24, 2008 (Thurs)
We started out early this day, casually strolling in the parks. There it was, Peter Pan’s statue, which brought back memory of the movie “Finding Neverland”. (Oh that would be where Johnny Depp sat writing in the movie!) Hyde Park’s more serene than the Central Park, and less claustrophobic, as it’s not surrounded by skyscrapers or the hustle and bustle. An ideal exercise ground for dogs, and a paradise for dog-lover like me.
After what seemed like a never-ending walk (over-exercise), we finally saw the exit to Buckingham Palace and four horses. The guards in red robe and golden helmet rode past us on handsome horses. We walked on to a crowded plaza. I tried to squeeze in the crowd to catch a glimpse to no avail. People in front of me were just too tall. After 15 minutes or so, finally some movements came. I didn’t stay through the whole guard-changing ceremony. It was windy. The marching band was awesome though, giving their pomp and circumstance music. What I liked most was the horses.
We took the C1 bus to Knightsbridge, getting off one or two stops before as the roads were congested. Didn’t have time to admire the exterior of Harrod’s. We made our way through to the bargain sale section. The ₤1 zone had: diary, coin bags and child PVC bags!
Feeling hungry and curious at the French cake shop Laduree, we went there for lunch. (I’m sorry for forcing N to have dessert for lunch with me) I had: tarte citron, macaron pommes caramel (sweetened apple and macaron), a mini raspberry macaron and hot chocolate with cream aside. The chocolate was good, macaron a tiny disappointment, citron tart too sugary but I liked the apple. Bought crème brulee from the food hall. It cost just ₤1 something but it’s a real treat.
Around 3 or 4pm we rushed to Westminster Abbey. With the rare blessing from the sun, we took beautiful pictures of the Big Ben. Westminster Abbey! How many times have I read about it? Elizabeth I lay there, with her half-sister, in a tomb. Intriguingly, her arch-rival Mary Queen of Scotland lay just a few meters from her, in a delicately embroidered tomb. What stories lie beneath? Two rivals share the same graveyard.
At the Poets’ Corner I came across some familiar names: Byron, Dickens, Handel, Purcell, Robert Browning (I didn’t really know him), Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. The epitaph on Anthony Trollope’s burial stone read something like he bade adieu to those who cared to read what he had written. Well I’ve swallowed one out of his many novels. Oscar Wilde’s name was there in the windows, but I wasn’t aware.
Because of The Da Vinci Code, we began to look for Newton’s tomb at the Nave. There he was, on the left of the altar, seated on marble with a globe above his head. Who else were there? Winston Churchill, FD Roosevelt and an unknown British soldier killed in the Great War.
The sun has already set when we departed. We then moved to Charing Cross Station and ate at Pizza Express before The Importance of Being Earnest at 7:30. We were upgraded to the last row of the dress circle (we were supposed to sit in the front row of the upper circle) as there were fewer audience than expected.
The actors spoke fast! Had to stay focused to catch what they were saying. I had the advantage of having read the script once (but have forgotten most). I was a bit slow at laughing. Ha ha. The perfect British accent is the best friend to Wilde’s drama for the English upper class. Lady Brecknell and Jack Worthing’s conversation in the first act was just as I envisioned. Now looking at Wilde’s play in live motion, I find the plot lacking – one can easily guess what the ending will be. He just filled the lines with his ingenious wit. The audience was mostly senior citizens. They enjoyed the hilarious lines immensely, bursting into laughter from time to time. During the two intermissions, for it was a three-act play, the audience rushed to get Haagen Dazs ice-cream, selling at ₤3 each and some beverages at the bar.
read more...
We started out early this day, casually strolling in the parks. There it was, Peter Pan’s statue, which brought back memory of the movie “Finding Neverland”. (Oh that would be where Johnny Depp sat writing in the movie!) Hyde Park’s more serene than the Central Park, and less claustrophobic, as it’s not surrounded by skyscrapers or the hustle and bustle. An ideal exercise ground for dogs, and a paradise for dog-lover like me.
After what seemed like a never-ending walk (over-exercise), we finally saw the exit to Buckingham Palace and four horses. The guards in red robe and golden helmet rode past us on handsome horses. We walked on to a crowded plaza. I tried to squeeze in the crowd to catch a glimpse to no avail. People in front of me were just too tall. After 15 minutes or so, finally some movements came. I didn’t stay through the whole guard-changing ceremony. It was windy. The marching band was awesome though, giving their pomp and circumstance music. What I liked most was the horses.
We took the C1 bus to Knightsbridge, getting off one or two stops before as the roads were congested. Didn’t have time to admire the exterior of Harrod’s. We made our way through to the bargain sale section. The ₤1 zone had: diary, coin bags and child PVC bags!
Feeling hungry and curious at the French cake shop Laduree, we went there for lunch. (I’m sorry for forcing N to have dessert for lunch with me) I had: tarte citron, macaron pommes caramel (sweetened apple and macaron), a mini raspberry macaron and hot chocolate with cream aside. The chocolate was good, macaron a tiny disappointment, citron tart too sugary but I liked the apple. Bought crème brulee from the food hall. It cost just ₤1 something but it’s a real treat.
Around 3 or 4pm we rushed to Westminster Abbey. With the rare blessing from the sun, we took beautiful pictures of the Big Ben. Westminster Abbey! How many times have I read about it? Elizabeth I lay there, with her half-sister, in a tomb. Intriguingly, her arch-rival Mary Queen of Scotland lay just a few meters from her, in a delicately embroidered tomb. What stories lie beneath? Two rivals share the same graveyard.
At the Poets’ Corner I came across some familiar names: Byron, Dickens, Handel, Purcell, Robert Browning (I didn’t really know him), Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. The epitaph on Anthony Trollope’s burial stone read something like he bade adieu to those who cared to read what he had written. Well I’ve swallowed one out of his many novels. Oscar Wilde’s name was there in the windows, but I wasn’t aware.
Because of The Da Vinci Code, we began to look for Newton’s tomb at the Nave. There he was, on the left of the altar, seated on marble with a globe above his head. Who else were there? Winston Churchill, FD Roosevelt and an unknown British soldier killed in the Great War.
The sun has already set when we departed. We then moved to Charing Cross Station and ate at Pizza Express before The Importance of Being Earnest at 7:30. We were upgraded to the last row of the dress circle (we were supposed to sit in the front row of the upper circle) as there were fewer audience than expected.
The actors spoke fast! Had to stay focused to catch what they were saying. I had the advantage of having read the script once (but have forgotten most). I was a bit slow at laughing. Ha ha. The perfect British accent is the best friend to Wilde’s drama for the English upper class. Lady Brecknell and Jack Worthing’s conversation in the first act was just as I envisioned. Now looking at Wilde’s play in live motion, I find the plot lacking – one can easily guess what the ending will be. He just filled the lines with his ingenious wit. The audience was mostly senior citizens. They enjoyed the hilarious lines immensely, bursting into laughter from time to time. During the two intermissions, for it was a three-act play, the audience rushed to get Haagen Dazs ice-cream, selling at ₤3 each and some beverages at the bar.
read more...
London Adventure - Part Four
January 23, 2008 (Wed)
We saw some delicate clocks and the cute Lewis Chessmen at a temporary gallery at British Museum. And then the Japanese collection, and an original painting by China’s Gu Kaizhi.
The restaurant "Fifteen" was located near Old Street Station, away from the bustling downtown. We ordered lamb Pappardelle (a kind of broad and flat pasta) and seafood risotto, cooked by Jamie Oliver’s apprentice and chefs. The lamb was yummy.
The walk uphill to Greenwich’s Royal Observatory was painful for exhausted young people, but the Meridian Line and the scenery were worth the sweat. Descending downhill, we reached the Old Royal Navy College, built by Christopher Wren (the same guy who designed St. Paul’s). I was blown out by the Painted Hall (which appeared in the movie Amazing Grace, which I haven’t seen yet). You would believe in the illusionary carvings and decorations on the pillars and window pane, because they looked so real. The ceiling featured the royal family with deities and personifications of the twelve horoscopes. Exquisite. Would’ve been better to visit the hall (which was free) in broad daylight. But it was windy and freezing cold that day.
We then commuted to Piccadilly Circus. There we visited the upscale food retailer Fortnum & Mason, opened in 1707. The packaging of food items was delicate, and the goodies were pricey. The building was old – I feel like going back to the Victorian age. We found a bargain corner and grabbed some nougats with excellent packaging. I bought some shortbread as well.
Time to rush to Victoria station for the musical. We devoured apple pie, raspberry tart and sandwiches from Paul (yes, that French pastry shop again). Our ₤15 tickets sent us to the last row, to the farthest left. Luckily no one sat next to us, so we moved over to the center. The show was truly ‘phenomenal’ (quoting from promotion leaflet)! I won’t offer any spoiler here. At intermission I gasped to my companions, “OMG this show is AWESOME!”. The last song in the first half was “Defying Gravity”, the most well-known song from this musical I guess. The story continued with a little rush in the second half, though, especially toward the end. On the whole it’s as great as the “Cats” I saw in Philly’s Walnut Street Theater. The acting, lighting, costume, singing and songs all live up to the show’s popularity.
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We saw some delicate clocks and the cute Lewis Chessmen at a temporary gallery at British Museum. And then the Japanese collection, and an original painting by China’s Gu Kaizhi.
The restaurant "Fifteen" was located near Old Street Station, away from the bustling downtown. We ordered lamb Pappardelle (a kind of broad and flat pasta) and seafood risotto, cooked by Jamie Oliver’s apprentice and chefs. The lamb was yummy.
The walk uphill to Greenwich’s Royal Observatory was painful for exhausted young people, but the Meridian Line and the scenery were worth the sweat. Descending downhill, we reached the Old Royal Navy College, built by Christopher Wren (the same guy who designed St. Paul’s). I was blown out by the Painted Hall (which appeared in the movie Amazing Grace, which I haven’t seen yet). You would believe in the illusionary carvings and decorations on the pillars and window pane, because they looked so real. The ceiling featured the royal family with deities and personifications of the twelve horoscopes. Exquisite. Would’ve been better to visit the hall (which was free) in broad daylight. But it was windy and freezing cold that day.
We then commuted to Piccadilly Circus. There we visited the upscale food retailer Fortnum & Mason, opened in 1707. The packaging of food items was delicate, and the goodies were pricey. The building was old – I feel like going back to the Victorian age. We found a bargain corner and grabbed some nougats with excellent packaging. I bought some shortbread as well.
Time to rush to Victoria station for the musical. We devoured apple pie, raspberry tart and sandwiches from Paul (yes, that French pastry shop again). Our ₤15 tickets sent us to the last row, to the farthest left. Luckily no one sat next to us, so we moved over to the center. The show was truly ‘phenomenal’ (quoting from promotion leaflet)! I won’t offer any spoiler here. At intermission I gasped to my companions, “OMG this show is AWESOME!”. The last song in the first half was “Defying Gravity”, the most well-known song from this musical I guess. The story continued with a little rush in the second half, though, especially toward the end. On the whole it’s as great as the “Cats” I saw in Philly’s Walnut Street Theater. The acting, lighting, costume, singing and songs all live up to the show’s popularity.
read more...
London Adventure - Part Three
Exhausting day. Four hours to and four hours back from Oxford had drained the energy out of us. We didn’t have much time there. Luckily tourist spots are compacted in Oxford. The students at Christ Church had just finished lunch at the famed Dining Hall when we arrived. I wondered what it would’ve felt like to dine there with the portraits of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I staring down at you. Must’ve felt fabulous. We had some stroll in the colleges to look for funny stone gargoyles that we saw in the postcards. Left Oxford at 4pm.
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