Day 15, Friday, September 15th: A Full Day in London
No pigeons cooing, no cows mooing, dogs barking and no smell of distant manure during our night in the hotel. It's good to be back in the city!! We have a king size bed that is very comfortable and a coolish (temperature and decor) room. We wake up to a sunny sky with a predicted high of 25 degrees with mostly sun and some clouds. We shower and head downstairs to the free breakfast in the Library Room.
Map of Central London
Our hotel is the Marriott County Hall located right at the south foot of Westminster Bridge. It's a great location despite being really busy with tourists everywhere. This is a high traffic area being right down by the water and close to the London Eye.
Mascot for Din Tai Fung Restaurant chain. Cute!
Not in a big rush today so not down to the Library for our free breakfast until around 09:00. We had a window seat looking out upon the Thames river. The breakfast was excellent. My only complaint was it took more than 30 minutes for our hot plates to arrive. I believe they forgot about that order until one of them saw that we had eaten our cold plates a loooong time ago. We did not take photos of our hot plates consisting of Lana's English Breakfast and my American Pancakes.
Lana's main task for today was to get to Hanro to purchase some clothing. It was about a forty minute walk that took us through St. James Park and into the Mayfair neighbourhood which as per the map above is mostly west and a little north. It was fun to walk in the city again and a long walk in good weather. While Lana was in the store I sat outside and did some quality people watching. This area reminds me of Soho in NY City. Hip stores with lofts above and no cars.
What should we do next? I had researched the London Mithraeum located in central London. In order to get there from Mayfair we need to walk to the local Tube station and then take one of the lines near to the site and navigate on foot from there. Fortunately, we are using Lana's Google Maps app as this ancient city is not on the grid system like the majority of North American cities. In fact some intersections converge more than two streets! We actually walked by the place and then double-backed to find it between two larger entrances.
I knew that there was no entry charge for this exhibit. It is also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook and was discovered in 1954. The entire site was relocated after discovery to permit the new buildings. It is the most famous 20th Century Roman discovery in the city. I am really interested in Roman history. The ancient Romans that followed this cult were men and it lasted for a couple of hundred years. A really great exhibit with good use of technology. It is on three levels and in the lowest level is a re-creation of what this dark temple looked like. We learned a lot and enjoyed our time spent here.
London Mithraeum pic taken from the opposite end to the statue.
OK, I have always wanted to go to a rare and ancient book store. Lana googles some ideas and we try to find the highest rate store and as close as possible. Lana locates Marlborough Rare Book Store not too far away by walking, but it takes us forever to locate it. It is down a very narrow lane and then into a nondescript building with no identifier. I see a tag on the buzzer with its name, but nobody answers. When we check online it is "by appointment only".
I locate another highly rated rare book store: Maggs Bros. Ltd. Lana checks her google maps and it is in the Mayfair neighbourhood. It requires a walk to Bank Tube station and then a five minute walk from there. We enter the Monument Station and walk at least ten minutes in the underground to Bank Station. Phew.... Plus, it is super hot and humid in the tube today. I think the effort was worth it as I really enjoyed the time spent browsing these ancient books and speaking with two of the guys running the store. We speak with Ben whose wife is from Ontario and he recommended a book store in Vancouver that Lana ironically had done business with due to her collection Alfred Hitchcock The Three Investigators series where some of her books from childhood required repairs. Small world! Later, I discovered that Ben's last name if Maggs and this store has been in business since 1853.
It is on two floors. Thousands of books and the oldest I found was from the 1500s. Wow! I told myself to handle each book very delicately. The owners were so enthusiastic about their books. Quite a diverse collection. The prices are within the books and in the first couple of pages and some are in the thousands of Pounds. I think the cheapest I saw was 250 Pounds? I am hoping to experience another rare and ancient bookstore sometime in the future.
Lana was wanting to get to Din Tai Fung for a late lunch. We had a lot of food at breakfast, but our dinner reservation was for 18:00 tonight so we need something to tide us over. Din Tai Fung is a favourite for Lana when she was working years ago in Bellevue, Washington so she didn't want to miss a chance to go back. A Londoner described the place as the 'best Chinese food in the world'. It was a fifteen minute walk and lots of tables available. We had three dishes and they were superb. The dishes we did not photograph were Dry Noodles with house sauce and Honey & Vinegar Spareribs.
Oh yeah, if you are visiting London no need to worry about whether to tip? Your bill will include an extra 12.5% gratuity.
Lana's next shopping foray was to Rituals where she bought some shower gel. I chose to sit at Covent Garden and watch the buskers. These buskers are really well organized based on the fact in addition to their hat for cash/coins they have credit card readers!
We returned to our hotel room and I am already over 16,000 steps and 8 floors. Lana has finally received her lost package as it was in our room! She is super happy that it is not lost somewhere in the hotel or County Hall. She has time to relax on the bed while I update our blog for today. Our next adventure is out for dinner to Hunan with our friends Tina and Adrian (no kids this time) so a double-date. We are meeting up at 15:35.
Tina and Adrian have walked to our hotel and across the Westminster Bridge and into the Westminster tube station. It is a beautiful night and the area is full of fellow tourists as we try to weave in and out of the crowd. After arriving at the destination tube station we are above ground in the Chelsea area of London and find Hunan fairly easily using the Maps app. Our friends have not been to this Chinese restaurant.
The unique theme or approach of Hunan is you do not order or pick the food. The chef/restaurant makes that decision. You could describe it as a tasting 'menu' with no menu. You can order your drinks of course. This should be a foodie experience. For sure it is Chinese food, but with a twist on every dish. They ask if you have any allergies or foods you do not like to eat and they take it from there. We are there eating and drinking from 18:05 until 21:40 so that is a long meal. For certain a unique experience filled with dishes that each require a description as they are placed on our table. Lana counted 24 different dishes and has the photos to prove it. We are not sharing all those photos here...
Steamed shrimp stuffed with spinach.
After our memorable meal we are outside and it is a beautiful night for a stroll to the tube station. We arrive back at the hotel around 22:10 and say goodbye to Tina and Adrian who need to get home and let their babysitter leave. We did a lot of walking today and the stats show: 20,500 steps and 13 floors. A productive day in London with lots of walking, exploring and finishing with a fine meal with good friends.
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