Thursday was a normal day minus the massive headache I was nursing from the previous night’s adventure with the Royal boys… Suzanne and I decided it would be a good night to do another of the London Walks so we met up after work at the Monument tube stop to join the rest of the tour. The walk was based on Undiscovered London and had three pub stops along the way which was great. For those who don’t know about the Monument, it was built in remembrance of the great fire. If you were to turn it on its side directly down the street it sits on, the top portion would fall right on to the point on Pudding Lane where the fire began.
As the tour continues, we caught up on much of the lesser known stories of London as well as learned about the difference between cask beer and keg beer. They actually have a different word for a keg but I can’t think of what that is at the moment. Our tour guide recommended a variety of the different ales at each pub which we then felt obligated to test. While it is my understanding that the cask beers are often the darker beers, and I only drink the light ones, I did find one noted as a blond in the first pub. It had to be the darkest light beer I have ever drunk, but it was really good so I recommend you all try one if you get the chance.
From the tour, we headed back to my neck of the woods and hit my local Arabic restaurant for some late night shish taook. That was definitely a great ending to a fun night out.
Friday was less exciting. We were both tired from staying out way to late the two previous nights so we just did dinner at a local Indian restaurant and then headed home. We decided to get off one stop prior to my house and walk down Sloane Street to look in the windows. This is where all the high end stores are located; Gucci, Prada, Cartier, etc.
As we were walking down the street, we heard a crowd cheering. At first, we figured it was a late night soccer game or something in one of the gardens. As we approached the crowd, we realized it was just a group of people yelling up at a hotel window. At this, we knew there had to be a celebrity near by and we had to join. We joined the group and found out that they were cheering for Michael. I think you all know who that is without listing the surname. While no one ever really saw anything, there was a child who kept popping up in the window. We took this to be his son Prince playing a bad joke on the crowd. After about 30 seconds, the scene got boring so we decided that was a great ending to a very lazy day.
Here is a review of the walk we did on Thursday evening if you are interested in more reading:
THE “UNDISCOVERED LONDON” PUB WALK
To travel rather than be packaged – that’s the name of the game. And here’s the walk. It’s one you go on because you want to see where it takes you. Because you really do want to discover. Because you want to see the London the hordes never get to see: old dockyards and twisty, crookbacked little alleys and pubs that are the real McCoy – London versions of “Cheers”. Let alone the most heart-stopping view of the whole sweep of the river and its ancient city – all the more special because the last Londoners to walk along this stretch of the Thames would have been wearing periwigs, breeches, and buckle-shoes…and carrying snuff boxes. Yes, that’s right, it’s been 300 years since people were last able to go where we’re going this evening. Cheers indeed!
