On our last legs in London

So today marked our final day in London, England.  We had planned on getting up late and heading into London at around noon, but, instead we ended up catching the 10 o'clock train to Waterloo.  The last to-do item on our trip to England was the Tower of London.  I had been here before but it was Tyler's first time, and I wanted him  to see the crown jewels.  Upon arriving at Waterloo station, we took the Jubilee underground line to the London Bridge Station, then walked over the Thames and on to the Tower of London.  By this time the weather was beautiful.  It was about 75 degrees and sunny, its finally starting to feel like summer!! After buying our tickets (student prices but still expensive) we headed into the tower.  We visited the bloody tower, torture chamber and a few other sights inside the London Tower.

Courtyard in the Tower of London

Iconic Raven

After we did a little bit of exploring we spotted the beefeater guard stationed outside of the crown jewels.  Since they aren't allowed to smile, Tyler and I decided to imitated him and grabbed a photo.

Beefeater

Next we decided that it was about time to check out the crown jewels. The line was giant so we decided to grab an ice cream...flavored clotted cream and blackcurrant!  The crown jewels were more interesting for me this time around because I was able to clearly see their value.  The amount of gold and jewels on the crowns and staffs was more than I had ever seen.

Clotted cream and blackcurrant ice cream

After seeing the jewels, we decided that it was necessary to grab a photo with the Tower Bridge before we headed out.

Tower Bridge

 Next we headed towards St Pauls Cathedral.  We were absolutely starving and were searching for a pub or cafe to grab a bite to eat.  Unfortunately to our shock, most of the places seemed to be closed on Sundays.  I think that the most common cafes that were closed were EAT and Pret.  However, after walking for about an hour, we came to a Pret that was actually open!! yay food!  The first foods that stood out to us was a Greek salad with chicken, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and balsamic vinaigrette, and a avocado herb wrap.  Both of these dishes were shared and very much enjoyed.  I got a grape-elder-flower juice and Tyler got a vanilla yogurt drink.  They were also very good.

Grape-elderflower juice, vanilla smoothie, salad and wrap

Avocado herb wrap

After continuing along the road (we were heading towards the marble arch) Tyler and I got thirsty and stopped in a Marks and Spencer to use the toilet and grab another drink.   This time it was a vanilla bean and maple syrup smoothie.  This thing was like a meal.  It was very refreshing and fresh.

 After we got to the marble arch we met with a friend and went to a pub called Weatherspoons.  Here I had a cider and Tyler had a Newcastle.  After, we had our drinks, we began making our way back to Waterloo. We took the red line (central I think) from the Marble Arch to Bank Station.  From there we walked to the Millennium Bridge.  Here we dropped off our second lock!  In the background you can also see the Shard, but it isn't visible in this photo.  Another random fact, this bridge was the bridge that was used in the fifth Harry Potter film.

Lock on the Millennium Bridge

Once we got back to Waterloo station, we had about half an hour before our train left, so we decided to grab a quick snack.  The healthiest and quickest food that we could find was Mexican, at a shop called Mi Casa Burritos.  We got a simple salad with grilled veggies, sour cream and guacamole.  This is our comfort food.  We had a great last day in London and hope to one day return.

Mexican Salad

By the way.  The title of this post has to do with the fact that our legs are dead tired after the massive amount of walking we did today!

Fish and chips taste just as good in the pub

Another day full of walking, and culinary exploration!  The only drawback is me forgetting my camera through most the day..  Whoops

Ice cream flavors

We took a nice long walk from Hannah's grandparents house to the Guildford high street, which was about 30 minutes to get down there.  We had had in mind for a long time to get some of the ice cream here, considering that Hannah tells me the ice cream here is great.  So after a long time of walking around we found a little place which makes it's own ice cream and sells them in little tubs.  We got these two flavors, the clotted cream was a given that we had to get and honeycombe hash just sounded good in general.  Both were excellent, nice and creamy and refreshing for our long walk back home!

The restaurant we ate at

 We made it back home and found that Hannah's uncle and cousins had come over.  They were getting ready to go out for lunch so naturally we tagged along.  We went to a restaurant that was included into a hotel.  It had some nice outdoor seating as you can see above, but it was a little to bright out for that today.

More clean plates!

As I warned earlier, I forgot to take pictures of this one!!  Oh well..  Hannah got an Italian mushroom and chicken rosatto salad, which was very good and fresh, and had a nice dressing which I took particular interest in!  It also was accompanied by some toasted bread with herbs and butter which was very warm and tasty.  I got the fish and chips just because they are awesome.  And what did they taste like? Fish, with a side of chips, nothing special, nothing bad.  Fish and potatoes.

"Wicked" mixed vodka

 We went back home and walked down to the newsagents to try a few alcohol products that we had been curious about, as all young people are.  Above you can see what looks like Windex in a glass bottle, but it is actually very good!  It tasted just like a berry soda, and I couldn't even taste the vodka (which can be dangerous for a long night of drinking).

On the left was Crabbie's alcoholic ginger beer, which I can say, was terrible!  Ginger with actual BEER does not go well together at all.  It was like a spicy drink of God-knows-what slithering down my throat, which the aftertaste of robitussin cough syrup.  The right drink was delicious. Coconut rum with coke is a splendid and refreshing taste :)

More London next!

Arundel Castle

The Moathouse Cafe

 In another day of being busy in England, we took a day trip to Arundel with Hannah's grandparents.  Arundel is a town near the south coast famous for it's medieval castle owned by the Duke of Norfolk.  We started our day with the drive through the country, which was about 90 minutes.  By the time we got down there it was time for some lunch, so we went into the local cafe for a bite to eat!

Panini lunch

 Along with a few cappuccinos, we got a few paninis.  Hannah got tomato and mozzarella, and I got brie and cranberry.  Both came with a bit of coleslaw, veggies, and crisps (chips in American).  Both paninis were very good and very cheesy!  They seemed different to American ones that we've had, but still a good bite to eat before walking around for a while.  One thing we would have changed was the coleslaw too.  I'm not sure if it is the norm over here to have slaw that is made up of larger chunks , but I much prefer it more shredded like it is back in the US.

Brie and cranberry, followed by mozzarella and tomato

Our favorite sight

Going up the stairs to the toilets we saw an advertisement for one of our favorite things on the planet...

Arundel Castle

 Moving along, we went to the castle gates to buy our tickets, which included access to most of the castle to visit.  It was a nice walk up to the castle to see everything (quite similar to Schloss Neuschwanstein last summer in Germany), and we showed our tickets and walked right in.  The only problem to this was that there were no pictures allowed at all inside!  So I'll tell you what was inside: plenty of stairs!  There were lots of stairs to go up and down along with plenty of rooms and chapels to get lost in.  Some of the rooms were actually quite modernized, considering that the Duke of Norfolk still uses the castle on occasion for a nice little vacation (not a bad place to do so).  There was also a very good collection old armaments and armor.  A tour well worth 18 pounds!

Fountain spitting green goo

 Walking around outside in the grounds we were able to take some pictures.  Walking along we discovered a very obscure fountain of an animal that I'm not entirely sure about spitting out some green water.  Hmm..

Gardens

 The grounds were massive, and we were able to kill some time in them before we had to meet up with the grandparents.

The southern coast

 So we went down south a little further for a visit to Worthing, which is right on the coast of the ocean.  We took a nice short walk up and down the beach (it was pretty cold), and were able to walk up and down the pier once and get a few shots, but we were rushing over to our next venue, fish and chips!!

 We drove around town a little and found a fish and chips restaurant that Hannah's family had been to before called the fish factory.  I had had fish and chips here once before and it surpassed my expectations, so I was looking forward to this one as well!

Traditional cod and chips

 I had some tea with mine, since it tasted so good with the first one.  I could definitely tell that this fish was very fresh, given that it was in a place right on the coast, and that on the menu it had the names of the boats that caught the fish :)  Very good fish!  I got rock salmon which was less traditional than the cod that Hannah got, but it was actually very close to the taste of the cod.  Hannah and I were very big on the chips though!!  We were dipping those beautiful things in everything, the ketchup, the tartar, and even these mushy peas!

Mushy peas

As a side dish, we ordered mushy peas, something that I knew was traditional to England.  This is something I've always wanted to try, and Hannah recommended them.  They were amazing!  They had a lovely texture, and I plan on getting them again!

Next up we are heading to London one last time!

Portsmouth: A place to get cream tea disguised as a naval base

 Today the weather was nice and warm and we took a drive down to the south coast to a place called Portsmouth, which is traditionally known as the home of the Royal Navy.  There is a rich amount of history here (liked by me a little more than Hannah), as you can see just by the buildings when walking around the area meant for tourists.  Along with the tourist area there is also an active RN base here with some modern ships that call this place their port. Some of the main attractions here include the HMS Victory, which is the warship that Lord Nelson won the war against Napoleon in, the HMS Warrior, which was the world's first ironclad ship, and the Mary Rose, which is a wreckage from the 16th century that is still being preserved and was brought up from the bottom of the harbor.

(Sadly no pictures of this) We parked the car and walked down to the main drag on harbor, where there were places to eat including pubs, fish and chips, and some places on the seaside for ice cream and such.  We chose a pub, mainly because I didn't feel like I had finished my exploration of traditional British food :) I had a pint of the local brew and Hannah got a pear J20, which is a juice drink, really rather good stuff.  The beer was nice.  One thing I like about the beer over here is that it is served flat, without the fizzyness that you get from the American crap.  Really smooth to drink.  Hannah got a vegetarian paella, which was a ricey and tomato-tasting dish with loads of other veggies inside.  I had a bite or two and enjoyed it.  I got a very traditional dish called beef and ale pie, kind of like a pot pie british style.  It went very good with the beer and the gravy it was smothered in really hit the spot.  With this we were ready to hit the sights!

HMS Victory gun deck

 We made our way first to the HMS Victory, which is likely the most popular ship to see, given that it is commonly referred to the flagship of the Royal Navy.  This place was fun to walk around.  In some areas you couldn't help but feel like a gunpowder covered drunken sailor in one of Nelson's crews.  The guns seemed to be purely authentic, and very heavy indeed.  You were able to pick up cannon balls which weighed about as much as a child (one can only imagine what it was like to throw em around like they had to in the Battle of Trafalgar), and see some of the tools that they used to amputate people's arms and legs after they got battered up..  Anyways this was a great little detour from what we had seen for the past couple weeks and walking around the ship really was pretty awesome :)

HMS Warrior, first ironclad ship

 The next ship we were able to tour was the HMS Warrior, which was the world's first ironclad ship.  This ship was left wrecked on the Falkland Islands before fairly recently when it was hauled back to England and restored into its beauty you see here.  Obviously walking around one could see the improvements in technology in this ship not included in the last, mainly including a steam engine, and plenty more space (this ship was quite LONGG).  This was another sight to see and it was funny how Hannah and I both noticed that one of the rooms smelt just like root beer, and another one of the rooms smelt like cream soda :/  Strange..

And everyone said... AMEN

Walking off of the Warrior, we had a little bit of time to kill before our tour of the Mary Rose, so we stumbled upon a familiar and highly drool-inducing sight: CREAM....TEA.  Needless to say we took full advantage of that and ordered it right up (8 pounds for the both of us, whereas at Harrods it was 15 pounds per person, do the math).  This was my favorite cream tea so far when it comes to the scones.  They were a lovely buttery and fruity flavor, and the clotted cream was nice and cold this time around which I was particularly fond of.  When it comes to the tea, I can say I've had better.  It wasn't the flavor at all, to me all English tea is similar, but it was the fact that we only got one small cup and not a pot between us.  So if you take portion of tea out of the picture, then you can say this was the best cream tea so far :)

The reassuring sight of clotted cream

Mary Rose wreckage being restored

Next we were on to the Mary Rose tour, which was going to be the last stop of the day.  This ship was very different.  It was discovered at the bottom of the harbor in 1982, where it was watered down constantly with a preserving fluid for 30 years, and it was finished with this process just earlier this year, which was when the exhibit was opened.  This ship was owned by King Henry VIII, and capsized during a battle with the French in the 16th century.  This ship had many MANY little trinkets discovered along with it which were kept perfectly preserved by being under the silt on the seabed for hundreds of years.  The collection housed many tools, clothes, and even some human skulls that were preserved just fine, and for one skeleton they even had a wax reconstructed body that I found rather creepy..  Meandering around for some time we were able to see the decks of the remains of the ship, which were drying from the watering and will be able to stand on in the next 6 years or so.

After this last tour we headed back to where we were staying in Guildford, but along the way we stopped at a McDonalds (totally a piece of British tradition), because I felt that I had to try one of the plain burgers to see if it really does taste the same all around the world.  It does :)  A big thing in Britain too is Coronation Chicken, and at this McDonalds they had a coronation chicken snack wrap, which I got for Hannah to try, given that she's had the actual dish a number of times before.  She liked it.  I thought it was pretty good too considering it was my first bite of it ever :)  More to come soon!

Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and more cream

 Day 2 in London!  Tyler and I were very glad because the forecast called for sunny, warm weather.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't that great, it was warm enough, but it was fairly cloudy...Anyway, we took the train from Guildford into London at around 9:40 am, arriving in London at just after 10.  Our first item on the agenda was the London Eye.  This iconic Ferris wheel is 135 meters tall with a great view of London and the Thames river.  We had a flexi-fast track pass, so we were able to board in about 10 minutes, but the line was long and it would've taken about an hour if we hadn't have bought the other tickets.  The whole round trip was 45 minutes, and we very much enjoyed getting to look down on London.  The only con about this ride on the wheel was that there was an annoying little kid (american ironically) who was very loud and obnoxious.

Tyler and I at the top

Big Ben and the London skyline

We were able to see the whole of the London skyline.  Although it was a little foggy, it was still nice to see as much as we did.  Next, we crossed over Westminster bridge to Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square.  Since neither I, nor Tyler had been inside of Westminster Abbey, we were willing to pay the fee to get inside and take a look around the amazing abbey.  There were the tombs of many kings, queens and royalty.  In addition, we got to see some memorials for Issac Newton and Charles Darwin.  I also thought that seeing the coronation chair was a highlight.

Westminster Abbey

After we left Westminster Abbey, we walked along the road towards Trafalgar Square, passing by Downing street where I believe David Cameron, the prime minister resides.  As we were walking, the sun began shining, and it began to feel like summer.  Right before we got to Trafalgar Square, we both were hit with a wave of hunger, so the search for food began.  

After a few minutes of searching, we came across a McDonalds...But, no, we didn't eat here, next door we found a pub, and decided on getting a traditional meal.  At first it was the pesto mozzarella burger that caught Tylers eye, but I recommended we order something more traditionally British.  Having said that we ordered a hummus and bread dish, which was delicious, and bangers and mash.  I was really surprised to find out that Tyler had never heard of this dish, because I had grown up with this familiar term. So, for those of you who don't know, bangers and mash is sausages and mashed potatoes.  For the drinks, Tyler had a Guinness, one of his favorites, and I settled with a strawberry and lime cider, which tasted like juice.  Overall we were very pleased with our choice.

Hannah with the cider and Guinness

Hummus and bread on left, bangers and mash on right

After we left the pub, we went into a souviner shop next door to ask for directions to Harrods.  Originally, we were going to go to Harrods on a different day, but we decided that it would be fun to go today.  The lady at the souviner shop recommended that we take a bus straight to Kensington (where Harrods is located), but we wanted the exercise and also wanted to see Buckingham Palace.  So, from Trafalgar Square we headed towards Buckingham Palace.  When we got there there was a line of smartly dressed people outside, so there must have been an event, so we quickly took our photographs and scrammed.  

Outside Buckingham Palace

From Buckingham Palace we walked through Green Park, to Hyde Park Corner.  Then we realized that it was a straight shot from Hyde Park Corner to Harrods.  By this time the sun was blaring down on us and we began feeling tired, weak and began getting very moody.  Luckily we reached Harrods and began walking around the wealth of luxurious items.

Outside of Harrods

When we got inside, the first thing that we began looking for were the bathrooms.  Luckily we found some and they were called the "luxurious toilets".  I can see why because the womens bathroom had an array of perfumes next to the sink and the whole room was very clean.  When we left the restrooms, Tyler noticed a cigar room, so we just had to pay a visit in there.  He ended up getting 5 cigars, but although we were in Harrods, the cigars were not overly expensive.  Next we began looking for a place to sit and rest our legs and possibly a place to grab a bite to eat.  We walked among many of Harrods food courts, but still couldn't find anywhere to eat.  We were however able to grab a photo of a very familiar sight...BUBBLE TEA.  We didn't get any because they were very pricey, but we were very glad to see that they had made their way into Harrods.

BUBBLE TEA

On our search to find a bite to eat we came across a tea room rightly named "the Tea Room" next to the gift section on the second floor.  Tyler and I were feeling like tea, so we headed inside.  Although this was a very expensive "bite to eat" it was definitely worth it because of the experience.  Tyler ordered the Belgravia which consisted of a pot of tea with a selection of 5 "tea fancies".  I on the other hand ordered the Chelsea, which is just a traditional pot of tea and 2 scones with clotted cream and jam.  I had the vanilla tea and Tyler had the afternoon tea.  Hoping for a unique flavor Tyler was a bit disappointed because it tasted just like PG tips (traditional British tea)

Tea for 2

Belgravia (5 tea fancies)

Scones with clotted cream (the Chelsea)

 After we were full and happy we continued our trip around London.  Since our feet and legs were starting to give way to our tiredness, we opted on taking the underground from Knights-bridge station to the Piccadilly Circus station.  We were pleased that this was quick and painless.  We popped up in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and walked around, then walked to Leicester Square, then walked to Covent Gardens and grabbed a cold drink (mango smoothie) from a restaurant called "EAT."

 From there, we headed back to Waterloo, and took the train to Guildford.  When we got home we were welcomed with a chicken sandwich with piccalilli and pickles!  A special shout out and thank you to my Grandma and Grandpa for making us some lovely sandwiches and thank you to my Grandpa for mapping out our route around London!!

Us, our smoothie, and the London Eye

Guildford: Beautiful, old, England

It was time for us to move to another place to stay, and that just happened to be the historic little city of Guildford.  On first impression I rather enjoyed the sight of this place.  It was in the middle of some lovely roaming hills spotted with trees, which reminded me strangely of home in Washington..  We met up with the relatives of Hannah's we were going to be staying with and then continued to take a little tour of this lovely place.  We walked up and down the high street (which has one of the only cobble stone high streets in England) which has a nice amount of clothes shopping and also some treats to try someday.  We popped in and out of a few shops and it got about time for some tea, and along with tea we felt like a few treats!

Best tea time ever!

 We went to a place called Bill's (which was apparently haunted along with pretty much every other building around here) where they had a serious afternoon tea offering for about 10 pounds a person.  This is a fair price considering how much they give you!  Every pair of people gets a rack of little desserts and sandwiches, which amounts to 8 assorted finger sandwiches (among the likes of egg and cress, salmon and cream cheese, cucumber, and a ham one I believe), 4 pastries, and two scones with clotted cream and jam (YES).  This was no doubt the best tea time of my life...  I almost forgot to mention that we also drank tea with it of course!

Guildford Castle

 Walking around more of Guildford it is hard to miss the castle that it is known by.  This old place has ruins all over the middle of the town which is characterized by a very quiet and well groomed park.   I really enjoyed this walk through the old place, especially since the weather had finally given way to a little sunlight!

 We went along walking through Guildford for another hour or so before we got back in the car and were brought to another park, very open, very secluded like, and very beautiful.  It was on the slope of a hill which had a great view of not only the city, but you could almost see as far as the sea past the hills.  We strolled along this beautiful place for a good 20 minutes, taking in the quietness of the environment along with a good walk to work off all that we had indulged in during tea.

Up next: London part II!