Having gotten back late the night before, we awoke late, and went across the street to Daylesford’s an upmarket combination of the Pasta Shop and Oliveto, with everything organic, free-range and made by hand. We had delicious yogurts and fruit plus toast and coffee, all the while watching the parade of contractors pull up at the Travis Perkins building supply place, where the crews doing renovations in local homes came to get supplies, rather like Home Depot. This neighborhood is filled with designer shops of all types, antiques to modern, even one from the 18th century. By the time we were eating, well after 9:00am, the place was all slender, mostly blonde women between 25-45, very well dressed, most wearing huge gold watches, and I’ve never seen so many Birken bags in one place in my life.
We went back to get ready to go out, and saw that the door to St. Barnabas was open across the way. We went inside, and found this lovely and unique church, built in Early English style in the mid-19th century, one of the only churches in London which is home to both Anglican and Catholic services. The caretaker was there and invited us in, said we could take photos. It’s a lovely little place, beautifully decorated with statues and artwork and wood choir and altar. Earlier in the morning we had seen the children arriving for the first say of school, and what was so interesting was that at least 10-15 of the mothers were wearing hijab, seeing their children off to a Church of England school. The ethnic diversity of the school – probably only 20% Caucasian - reminded me of the Oakland Catholic schools.
Off we go on the #11 to Westminster station, where we finally got a map, and walked around the Parliament building. We transferred to the train to Waterloo and walked to Southbank Centre, an arts center, very lively, for lunch with my colleague Greg Klerkx, formerly of the SETI institute.
I had not seen Greg for 8 years, when he was on tour for his first book. His little girl is now 11 years old, a talented musician, and both he and his wife, also a writer, are doing well. Besides his new novel, he leads educational coaching programs and also produces new works by spoken word artists. It was great to catch up, and our conversation ranged from the differences between American and British public schools to magnetism to the fundraising pyramid. It was such a pleasure to see him, and that he is thriving in London.
We jump on the Thames Clipper to Greenwich to see the restored Cutty Sark. The catamaran is fast, but not quite fast enough to get us there before the last group is allowed in. Disappointed, I try to convince Barney to dash through the open exit gate so we can see the boat, but his sense of self-preservation and not getting hauled off by the police prevails, and we satisfy ourselves by taking some photos from the outside.
Walking a few blocks into Greenwich we got the to Maritime Museum, which was closing in 20 minutes. We strolled by the ticket booth but no one seemed worried that we did not have a ticket, but we got to see some wonderful figureheads, a model of the ship that sank the Bismark in WWII, and Prince Frederick’s gold ceremonial barge.
Best of all, we saw a special exhibit on Admiral Nelson, a giant hero in a British history. On display was the uniform he was wearing when he was killed, with the hole made by the musket ball still clear on the shoulder of his uniform.
Walking further to the train station, we took a larger (non-Tube) train back to London, exiting at the very busy Cannon station, as the end of a busy workday brought a torrent of workers into the station, and we felt like we were swimming upstream. It reminded me a bit of the Embarcadero Bart station at 5:30 but about 5 times more crowded.
It was early evening and we were getting hungry, so off we went by train to Oxford Circus, walked down Carnaby Street, and tried to get Into Flat Iron, a place Madeleine and Paul had gone with Natasha. Since they had a 2-1/2 hour wait, we walked on and found the wonderful Whyte and Brown, which specializes in chicken and craft beers. Barney’s open-faced club was good, so was his ginger beer and pale ale. My marinated grilled chicken sandwich with cheddar and bacon and caramelized leeks was fantastic, exceeded only by the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever had, perfectly crisp and with small chunks of chorizo, feta and coriander. My Dirty Stop Out 5% toasted oat stout was spectacular. And we brought home a bottle of their Reveller cider.
Back to The Orange, packing up to leave on the train tomorrow for King’s Lynn in Norfolk, we’ll soon bid farewell to London.
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