A day out in London

Are you keeping up with my blog? I seem to be writing every day now! Lots of new things to write about.

Yesterday we had a day at home recovering from our very very long day out the day before. We left home at 10 in the morning and got home at 11 that night. But I must add that it takes an hour with the train to get to London from where we're staying and we don't plan to live much closer to the city at the moment. I will miss being able to go into town for a night out. In Switzerland it took us only 15 minutes with the train to Zürich and we didn't live in the city then either.

We were in the UK 18months ago for a few days holiday and Andre showed me some of the sights in London then. So this time I said, let's just walk and see what we see. I didn't want to have to search for places and follow maps. So we just walked. And walked. And walked.

We first went to meet a friend who we stayed with last time we were here. We had coffee together and chatted for a bit until he had to get back to work. Then Andre and I went to Hamleys, a huge toy store, since we were right there.

We wanted to have sushi for lunch and while searching for a sushi restaurant we happened to walk through China Town.

A little way from that we found a sushi restaurant that looked nice and shared a light lunch.

Then we headed to the German embassy. I have to go there next month to renew my passport so I wanted to make sure I know where to go. It was easy to find and right by Hyde Park. So afterwards we bought ice creams and strolled trough the park. It was my first time in Hyde Park and it was really beautiful. Especially since it was such a perfect sunny day. Even warm at times!

At this stage I was getting a bit tired and kept trying to head over to a bench for a rest. I even suggested sitting on the grass for a while, but Andre wanted to go take pictures here and there and everywhere and then remembered about a shop selling rollerblades so off we went again!

We didn't do any shopping. Andre just bought a TinTin book at this shop:

He has started a TinTin collection.

By this time it was home time for the working people in London and we decided not to get squashed on the trains and instead wait until after rush hour. I had to sit down so we decided to stay in town for dinner and go to Brick Lane for curry. Which meant a little bit more walking and a train ride.

Brick Lane is an area where I assume also many Indian people live. There you will find one curry house (restaurant) after another and they all have someone standing outside each door trying to get you inside by offering specials on meals or a free beer etc. It was impossible to pick one. We walked down the road for a bit and then just picked one randomly. The curry was great. You don't have to go to Brick Lane to get the best curry but it was an interesting experience. Here is a website with more info and a quote from this website:

Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London, site of a Sunday market, heart of the city's Bangladeshi community, former heart of the city's Jewish community, and before that, of its Huguenot community. The 'curry houses' of Brick Lane are known for their cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry house itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims).