Londonna & the End of Europe

It just occurred to me I never posted about London, the place I was looking forward to visiting the most.  I didn't have internet there (not for lack of wifi, but because my iphone stopped seeing wireless, which is a major pain when it's the only connection to home) so I couldn't post except from Bill's computer, which I did once.  The countryside was lovely, we visited castles and had fish & chips and bubble & squeak (it's a real thing!  Granny Joan laughed at me when I exclaimed that while looking at the menu) and while walking down the lane one evening we passed a horse pasture, and while we were standing there one of the horses came across the yard to say hello.  We pet its nose and I fed it a clover and it licked my hand, and I was giggling like a child all the while.  The epitome of English country living.

We took the train friday morning into London, and went to the Tate, which I liked, except that they seem to have crammed all their content (which is excellent) into about half the space (which is a refurbed factory or something) so there are paintings all over the walls, some of which are too high up to even see easily.  We walked a lot just like in olden times (the beginning of our trip) and went to all the tourist places, including the London bridge (rather unimpressive), the tower of london (crown jewels!), and that bridge in harry potter that the dementors fly over. I've never been unafraid of walking over bridges for some reason, and tristan repeatedly telling me the dementors were coming to shake people off the bridge, and that they have to close it sometimes IRL for high winds didn't help any.  We took a double decker bus, one of the old-school ones, which apparently are only for spanish-speaking (shouting, really) tourists.

We stayed at tristan's other uncle Crispin's house, with his wife & ADORABLE baby kitten Kato.  Kato chased bugs and ran around like crazy the whole time, but if you pick him up he goes limp and you can flop him upside down and rub his belly.  I've never met a cat that liked being upside down or loved belly rubs so much as this one.  Our last night abroad Crispin suggested this Parisian steak restaurant that had a branch in london, so we decided to go despite the 20£ per person price tag.  We waited in line when they opened (restaurants in london tended to have a 'siesta' hour or two between lunch & dinner) which was already around the corner.  We were seated, and the waitress came over and asked if we were ready to order.  We told her we hadn't got menus yet, to which she replied "well we only have one thing... it's steak and chips."  Uh... okay, I guess we're ready to order.  Like tristan said, she should have come over and said "It is now time to order!" We got mediums (no medium-rare or medium-well, even though they only make one thing) and house wine, which was pretty good.  We didn't eat lunch in preparation for this night, which was a good thing.  After the first smallish portion the couple at the table next to us got seconds, which we did too shortly after, and let me tell you I ate every bite.  This was the absolute best steak I have ever had, thanks to their amazing secret sauce, which I swear they should bottle and sell, because I would buy it by the case.  This meal made me only one tiny smidgen below how happy I was after I ate that belgian waffle, and that's saying something.  Best. Meal. Ever.  And guess what, they have one in new york!!

While I'm sitting here writing this and deciding what to have for lunch (cereal or yogurt? all I have is dairy evidently) it's probably about 83 degrees in here, and all I want is to be back in London eating one of those steaks.  While I'm sad my trips over, vacation's not over yet because I'm going home tomorrow for a week for my dad's birthday, and to spend some family time on martha's vineyard.  I'm glad to be back :)