Weekend in London, at a Walk

A Walk Around London

 

Last Saturday Steve and I took an early-ish train to London. We got on at Arundel station that is just a couple of miles from our home in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

We had pre-booked the tickets so they were not too expensive just £10 each retuning the next day. The journey to London Victoria is about 1 hour 35 minutes and is pretty for the most part, until it gets close to London’s hub. 

A lot of people take the tube to wherever they want to get to in town and that is also cheap enough but you see nothing at all. Taxis are expensive, but at least you see some of the sights as you go. When we are doing our tourist thing instead of driving a truck through our Capital City, we wear casual clothes and our most comfortable trainers with nice soft socks and walk everywhere. This is the very best way to see this fabulous city. My husband’s most often engaged complaint to me is in the form of a question: “Do you have to walk so fast?” So last weekend I tried to hold my normal pace back so that we would both enjoy our day equally. We strode off from Victoria Station toward Buckingham Palace and that is less than a mile. Our first stop was a strike off the bucket list; I cannot believe that I have never found the time to fit this into my busy life before. We went in to The Royal Mews, where all the carriages that you see on state occasions are kept and maintained to the highest standards. The tour information is utterly fascinating even if you are not a horsey person and the carriages themselves are jaw dropping in their splendour and all the stories about them fascinating. Again the entry is not too pricey and worth every single penny. 

 

 

From there, it is just a couple of hundred strides on, toward the formal façade of Buckingham Palace. We were lucky enough to join what is always a huge body of tourists just waiting to catch the famous Changing of the Guard. This is a daily freebee for visitors and is so impressive no matter how many times you have seen it all before, Guards in scarlet jackets and Busby’s marching behind a marching band brass instruments sparkling in the sunshine. That day there were loads more groups, some mounted and some on foot like the British Legion that we saw that day, along with a very large group from Belgium. Splendid, eyeball popping, colourful and free. 

We walked on past Horse Guard’s Parade where there was also a parade and toward Trafalgar Square, fountains, lions Admiral Lord Nelson perched atop the mighty column and lots of pigeons. Having crossed the square and walked on way beyond the National Gallery, into Leicester Square and slipped into Soho that is teeming with café’s, restaurants, bars, clubs and atmosphere.  

We searched at home for an eatery that we had never been to before, that was not part of a national chain and had agreed to book lunch at Bob-Bob Richard. The décor is all in, to my eye anyway, super soft contrasting but toning shades of teal and taupe for the walls and benches and only broken by the staff uniform of pink waistcoats and ties. The restaurant had been a bank in the past and still had a formal shape with an abundance of brass framing. Do take a look at their website to see how smart and yet still pretty it is. The seating is entirely to booths and the smile cannot be kept from your face, when you see that every booth has a little brass button that reads ‘Press For Champagne!’ We didn’t. But a group close to us did and just a hint on envy escaped in a green flash from my eyes on seeing them served a pretty bottle of Laurent Perrier Rose, until I remembered how much that would cost and that (The cost) would give me a nasty case of indigestion. Steve is a non drinker and I just had a tumbler cocktail with a fancy name. The food is quite original and is a Russian-British very tasteful mix. We had two courses each that were beautifully presented and a joy to the taste buds. Not cheap, but not horrendous either.  

Yesterday I reviewed our evening at the London Palladium and the Courthouse Hotel that we left on Sunday morning and walked to The Wallace Collection that was just 10-15 minutes from our hotel. Passing the London Palladium again, where there was a homeless man sleeping on the marble steps of the entrance where he was lying on and covered with cardboard. Thank your stars that you are not he. 

 

 

This was another long promised visit that we were so pleased to have finally fitted in. I had signed up for a newsletter and so the need to visit grew and grew until it was squeezed in to one of our too rare trips to town. The Wallace Collection is a treasure house in the fullest sense and I urge any and everybody to find time to visit. What you see in there will amaze you; it may even knock your hot socks right off your tired feet. Treasures I tell you, treasures galore, paintings by Gainsborough and Reynolds, blah, blah, blah. There is furniture that belonged to Marie Antoinette. Clocks and clocks and more clocks, all dripping gold leaf, everything dripping gold leaf. Cabinets full of pretty little crystal and diamond boxes and miniature paintings. Every room would be a stunning showpiece even empty, all had silk and satin walls with delicate brass trim everywhere. And the armoury… OMG unbelievable and there is a spot where you can try out some chain mail to see how heavy it is, and put an armoured tunic over the top to see if you can still stand. AND it’s free! Entry is free.  

We took iced tea and a slice of cake in the impressive Wallace Courtyard Café sitting with our shoes and socks off and bare feet cooling on the marble floor (How very common, I hear you think loudly, but sooo good!) That was our last treat before the final walk back to the Victoria Station. Our journey home took four hours because cancellations due to the on going rail dispute. Bit of a disappointment that, but nothing could spoil our marvellous weekend jaunt or take away our happy memories. 

London is best when you walk it and cheap if you stay out of smart restaurants and don’t buy tickets for the Palladium, unless you could not resist the star name that night, as was my downfall.