Holiday: Day 1 - London

I’m sure others have differing opinions but I love the London underground.

I think the key to having a good time in London when on holidays is familiarising yourself with the underground, because it really does help you get anywhere you need to go quickly.

Family snap @ Piccadilly Circus

This time around our local stop was Hammersmith, and it had everything you could want, a Starbucks, a Tesco, McDonalds (we didn’t use that) and plenty of other small food shops, which makes life really easy to get a bite at either the start or end of your day or to pick up a few supplies.

We decided to have a relatively chilled first day given the length of flight and also that we arrived late so we decided to catch up with Luci’s Aunty who could also show us around a bit.

We met at a pub in Covent Garden which to be honest is an area I have never been to, which I probably should have because its quite touristy, this is definitely one of the benefits of having someone with you that knows their way around and who can take you off the beaten path.

What I really like was the mix of small boutique stalls, whether that be food or crafts etc it seemed like all the shops had their very own bit of style. We decided to have some gelato and for those that know me and my love for Messina I decided to use that as a benchmark. I’d rate the quality of the gelato the same, and they had quite unique flavours which I loved, but less variety, but what set it apart was that you could get the gelato in a cone and they shaped it on top like a flower, I’ve never seen this before but it looked amazing. Anyhow I went for the cup option, completely devoured it, delicious :)

The other thing that intrigued me was the ordering process, you go in, you select what you want from a touch screen display, pay and then somehow old mate behind the counter knows your order and you just tell him what flavours you want, I’m not sure of its effectiveness but interesting anyway.

Post this we continued to wander the streets, through Piccadilly Circus where we went to the M&M superstore, through the streets of Soho and Chinatown, Trafalgar Square and then finally back up through Covent Garden to have some early dinner at Rock & Sole Plaice which Rena had recommended as the best place to get fish and chips.

Sampling of my fish and chips from Rock & Sole Plaice

Now I’m no fish and chip expert, but just like gelato I have a few places that for me are my benchmark: Windsor Seaford and the Mooloolaba Fish Market. I’d definitely rate this place at least on par with them, I like fast fish and chips and considering location and that it was busy we got that. I hate soggy battered fish, this was definitely crispy, chips… well they weren’t really chips they were kind of chunks, but they were good but not the sort of chips you’d smash on their own, and the aioli or whatever it was was solid. If there was a downer it was price, maybe its because I’m on a Sydney salary and Windsor is a long way from London, but you know, spuds aren’t that expensive…

And with that we all said our farewells, we had to detach the children from their new favourite relative Rena and we made the trek back to our hotel, where we all fell asleep before 8pm. A successful first day, recovered from a long flight and ready for the rest of our trip.

Michael