An idiots guide to an idiot: Weekend in London.

Flints from Crossrail

Remains of a Victorian poe, also from Crossrail.

Had a brilliant couple of nights away in London with Tara. Thought we'd travel light as we were going by train so cut back on what we were taking & put it all in a ruck sack.....that seemed to weigh more than any luggage we'd ever taken anywhere before! If I'd have fallen backwards I doubt I'd ever have been stood upright again. Probably a small case on wheels would have been a better bet. You live & learn! Anyway, got to Greenwich & had a coffee then I took our ruck sack to our hotel, a really good hotel booked via Gary called the Doubletree. Its a chain that come under the Hilton banner so their standard is very high.
Back into Greenwich & we got onto the Cutty Sark. It's undergone some significant restoration over the past few years & made more 'user friendly.' It's got to be like that now I know, but all the original ships stairways now have proper stairs, there's even a lift. a must for access I know but it took a little something away from the experience. Must admit when we first stepped aboard we both thought we wouldn't be on it for too long but it's actually stacked full of information and artifacts and was a really good couple of hours. The whole ship is suspended over the dry dock it was once in which is now the obligatory café (not complaining mind you), so whilst drinking your coffee you actually have the ship above you.
Retired to the Gipsy Moth pub after than for a couple of pints of Wandle Ale  brewed by Sambrooks Brewery in London. An excellent pint, 3.8% in strength quite light in colour and very quaffable! Tara on the usual Bacardi & Coke. Got back to the hotel & eventually went down for dinner, very nice fish & chips for me & Halloumi salad for Tara followed by Tiramisu for me & ice cream for Tara. Tried an American Pale Ale who's name escapes me but it was very nice.
A sumptuous breakfast in the morning, all buffet style,& plenty of it be it fruit, cereal, traditional cooked Full English there was even a pancake maker that was fun. It set us up for the day!
Went back into Greenwich & had a wonder around the markets. You know about Tara's bizarre dreams? Well the latest, the other night, was all about Scotch Eggs, no honestly! Anyway the first stall we see as we walk into the market sold nothing but Scotch Eggs. Bizarre or what!!
It was an interesting place, a shame we'd had such a big breaky really as there was lots of food stalls. After that we were back on the Docklands Light Railway and off to the Docklands Museum. Unfortunately so busy were we talking and looking out at the buildings we forgot to get off at the right stop & had to go round the houses abit to get back to where we wanted to be! Got to the museum in the end though.
They have a really interesting exhibition of all the archaeological finds from the Crossrail  scheme that's being built across, well under really, London. The 200 or so archaeologists working on the site found artifacts from just about every era of history you could care to mention. Very very interesting. This is part of the Museum of London ( another good trip) and is fascinating. It's built in part of the old dock warehouses and has lots to see, not least about the docks being bombed during World War Two, the heat was so intense it was melting steel girders. Warehouses full of sugar and flour burnt for nearly three weeks. I well remember my Dad telling me that at night they could see a red glow in the sky from the fires all the way out in Harrow about ten miles away. A truly terrible thing. Fair to say Tara was abit done in by this time so sat in the café while I looked around alot of this part. The day was getting on so we thought about dinner. Pizza seemed like a good idea & with the larger chains at long bloody last getting the idea about wheat/gluten free pizzas something we could both eat. Getting to Pizza Express in Canary Wharf proved abit challenging. Tara's satnav on her phone didn't seem to get the idea that the restaurant was on the second floor of a shopping centre so kept taking us around the building. At last a helpful police type bod pointed us in the right direction. After a good feed of pizza we made our way back to our second hotel, the Hilton at Canary Wharf. We'd had a free upgrade as well so our room was brilliant. We didn't purposely get back to watch Eurovision ( we've watched it most years since about 1981! Even had a party one year that went down well, though we tried to do it again last year and nobody was interested! Miserable sods!) but we were tired by then & it was on so we watched it. Naff Ukrainian presenters staggered their way through it, suggesting everyone should have wine and neeebles. Wine we had but neebles we did not so Tara raided the mini bar for a Toblerone. Graham Nortons commentary is quite amusing but not a patch on the late Terry Wogan, a rather nice tradition seems to have grown from Wogan's advice to Norton when he took over his mantle which was not to have a drink before song nine. So now, after song nine he lifts a glass to TW............We'd already started long before song nine!
Another first class brekky in the morning & we headed for home. The ruck sack didn't seem to be any lighter, bugger!  Coffee at St Pancras Station then the BedPan line to home. A truly great weekend with my Love. Good to spoil yourselves sometimes isn't it.