Weekend in London - March 13 - 15

Jim had some business in Wigan, England and Edinburgh, Scotland so we decided to make a trip of it and have ourselves a mini break as they say in England. We spent the weekend in London before heading to Wigan and then Edinburgh.

Jim’s friend, Zarko, was kind enough to let us crash at his place and acted as a local tour guide for the weekend. It was really relaxing and in a strange way felt a little like being home.

We flew in on Friday night and went to Zarkos to get dressed for dinner. A partner at Zarko’s firm who has done some work for Jim’s company wanted to take us out to dinner. He had recently become a member of the Reform Club (www.thereform.com) which is one of London’s Gentleman Clubs (no, not that kind of Gentlemen’s Club). The club requires jacket and tie and only recently allowed women, but of course our bathrooms and cloakroom were in the basement. I guess it is like a country club but without the golf course and pool. I’m not sure I understand exactly why someone joins one of these clubs. I guess it must be for entertaining, prestige of being accepted and the extensive library they have.

On Saturday, Zarko took us to a farmers market. The Borough Market is located on Borough High Street near London Bridge, and is one of the largest markets in the world, known for its gourmet and international items. I was in heaven. They had truffles, specialty coffee, every kind of mushroom known to man, fresh seafood, and freshly baked goods along with prepared foods like paninis, empanadas, spring rolls, north African salads, or burgers. They even had a guy selling fresh oysters. I was tempted to get one but the line was too long.

Even better than the huge variety of options were how free every vendor was with the samples. It was like Sam’s Club on a Saturday but with good food. I could have wandered around for hours sampling all the different things. After circling the entire market to see what was offered, we got some Middle Eastern salads and had a little picnic right outside the market next to the Southwark Cathedral.

After our picnic, we walked along the Thames and soaked up the sunshine stopping at St. Catherine's Warf for a coffee. I'd never been to before I decided that I needed some retail therapy. We headed to Oxford Street so that I could go to Selfridges for a little shopping while the boys went for some tea and shisha at a Middle Eastern restaurant.

For dinner that night, we headed to the upscale Mayfair area for dinner. We ate at a cute French bistro called Le Boudin Blanc (http://www.boudinblanc.co.uk/) which I highly recommend for anyone looking for reasonably priced French food in London. We had an excellent dinner.

The next day was even sunnier and warmer than the previous day. We took a boat down the Thames to Greenwich in South London where the prime meridian, National Observatory, National Maritime Museum and Royal Naval College are located. We walked up the hill to the Observatory and stopped for a coffee before heading down to wander around the village of Greenwich.

The boat ride was entertaining and pleasant on such a sunny day. The driver/ tour guide had a thick cockney accent and combined some history with stuff he obviously made up on the fly. At one point he talked about someone "the Great" which spurred a conversation about why we don't have names like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great or Vlad the Impaler (Jim's favorite). I suggested that Jim should call himself Jim the Complainer and he in turn named me Alison the Uncomfortable.

We took the boat back to central London and then headed back to Zarko’s area, West Hampstead. We stopped for dinner at a Thai restaurant and had a great dinner before packing up and heading to catch the train to Wigan.