Kelley’s Visit!

the London Eye

Last Thursday, my girlfriend Kelley came to visit me! She had never been to London before, so I promised that we’d go sight-seeing and find gluten-free fish and chips (she’s gluten-free…). I picked her up on Thursday evening at London Bridge and after some confusion trying to meet up, we headed out to find a place to eat. We walked around the area for a while and then found an Indian restaurant that was on the second floor above a bar. We were a little skeptical but decided to check it out and it turned out to be very nice! The food was good too! It’s been fairly difficult to find good food out here, which is something you should anticipate if you’re traveling to the UK, but the Indian food here has generally been very good (and slightly different from American Indian food) so that’s one cuisine definitely worth seeking out. After dinner, we headed back to New Cross and hung out with everyone at our flat. Kelley’s also a Hampshire student but wasn’t too close with any of the other Hampsters that I live with, so it was nice for everyone to get together.

Kelley and I in front of Big Ben

On Friday, we headed out early-ish to do some sight-seeing. We took the tube to Westminster and just happened to exit right across the river from the London Eye, so we took some pictures since it was a great view. It’s beautiful during the day and at night when it’s all lit up, but unfortunately it’s extremely expensive to ride! Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were right behind us so we walked over and got a better view then walked down the street to look inside. You can’t go inside, but you can look at it from behind the gate! After that, we checked out Westminster Abbey, which is across the street from Big Ben, and walked around the area for a bit.

I decided to take Kelley to see Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, so we walked up that way and stopped into a little London gift shop on our way to pick up souvenirs for our families. When we got to Trafalgar Square, Kelley wanted a picture with one of the lions, but she had some trouble climbing up. Luckily, these two nice men (who had jumped up like it was nothing) helped lift her up, so she got her picture 🙂 Then we decided to check out the National Gallery (which is free entrance), which was pretty cool. Neither of us realized that there were so many famous works in there, but it was pretty amazing. They had paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Manet, and Cézanne to name a few. It was weird but great to see a lot of iconic paintings in person!

Micah and I at the restaurant

After the National Gallery, we headed out to meet up with our friend Micah who also goes to Hampshire but has been studying at Oxford for the year. We had found a restaurant called the Mermaid’s Tail, that serves gluten-free fish and chips, so we decided to meet Micah there. The restaurant was supposed to be in Leicester Square, but when we got there we couldn’t find it! We walked around the area for a while and then found Micah and all of us continued to look, but even after calling the restaurant we couldn’t find it. In the end, it turned out that the Mermaid’s Tail had changed its name to Blue Grill (or something like that), which we had passed like ten times, but we went in and got a very good late lunch/early dinner and Kelley got her fish and chips finally!

On Saturday, we decided to (finally) go see Buckingham Palace with Katie. We took the tube to Green Park and walked through the park to the palace. It wasn’t a super nice day out but the park was beautiful and very green (as is every patch of grass here, even though the sun is never out…). At the end of the park was the Canada Gate and the Canada Memorial, which is a very orante gate dedicated to the members of the Canadian Forces killed in World Wars I and II. We walked past the gate to the palace, which is the official London residence of the Queen. The palace was situated on a large plaza  with the Victoria Memorial in the center. We wanted to take a tour of some of the palace which is usually open to visitors, such as the state rooms, but unfortunately tours were not resuming until late March, so we made due with just seeing the palace from outside the gates. It was huge and surrounded by a beautiful gate, and we got to see some royal guards pacing around outside the main entrance! After seeing the palace, we did get let into the gift shop where we oogled at some very expensive tea sets and tried on beefeater hats 🙂

Buckingham Palace

 

Me in front of the palace

 

the Victoria Memorial

 

Kelley trying on a beefeater hat

The three of us then walked around in search of somewhere to get tea and a bite to eat. We found a little cafe where we got tea and Katie and I got croissants with butter and jam. The waitress was not very nice, but it was good to have something warm to drink on such a cold day! At this point, it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to go to a clothes swap that Katie had found out about in Brockley, which is just south of New Cross, so we got back on the tube.

When we got to Brockley we didn’t really know where we were going so we asked multiple people for directions and eventually found our way to the clothes swap. We were surprised to find that it was in a community center of sorts, but it was super cute and a lot of families were there. It was a five pound entrance per family, but the three of us got in as one family and we all picked up some good clothes! I acquired a new sweater, Kelley got a jacket and some shirts, and Katie got a skirt and other great things. As we were getting ready to leave, the space was cleared and a man got up to play some music for everyone, so we decided to stay. It was pretty cool– he played guitar and had a mini drum kit that was all pedal controlled, and a bunch of little kids went up to sing with him. It was an unexpected, but cute/fun evening!

Kelley crossing Abbey Road

 

signing the wall again…

On Sunday, Kelley wanted to see Abbey Road, so we made our way out to go see the studio. It was a terribly cold day, but we got to Abbey Road and set out to take a picture of Kelley crossing. Maybe it was just because it was a Sunday, but the road was a LOT more crowded than it was when Katie, Mo, and I came before. People kept crossing and the traffic was heavier too so it was pretty hectic and hard to get a good picture. But eventually, I got a picture of Kelley crossing Abbey Road without too many cars in the background! After taking the picture, we headed over to the studio to go sign the wall. We brought a big fat sharpie, and Kelley signed the wall. I also signed it again, and we walked along reading the funny things that other people had written. While we were taking pictures in front of the studio, an old man came up to us and handed us a flyer to go see a Beatles memorabilia shop down the road. We decided to check it out, so we walked for a bit and found the shop (which was tiny). There was a nice man working there who told us all about the shop and the various records and souvenirs that they had for sale. They also had a TV monitor with the live webcam of Abbey Road displayed in the store, which was funny to watch (maybe they had been watching us before?). Kelley bought a few little things, including a funny sign for her door that said “BEWARE! SUPER FAN!” under a very retro looking picture of the Beatles.

When we left the shop, we headed back to the tube to go to Portobello Market. I hadn’t been to the market before, but it is known to have a flea market and it’s on Portobello Road, which has many antique shops and other stores along it. We walked for a long time and couldn’t find the flea market, but we stopped to get hot chocolate (where I think my debit card and ID got stolen) and kept walking until we found it. Unfortunately, we got there a little too late because everyone was packing up their stands, but I’ll have to go back some other time a little earlier.

After that, we left and went back to New Cross since Kelley had an absurdly early flight back to Berlin on Monday morning. It turned out that after waking up at 2:00 and taking a bus to a train to the airport, her flight was bumped to the next day by EasyJet and they wouldn’t change her ticket free of charge, so she came back and spent an extra day here before doing it all over on Tuesday morning. All in all it was a lovely weekend though and I’m really happy she got to come!