Saturday, March 22, 2014

London Touristing: The British Museum

The time has flown by. Joe and I have just over 3 months left in our London experience and we plan to make the most of it. Our London list has at least a dozen more activities and sites on it that we are determined to do/see before leaving the city this summer. We have agreed that any time Joe has two days off in a row, we will cross something off the list.

Yesterday Joe had a random Friday off (a rarity), so we decided to do a little London touristing after I got out of my morning class. As tourists, we looked up restaurants on TripAdvisor for lunch and pulled out our trusty London Top 10 guide for our visit to the British Museum. The thing is, Bloomsbury, the area where the museum is located, may be the hardest area for me to pull off the tourist thing. Some of the other sites on the top 10 list for that part of London include University College London (my school) and St. Pancras Station (London's Eurostar hub). Besides Camden and Highgate, I spend most of my time in Bloomsbury.

Still we wanted to try new things, so we chose Roka on Charlotte Street, a Japanese restaurant that specializes in robatayaki-style (grilled) cooking. We have passed this restaurant several times on our way to Wahaca next door, our favorite Mexican restaurant in London. Charlotte street offers a range of dining options and there are many we would recommend, particularly to anyone headed to the British Museum, British Library, or Charles Dickens Museum, all of which are within a 10 minute walk.

We sat at the bar surrounding the open kitchen, which I loved. I always enjoy restaurants with this type of seating option because it allows me to preview all the different dishes without awkwardly rubber-necking the servers and other tables. We ordered white miso soup, grilled broccoli, beef and ginger gyoza, chicken and spring onion skewers, crispy shrimp and avocado maki, and tuna sashimi. I would literally recommend every single dish, plus about a dozen others we saw coming off the grill but didn't get to try.



 Roka was delicious! It was, however, definitely a touristing restaurant for us as it was too expensive for us to return with any kind of regularity. Perfect for the experience-minded visitor, but a treat for the local.

The British Museum, like most nationally-run museums in London, is free to the public. The permanent collections are open to everyone and anyone as often as they like. (Special exhibitions, like the Vikings one that is on now, do cost extra. We considered this one but at £16+ each, it was too steep for us.) They do recommend at £5 donation, but that is up to the visitor's discretion.

The collections of historical artifacts at the museum is one of the most extensive in the world, including over 8 million works. In dozens of rooms over three floors it covers human history from all over the globe. I remember being completely overwhelmed on my first trip here in 2007. This visit was more relaxed. Joe and I wandered through the rooms toward a few sections we specifically wanted to see.

Joe and the back of the Rosetta Stone
It's much easier to get a picture at this angle of the modern key to Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

The reconstructed Nereid Monument, a temple inside a room.  

Grecian urns, in a room of at least a hundred, just because I'm an English teacher.  

Sarah with Hoa Hakanani'a, one of the many monoliths of Easter Island that was removed (stolen) in the 1860s. 

Mayan lintel and detail of the same.

After the museum, we headed to Patisserie Valerie on Torrington Place, a tea shop I pass on my way to the bus stop after class and have wanted to try for several months. As we were still touristing, I ordered a traditional cream tea: a pot of tea, two scones, Devonshire cream, and jam. It was a perfect British touch to our London touristing afternoon. We ended at Euston/Cider Tap, our favorite craft bar in the area before heading back on the same busses I take from school. It may not have been an entirely touristy day, but it was a nice breakout afternoon and we still got to make dinner at home and sleep in our own bed. #winning

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Springtime in Highgate!

Today is the first official day of Spring and I am happier than most year's to leave winter behind. London has been experiencing a warm trend over the last few weeks that I think we're all a little suspicious of. I've been wearing felt-lined leggings under my pants and wool coats every day since November (maybe earlier if I'm honest), so the fact that I've gotten away with single-layer pants and just a trench coat or no coat at all on several occasions in the last few weeks is definitely something to celebrate.

Joe and I are lucky enough to live between two green spaces. Hampstead Heath, to the west of our neighborhood, is like London's Central Park. Waterlow Park, to the east, is smaller and quieter and we much prefer the local feel there. Most of these pictures were taken on a walk there over the weekend.








If you zoom in to the picture above, you can see some London landmarks


And just a couple to prove that Spring is springing elsewhere, too. These were taken at UCL on my walk to class yesterday.

I have no illusions that the rain is gone for good or that we can pack up our winter clothes and ship them back to California (where they will gather dust in our closets, thank goodness). I do, however, think that we have made it through the worst of what we'll see here in England and feel pretty proud to have survived.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

30 Hours in Belgium

When Joe's cousin Ryan found out that his employer wanted to send him to a conference in London, we immediately began talking about what other things we could do during his visit. Belgium, just a two-hour Eurostar trip away, seemed too easy to skip, especially since Brussels is home to Ryan's favorite brewery in the world, Cantillon. We booked a quick roundtrip - Sunday to Monday, London to Brussels and back.




This trip was quick but oh, so worth it. There were some bumps, as usual (delayed train, deceptive AirBnB), but the food was good and the craft beer was plentiful. As anyone who reads this blog knows, my husband is the beer expert, not me. I'll do what I can and link to RateBeer for anyone who is interested in knowing more about the specific places we visited.

Once we'd settled in and gotten some food to take the edge off, we mapped out the most essential destinations and our priorities for the evening: beer, chocolate, and waffles. Our first stop was at Moeder Lambic (official, tripadvisor, ratebeer). It was pretty quiet on Sunday afternoon/evening and Joe and Ryan were able to chat with our server for a bit. They were both excited to see Cantillon not only on draught, but in several different varieties. Since Joe made me take pictures of the menu "with the good camera," I think it must be impressive.


#Joedrinksaroundtheworld - first Belgian in Belgium at lunch


Cantillon FouFoune for cheap and on draught = two happy boys
After both Joe and Ryan had ordered their way through this menu, we decided to wander through Grand Place, the main square in Brussels, toward Delirium and on the lookout for dinner.




if you look closely, you can actually see the moon, Jupiter, and the Orion constellation
Delirium Village includes several stops for Delirium fans: a three-story bar, a cafe, and possibly a restaurant. There are also other Delirium bars around Brussels. Apparently the bottle list at Delirium cafe is one of the most extensive in the world; it is bound book-style and some tourists enjoy finding (and ordering) their hometown brews there. Not my guys. Joe and Ryan, as usual, want to drink something rare that they can't get at home. A note to those who, like me, are not beer lovers: Delirium does not offer wine, cider, or cocktails on any of its three floors. Joe was embarrassed about ordering bottles of Coke for me, but I made him do it anyway.


If Joe and Ryan can take pictures with their bottles, I can take some with mine, too, right?
We ate a thoroughly non-Belgian dinner and then stopped for one more treat near Grand Place before heading in for the night. On the left, check out all the available combinations of waffle toppings, including ice cream, fresh fruit, chocolate sauces, nutella, and caramel. On the right, a reminder that Ryan is a giant and I am super short.




While Joe and Ryan were interested in Belgium for her beer, I secretly pushed for this trip so that I could visit my college roommate, Lindsay, who has been living in Belgium for the last three years. They wanted to spend all day on Monday at the Cantillon brewery and museum, which gave me the time to take the train to Hasselt and meet up with her! (Joe took Charlie; I took Bert.)



Lindsay and her husband, Khalid, met me at the train station in Hasselt, where they used to live. (They now live outside of the city but Khalid still goes to school in town here.) When Khalid left for class, Lindsay took me on the foodie tour of Hasselt and it was perfect. We went to the culinary shop Oil & Vinegar (which also has stores in the US!), a bakery for speculoos cookies, Leonidas chocolates, a honey store, and so many more delectable places!


Bert with our day's haul
The last time I saw Lindsay was at my bridal shower last year and I can't even remember how long it was before that. Even though we only got about 5.5 hours together, it was such a treat to be able to actual catch up.


lunch at Sweet Coffee
Belgian fries with curry ketchup
We ended our day at the top of the Radisson Blu hotel, enjoying the view of Hasselt (and Holland in the distance). Good food, good conversation, and I finally got to meet Lindsay's husband: this day was a success for me!



Back in Brussels Joe and Ryan visited Moeder Lambic once more before heading to Cantillon. There they went on a short tour and hung out in the small tasting room, getting their fill of this haven of craft beer "white whales."




Joe impersonating the Cantillon signature logo

When we all met up again on the train back to London everyone was sated and happy. I had my prizes from Hasselt (provencal olive oil, speculoos spread, hot chocolate pops, etc) and both Joe and Ryan had a bounty of beer to treasure and share with friends. Our trip may have been short, but it was just what each of us wanted.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Ryan in London

Last week Joe's cousin Ryan arrived from California with just a few London goals: beer on tap, beer from cask, beer in bottles, pie, mushy peas, and maybe see Big Ben. I kid, of course, but the itinerary was quite heavy with craft breweries and brew pubs all over Londontown. Here's a quickie overview of his visit:

Arrival on Wednesday, March 5 and immediately off to the Bull in Highgate. The afternoon/evening included BrewDog and the Southhampton Arms.




A quick visit to central London on Thursday. Tower Bridge, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and Baker Street for the essential Sherlock Holmes photo-op. Euston Tap for an afternoon rest. Then back to Highgate for dinner at The Flask.


 The view walking towards the Thames from London Bridge station: Tower Bridge on one side, the Shard on the other




Ryan's first British pie in London



It's so London! The Eye and Big Ben/Parliament!

That's right, 221B Baker Street comes with hats!


On Friday, Ryan's beer vlogger friend came in for a night to show Joe and Ryan some of his favorite beer-themed stops in London. Euston Tap,






Saturday was craft brewery tour day (Kernel, Beer by Numbers, Partisan)! And then we spent the evening at BrewDog and I brought cupcakes!




pouring samples of Ryan's homebrew for the BrewDog crew to try
Sunday and Monday we skipped across the English Channel for a quickie visit to Belgium.

Tuesday - Thursday, Ryan had to work during the day, but evenings were still reserved for pubbing and enjoying as many rare brews as he could find.




Another successful visit to London for our California family (and another taste of home for us).