Notting Hill, but no Hugh Grant

Another busy day!

Got up early, to have breakfast and be at the Tower of London when it opened at 9 am.  It's a bit pricey to get in, at 20 pounds (and 4 pounds more for the audio guide) - works out to about $38 each.  But it felt well worth it, as we spend 4 full hours there, and learned a tremendous amount.  The most famous attraction within the Tower is the Crown Jewels, and they certainly are amazing - one of the best is the sceptre held by the Queen for special events: it has a 530 carat diamond in the hilt!  We ended up learning a lot about the history of the British queens and kings, from William the conquerer in 1066 and onward.

Then we walked across London bridge and had lunch in Borough market, kind of like an outdoor St. Lawrence market.  Most of it was closed, but a lot of food stands are opened daily, so we shared a gourmet meat pie, and some amazing fish and chips.  Then we popped into Neal's Yard, the best cheese shop in London (it was featured on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows) and bought a very small piece of some delicious Welsh cheese - the place was like cheese heaven ;)

We next walked over to the new Shakespeare's Globe theatre, intending to go on a tour, but we couldn't because tours aren't running while plays are on stage.  But next door is the new Tate Modern museum.  It's like the MOMA in New York, but not as big a collection.  Quite a few times we looked at each other and said "is this art??",  for example, when a canvas painted all black is on the wall.  Oh well, modern art is often experimental, so it won't appeal to everyone.  There were some paintings we liked by Picasso, Matisse and Kandinsky, but the 2 exhibits they had on (Edvard Munch, and Damien Hirst) each cost 15 pounds to enter, so we skipped those.  We went back to the hotel to rest our aching feet, first walking across the Thames on the pedestrian-only Millennium bridge which you may have seen in many movies or TV shows (look it up on the web):

Dinner was at a place called "Hereford Road", a local Notting Hill restaurant that got great reviews.  It was excellent and VERY reasonably priced.  We had 2 starters:  a huge globe artichoke that was grilled, and a British dish of "potted crab", kind of like a crab cake without the filler :)

For main courses, we both had fish, which they specialize in.  They get the freshest local fish, and grill it perfectly.  We tried a mackerel, and a lemon sole.  Both came as the full fish, head on.  But it was worth working around the bones!

The fish was fabulous, and hard to believe how reasonable.  The mackerel was 12.50 pounds and the sole was 15 pounds, but that includes tax, so even after the exchange to dollars, it's half to a third of the cost of most fish restaurants in Toronto.  We were totally stuffed, but managed to share one dessert, and incredible panna cotta made with buttermilk, with a side of macerated rhubarb and some little sugar cookies: