London, March 2004 (page 4 of 8)
Room and Board
And now for a brief digression to discuss the sleeping and eating situation in London. We stayed at the Elizabeth Hotel, which is very conveniently located behind Victoria station, but far enough away that noise wasn’t really a problem. (It was quieter than the street we live on in New York, but that might be damning with faint praise.) We only had one hitch with accommodations, and I should preface this story by letting you know that we live up four elevator-less flights of stairs in New York.
When we checked in after a long morning of walking around London, we were given room 24 and told to go up one flight of stairs and to the right. Seems simple enough. The hotel was very small, so we went from the reception area into the main hallway and up the stairs that were directly
in front of us. There was a sign at the top pointing up more stairs, and indicating that we had to continue if we wanted to reach room 24. Up we go again. And again. And again. After a long afternoon and four flights of stairs, I was despondent. I simply could not believe that we had flown across the Atlantic only to have to daily haul ourselves up four flights of stairs yet again. Edie, however, remained optimistic. When she discovered that she needed to go back down to the lobby to get a hair dryer, she decided to do a little exploring. Sure enough, she found an elevator sneakily tucked away in a corner of the building that we hadn’t noticed, and wouldn’t’ve found without her expert exploration. Four flights became one, we took a nap, and all was well with the world. The room was extremely clean and extremely small, and that’s it for the room.
Food (Except Beer)
If you read about our adventures in Portugal, you may be wondering why I haven’t been writing about food. The reason is simple and expected: It just wasn’t that great. We had a few good meals. Our last night we went to a seafood restaurant in Notting Hill called Geale’s. It was off the main drag, and seemed to attract more locals than tourists. Edie and I both had fish and chips, and they were outstanding. (One cultural difference that I noted in England: People there actually check the back of your credit card to make sure that the signature matches. Even in restaurants! What about the tip? I was used to privacy at bill time, and more than a little taken aback when the waiter studied the freshly signed receipt.) Apart from that, we didn’t focus much on food. We had Indian one night, but it wasn’t that different from the Indian we normally eat. I
would be ashamed to admit that most mornings we grabbed a scone from Starbucks, but the hotel breakfast didn’t offer much to people who don’t eat meat. (I know, I know. We ate pork in Portugal. People change, okay?) Lunch was usually a quick sandwich or snack; some were excellent and some mediocre. I can highly recommend the cheese and roasted vegetable sandwich at The Orangery at Kew Gardens. The phad thai at the noodle shop near the Leicester Square tube stop is, however, uninspiring.
True to stereotype, we did drink a lot of tea. Most afternoons we took a break by grabbing tea and a snack wherever we happened to be. I’m sure that excellent tea can still be found in London, but I was very disappointed to find that nearly every place we went served Tetley. Not that I have anything against Tetley, but I was hoping for some super-special English tea that I can’t buy at my corner grocery store in the states. The best tea we had was at the cafe at the Tate Modern. Well,
the tea was just as good as anywhere else, but we also ordered scones with strawberry preserves and clotted cream. The scones were closer in shape to American biscuits, and were excellent. The clotted cream and preserves were fantastic. After Geale’s, it was the best meal we had.