Month: July 2018

Travel

Eurostar or Jetstar ?

Our first bad experience with the Eurostar today. Thankfully we were on the last train out of London and we didn’t get the full Jetstar treatment with our train being cancelled. That happened to one or two earlier today due to some signalling issues on the tracks in France. Luckily we only copped a delayed departure and far-queues from hell trying to get though immigration and into the departure lounge

Love the British and their orderly queuing, a few queue jumpers got caught, publicly shamed and sent to the end of the line.

A few trains departed with out catering. Luckily it’s only 2hrs to Paris. Thankfully even though it took forever to get through our train was only 40 minutes late. I was also somewhat surprised we had a spare seat next to us given the earlier cancelled trains.

The Eurostar people even helped load our luggage. Not long after departure I’m reminded of all the things I love about the Eurostar, comfortable seats with legroom, it’s fast and you get a great view.

At the end of the day, the Eurostar wasn’t Jetstar.

Sharon brought these delicious strawberries to nibble on during the trip. They were perfect, sweet all the way through. At home we sometimes get strawberries with a slightly tart taste, not these ones.

We have finally made it to Paris. We get our apartment tomorrow. For the night we are in this corner room on the 6th floor of a hotel right between Gare Du Nord and Gare Du Est stations. More pics of that tomorrow.

It does have a lift but I love these stairs

Travel

Working towards the Globe

Whilst I was at work (and sampling a few coffees) Sharon and Emma were doing a little more sightseeing around London. Their plan had been to check out the Churchill War Rooms (I’ve done this twice already – they are awesome) however the three hour queue for entry killed that idea.

Instead they headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum. Before heading in for a look around the coffee and cake there was sampled, with reports that it was quite good. The cake certainly looks alright !

after a good look around here they had lunch in the grounds of St Paul’s. A truly wonderful spot for lunch on a warm London summer’s day

At 5pm we all headed down to the Globe Theatre for a evening showing of Hamlet. Stopped for some Italian food along the way at Zizzi

Some excellent advice from Josh back at home we got great seats. More info on which seats to pick below

Even if you are not a Shakespeare fan, from a historical perspective its worth a visit. In terms of tickets, for London theatre its reasonably priced, you can get seats for around £30 (way cheaper if you want to stand in the pit in front of the stage, only £5). Whilst the building is a modern construction, its as close to the original as modern safety and fire codes will allow. Its not on it original site where it was in the 16th century, but its very close. The original site is only a few hundred meters away and its worth walking around the corner to look at it.

One of the most interesting facts about the theatre is that its the only building in central London thats allowed to have a thatched roof (they learnt a lot after 1666). Lots more info on it over at good ol’ wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_Globe

In my opinion the best value seats are in the lower gallery. There are a handful of cheaper seats (slight view obstruction) but they have no one in front of you so there is stacks of leg room and no on behind you so you can lean up against the wall. Also very close to the exit.

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After Dinner we walked back to the apartment and took some photos. Glorious warm night to be walking along the river

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Travel

Double Coffee and Gherkin

This mornings coffee on the way to the office was from the notes chain, which have a coffee shop on the ground floor of the Gherkin. Below is a picture from the inside looking out as well as a selfie with the Gherkin ” A Gherkie”. The coffee was surprisingly good, at least a 7.5/10

It’s possible that it’s because it was my first morning coffee after a few pints last night that made it so good, rather than the quality of the coffee itself. Ones own perception of these things is impacted by many factors….

I had to pop out to Houndsditch Post Office again today to post home the second tsunami of books. I’m really thinking I should buy shares in Royal Mail as this is costing a right royal fortune in postage.

On the way back I passed secret frog coffee and the temptation was too great to resist. This coffee is great a decent 8/10. They sell coffee in cup sizes equal to the sizes at home for a similar price. This one was £2.85. I’ve been paying that or £3 for what would be a small or below small at home

On my way back I ran into Wilson and Rikesh from the office who got their coffee at “Association” coffee, right behind the Gherkin. This is another great coffee place that is rated highly by the Australian contingent in the office.

And of course since it was behind the Gherkin, another opportunity to provide the Obligatory Daily Gherkin pic.

Lunch was from the Japanese Canteen behind the Gherkin. This is right next door to “Association” coffee. This lunch spot is excellent and it’s extremely popular.

One more thing…

If you like my blog you will probably like my mate John’s blog. John and Perry are currently traveling through the USA and Canada. Here is the link

http://johnandperrystravels.blog

Travel

Pineapple Coffee

Coffee for me today was at a little Lebanese cafe restaurant early this morning where I took the opportunity to catch up with one of our software vendors whilst I was visiting the London office. The coffee was a real surprise, was way better than I expected, a decent 7.5/10

Later in the morning I acquainted myself with the Houndsditch Post Office. I’ll know the Royal Mail system quite well soon, as we bought a few more books than we expected and I’m posting a few home.

Whist I was in the office, Sharon and Emma did a bit more shopping in Bond St, bought some strawberries and ate them in Green Park, walked past Buckingham Palace, had lunch at Borough Market and then headed over to Pineapple Dance where Emma attended another dance lesson.

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After work I had a beer with a few of the guys from the office in the Bell. Thankfully the Bell had re-opened after the car ran into it. Visiting the London office and not having a beer at the Bell just wouldn’t have been cricket. The Bell is a must.

Now that England are through to the next stage, it would seem most people here are just happy England made it further than Germany. Of course everyone still hopes to beat France, but they hasn’t stopped some of the World Cup jokes starting:

  • Q. What is the difference between Germany and a tea bag ?
  • A. Tea bags spend longer in the cup…

Walking back from the Bell, I managed to get a shot for the Obligatory Daily Gherkin.

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I travelled down to Covent Garden, found Sharon and we had cocktails at a little drink wagon in the garden. Summer in London is just wonderful…..

When Emma had finished the lesson we had dinner at the Nag’s Head, another place we seem to visit yearly now.

And much to the amusement of my inner 13 year old, the trip back to the apartment involved a stint on the Piccadilly line

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Oh, and one last thing. A funny comment I heard last night about the State of the UK. They are concerned they are turning into Australia. Makes sense when you consider some of the stats

  • Winning at Sport
  • Its a really hot summer
  • They have bush fires in the north
  • Concerns there could be a drought with water restrictions coming….

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Department of Coffee

Today I finally had coffee at a cafe I noticed two years ago but never got a chance to visit. This year I made time out of work to walk the 15 minutes up Bishopsgate’s road past Liverpool St Station to get coffee from the “Department of Coffee and Social Affairs”. It was a solid 7/10 but unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed given it was such a small coffee for £3 and the Gherkin coffee yesterday was closer and pretty good.

A cool name does not always equal an awesome coffee. Maybe my expectations were a little high

And let’s not forget the Obligatory Daily Gherkin. Today it combines coffee and bikes !

And the Gherkin tonight

The mood in London tonight was totally electric given the UK beat Colombia in the World Cup match to get into the quarter finals. Even I, one of the most sport agnostic people in the universe ended up in a pub watching the game on TV

Today Sharon and Emma visited Harry Potter Cash Extraction World. Updates on that to come later…