Month: December 2023

With public transport completely shutdown on Christmas Day in London, we were limited in what we could do, it had to be within walking distance.

A bit of google searching about 3 months before we left home I found a Christmas lunch offering at a Pub in Hammersmith which was only about a 15 minute walk from where we were staying in Shepards Bush. We got to stroll down some very nice looking streets on the way to the pub, and luckily wit wasn’t raining.

Unlike home in Australia (or Canada or USA too) the houses here had virtually no Christmas lights or decorations set up. I found one house with a few white lights and that was it.

The pub turned out to be excellent, there was a stack of food across the three courses. We ended up staying close to 4 hours.

Boxing Day here in the UK so almost everything closed including my new favourite cafe. So had a look on google and the one next door to it was reported to be open, however upon closer inspection out on the walk there, it was indeed closed. Heart sank a little as I was keen on a coffee this morning and I’d already committed to rugging up with various layers to leave the apartment, all that effort could have been wasted.

So I thought I’d just keep walking a bit to see if there was anything open, and sure enough another 100m down the road there was a Turkish style cafe offering coffee. As well as coffee they also had lots of middle eastern desserts and sweets as well as Hookah pipes if that’s something that floats your boat.

Coffee was ok, but wouldn’t go back unless it was the only thing on offer. A little weak and watery.

On Saturday after I’d been through the HMS Belfast, and after Sharon and Emma had seen “Six” we were off to the Phoenix theatre to see “Stranger Things First Shadow”. The production was amazing and the special effects were next level. I was amazed at what they could achieve with a live production with the effects.

If you are a Stranger Things fan, this will be a must see production. It’s set a number of years before the tv production and involves a lot of the parents of the main Stranger Things cast when they were younger. I won’t say much more other than I loved the way they tied the USS Eldridge / Philadelphia Experiment into to the story line.

Sharon and Emma were off to see “Six” the musical in the West End, So I thought I’d do something I’ve been meaning to do every time I’ve been in London but have never quite had the time to do it, so I Did a tour of the HMS Belfast this afternoon. This is pretty amazing, WW2 Cruiser, now permanently docked near Tower bridge and part of the Imperial War Museum. Lots of interesting stuff inside to see. The boiler/engine room, the mess, the kitchen, the hospital, the deck etc are all open for viewing.

This is not of the feint of heart though, lots of ladders to climb going between the decks, some of them quite steep and very narrow. The ship saw service from the 1930s through to the 1960s. It was refurbished in the 1950s, so you need to remember from a technology point of view you are looking through a 1950s ship not necessarily as it was in WW2.

This is absolutely worth doing if you are interested in ships or WW2 history.

When we were planning this trip, Emma mentioned one of the things she really wanted to do was the “Theatre Cafe” in London, which is an American style diner food cafe where the wait staff sing songs between serving tables. I honestly thought this would be completely naff and terribly expensive, but thought we would give it ago anyway. I was pleasantly surprised as the cafe is really well set out, customers can write their requests on a chalk board and the staff did a great job with the singing. The food is OK, nothing spectacular, just standard American style burgers, hot dogs and ribs. I was right about one thing though, it’s not cheap. Burgers were 20 pounds each. The food items on the menu have themed names which is quite funny too.