Wednesday March 28 was a travel day. Our host in Naples drove us to the airport. Driving in Naples is a real experience-- so glad that it was Fabiano driving and not Alain. We caught an 11:15 a.m. flight to London Gatwick Airport. The flight arrived about five minutes early at 1:00 p.m.
There was a fun piece of art in the Arrivals area of Gatwick, called "
The People's Monarch: BBC South East Jubilee Art Project". It was the culmination of a six week project where viewers and listeners of some regional BBC stations were invited to send in photographs of themselves for a unique portrait of the Queen to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. More than 5,500 photos were submitted. The artist, Helen Marshall, had worked on large scale photo-mosaics before. She used images from the coronation and a more recent picture of the Queen. The mosaic, made up of the photos showed both how the Queen had changed and how society and technology had developed over the last 60 years.
 |
| The People's Monarch |
Evon, our host in London had given us two alternative routes to get to her apartment. We decided on the one that involved the least amount of walking with our luggage. We took the Southern Train from Gatwick to Clapham Junction and then the Overground (a very slow train) to Shoreditch High Street just a few minute walk to our apartment. We arrived at around 3:30 p.m. Our apartment is in a row of houses on a small street called Padbury Court. There are three units in the building. Evon and a full-time renter live in the upper two flats and the place where are staying is a lower flat. The apartment is well-equipped and our host was very helpful. She even dropped the new edition of Time Out magazine for us later in the day.
It is unfortunately very cold with on and off rain predicted for the six days we are here. There had been snow last week and the high on Wednesday was only 6C. Everyone we talked to is totally depressed with the weather, which is unusually cold for this time of year.
 |
| View of kitchen- with small deck out back |
 |
| Large bedroom area |
 |
| Stairs to the flat and the rest of the large room |
 |
| Great deck area for just this flat-- too bad it is too cold to enjoy it |
 |
| Our place |
 |
| View of the quiet street-- ours is the house with the white paint |
We are staying in East London, in Shoreditch. We stayed in this part of town two years ago and loved it--- lots of artists, great restaurants, coffee and other shops. We are two minutes from Beigel Bake a classic Brick Lane Bakery that is open 24 hours a day. We were hungry after our long trek from Gatwick to the apartment, so headed over for a salt beef beigel.
 |
| Beigel Bake (The Brit's spelling of bagel) |
 |
| Making our salt beef sandwich |
 |
| Alain chewing--- the salt beef beigel is delicious and we plan on getting two for our return trip |
There is a lot of graffiti on the buildings in this area. We wandered out checking out the neighbourhood and started looking for a coffee at about 5:30 p.m. There is a very trendy street called Redchurch, very close to us. It is full of sometimes expensive clothes and other shops, great restaurants, and cafes. We made a bee line for
All Press, a coffee shop that had been highly recommended. It turned out that while they open early, they close at 5:00 p.m. The next place in a clothes store had also just closed. We wandered a bit more and then went in the other direction and found another cafe which had closed at 7:00 p.m. Everyone heads to the pub between 6-7, so the coffee shops shut down a bit earlier than the ones in Toronto. So no coffee before dinner.
 |
| Graffiti |
 |
| More |
 |
| "The Cycle of Futility" |
We went back to the apartment and then headed out for dinner at about 8:15 p.m. We passed BoxPark, a series of box cars that has been turned into trendy smalls stores- mostly independent jewellery and clothes.
We went for dinner at a wonderful modern Turkish restaurant called Oklava, where we had eaten the last time we were in London two years ago. The food was excellent. It is a small place and one can see the chefs prepare the meal. It is only about a 12 minute walk from our apartment. The Chef, Salin Kiazim, has a new cookbook out, which is sold at the restaurant.
 |
| Inside of Oklava- open kitchen in the background |
Our meal was fabulous-- Turkish flatbread with a salad that one puts on the bread and then rolls the bread before eating it; some lovely sheep cheese in honey and rosemary; grilled chicken with delicious spices; and an amazing roasted cauliflower with pistachios, onions and other goodies.
 |
| Flatbread, delicious salad to be put on the bread-- cheese on the right |
 |
| Chicken |
 |
Grilled cauliflower with pistachios and onions etc.
We went to the nearby Hoxton hotel where we had stayed in the "shoebox" room in 2016. There was an interesting photo show of twins on the main floor. We checked out the scene and then headed back to the apartment. It had been a very tiring day and it was great just hanging out in the 'hood on our first day. On Thursday, we will wander further afield to the Tate Modern.
|
Comments
Post a Comment