London week 1

This has been a very varied week. After the good weather to start the week, rain arrived Wednesday and stayed until Saturday. On Wednesday I ventured out for a walk around midday. I wanted to find all the eateries showing up on my google maps. I discovered some of them were food trucks located further down the canal in a square by a bridge over the water and the M & S food store. Going the other way back towards the hotel I came across some more interesting options. By now the rain was back so I decided to try the Pizza Express eatery. Great pizza accompanied by a primitivo from Puglia. The rain was quite persistent so in a gap I headed back to the hotel.
Thursday was meant to get fine so decided I needed to find the best way through to Paddington Station. I followed the suggested route on my phone and found myself in a mini maze which came out at the back of the station. Given the transport strike involving the tube and some rail lines, the station was very quiet. However, I did find the ticket office, the Paddington Bear statue and the way out at the front of the station onto Praed Road. By now I was thirsty, hot and the rain was back. Luckily, across the road, under scaffolding, was the Fountain Abbey pub. Very nice interior, good steak and ale pie and beers. It bucketed down so had to have a second beer while I waited for the rain to stop. A visit to the Tesco Express store on the way back was necessary to replenish my little kitchen. It rained most of Friday and I was tired so a day relaxing was in order. I went out mid afternoon to a local pub called the Lock House for a late lunch/early dinner.
By now, I was convinced that there was an easier way to the train station so set out Saturday to check it out. I cut through to the road nearby and just walked along until I came to the main entrance. Much quicker and easier. On Sunday I am meeting a young lady who is in England doing a teaching exchange. We are having lunch in Reading which is a quick train ride from Paddington. We have been working together on the Economics teachers society for a number of years. So once I bought my tickets for Sunday, I decided to go into the Tate Modern Art Gallery and that I would go by taxi. Great idea except for the massive demonstration in the city which I didn’t know about and my driver wasn’t sure where it would be. Well it turned out that it (or part of it) started at Blackfriars Bridge which we needed to cross to get to the gallery. It was blocked off by police. Having come so far, I got out and went to walk the rest of the way. It rained again, heavily. Judging by the mountains of litter in the area, what ever the cause may have been, it was definitely fuelled by alcohol.
I ended up walking over the bridge, and around the corner by several blocks to get to the gallery. My idea had been to arrive fresh, view the exhibition I had come to see - Emily Kam Kngwarray - check out other parts of the gallery, maybe even go to the restaurant. I was so knackered by the time I got inside that all I had the energy for was to go to Emily Kan Kngwarray. I did enjoy her exhibition but was disappointed that I was so tired to really view all of her works. A taxi ride back to the station, dinner at the pizza place and back to the hotel.Read more