Things to do in London #7 - Imperial War museum and a pub lunch

The imperial War museum is certainly not one my favourite museums, but when my sons came it was high on their list, and we happened to be staying kitty corner across from it so we decided to drop in.  With all the museums and art galleries being free you have nothing to lose by dropping in for an hour or even less. The Imperial war Museum is situated about a 15 minute walk away from the London eye and the nearest tube station is Lambeth North. The building which accommodates the Imperial War Museum London was formerly the central portion of Bethlem Royal Hospital, or Bedlam, as it was commonly known which was a psychiatric hospital and is where  the term something being chaotic is as "being like bedlam" comes form.

It is quite an impressive building set in large grounds, in the front are two enourmous guns trained on the front door. The central atrium when you walk in side is also quite impressive with tanks on the floor and planes suspended from the the ceiling from both first and second world wars.

View of the Atrium as you enter

View looking down

There are several different exhibts other than the istruments of war, which frankly really do not interest me, the one that found far more compelling was the reconstruction of a house as it would have been

Things to do in London #6 - Borough Market and Neal's Yard Dairy

I have to admit The England of the 1960's and 70's, which is when I was growing, up was a bit of a food wasteland. The British people really did not seem to care about food in the same way as they did in the rest of Europe.  The bakeries used fake cream in their pastries, everything came with chips and in most pubs the best you could hope for is a bag of crisps.  It is a different place now, it seems the British have had some kind of food Renaissance.  I guess part of this is because of the ease in which they now travel around Europe as well as being part of the EEC they have easy access to food from all over Europe.  That is not to say that all the good food in England is from Europe, they seemed to have rediscovered good English food like the many amazing cheeses made all over the British Isles.

Neal's Yard

A shining example of this is Neal's Yard Dairy This company started in the late 70's over in Covent Garden and then moved to Borough Market in the late 90's which is when the real food movement seemed to really get going in England. Any way no trip to London is complete in my mind with out a trip to both Neal's Yard Dairy or Borough Market which Neal's Yard is situated on the edge of.

A selection of Cheese at Neal's yard

If you want an English cheese, and believe me who wouldn't this is the place to go.

You should smell the inside of this shop

They all sell artisan made yogurts, cream and the piece de resistance, eccles cakes.  These are pastries made with flaky buttery pastry filled with raisins.

Neal's Yard eccles cakes

Things to do in London #5 - The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A as every self respecting Londoner would call it, is an amazing Museum. It was always my favourite as a child as they had a great costume gallery. Sadly when we visited the costume gallery was closed for refurbishment. But I was blown away by some of the new exhibits that have been re done. The jewellery was a knock out, both in the content and the display. You were not allowed to take any photographs due to value of the collection so here is a picture off their website.

There was also a collection of miniature mosaics, with the pieces being so small that they looked like paintings and an exhibit of design through the 20th century which was fascinating. This is all housed in a very large Victorian building, some of which has be restored and some like the jewellery exhibit has been updated.  The V & A is situated by the South Kensington Tube station and just down the road from Harrods in Knightsbridge. The building is set around a courtyard with a large pond and some grass which had it been a warmer day would have been nice to sit out in.

The cafe at the V&A is also spectacular it is located in the V&A's original refreshment rooms, these three rooms formed the first museum restaurant in the world and were intended as a showpiece of modern design, craftsmanship and manufacturing. They are absolutely stunning, each one being very different  we had to have lunch there.

Things to do in London #4 - The National Portrait Gallery

One of the best kept secrets in London is the National Portrait Gallery. Everyone knows the National Gallery which is wonderful and I visit almost every time I go to London, but the Portrait gallery is smaller and more intimate. It has a great collection of paintings and photographs documenting famous British people from the past as well as the present.

The ground floor has the most contemporary works of such people as Judy Dench, Princes William and Harry, and Lily Allen.  Every time I go there are always some new ones.  They also have special exhibits which unlike the rest of the gallery you have to pay for.

On the 2nd and 3rd floors they have everything from some wonderful portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Henry 8th to a tiny sketch which is the only known drawing of Jane Austen.

Restaurant at National Gallery restaurant

But one of the best things at the National Portrait gallery is the restaurant which is on the 4th floor and has the most wonderful views over Trafalgar square and across the Thames.  You feel as you are almost at eye level to Nelson standing on his column, except he has his back to you.

I have wanted to go to lunch here for years, but usually I go visit the gallery on my own and this was something I wanted to share.  So this time I had two of my best friends from Canada with me so I took them up the long escalator and stairs to the top for lunch. 

The amazing view

Lucca

Lucca is a small walled town between Florence and Pisa.  We were flying out of Pisa, but not until late in the evening so we decided to take a train to Lucca, maybe cycle around as that was highly recommended and then continue on to Pisa in time to see the leaning tower then fly back to London.

Well as Robert Burns wrote "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry", and these ones certainly did.  All started well, we got the bus to the train station and managed to catch the appropriate and very cheap train to Lucca.  The trip took about 1 hour as it stopped quite a few times.  Then things derailed, Connie had been assured by one of her trusty guide books that there was a place that you could leave your luggage and rent a bike right by the train station.

One of the beautiful squares in Lucca

There was no luggage drop to be found so we headed dragging our bags behind us through the large city walls.  I asked a policeman if he knew of a place, and my Italian was nonexistent, and his English not much better, so he directed us back where we came from and we tried again at the train station.

Still no luck, so now starting to get hot and tired of dragging our luggage around, we headed back through the walls.  This time we asked a bicycle rental shop who suggested we tried the bus station, the route he sent us on, was up on the wall surrounding the town and back down about a 1/4 the way round.   This was the low point, and there are no pictures of this very picteresque walk as no one was in the mood to take pictures.  Fortunately by the bus station there was somewhere to leave our luggage (for about double the price of the train!).  All thoughts of cycling had left my head, I wanted to find a restaurant in a shady spot for a cold drink and something to eat.

Nancy enjoying a cool beer after the route march

We found the perfect little spot and ordered beer and prosseco, cooled off and relaxed. We ordered two pizzas and two salads to share.

pizza with mozzerela, mushrooms, arrugala and parmazan

Last night in Florence Alfredo's

Alfredo's was a restaurant also very close to our apartment and recommended both by the owner and a couple of books, so we went there for dinner on our last night in Florence.

Again most of the diners were Italian and it was not too busy when we arrived but more people kept coming in, and obviously a lot of them were regulars and seemed to know the people working there.

For a starter I wanted to try ribollita, a traditional Tuscan soup that has bread as a main ingredient, I wanted to try it as I had never had it before.  Of course this was a bit of a waste as I still could not taste.

It really did not photograph well, but actually it was good and hearty, I can imagine this would be much more popular in the winter.  Some recipes I have seen talk about bean soup with croutons in it.  The bread was much more than croutons it was the main ingredient.  Texturally it was good and the others tell me it tasted good aswell.

San Lorenzo Market - Florence's Central Market

My original vision had been to go to the market and buy food to cook back up at the apartment, well the timing was off, and sometimes you have to change the vision to meet the reality.  So we went to the Central market for lunch instead, not a bad thing.

Around the central food market there are several streets of vendors selling leather goods, scarves and all kinds of jewellery and other touristy items.

I really wish I had bought this umbrella, it was the only one I saw and what a perfect souvenir for someone who lives in a rain forest.

We poked around the stalls bought a few scarves, belts, bags and wallets as presents for family at home and then headed in to the food market.

There was of course every kind of pasta that you have ever seen, olives and vegetables.

Beautiful zucchini flowers