Our reason for the trip was twofold - Kevin had a week of training in London timed well with the Dublin Marathon the following week. He had been in training for months for the marathon, including many 4:30am runs to beat the Doha heat, so I was thrilled that an end to the madness might soon be in sight. I've been to London twice before, once in college on an exchange and most recently with Kevin in 2010. That said, I've done, what I consider, most of the major touristy sights and wasn't really sure what I would do for a week on my own with Kevin in training. To further my anxiety, I had been told by several folks that London's tube was not very stroller friendly (no elevators/ramps and lots of stairs). Adding to that, I didn't even want to take my stroller on this trip - Adam was just 10 weeks old and we would have needed to bring his car seat + his stroller and I didn't want to risk damage on the five flights we faced. So before the trip even started, I trolled the UK's Craigslist-type sites (Gumtree and NetMums) and found a pramette that my FABULOUS friend Anni picked up for me and my AWESOME friends Trent and Lui trekked to our hotel for us on the tube. This pram was a monster - 22 lbs. - but it ended up being an absolute lifesaver. It let Adam sleep almost flat (like an old school buggy for Americans not familiar with the term "pram") which was helpful for all the walking we did (from 9am or so until 5pm most days) and for sleeping in at night. I have horrendous post-partum back strain and pinched nerve issues in my leg. Every single "crib" at our three hotels ended up being a pack-n-play, meaning the baby virtually slept a few inches off of the floor. We just had Adam sleep in the pram at night and it was perfect!
OK, so on to the meat of our London trip! Again, I had done most of the touristy stuff and wasn't sure how I'd fill my days. Fortunately, a friend of mine (Jessica) from our compound in Doha was traveling with her husband who was in the same training class as Kevin and I think I spent the majority of the trip exploring London with her. I had no idea that the museums in London are free - we hit up the National Gallery and basically just got lost most of the time (like exploring East London in search of street art, running through Old Spitalfields Market, financial district, etc.). Not having a huge tourist agenda was kinda nice! Jessica was also a tremendous help the few times we did take the tube (and we can confirm - virtually no elevators anywhere!) and incredibly patient every 2-3 hrs. when Adam needed to be fed. I did end up doing some touristy stuff on my own, though - I went to the Tate Modern (twice), the British Museum, the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (madness!), and spent a lot of time walking through Hyde Park, Soho and the area of the Thames near Big Ben/London Eye. I was also excited to catch up with not one, but two friends from Doha that had repatriated back to London! I do not know how moms get along in central London - it really is tremendously difficult unless you strap the baby onto your chest. I ended up walking virtually everywhere... miles and miles and miles, it seemed. That said, I had great fun walking! We were staying near Hyde Park and I spent a lot of time on Oxford Street which is a huge shopping thoroughfare.
We hit some great eats in London; I mainly used Time Out's cheap eats listings and here are a few of my favorites:
- Beigel Bake - Brick Lane - the specialty is hot salt beef bagels (basically like corned beef); I got mine with Coleman's mustard and felt that stuff shoot straight to my nose! Yum yum!
- Kerb street food market - I think I walked the longest to get to this pop-up street food market near King's Cross station. My main motivation was to finally try one of Andy Bates' (from Eat My Pies and Food Network UK) roast beef yorkshire pudding sandwiches (see my obsession with this sammy here). Eh. Just OK. I much more enjoyed "A Little Bit of Everything" from Horn OK Please. On my way out I walked back to Eat My Pies to grab a nibble to go and learned that the woman running the stall was actually Andy Bates' mother (beaming with pride!). She gave me something similar to a kolache (sausage wrapped in pastry) for free since it was almost closing time. It was absolutely delish.
- Maoz Vegetarian (falafel joint) - not as incredible as the branch in Barcelona that we ate at 3 times in as many days, but still yummy
- Koya - this udon shop was amazing (though I loved my pork and miso paste cold udon with hot broth much better than Jessica liked her curry soup); probably my favorite meal in London
- Busaba Eathai (several locations) - family style seating, loud, trendy and fairly cheap!
- Canteen Baker Street (several locations) - had a great pork roast here
- Giraffe (several locations) - awesome breakfast burrito
- Department store food halls - I tackled the halls at Selfridges and Harrods. Selfridges was pretty much like a big food court with a variety of vendors. Harrods' food hall was an amazing feast for the eyes. Incredible looking meats, cheeses, chocolates!
Having trouble uploading pics through Blogger, so here's the link to all of our UK/Ireland trip pics.
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