Things I Forgot - 5

 Mind the Gap

Queue to the Right

Look RIGHT then LEFT

Free houses > Tied houses (But almost any Cask Ale > beer on tap)

The oyster card is an amazing travel tool

An Afternoon at the Theater

We went an say Jersey Boys yesterday (the 28th) at a matinee. It was Sunday and most shows only have matinees on Sunday. The musical is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. As I’ve told my sister, Susan, the music was great and the lead had an amazing range BUT he had a crap Jersey accent. Fun though:

One of our favorite TV shows is called Slow Horses. It’s on Apple TV and a vehicle for some amazing actors (Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott-Thomas) based on a series of spy novels by Mick Herron. One of the characters, Roddy Ho, is played by Christopher Chung. Why am I writing about this? He and his family were at the Jersey Boy’s show. As we sat down I told Fran “That dude looks amazingly like the guy from Slow Horses”. We looked him up and the woman he was with, his wife, is also an actor. We were able to confirm the sighting. We didn’t introduce ourselves or anything, let the guy enjoy a night out right, but it was fun seeing an actor from a series I really like. 

Now maybe I’m done writing except for a recap or a would do again/wouldn’t do again?

A Typical Day in London

 Well maybe not so typical because the weather was beautiful. 

We started the day, after the wake up rituals (shower etc), with breakfast at Balan’s Soho Society number 43:

Because it was my first breakfast in London in a while I had the full English and Fran the Omlette

We went back to our hotel (Victory House in Leicester Square) and got tickets to a “Bleak Expectations”, a comedy play kind of making fun of Emily Dickinson’s plays. The play was in Piccadilly Circus.

Then we took the tube over to Borough Market to do a bit of shopping. The map above clearly shows how intuitive it is to get anywhere in London on the tube (it actually is easy to read once you “get it”).

Dropped packages off at the hotel and went to walk around Covent Garden. Did a tiny bit of shopping there - I bought a bow tie. And found a hotdog stand. Seriously did not eat there. No really.

It was mid afternoon and we were getting a bit hungry so we started looking for a Pintxos place we know called PIX but couldn’t find it. But instead we stumbled on the 10 cases. We’ve stumbled on this place at least three other times. We never remember where it is but it’s one of my favorite French Bistro’s anywhere (including France). I’ve finally written down the address so hopefully I can find it next time. We had a light lunch of Rillettes, Cucumber Gazpatcho, and Gouyseres accompanied by a wonderful pour of Chenin Blanc.

We walked London for a while longer before stopping by Balan’s again for a late day Aperitif. Then back to the hotel to freshen up for the play.

We went back (for the third time today)  to Soho to find a quick bite to eat and, low and behold we found PIX! They had moved to Soho and didn’t tell us.  So we got a few Pintxos and, after fighting our way through Chinatown and Piccadilly Circus, we’re ready for the theater.

The play was a fun. A snarky take on Dickinson, entitled “Bleak Expectations”, with a lot of current political humor thrown in. We got home a bit late having to fight crowds in both Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. By my guess there were more people in those squares than live on all Fidalgo Island. It is a bank holiday in UK so people are out partying.

Most of our days on the road are like this. Our days in London are always like this. It’s why we travel.

We have two days left. I doubt I’ll post much more this trip unless there’s something extraordinary or maybe do a recap of would/wouldn’t do again. It’s really been a blast. Though we miss the kid’s and grandkids, not having work or pet responsibilities makes travel easier for me to enjoy.

In London

 In London and didn’t have any travel issues (there were lots around, British Air’s systems went down the day before but it didn’t impact our flight). 

First thing? The ticket booth for play tickets (saw Pretty Woman) and then Balan’s social club (43) for a drink and snack.

Last Meal in Nice

 Just a little bit more about Nice. Overall we’d recommend a few day visit to Nice. Lot’s of sites (the ruin of the old castle gives spectacular views of the city) and things to do (beach). But probably our favorite thing about the city is the food. It’s clearly a mix of French and Italian, with theft from the best of both cuisines. We were out exploring the city our first night and saw this place:

La Maison Bleue (the blue house). You can find it here: http://restaurantlamaisonbleue.fr/. We’d already eaten the night this photo was taken so we came back the next night (Tuesday). It was closed. Wednesday we had reservations at a highly recommended restaurant (Carmela in Cour Sayla) that we both thought was over rated (Fran had bad risotto and I had a Veal Tagliata that was just so-so). On our last night I emailed La Maison Bleue and we got in.

It’s not fancy but it’s good honest French home cooking. One of the top meals of the trip. I’m not as much into food as I used to be but I’ll share what we had so we can try something new the next time we go (this is the first place I’d go in nice):

Starters

I had a fish three ways (I obviously couldn’t eat the prawn so Fran did) with salad.

Fran had a cheese ravioli with a pesto cream sauce

Mains

We both had steaks mine with Au Poive (bottom photo) and Frans with Mushrooms (top).

This was accompanied by a very nice bottle of Cote Du Provence the owner recommended.

Dessert consisted of a simple cheese plate with Cherve, Brie, and some form of strong blue cheese. 

This night we were the only ones in the place. At the end of our meal we were talking with the matre’d, waiter, owner, and bottle washer. We told him how much we appreciated the love and passion they put into their food. He introduced us to his mother-in-law, the chef, and then brought out a bottle of limoncello and we toasted to her. 

A great ways to end our time in Nice and France, at a small family run restaurant.

Food Pics from Nice

 We’ve switched to French food, which here at least, isn’t a ton different than Italian food. 

A Walk in Nice

 Spent a pleasant day yesterday walking around Nice. Big city but some beautiful gardens and sights. Covered over eight miles!