London

Met my sister at Waterloo Station, then we wandered around the embankment until we found Waterloo Bridge. As we hadn't decided what to do or where to go, we paused at this point and looked around. I saw St Paul's Cathedral in the distance and thought it would be nice to go there as I hadn't been since I was a small child. We crossed the bridge and turned left, heading along The Strand towards Fleet Street. We saw the Royal Courts of Justice, then got over-excited by the fanciest bank lobby I've ever seen; this was Lloyd's Bank, opposite the courts. The lobby had beautiful tiling on the floor and walls as well as stunning columns.

 

Further along we found the original Twining's tea shop, so we had to go in and sniff all their samples. It was quite, quite delicious and lovely, but we resisted buying a teapot for £49 as well as their more exotic, but quite scrumptious, teas. Self control! We peeked into an alley and were confronted with St Bride's church. Stunning spire! I should imagine many girls want to get married there.

 

We needed lunch so we headed for the International Salvation Army HQ on Queen Victoria Street, and into the basement where Café 101 is located. This café serves delicious food at very reasonable prices. We each had a toasted brie and tomato baguette and a cup of tea. We then gave in to temptation and shared a slice of the most sinful chocolate cake I have eaten in ages!

 

After lunch we went to the Millennium Bridge as it was right next to the cafe. I was somewhat disappointed that it no longer wobbled. I took some photos for an American tourist, then we headed for the cathedral, passing through Knightrider Terrace and Sermon Lane; we discovered there was an entry fee if you weren't attending service of £16.50 for adults. Once we'd got over the shock we decided we didn't need to see the inside particularly. We popped into the main entrance and peeped at Earl Kitchener's tomb then left before we had to pay. I understand that the cathedral has massive maintenance costs, but that entrance charge is steep!

 

We pottered on, passing through Paternoster Square which has the most ornate ventilation shaft I've seen. It was an ornate column with water trickling down its lower sides, and was topped with a gilded pineapple. There was no information about it anywhere to be seen. Opposite this was a sculpture of a shepherd and sheep by Dame Elizabeth Frink. Good, but I'm not that keen on her work. I'm not entirely sure where our route went after this, but we did get to Threadneedle Street and saw the Bank of England, and wandered up random alleyways which either looked interesting or had peculiar names.  We ended up in Brick Lane. This was full of curry houses, sari shops and Asian sweet shops. We stopped for a cuppa in a lovely little cafe which had shelving made of copper pipes and scaffolding planks. And a rocking chair which I sat on.

 

At some stage we went to Old Spitalfields Market, which is now full of clothing stalls and shops full of trendy knickknacks. We found some vintage clothes shops too and got excited about retro Docs Martins and silly hats. We also went to Hope Square by Liverpool Street Station to see the Kindertransport memorial as we had both seen the corresponding one on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.

  

We finished the outing by catching the no. 40 bus back to my sister's house, sitting right at the front on the top deck. We spent the evening watching the DVD of 'As Good as it Gets', which was a very pleasant way to end the day.

 

I can highly recommend just wandering around and going wherever your whims take you!

Chocolate cake at Café 101

Twining's tea shop

Kindertransport Memorial