Kiwi Roaming

We flew back from Zürich into Luton. Luton airport (and probably all UK airports) doesn’t have a “something to declare” exit, but has this great sign and phone you can dob yourself in at. After evaluating options we got an Uber to Bermondsey where we’d rented a one bedroom apartment for 2 nights. Such an awesome part of the city to base ourselves in and an area we hadn’t really explored before.

It was about 2pm when we arrived so with an hour to kill we got ourselves dropped off to a pub called The Victoria – it was a really traditional old pub with a group of locals drinking with the publican while he hand cut chips. No menu’s just a few blackboards around with food ideas so after a discussion with the publican we ordered the homemade steak and ale pie with vegetable and other than an over cooked crust it was a massive plate of food and delicious. The only other punters who came in were a couple of posties on their break for a quick pint which we gleaned they do every day.

Pub lunch ticked off our list we headed to the apartment which was really nice, in a near new block on level 1, the agent met us and showed us around with a few insights including – keep the deck doors locked “cause after all we are in London”. Nearby there were older council blocks and terraced houses and we were a few blocks walk from Bermondsey road which is fabulous to walk down.

That evening we headed to Tower Bridge which was about 15 minute walk to see the Christmas markets and lights along the side of the Thames. It was nothing like as decorated here as in Switzerland but still lots to see and lots of people to navigate. After a good walk we started to head home finding another local with a great name – the Welly. This one was totally different, busy, upmarket, great vibe and wine list. We would have settled in but loads of people arrived to watch the football so it got very loud all of a sudden. Great find.

Next day we headed to Borough Market for breakfast (at 10am when it opens) first. It was slammed! There are a few TikTok trends featuring food here at the moment and we decided to try two of them – Humble Crumble first, which had a relatively short queue, we couldn’t bring ourselves to get the marshmallow topping I’ve seen heaps of on the internet but did enjoy our berry with Chocolate drizzle offering. After wandering around looking at all the great food and queues we joined a queue for fancy sausage rolls. It’s worth noting while there we saw loads of signs, bobbies (including two queueing in front of us) and there were announcements about cellphone thefts which are a big thing in London now.

Sausage roll queuing took about 15 mins so not bad, you get called up to the counter when you reach the front and they only serve 2 people at a time. There are lots of flavours but we both chose their original. The sausage rolls were large, greasy and very tasty but they also cost £7 each (or $15) so not sure they were worth it cost wise.

We were meeting Steve’s cousin Craig for lunch today so from here we walked via The Strand (cause it was warmer than the river) to the City. There is a fab new mall called One New Change right by Saint Pauls with a rooftop you can take a lift up to look at the dome, it also has clean free public toilets in the mall which is a bonus. From here we headed to the cathedral grounds and watched tourists getting mugged by Squirrels (which was very like being mugged by Monkeys in Malaysia but they are less violent), looked at the great new street art in the squares and found people queuing at Farmer J’s for lunch – another new trend.

It was great catching up with Craig. We went to one of the 15 or so Pret’s in the vacinity where I got some yoghurt and berries and Steve an egg sandwich. After 2 hours of chatting we made a plan to catchup in the period between Christmas and New Year, said our goodbyes and wandered off towards Covent Garden and Leicester Square.

Leicester Square – I wanted to see the new Bridget Jones statue but that was a little tricky as the whole square has been turned into an ice skating rink and Christmas markets. We took a wee look around and eventually found her, it took a while but I got a pic eventually – there were just so many people there it was crazy. I had pinned a few places to visit around here so we took a wander through the streets, stumbled on a K Pop music video being recorded and saw some well decorated buildings.

Covent Garden – was also crazy slammed with people, too many people to even see what the vendors are selling so we didn’t stay long. Someone needs to pee on a regular basis in this cold weather so we went into the London Transport museum shop (somewhere we often take a toilet break) to warm up and look at the great poster collection.

It was very cold by now and dark (between 3:30pm and 4pm) so we decided to take the bus back to Tower Bridge, that proved fruitless with no buses turning up for half an hour so instead of standing still in the cold we walked to Embankment to jump on the tube and test out the contactless payment system – which is seamless of course.

London Wall – also on my list was to visit the London Wall, I can’t believe I lived here and have visited so many times but never been to see these remnants of the Roman wall built to surround the former city. There are two easy viewing points, one behind the Leonardo Hotel valet parking, and it was fascinating walking around this large fancy hotel precinct. The other outside Tower Hill tube station so we checked it out in both places, not well lit up in the dark so worth seeing in the daytime.

5 o’clock wine time had come around (and another toilet break needed) so we walked past about 20 pubs before finding one that had a quiet upstairs (chocker downstairs) table and enjoyed a wee break. That evening I had identified a food court right beside Tower Bridge called the Tower Bridge Collective. Nothing fancy here but a huge space with about 20 vendors, mostly asian or middle eastern cuisine. We settled on Bao buns and satay and found ourselves a table with a view of the bridge lights.

From here we took a walk down Shad Thames area (not a typo) and around the old wharf buildings, now converted into apartments. We grabbed a few breakfast supplies from an independent grocer here and then headed back to our apartment. The next morning we didn’t have much time so walked to London Bridge station, hopped on a tube to Euston and caught the train to Milton Keynes. Steve had been sleuthing at prices for a few days and got us a fantastic ticket for about 12 quid on sale which was excellent.

I got my first Leon fix for the trip while we waited for our platform to come up – yay – chicken bites and a Gingerella (they have all Karma cola drinks which is awesome). At the other end we hopped on “the Loop” bus clockwise and got off at the Waitrose that’s 8 minutes walk from Karen and Paul’s house. Also contactless and seamless to use. London visit number one done. Now onto our packed agenda for the next month.