Sunday, 07 March 2010
Birthday Treat 1: London Day Out!
I had a lot of fun last month, as a result of my many birthday celebrations. I thought I'd share with you about two particular fab days. The first was a day I spent in London with Jon and some wonderful friends.
It started with a mocha at quarter to ten in the morning at the train station, whilst waiting to be whisked to Waterloo. By ten thirty, Jon and I were there, hurrying to catch a tube on the Northern Line. We reached Camden before eleven o'clock, and were soon deep in the markets looking for bargains. There were two tops that caught my eye, both of which were £20 each. I only wanted to buy one, so a decision had to be made - and it may have been the wrong choice as I've already had to resew a button on, but I still think it's more my style than the other one, so I'm happy.
Whilst browsing through Camden, Simon and Graham appeared, and all together we strolled along until we ran out of markets, when we popped into Chalk Farm tube station to reach Hampstead. Once there, we stepped out into a blizzard! It was amazing - the snow fell so thick and fast that we could barely see a few feet in front of us! We marched onwards as best we could for twenty minutes or so, until we finally saw our destination - the Spaniard's Inn.
I had booked a table here for lunch, because it sounds such intriguing! Dickens has been here (and, as you will realise later, this was a Dickens-themed day out), as have Keats and Shelley, and Dick Turpin is reputed to have been born here! The pub itself was great - such a warm atmosphere (which we needed after our snowy walk - the blizzard completely stopped once we got inside, by the way!) and superb food, and although it was extremely busy we didn't have too big a problem waiting for our food. Peter and James met us here, and fabulous fun was had all round!
Our next stop was the Dickens Museum on Doughty Street, which didn't take long to reach once we'd walked back to Hampstead tube station. This museum is fascinating - it's full of information on Charles Dickens, some of which I knew but also a lot that I didn't. And the artefacts - wow! The engagement ring Dickens gave to his wife Catherine is there, as are portraits of him and his family, and the wooden midshipman used as a model for the midshipman in his book Dombey and Son. And so much more! I will definitely be going back - it is quite possibly my favourite London museum!
The rest of the day did not quite go as planned. A week or so before, I had called a nearby pub to decide where to go for dinner. They had said they'd be busy but I decided not to book as we wouldn't be in any great hurry. However, when we got there, it was closed - they were hosting a wedding reception. So we found somewhere nearby for a drink before wandering the streets of London to find a place to eat.
We did, of course, find somewhere and enjoyed a lovely meal and drinks there before returning to Waterloo, and thus home. And that was my truly splendiferous, Dickens-themed day out in London!
The next post will be about another birthday treat - a day at Castle Drogo!
