It was my birthday, and my treat was to go up to London to see my Young Man and do some sightseeing.
It was a wonderful weekend, and we kept getting unexpected bonuses wherever we went.
I wanted to go to Liberty's, because it's such an amazing timber building, and it's about 20 years since I was last in there - and they had a quilt exhibition on, in association with the V&A. The quilts were hanging over the third floor galleries, and looked amazing. Then there was a rather fine pub round the corner called the Clachan, which did free tastings of the real ales on offer, including Signs of Spring, which is available in the pub at Erwood near Builth - and is green!
Mark wanted to take me to a little hidden away pub near the Borough Market, full of excellent real ales. It's called the Rake, and on the way we stopped at the beer and wine stall in the market, with beers from all over the world (I think my favourite was 'Hebrew, the chosen beer'). We ate sausage inna bun outside Southwark Cathedral, and popped in to say hello to the William Shakespeare memorial.
I'd read on another blog about All Hallows by the Tower, a church with models of ships hanging along the sides of the aisles, which was also quite wonderful (I don't remember whose blog I saw it on now, but their recommendation was perfect). There's a little museum in the crypt, that includes a Roman mosaic pavement in situ, and there's a Saxon arch under the tower - this church was old when William the Conquerer was eye-ing up the field next door for his White Tower.
On the way up Cheapside, to meet a friend of Mark's at Bart's, we saw about half a dozen men dressed in red and green robes trimmed with fur - the sort of thing a mayor might wear, some with chains of office. Mark said they were Freemen of the City, and they were just walking along the road.
The following day, we went up to the Greenwich Observatory - and saw the little tea rooms that had been mentioned in the blog Unmitigated England just the previous week! I didn't think I'd be visiting it when I read the post. On the way, we went over Shooter's Hill, where duels were once fought and highwaymen lurked, and through the oldest woodland in England, Oxleas Wood.
The Observatory is fascinating, and we were there at just the right time - a woman does a dramatic presentation about the life of Ruth Belville, the Woman who Sold the Time to London, in the Octagon Room, and we got there just in nice time to see it. She used to walk around London with an accurate chronometer, set at the Observatory, to give the correct time to clockmakers, and department stores "and my two millionaires in Mayfair" and so on, at a cost (in 1908) of £4 a year per customer. Only the Second World War stopped her, and she was in her 80s then. We were also in time to see the red ball drop at one o'clock, which was the signal for the ships at the Docks to set their clocks.
Walking down through the park, we found a very nice Vietnamese restaurant, called Saigon - which may have been a mistake, good though the food was, because we then went round Greenwich Market, where you really can eat your way round the world! There were stalls selling Portuguese food, Brazilian, Jewish salt beef, South African biltong, Caribbean stews, Ethiopian Vegetarian food, all sorts of Asian meals - all crammed into one small space.
Moving on, we found the remains of the Cutty Sark, covered in scaffolding and plastic as they rebuild it from the keel up, and wandered through the Old Naval College, where we could hear musicians practicing from various windows. There was also a rather fine pub called the Old Brewery, which actually has the brewery in full view at one end of the room. They also have Michael Jackson's beer collection in glass cases (the beer writer, not the musician).
And we ended the tour in the Maritime Museum, where we saw Nelson's coat, with the fatal bullet hole.
On the last day, I was taken out for lunch at a local place called Sidcup Place, which was once the home of Ethel Smyth, who wrote the anthem for the suffragettes.
I travelled up from Hay by National Express, and I was most impressed - comfortable, plenty of leg room, and you can even use your laptop these days! And they were on time all the way.
