Arriving in London

 Let me take a sip of my tea before I get into the last I don't know how many hours. Tea, you say? Well, yes, of course. When in London, right? Plus, Mario forgot to pack his moka pot, which he usually never leaves home without, and our accommodations don't have anything with which to make a good cup of coffee, but it does have a kettle. Forget the instant, we'll just make tea, which is exactly what we did this afternoon, after checking in and picking up some breakfast staples for the next few days. But we had to get here first, and that was quite the trip - let me fill you in.

For the first time, we travelled solely with carry-on luggage. Usually, Mario and I travel with all our possessions stuffed into really big backpacks, which we check, but given the state of  unemployment in the airline industry right now, we didn't want to take a chance of losing our luggage while only away for a week. This make checking in really easy - I downloaded the boarding passes when I checked in at home, and since we had no luggage to check, we basically waltzed into the airport and right to the security line! Belts off, liquids out, laptops in separate bins, and we breezed through security, too. I guess we are getting pretty good at this travel thing!

Our usual routine involves getting to the airport the usual 3 hours ahead, and then wasting away some of that time at Archibald's, eating typical Quebecois dishes and drinking some our our favorite beers. Sadly, like most restaurants, Archibald had made changes to its menu, and my favorite dish, the Shepherd's Pie, is no longer on it. I settled for some crispy shrimp tacos, which are good, but certainly not the comforting, homey dish I was hoping for.

More routine stuff before heading to the gate: washroom breaks, water bottle refills, last-minute updates for the family. We line at the gate - actually, we head to the wrong gate first, as our gate number changes somewhere during he time we sit down for dinner and get back up again. Then we line up at the right gate, but the wrong time. Air Transat is notoriously late  for their flights, and tonight is no exception. So when the plane pulls in when we should be departing, we know we won't be leaving on time! We sit down and wait. 

One hour later, we are belted into our seats and zipping down the runway, looking forward to a long flight of attempted sleep. Because I sleep so poorly on plane. Again, Air Transat throws a wrench into the works - they serve their in-flight hot meal - pasta - on schedule, which means we are being served a full hot meal at12:30 am! Who in their right mind at Air Transat even thought that was a good idea?! Why not give us a snack first, and then keep the big meal for breakfast? It's only logical; People coming from Montreal on EDT would've eaten dinner beforehand and be sleeping during the flight, and people travelling back to London on GMT time, would be just getting back to normal breakfast time come landing! I have not idea who was in charge of scheduling, but they should be fired.

Important to note: Air Transat is one of the worse airlines I have flown, second only to Air China, and I  half-blame it on the fact that we forgot to check-in and both got stuck in the center seats on an 11-hour flight. Yuck.

Arrival was smooth, but how can it not be when the transfer involved is on a high-speed direct train? Hello Montreal, time to catch up to the rest of the modern world! And then we were walking down tunnels, riding the Tube to Aldgate East station, and heading back above ground to our little apartment. We are staying in a sparse but comfortable room, with a shared bath and kitchen, and given our proximity to downtown London, I really couldn't ask for better at this rate.

Insert here a brief interlude where we unpack for the week, shower off the travel grime, and desperately try NOT to get sucked in by the comfort of the cozy little bed after all that transiting...

I never make plans on a travel day, because we never really know how tired we will be, what delays we will face, so any time we have left to wander around and visit the city is considered bonus time in my opinion, and welcome at that. Wanting to keep ourselves awake as long as possible to reset our inner time zone(goodbye Eastern Time, hello Greenwich Time!), we headed back out to explore our neighbourhood. First order of business was to pick up some foodstuffs for the week - since our accommodations have a full kitchen - to cover breakfasts and snacks. Then we walked north, to the Spitalfields Market, to see what food options were available to us for dinner. I got lured in by the idea of a make-your-own crumble shop, so we stopped for a moment to enjoy the sticky-sweet apple-strawberry-rhubarb crumble, still piping hot, topped with shortbread crumble and a generous dollop of frozen custard(the equivalent of soft-serve at home). We watched the goings-on of the market from our spot on a communal picnic table.

We make our way through what seems like the business district, at least in our neighbourhood of London, with its tall glass buildings pointing high into the sky, and head down towards the Thames, and the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. Now, Tower bridge is the bridge that everyone thinks of when they think of "London Bridge", but it is not actually THE London Bridge - that is another, less ornate one further up the Thames. Tower bridge is a spectacular riot of brilliant colours and ornate details, and laden with history which we are too tired to appreciate today. We merely walk across it several times, taking in the views and the crowds, and then head alongside to the Tower of London. 

Closed for the day, the Tower of London is very much that - you can't  really see inside, but the outside views are grand and historic and awesome. In addition, the moat has been turned into a ecosystem restoration project this year called the Great Bloom, having been planted with 2 million wildflowers and native blooms in an attempt to improve the health of the local pollinators. Winding down its "bloom" for the season, there are still patches of bright orange rudbekia and sweet pink cosmos everywhere, but the yarrow have gone to seed for next year. The edges of the moat are overflowing with herbs, with rosemary bushes competing for space with sage "trees" and some member of the mint family I couldn't recognize immediately. I ran my hand along a branch, taking the herbal scent with me as we descended into the Underground.

Since we have purchased 7-day Travel passes for all the public transportation, we take advantage of this and ride the Tube all of 2 stations back to Liverpool Station for a bite to eat. We did some research into pies before travelling, and found out there is a well-known chain of pubs located in our area that specialize in hand-made pies, so we head the The Astronomer. Everything since Covid has become incredibly self-sufficient in London - self-checkout at the grocery store, self-check of passports at the airport(for commonwealth countries, at least), and self-ordering at the pubs. You scan the menu QR code, you order and pay, and then someone shows up at you table with your food. It's not such a great system when you are new in the country and want to ask questions about the selection of beers on table, the recommended pairing with each of the the pies...we end up approaching the bar with our questions, tasting some of the ales(all too bitter for my tastes!) and come away with a better understanding of the system. Admittedly, it's a great system for locals who frequent the same establishments on a regular basis.

We go classic: Mario orders a trio of mini pies with a trio of paired beers, and I get the fish and chips with minted peas  and chips(fries here, remember?). Both are good, and we get a first real taste of British food, but I think we can do better. We leave stuffed but satisfied, and make our way back to the apartment still standing, which is good because we just about collapsed into bed. But we made it all day - tomorrow should be easy.