London Walks

There are a number of walking tour companies here in London. For most of them, you show up at an appointed time and a guide leads the group around an area, pointing out things of interest. You could spend a year doing this in London because there truly is no shortage of things that are interesting.
But what may interest me may not interest you, right? That's why Keith and I have created our own London Walks. We tend to go where our feet take us and we always see something new and wonderful.
Saturday started out with a bit of melancholy as my sister Cara and friend Laura left for their flight back home. They were terrific guests and we loved having them here. We had tentative plans for Saturday - we intended to travel to Chelsea - the other side of London, in every way imaginable - to watch a football game at an "American" bar.
Keith's doctorate is from Texas A&M University and there is an A&M alumni group. Excuse me - it's not alumni, it's Former Students Association. That's a verbal peculiarity about A&M, and they're a bit fanatical about it. Anyway, Keith had exchanged emails with a member of the London group and there was a group game-watching party set for 5 p.m. Saturday. (That's an 11 a.m. kickoff back in Texas.)
So off we went to Chelsea. There were some refurbishments on the Underground lines as there often are on weekends, so we had to come up with an alternative and rather circuitous route to Sloane Square, which would get us close to Chelsea.
There is no Tube station in Chelsea. You get the feeling that residents of this area are quite pleased, thank you very much, that their area isn't so easy to reach.
Back in the '80s, the Yuppie population of the Chelsea area were nicknamed the Sloane Rangers. The years moved on but the name stuck. So Sloane Square and vicinity is an area that drips money. All the prominent designers have stores here. You feel like a total slob just walking down the sidewalk.
The bar/restaurant we were headed to turned out to be about 15 blocks down Kings Road from the Tube station. We went in, but found no Aggies. There were, however, a not-too-friendly group of Texas Tech alums. We sat around for about 15 minutes and decided this was going nowhere fast, so we kept walking. A few blocks down the street we spotted The Big Easy, another "American" restaurant that calls itself a crabshack. (Did I mention that Chelsea has a large American ex-pat community?) We looked at the menu (all restaurants post them outside) and decided to go in.
The menu was about as American as you get here: ribs, chicken, burgers, steaks, potato skins, wings.
Keith and I spent three years living on the Gulf Coast so we took "crabshack" as a challenge. For London, it was a decent version; in Mobile, not so much.
We ended up getting two appetizer: crab claws and wings. The wings were called Voodoo Wings and I'm really not sure exactly what they were, but they were not hot wings as we have come to know them. They were spicy and buttery with a hint of cumin. The crab claws were on ice - about four of them. I love crab in any form or fashion, but eating those bits of meat made me long for the tiny, tasty marinated crab claws we ate by the bucketful in our Gulf Coast days.
After our snack we continued to explore Chelsea and the shops along Kings Road. We arrived at a cinema just in time to take in "Burn After Reading," which opened here in the UK on Friday. The plot kept us guessing, but more notable: the theater which had three flights of stairs to the box office and an additional two flights into the theater.
After the movie, more walking, then home - all of this on a beautiful, clear night that only hinted of fall.
On Sunday we decided to take another journey. For this one, we took the bus that goes by our flat down to London Bridge, hopped off and started looking around. Our intention was to head to the Charing Cross area but darn that weekend work ... we had to find another way. We're always up to the challenge so we found a route and started walking.
An interesting discovery: Faithful readers will remember my earlier post about The Law of the Loo. Well, in the middle of this lovely Sunday stroll, nature called. We decided to duck into a restaurant, order a drink and use the facilities. We went to a place called Ultimate Burger, Keith sat down and I disappeared down the steps to the bathroom.
When I came out, he was standing in the hallway. Seems that his order of a banana milkshake and a Coke (5 pounds, yet) was a non-starter. He was told that he had to order food, not just drinks. So we left. I felt I was a teenager, diving into a bathroom without buying anything! Well, we tried ...
After a walk home and a little time to freshen up, we headed out to the Barbican Centre - about 12 blocks away - for a London Symphony Orchestra concert. The Barbican is actually quite a nifty facility; we've been there twice before. It's been around for 25 years but is much maligned by Londoners. It's a bit modern for London but it's a fine place to watch a symphony concert.
Today was a back to life day ... work for both of us, laundry and marketing. I'm going to share some photos from along my walk to the grocery store. According to my pedometer, it's a 7,000 step walk. But look what I get to see! (As always, click the photo for a larger image.)
I'd have to call this a perfect London night - it's raining but we're warm inside with cups of tea and bowls of stew.
When I walk around London, I always think of people who have walked these streets before me. Charles Dickens wrote in this very neighborhood. On Sunday, we were a block from the church Shakespeare attended. My mind wanders, and perhaps it's those "ghosts" of London that propel me as I walk.
Late this afternoon it seemed that the season changed, all of a sudden. Cara and Laura never opened an umbrella while they were here, and the weather was sunny and pleasant. Around 4 p.m., the chill set in and the rain started. It hasn't stopped. It doesn't matter. This is London. It should be raining.