About in The City

I spent most of Saturday walking with Philip. My favourite way to see London, even though it probably turned out to be a lot longer than we expected. We started out on The Strand walking pass Alwych and Royal Courts of Justice on to Fleet Street. While on Fleet Street we also did a small detour to see the statue of Dr Johnson’s cat. The buildings on Fleet Street were a very eclectic mix of Tudor, Gothic, Imperial, Modern and Post-War Era. On some of the old buildings one could still see remains from the newspaper area, but barristers and other legal professions has mostly taken over the area now.

Continuing towards Ludgate we turned right to have a look the Old Bailey and from there St Paul’s Cathedral was just around the corner. I’ve been to St Paul’s twice, but never really seen the magnificent building from other sides than the front side with its major entrances. The building really is a masterpiece!

10 minutes more walking and we had passed Bank of England and The Stock Exchange and was truly in the financial district of London. As always I was reading street signs and found the address Pudding Lane being sort of cute. Maybe a bit weird though for being right in the middle of The City, but hey someone could have been in a good mood the day they named that lane. But it wasn’t really like that. Philip being the excellent guide told me that the great fire of London had started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. Probably one of those trivia things I now will remember forever.

Having walked around Fenchurch Street and Mincing Lane looking at different kind of buildings it was time for a short stop (or quite long as it turned out) at a pub. With two chatter mouths what else can one expect... Well-rested and happy Towern then was the next thing to see on our walk.

Still wanting to walk some more after Towern I came up with the idea that we should walk out to the Docklands. It’s not that far on the map… After passing Wapping we decide to walk along the Thames. It might not sound very exciting to walk along the Thames a Saturday afternoon in January, but the seaside girl in my always appreciate the sight of water.

An hour later it was starting to get dark and cold (Not everybody comes prepared from Sweden with gloves…) and it was time to find another pub. A pub where we ended up spending the better part of the evening until we realised the neither of us were very sober (OK, I admit it we were drunk… Not eating and drinking has never been a good combo.). Some food was really in order.

Limehouse didn’t have much to offer when it came to restaurants so on the Docklands Light Rail we went back into the West End to find a place to eat. Seemed like the rest of London had the same idea and after having visited two full booked restaurants we played a safe card and walked over to Bloomsbury where Malabar Junction is located. A south Indian restaurant that has both great food and ambiance.

The long walk, the drinks and finally having something to eat made us extremely sleepy and looking at the watch we had been on the go for more than 11 hours. No wonder the bed sounded so tempting!

After having said goodbye and walking down Charring Cross Road (Northern Line was down) I thought about what a great day it had been and how much I had enjoyed walking, talking and just being very carefree. And not to forget the excellent company. All and all an amazing day in many different ways.