England, Day 5: Meeting up with the Pinkertons

We woke up at 8 - that's only 15 hours of sleep!
We said good bye to our AirBnB and headed off to London. On the platform in Maidenhead, Matt was lucky that I was willing to share a chicken and mushroom pasty with him. We came into Paddington station, where we picked up bears for the kids - E loves the "BEAR" movie. We headed to our hotel and dropped off our stuff before grabbing a quick bite at this terrible gastro eatery close to the hotel. We both wanted quick sandwiches and some bruschetta. The food was amazing but the service made me hate them! Matt had a spicy salami and I had a goat cheese and vegetable.

From there, we headed off - to meet the Pinkertons. The beautiful thing about when your friends are pilots, it's easy for them to accept your invitations to jet off across the world for a couple of days. Matt and I were so excited to have them in London for our last couple days to share the experience. We met at a cute pub and each had a pint while we caught up. From there, we went to the Tower of London, they went to tour the Tower Bridge.

I was excited to show the Tower to Matt - it's a rich piece of English history between the crown jewels, the Beef Eaters, the torture, the traitors, the ravens - it admits that there is an ugly past that looms in the shadow but celebrates it
still the same. I went on my last trip and can remember the jewels and the ravens but this time we took a Beefeater tour - which gave more detail and some of the lesser known facts. We also toured the torture room. One addition since I've been there is the sculptures of the animals. The Tower used to serve as the zoo, holding all the gifted animals to the monarch. An artist has constructed replicas of the animals to remember their place - I was excited to see them.

We met back up with Pinkertons...took our first British Cab back to the hotel. After officially checking into our quaint little room - we headed out for supper at the Marques of Westminster. This was one of my favorite meals - Brits take Sunday meal seriously and it's usually heavy and traditional. We started off with scotch eggs, I had the pork belly, Matt, John, and Allison had the ribeye roast in a
gravy with celeriac fries. Each meal had yorkshire pudding and my meal also came with pigs in a blanket and bubble and squeak, which I had been wanting to try. We shared a sticky toffee pudding with ice cream afterward. The atmosphere was everything that you'd expect in a pub, the service was amazing, and I'd go back in a heart beat.

From there we went to Cask. Matt and I had tried to go earlier - but they weren't open.This was the first time we'd really experienced a cask beer - which really celebrates the warm temperature. They had a large menu to which we attempted to sample as much as possible.

Allison: Oh that looks good!
ALR: Matt, can you get us a sample?
MJR walks off.
Allison: You can do that?
ALR: Yes - most places are okay with that.
John: No - you can tell Matt to just bring us a sample?
ALR: Yes.
8 samples and 1 amused bartender later.
John: I'll have this one.
MJR: That's the only one you haven't sampled.
John: But that's the one that I wanted from the start.
MJR: What are you two having?
Allison and Amanda: the cider.
MJR: You didn't sample that either.
ALR: We always knew that's what we were going to get. 

After Cask closed at 11:30, we struggled to find a pub to keep the conversation going. This was not easy - even in the middle of London. We finally gave up and headed to John and Allison's hotel lobby bar. We gave up the fight at 1:00 and all headed to bed.

While looking for a bar
homeless lady walks up to Matt and I: Can you help me, I just need a few pounds. I'm not on drugs, I was kicked out of my house...
MJR: Do you know where the pub that's open is.
homeless lady breaks her own sentence, pointing: It's just north of those doors.
MJR grabs ALR's hand: okay, thanks!
Heads off
ALR: Why did she think YOU are approachable?