I had a wonderful day in London
yesterday. The weather was supposed to
be awful – rain, rain, and more rain – but it turned out to be quite good,
especially in the afternoon.
The day started badly.
The little newspaper shop where I buy my Harold Tribune (now
International New York Times) was
closed (permanently?) and my usual breakfast place was thronging with foreign
students. I took myself off and discovered
a new cafe in a little side-street nearby. I cannot recommend it! The food was sub-standard and the place
smelled like cat-pee. The décor was
quite original, though.
Then things picked up.
Dodging in and out of the rain I did a little recreational shopping and bought
a scarf with toy birds on it called ‘Bal des Oiseaux’, which turned out to go
with four different cardigans I own, Glory Be!!!! I also visited Berk at the Burlington Arcade,
they will probably close by the end of July.
They haven’t got much merchandise left, at least not in my size, just as
well since I am well supplied, thank you very much. Then I meandered towards the Club, and
perused all the newspapers. When that
palled, I walked towards St Pancras. As
usual I got terribly lost, but eventually arrived just in time.
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| Look at those fingernails! |
While being lost, I saw an absolutely amazing advertisement;
I photographed it so you can see I am not lying. Now I am as interested in having beautiful
fingernails as the next person, but calling it a Childhood Dream is really
going too far. And as for setting up a savings scheme to pay for the manicures necessary to achieve such a result, why words
fail me!
I go to St Pancras all the time to catch the Eurostar, but
had never actually done any exploring around there, so decided to spend some of
the 26th there. The weather
was still a little iffy; I took loads of photos but had to ditch most of them,
but I post the better ones here for your delectation.
There are actual tours of the whole building, hotel and all,
but I had not booked in advance so we couldn’t get in. Undeterred we explored the upper echelons of
the train station, a very spacious, clean, modern day living kind of a space
which was pretty empty despite it being Saturday afternoon.
There are several restaurants, bars, and cafes all around
the roofed central area where the trains come and go, and one can sit at little
tables outside and wait for one’s loved ones to arrive. One of the restaurants even has a roof
terrace, not near the central area but outside of the station, where one can
overlook the traffic and King’s Cross Station, but it was very windy and quite
cold out there, so we sat in the roofed central area. This is the part of the station where the
famous Lovers Statue is located, by the way.
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| No this isn't the Lover's Statue - it is Betjeman! |
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| That's the Lovers' Statue! |
To celebrate the occasion we had a glass of champagne in
addition to the inevitable coffee, and got quite tipsy, and talked about the
past and present and future and how amazingly wonderful life is, if only you get over yourself and allow it to be.
After that we had a wander around the area, and discovered a
wildlife haven just a stone throw from the station! Sadly it is closed on Saturdays, but I shall
plan an expedition later this summer and tell you all about it.
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| The tower in the background is St Pancras - see how close it is? |
Instead of going back to St Pancras and then home from there,
I decided to take a short cut. This is
always a bad idea, and as predicted I got terribly lost. But I am not complaining, because I found
eight coins, including a little set next to a vending machine: one Penny next to one Euro-cent!
Happy 26th of April!!!
