Sticky Toffee with Custard
After we checked into our room at the "London School of Economics, Grosvnor", we asked the nice student at the front desk where we could get the best fish and chips, she sent us to a place a few blocks away. We had nice outdoor seating, the fish and chips were good, but the best part was dessert. Pam had remembered that Mike told her to try "sticky toffee" which we saw on the dessert menu. The waiter recommended we have it with custard. It came out warm with the custard melted on top, and it was absolutely, amazingly delicious!!
Arrived in Covent Garden
We flew from Florence to Heathrow airport, and took the tube to Covent Garden where we were staying. We went there with Paolo because he wound up being on the same flight with us, as he was going to London for 2 weeks to help establish their new London store for Il Papiro. This is the subway station at Covent Garden, and right outside the station was this rather cool guy playing guitar and singing, fairly well. That's the feel of Covent Garden, it was a nice area to be in and just hang out.
Don't talk to strangers walking a ferret
We saw this man walking a ferret on a leash in Covent Garden. Pam went to catch up to him to talk to him about his ferret, but I stopped her. I'm thinking this guy looked unsaven and a bit looney and that it probably was not a good idea to make conversation with him. People were staring at this guy with his ferret, note the couple on the right.
Japorama
We saw this restaurant in the Latin Quarter. Thought it was kind of funny. We did not eat there.
The Latin Quarter
We walked thru the Latin Quarter on a rainy day, this is a bridge over the river to get there, on each side all that gold color is from all the individual locks that people have locked to the sides. Pam researched (Googled) this and learned this appears to be a trendy thing people do, mostly couples signifying their love, locked forever, throw the key into the river kind of thing. Apparently, this is happening on bridges in other cities. Here's a picture of Notre Dame, we didn't go in. Pictures too of statues near the entry of the Latin Quarter. This area was quite touristy, lots of shops and restaurants with barkers trying to get you to come in. We passed through quickly and left.
Gallerie Lafayette
The tour books talk about how great the Gallerie Lafayette is, huge, you can buy anything you want. We went, it was a crowded tourist area, and frankly not all that special. It was like a huge, fancy department store. Very ornate inside, we didn't buy anything there.
Public Bikes in Paris - Velib
Paris has an extensive public bike share program, here is a picture of the bike station, you buy a pass, then you just puch in your number, grab a bike and ride, you can drop the bike off at any station. The first 30 minutes are always free. You will see lots of people using these bikes, even women and men dressed in nice business clothing, riding to their next appointment. I was in San Francisco today, and saw that SF now has a very similar program, with very similar looking bikes.
Lost in Paris
While we are on the theme of getting lost, I also got lost on a morning run in Paris, follow the red line here and you can see where I ran back and forth a bit trying to find my way back home. The problem was that I thought I saw the tall monument at Bastille which is past our apartment, but actually I was not yet back and it was just a different tall monument that I mistakenly thought was Bastille. Oh well.
Lost in Cinque Terre
Very early in the morning, I set out to climb and run the hills above Cinque Terre. It was very steep, lots of climbing up rocky steps, some running when the trail smoothed out through the vinyards. I made it almost to the next town of Corniglia, and decided to turn around and head back to the B&B since Pam was there, hopefully still sleeping in. I got lost. I was really messed up, apparently I missed a couple of the turns I had made to get where I was. Click on the link and it should take you to a map, zoom in and check out the red line which is my Strava GPS tracker of my wild route. Here are some pictures taken from way above in the hills.
Pontevecio Bridge at Night
This is the Pontevecio Bridge at night, lots of people were out at night, enjoying the warm summer air and the beautiful views.
First meal in Florence
Our first meal in Florence was an early lunch in the Platzo Spiriti, near our apartment, nice pizza, salad and wine.
Platzo Uffizi
This is the plaza and some of the statutes in the location of the Ufizi Gallery. The Ufizi Gallery was amazing, you get a great sense of art moving from the early 1400's when paintings were flat with no depth, to the early 1800's when the Italian artists began to paint with perspective and adding two dimentionality to the images.
WC Door in Florence
This was the door to a bathroom in a cool restaurant near our Apartment. Paolo and Janet know the owner, so we hung out and had spritzers there (?) Wine with soda bubbles added.
Il Papiro
This is Paolo in his store, demonstrating how they create the beautifully designed paper. We also visited Janet, she works in one of the other Il Papiro stores.
Duomo
We are bad tourists, we don't do super planning to hit the big tourist attractions. So, there we were just walking around Florence, enjoying the stores, gelato and people, and we hit the Duomo square, which is just simply amazing. Notice the campanele.
Florence is Amazing
We arrived in Florence late, so it was dark, and Pam's cousin Janet and husband Paolo picked us up at the airport and drove is to our apartment in Florence. We met the owner, got the keys and instructions, then settled in and went to bed. The next morning we wake up and walk around, and its like you have been thrown into a storybook, its really stunning in Florence, with the medevil looking buildings, cobbled streets, and beautiful bridges across the river.
Cinque Terre Hillside lighting
Here are pictures from Manarola, where a man every year for the past 50 years creates lighted hillside decorations that glow at night. This time of year there were only a few lit up, but he apparently fills the hillside with nativity scenes, changing them every year, during the Christmas holiday season. This is a picture of a plaque of his accomplishments.
More towns in Cinque Terre
The second day we took the ferry from Manarola, to two other towns in the Cinque Terre area, Vernazza and Monterosso. In Monterosso they have a nice beach area, with lots of European style umbrellas set up, you rent your spot and hang out for the day. Next visit, we will do that. We then took the ferry to Vernazza. We ate gelato in both towns, why not, its everywhere and delicious.
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