Impossible Roma

Flying high to Rome

My flight from Paris to Rome was on the economy airline Veuling.  You can’t argue with the price at all but the seats were so close together.  My knees were in the back of the seat in front of me for the entire plane flight.  This wasn’t like your normal cramped flight.  This was seats that were insanely close together.  I spent the entire flight with my knees in the back of the seat in front of me.  You can't argue with the price though which was insanely cheap.  My three flights were $300 total.

Room at Hilton Garden Inn Airport Rome

I arrived in Rome and made it through customs at around midnight.  By that time I tried to call the hotel several times in order to find out if they had a shuttle and where it picked up from but the phone number on the website was wrong.  In the end I ended up with my first case of being ripped off overseas.  First, there were the people who operated a shuttle that wanted to charge me €30 in order to get a ride.  I recognized that as a bunch of BS and soldiered on.  I looked for a cab and I got tricked by the oldest trick in the book.  The old I’m not going to turn the meter on I’m just going to charge you €15.  It was like a €5 cab ride as well.  Not to mention the fact that we passed by the shuttle on the way to the hotel.   Ah well I didn’t do too badly for being in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language around midnight with a dying cell phone.

Random sight from the taxi while in traffic

I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn that night.  I checked in and it was rather annoying because you had to use a key in order to access the elevators, a feature that makes some feel safer but to me is just another bit of annoyance between me and getting to my room.  I made it up to my room alright and it was very comfortable.  I soon discovered that I ended up leaving my laptop power cord along with the crazy new adapter I bought behind in Paris.  It was the biggest goof I made of the trip.  On the plus side, I did have an extra cord at home, and my laptop would be good for limited use until I made it back to the US.

Inside the Vatican

I started off my morning with breakfast in the hotel as I had done every day on the trip I woke up early enough to do so.  One of the things I really missed about the US is the way that bacon was cooked.  The bacon in the UK wasn’t cooked to that nice crispiness that I get back at home.  Breakfast in particular was one of the dishes that made me miss home.

I took a shuttle to the airport to take a train into Rome.  When I got there I only had moments before the train left.  I didn’t get to buy a ticket before the train left and I would have to wait thirty minutes.  I totally thought that there was only one train and I definitely took the wrong one.  It was an episode of me blatantly not paying attention.  I got out of the train and took a taxi the rest of the way for €20.  I had lost patience at that point.

Hilton Garden Inn Rome City Center

I checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Rome.   It was a nice hotel in the center of the city.  The one thing that was apparent was that the elevators were absurdly small.  There was just enough room for me and my bags inside of the elevator and my head was inches from the ceiling.  The great thing about the hotel was that they gave you directions to all of the sights that you might want to see on the trip.

Rome is not that difficult of a city to navigate because every time you wonder where you are you can look up and in you’re like oh that’s the coliseum, I need to go that way.  The historical landmarks really help you to gain your bearing.  I unfortunately made the mistake of getting on the tram in the wrong direction the first time I rode it.  It cost me quite a bit of time, but I took a bunch of pictures of the city along the way.

One of a few hundred pictures I took in Vatican Musem

As I walked towards the Vatican, I reached peak hunger and quickly stopped in a pizzeria along the way.  The pizza in Rome has a very thin crust that I find delightful.  It is pretty crisp and light but somehow has enough strength to support an abundance of cheese and toppings.  My particular piece of pizza had mushrooms and sausage.  They had to be some of the best mushrooms I’ve ever tasted before.  I wish I would have taken note of the place, but I was kind of in a hurry and I just walked in grabbed a slice and walked out.  It was a great value for only €5.  There are plenty of pizzerias along the way to the Vatican though.

I finally made it to the Vatican Museum and made it through the line relatively quickly.  I only waited to get in for about 15 minutes which is really shorter than how long that I heard that it would take to get in.  The amount of artwork that is in the museum is amazing and it is pretty massive.  I spent about 3 hours walking around and taking tons of pictures.   The unfortunate part was that you could not take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel.   That doesn’t take away from the fact that it is very awe inspiring to be inside of it and I took quite some time looking at the detail of the artwork.  Yeah you pass through many similarly painted rooms, but there is something about the Sistine Chapel that just takes your breath away the moment you walk in.

I left and walked around to try and make my way into Vatican city, but as I was wandering aimlessly, I was told by a couple of cops that I was walking somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be walking despite the fact that I didn’t see any signs or anything blocking my path.  I obliged their yelling at me to hurry along and that’s when I found out that everyone was waiting for the Pope to make his appearance.

Awesome sandwich at Fa Bio

Not being Catholic or otherwise having a huge interest in seeing the Pope, I decided to go get a sandwich instead.  It was an awesome decision.  I went to one of the places from my guide book and ended up heading to Fa Bio.  It is a small little sandwich shop.  I chatted it up with the guy making my sandwich that worked there and he had spent some time in California, which explained his really good English.

 My meal was simple and cheap at the same time.  It was also fresh and very tasty.  I got a sandwich with salami and capicola, some cheese and an olive spread.  The lettuce was dressed in a little bit of olive oil as well.  The simple things are the easiest to mess up, but it would be hard to fail with the quality of the ingredients that were in this sandwich.  When It was initially served to me I thought that the ratio of the thick sliced bread to the very thinly sliced Italian meats would be the downfall of this sandwich as it would fall into the classic sandwich mistake of having too much bread, but one bite taught me differently.  The chewy bread went perfectly with the salty olive tapenade and the little offering of meat was just enough to be satisfying.  I had a tasty Pink Grapefruit soda to wash it down with.

Yummy Cheap Gelato

I went for value again when it came to ordering desert.  I wanted to have gelato, and I went for the gelato.  There is a place right outside of the Vatican, Old Bridge, that had a huge line.  It moved very quickly and I stood in it.  It was well worth the wait.  The price was unbelievable, €2 for a cup that was overflowing with yummy gelato.  I ended up getting pistachio and caramel.  I don’t eat sweets much and I anticipated having a bit left over, but it was so rich and had that perfect balance that was not over sweetened and I end up finishing it all.

For dinner I didn’t want to venture far so I went right next door to the hotel at Il Martello.  They didn’t speak good English there which made for a bit of an interesting time, but I understand Italian food well enough to get my point across and know what I wanted to eat.  I would get a glass of wine that was so huge that it was more like a half bottle almost. 

More Vatican

I decided to go with the bruschetta sampler to start with.  I enjoyed the one that had the olive tapenade the most.  There was also one with tomatoes and garlic.  The tomatoes were so sweet and tasted so much like a real pure tomato.  It was phenomenal.  There was even one that was just bread with extra virgin olive oil.   As simple as it was it was great and didn’t need anything else.  I wanted the gnocchi for an entrée, but they ran out so I went with pasta with clams.  The pasta was very good and cooked perfectly, but I didn’t care for the sauce that much.

Perfect Cappuccino and Pastry

The next morning I wanted to get out to an early start, but it was rainy so I had no problem setting the alarm back a bit and staying inside for a while.  I had a tour scheduled for later in the day, and I had breakfast at the hotel.  I got on the tram for a little bit and ended up getting coffee at Grand Caffe Santos.  The second best value of the trip would have to be all of the coffee shops I visited.  Drinks that were amazingly better than my $4-5 drink at Starbucks came in at about €1.  It almost felt like stealing.

I took the tram to by the Coliseum, I actually got off a stop late.  I wasn’t paying attention really because I thought it would be the last stop and I looked up to see it just as we were passing it.  It worked out in my favor because I got to get a good vantage point to take a really good picture of the Coliseum.  I meet up with the tour group a little bit later. The tour I bought online ahead of time through Real Rome Tours.  Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable.  It only makes sense because he was an archaeologist who spent his dissertation digging around the Coliseum.  This made for a tour where I got a wealth of interesting information, much of which I have since forgotten.

Colleseo

There was a lot of walking along the way of the tour, the main advantage though was that there was absolutely no waiting in line.  I think it is one of the scams of European sightseeing, if you don’t want to wait in line pay a tour guide a lot of money.  This tour was well worth it though.  We got a chance to go into the upper and lower levels of the Coliseum as well as see some of the other ancient Roman sites like the Roman forum.

The most valuable piece of information that he ended up providing was where to eat dinner.  Nearly everyone from the tour headed over to Massenzio.  It was a pretty good value there as a three course meal was €20.  My only legitimate complaint could be that they were a little slow with their service.  That was a recurring theme throughout nearly every place I visited in Europe though.

Would be brilliant white stone without vehicle pollution

My appetizer there was a plate of spaghetti Bolognese.  This rescued my somewhat diminished opinion of food in Rome.  Our guide said that food in Italy gets better the further south you go.  This spaghetti was so good, that if that was the case I would guess it came from the very tip of the boot.  The deliciousness of the dish was matched only by it’s simplicity.  That perfect taste of the sweet tomatoes combined with the meatiness of the sausage and that awesome pasta that was a perfect al dente.

Next up I had the Veal Saltimbocca. One of my favorite herbs is sage.  Combining sage with the salty prosciutto and tender veal and you’ve got a winner.  I often make a saltimbocca at home completely omitting the cheese from the equation but with this it worked.  Especially since the prosciutto was perfect and didn’t render the dish overwhelmingly salty.

Attack of the bikers

I was a little delayed in getting back to the tram because on the way I ran into a bunch of bikers.  No not the burly dudes on Harley's kind but a bunch of people on bicycles.  There were tons of them everywhere.  I wasn't sure if it was some type of protest or anything but I've never seen that many people on bicycles in my life.  I was walking along and then all of a sudden there were a couple of thousand people on bicycles.  Some of them were really cool too but I wasn't fast enough with my camera.  Damn those cyclists.

I took the tram back to the hotel to pick up my bags and I made the decision to catch the bus to the train station in order to get back to the airport.  It would save me €40 and it wasn’t a huge hassle.  I did get on the bus going the wrong way at first.  It was at this time that I finally figured out that the signs have all of the stops on both sides of the street.  You have to look for which one has your stop coming up the fastest.

Catacombs, insert wild animals, slaves and gladiators ~2000
years ago

The train ride was pretty quick and I had the added benefit of having an outlet available to me on the train.   It was pretty empty at 10 pm, and it didn’t take me long to get back to the Hilton Airport Hotel to crash.  If I was going to Rome again, I would probably use that hotel since it was easier to access, being connected to the airport itself.  Good 5 minute walk from the train and I was there.  The rooms were also larger than at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Paris

Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace

I took the train from London to Paris.  I feel asleep and stayed asleep listening to Diddy Dirty Money's Last Train to Paris.  It only felt appropriate.  I woke up and I had to pee, but I decided to pee after I got off the train since it stopped already.  That turned out to be a decision that cost me  €0.60 since restrooms aren't free at the train station.  Once I got there I met up with a friend of a friend.  Julie helped guide me through the city.  We searched for a while to find a place to drop off my bags for a while and finally decided to end up taking them to my hotel.  I love the city of Paris, but their train ticket system sucks.  The tickets are such tiny and easy to lose pieces of paper.  Combine that with the fact that I’m a tourist trying to keep up with tons of stuff, and you can see why I lost my ticket after the first trip.

Julie went off to work for a bit and I bought another train ticket and headed back to the hotel in order to finish checking in.  I had an awesome deal at the Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace.  I wanted this to be my

splurge hotel for this part of the trip and I was definitely not disappointed.  It is definitely more of the romantic getaway type of spot but I didn’t mind that at all.

Inside my room at the Waldorf

The Hotel boasts the two Michelin Starred Gordon Ramsey au Trinanon, one which I decided to pass on after seeing I was priced out of even the slightest inclination of eating there due to the meal cost of €180.  I like to spend on a good meal but that is just absurd.

The room wasn’t too large, but it was definitely appropriately comfortable.  You had more than enough space.   Interestingly enough the style was great because it definitely had an old school feel to it with beautiful architecture that seems to be from a few generations ago.  The design of the interior gives a nod towards that timeframe without being passé.

The hotel is just a short walk away from Louis XIV's world famous Chateau de Versailles.  It is about a thirty minute ride into Paris via train or car.  It is a bit of a walk to the train station though.  I was able to manage everything just fine despite having my huge suitcase along with me.

I meet up with Julie later that evening and we walked around for a little bit while I took some pictures.  I had to wait on her for a little bit and while I was waiting I randomly drunk a liter of water.  Combined with the walking I really had to pee.  I was saved by the bathroom in a McDonalds, which you had to get a code for.  Europe is really serious about making sure you aren’t using the bathroom for free.

Later we made our way to Notre Dame and although we did not go inside.  I did get a chance to take a lot of pictures from the outside of the church.  Julie pointed out the back of the church to me which is by far more beautiful than the front.  You really get a chance to appreciate the amazing architecture of the church.

We walked over a bridge where she pointed out there were many locks along the bridge.  It is customary to write the name of your love on a lock and lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the river.  Then you and your lover will be locked in love forever.  The amount of romanticism of the place nearly borders on a sickening level.

Locked in Love Forever

My dinner in Paris would be at La Taverne de la Huchette.  It really wasn’t that memorable of a meal but it was certainly cheap.  Julie was not a foodie and had no idea what to recommend.  She admittedly hates French food.  I had an appetizer, main course, and two drinks all for under $40.  I ended up getting the boeuf bourguignon and potato dauphinoise.  It was tasty but like I said nothing to really brag of.

Afterwards Julie and I went to the Eiffel Tower.  I have a couple of pictures outside at night with the tower lighting up in the background.  We rushed back to the train station so we would not miss our trains.  I unfortunately missed my train.  I ended up with a €40 cab ride back to the hotel.

Julie and I talked about me waking up in the morning and going to see the Chateau de Versailles.  I said yeah of course I’d be up by 8 see the Chateau, do some more touring of Paris.  The next morning I was awakened by the sound of the room service trying to clean the room around 11.  I took a quick shower before checking out and going to see the Chateau.  It was a long walk from the Chateau to Marie-Antoinette's estate.  I hoofed it the entire way to the estate and back up to the Palace.  It was quite a walk but I felt like I needed to work off some calories since most of my time was spent sitting as of late (I
want to tell myself that but I did a lot of walking in Europe.  The real reason was I couldn’t understand how to buy a ticket for the tram thing and am extremely impatient).

Garden at Marie Antionette's Residence

When I got back to the Hotel, to have brunch before I left ate at La Veranda.  It is Gordon Ramsey's other restaurant in the hotel.  Even the €57 I spent there seemed a little steep but it was money well spent.  I started off with the Foie Gras pressed with beef bourguignon.  I really couldn’t get enough foie gras on this trip.  This particular version was very good but I was a little let down by the fact that the beef notes were a little in the background and not at the forefront of the dish.  It was a very subtle beef taste, but the plating was very beautiful.

Scallops at La Veranda

Next up were the scallops.  They were served with an awesome bouillabaisse sauce.  It was so tasty, that I had to resist the urge of picking it up and drinking it from its serving vessel.   The scallops were fresh and cooked perfectly.  You got the perfect amount of saltiness from the bacon and the bouillabaisse that went along with it.  Then there were the vegetables that accompanied it which included mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes.  It was a great meal.  My meal made it's way up to €70 once I paid for the bottle of water, glass of wine and coffee, which I thought was complimentary based on the fact that I didn't order it.

Foie Gras at La Veranda

Then I had to hustle in order to make it to the hotel to change in order to make my reservations for dinner that night.  I got on the train and made my way all the way over to Orly airport and took a shuttle to the Hilton Orly where I would be spending the night.  By the time I got there I quickly realized that I would not have enough time to make my dinner reservations.  Combined with all I had done earlier in the day I was just tired of doing pretty much anything.  So I ended up settling with the hotel buffet.  I got a glass of red wine and I left the meal pretty unsatisfied with the mediocre offerings that looked much better than they tasted.  I wish I would have ordered my meal from the a la carte section.

The hotel didn’t have any outlet adapters available so I ended up taking the shuttle to the airport in order to buy a really nice one there.  It cost me €25, but it claimed to be a universal outlet that went from any outlet to any outlet.  It worked fine.  It was a bit of an upcharge too since I could have gotten the same thing off of amazon for $15.  That’s to be expected in an airport though.

I guess Hangover Doesn't translate to French well...

The next morning I checked out of my hotel and made my way to the airport.  My plan was to drop my bags at the airport so I could leave from exploring the city that day and head directly to check in for my flight to Rome late that night.  It was too early for me to check in my bags though, so I left them back at the hotel.  The van driver was extremely nice because he chased me down in order to give me the headphones I had dropped when I exited the vehicle.

I took the train into town and got something to eat while I waited on Julie to meet up with me.  I would eat at Le Triomphe.  This was another huge let down on the trip.  I must say the best thing about the place was the bread which was very tasty.  The prices weren’t bad at all either.  I got the salmon rillettes which really just tasted like a tuna salad gone wrong made with salmon.  I also had the salmon tartare which was a little better but not by much.  It was just bland and uninspired.

I knocked back a few glasses of coffee as I waited on her to get there while inhaling tons of cigarette smoke.  It seems as though everyone smokes in Europe.  When she finally got there we headed to Sacré Coeur.  It is a church that once you arrive at it you can overlook all of the city of Paris.  We made a quiet walk through the church saw the amazing artwork on the inside.  Thought about going into the catacombs but I passed on the idea of paying money to see dead people.

We walked about the streets nearby a bit giving me a chance to buy some souvenirs and I made my way down to the train station.  A quick ride and we were at our next stop.  We headed through a park on our way to the Louvre, but we decided not to go inside because of time.  I got a few pictures outside of the place though.

Chez Flottes was our next stop for no reason other than Julie really had to pee.  So I ended up ordering a cheese plate and we had some wine as well.  Both were pretty amazing.  I guess I just had a series of misses in my food selection, and though I don’t know how good the food was at this place, if I was using that cheese plate as a measuring stick, the bar would be set pretty high.

We ran out of time and I had to head for the airport and she had to go to work.  I ended up eating dinner in the airport and had a pretty great quiche that redeemed French food for me.  I guess I really needed to do some hardcore research before eating in Paris rather than winging it.  I also had an amazing salad there and some macaroons for dessert.

So yeah I have to go back to Paris because there is so much that I didn’t do, like going into the Louvre and seeing the Mona Lisa, or going inside Notre Dame  (though Julie tells me that Sacré Coeur is better), or even eating a crepe for that matter.  I’ll do all of it next time but to be honest a return trip to Paris isn’t exactly at the top of my list. 

Mind The Gap: My Trip to London

Living room in my Suite at Waldorf Hilton

I made it to my hotel after about twenty minutes of walking around in a huge circle, something I would do almost all the time during my stay in London.   For my first night I was staying at The Waldorf Hilton.  It is located right in the theatre area.  When I arrived my room was not yet ready as I had expected since it was something early like 8 am.  When I booked the hotel room, I must have had some you only live once sort of reasoning in my head because I also registered for

the eStandby upgrade.  I paid for all of my rooms in advance.  The eStandby gives you an upgraded room at deep discounts usually half the price or much less.  In this case that upgrade was a staggering 80£.  Yeah hindsight is 20/20.

TV while you take a bath

I felt like a bum which is the only way you really can feel after being on a pressurized tube in such close quarters for 7.5 hours.  They offered me the chance to take a shower in the changing room while I waited for my room to become available.  The irony of this situation is that if I didn’t get that stupid upgrade my room would have probably been available at that point.

They also offered me breakfast in the executive lounge.  When I got up to fix myself a plate from the buffet, the eggs looked startlingly light in color.  Also the bacon was well below what I would consider crispy so I didn’t try that but I did go for the sausage and a bit of smoked salmon onions and capers.  I also got a slice of cheddar for the eggs.

Then there was something unexpected.  Those eggs were wonderful, probably some of the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had.  Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.  What I thought would be an example of bland British food was actually light clouds of eggy goodness.  I’ve had good eggs before but these were great especially for a buffet.

I would then wander around the neighborhood for a little bit.  

Salted Caramel Cupcake and Espresso

The Wladorf Hilton is right in the center of London, relatively easy to get to from London Heathrow since you only have to take a single train ride.  It also has the advantage of being close to many theaters, shopping and lots of restaurant and pub options.  I stumbled into Primrose Bakery.  I really only went in because I’m a huge fan of Hunger Games and Primrose is the name of Katniss’ sister.  That’s beside the point I had the salted caramel cupcake alongside an espresso from Caffé Nero to round out a good breakfast.  The cupcake was great.  It was sweet but not too sweet and had a very delicate texture.  That saltiness along with the sweetness of the cupcake made a great combination.

Without the benefit of internet, even though I downloaded the maps to my phone, those maps were pretty much useless to me since they weren’t searchable and I had no indication of my GPS position. It’s hard enough for me to comprehend which direction I need to turn to go north when headed east.  Throw in a couple of twists and turns for a system of roads that seems to

Complimentary soda, water and macaroons at
Waldorf Hilton

be created by a civil engineer who must have been on acid at the time of designing the city streets.  I was very easily confused by the city.  Rather than doing much sightseeing, I spent much of my time being completely confused and walking around in huge circles.  I did spend lots of time browsing through stores as well as watching some street performers.  One actually did a pretty cool magic trick that was pretty entertaining.

Checking into my room it was well worth the wait.  The room was huge.  I had much more space than what I honestly needed.  I walked into a living room with complimentary sparkling and flat water alongside some macaroons.  Off to the left where I thought was a closet was actually a second bathroom that had just a toilet.  In and to the right you walked passed a pretty big full bathroom that had a tub with a TV and a shower as well.  The amenities of the hotel room were definitely first class.

After leaving the hotel for a second time, I tried to make it on my own but ended up walking in more circles before I ended up in front of Carphone Warehouse.  I had to have a cell phone at this point and needed the maps in order to get around.  I ended up getting a Sony Xperia as a phone which was pretty cheap, but I think I fell into the thinking of pounds as dollars, because the £90 I paid for the cell phone was actually about $140.  Not too bad of the phone and the rates were extremely cheap.  If I would have stayed in London for the entirety of my trip, I would have really come out ahead since my intitial £10 would have likely been enough for all of my talking for two weeks.

Carpaccio at Coq d'Argent

By this time I was starving and decided to seek out one of the places that were recommended in the travel guide that I was reading.  Silly me for not reading the dates and times that the place was open, because I ended up going to the place only to find out that it wasn’t open.  I had dinner reservations at the Savoy later on and this quick lunch that wasn’t too far from where I was sounded perfect.  I ended up going in nearly the complete opposite direction and getting a three course meal at Coq d’Argent.

Dinner started off with a Carpaccio.  The interesting addition on to this particular dish was mushrooms that were pickled a little bit.  The plating was really elegant and the pickling of those mushrooms was a great way to introduce some acid into the dish.

For the main course I had the Duck.  The duck was tender and was accompanied by a rich orange sauce.  It was very tender and juicy and didn’t seem greasy at all despite the confit method of preparation. 

Pineapple carpaccio at Coq d'Argent

I did order the Potatoes Dauphinoise as a side to go along with my main course.  Unfortunately, the potatoes were just slightly cold.  I didn’t mind that much since they took them off of the bill and gave me fries instead (due to the time it would take to cook another Gratian).   The highlight of the meal was the dessert though which was one of the best that I've ever had.  I started and ended my meal with a carpaccio and my dessert would be this awesome pineapple carpaccio.  It was sublime.  You had the fresh pinapple along with this wonderful vodka lime foam that provided a little bit of tartness in order to balance out the sweetness of the coconut ice cream.  This dish made the experience here more than worth while and I'm glad I was convinced to spend the extra £3 for the three course set menu.

Farmhouse Terrine at The Savoy Grill

I would have dinner a little later at The Savoy Grill.  I was looking so forward to having a meal at one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants.  I guess all that anticipation led to a bit of overhype for me.  My thoughts and expectations of what the meal would be was much higher than the actual meal was.  From a value standpoint, I have to say the name has given the establishment prices that are absurdly high.  I honestly could have passed on the whole thing.

Dinner there started with the farmhouse terrine.  I got sucked into it as an appetizer because of the foie gras parfait that was served along side it. It was a solid dish.  The meat was succulent and you get the decadence that is added by the foie gras.    The green tomato chutney adds a bit of acid to bring everything together and brighten up everything.  The dim lighting of the restaurant kind of obscures the ability to see the elegant plating of the dish.

I think my fault came in when it came to the entree selection.  I think I would have been much better off if if I went with one of the many selections from the "Roasts, Braises and Pies" section of the menu.  Don't get me wrong my Rib Eye steak was pretty good.  Cooked to the perfect temperature and was very juicy and didn't need much of the sauce.  However when I look at the menu and I compare that steak at £34 to a lamb wellington at £26, I kind of feel like an idiot for my selection.  You do get a nice flavor from the wood grill, but that particular steak was slightly overpriced in my opinion.

Raspberry Souffle at The Savoy Grill

Though I was ready to burst by this point I still decided to try out dessert, I went for the raspberry souffle.  About as light delecate and perfect as anything in I can remember, I suddenly felt betrayed by my stomach's inability to finish consuming it.  It was a really good dessert non the less.

The next morning, I started off relaxing a bit in the bath and enjoying some British television.  When I finally got my things together I took a short ride on the tube to my next hotel.   Bad sense of direction prevailed for a little bit as I thought I could manage by just seeing the directions and I walked the wrong way for a little bit.  I then made it to the Tower of London Doubletree to check in.

Room at The Tower of London Doubletree

The Tower of London Doubletree was definitely the best value throughout the entire trip.  There was an iMac in every room, which also doubled as the TV.  It might not be the hotel of choice for those who are not tech savvy or have a hate for Apple.  It turned out to be just perfect for me as I used the iMac to stream my Slingbox from home in my room while I left computing to my actual laptop.

Another great thing was that the hotel threw in a complimentary bottle of white wine.  I definitely took advantage of it drinking to my heart’s content.  I also had a complimentary drink at the Hotel’s bar.  On the top floor, the bar overlooked all of London.  I don’t know exactly the cost of the drinks, but I do know that mine was pretty tasty.  I only had the one drink there using the voucher.

View from Sky Lounge at Tower of London Doubletree

I quickly headed out of the hotel and over to the Tower of London.  Then there was the terror of Bank Holiday was upon me.  The crowds were absurd.  Queues as long as the eye can see.   I made it to the inside and opted to skip the free tour that starts every 30 minutes at the entrance in the interest of saving time.  Eventually I got wrapped up in a two hour wait to get in to see the crown jewels.  I cannot say that it was worth the wait, especially since you can’t take pictures.  Still it was a great time.  The torture chamber was a slight let down since there were only four torture devices.

Tower of London Bridge

I made my way out and got a quick sandwich right outside at a little stand called apostrophe.  It was pretty tasty and was perfect since it had very chewy crusty bread.  The spicy chorizo stood up well next to the hearty multigrain bread and you got a little sweetness from the roasted red onion.  It was served warm with a touch of arugula and tomato.

Eating as I walked I made my way towards the Tower of London Bridge Exhibition.  The bridge had lots of places that you can stop and take pictures through the openings in the windows and see a lot of the city of London.  I didn’t like the idea that you could only leave the top of the bridge via a really crowded elevator.  Again in the interest of saving time I skipped over much of the movies and such.

Calamari at All Bar One

I did some more exploring on foot as I passed by a small liquor store called Oddbins.  I was very interested in trying some of the local beers and this gave me the opportunity to try out a couple.  I ended up going for the Sweet Bee Honey’d Wheat by Brupond.  What I had stumbled onto was a craft beer from a nano brewery that is owned by someone who grew up in Colorado and went to college in Chicago.  Extremely small world.  The trippy part is that it’s a vegan brewery and though you can taste honey notes in this light hefeweizen, there is no honey added.  All of their beers have that unfiltered haze as well.

For dinner I stopped off at All Bar One.  Mostly because as I was walking by, it looked fairly busy and I saw that I could get a two course meal for 10£.  I decided to go with the calamari

Live at Muse Concert

which was light and perfectly fired to a crisp and served with a sweet chili sauce   I also had the asparagus and goat cheese risotto.  It was a nice dish that succeeded in having perfectly cooked rice.  It was a little heavy but not so much that it would keep you from moving.  You also had the brightness that was added from the asparagus and mint.   To drink I had a couple of pints of Apsall, which feels like the local equivalent of a  Bud Light, while tasting a lot better.

Crazy Acrobatics

I made my way back to the hotel and suddenly I was about to be late for the highlight of my trip.  The Muse concert.  At that time I realized I had no time to take the tube and figure it out so I took a taxi.  To make matters a bit more complicated.  I forgot the tickets.  Fortunately I figured this out a little early on, and the cab driver I had was nice enough to take me back to the hotel and wait on me without starting the meter.  He was a cool guy that spent some of his 20’s in California.  His son was the same age I am and went to the Muse concert the night before small world.

I made it to the stadium right in time about 15 minutes before Muse went on stage.  It gave me plenty of time to press my way towards the middle of the crowd.  I was wondering how their European tour could be so much better than their US Tour.  I mean pyramid of screens from the ceiling how do you beat that? You beat it with giant robots shooting fire, acrobats floating from balloons, a huge stage with tons of pyrotechnics and special effects.  I really felt like the $70 I paid for my ticket was ripping them off. 

Amazing Pyro

The concert was followed by much wandering because of the concert, many of the nearby tube stations were closed down.  It was a bit of a nightmare.  It was kind of funny because a couple from England ended up asking me for directions.  Then we talked for a while as we wandered aimlessly towards well I don’t know.  We looked for another tube station, but I ended up opting for a bus ride back after seeing the chaos that was the tube stations.  

I settled in that night to catch some basketball via Slingbox.   It was the NBA playoffs after all.   The bottle of wine that was provided for me came in handy as it was my drink of choice.  The Heat destroyed the Pacers that night and I went to sleep somewhere in the middle of the third quarter to wake up early for more sightseeing.

Food Display at Harrods

My morning didn’t get off to the best of starts as the hot water in my shower wasn’t functional.  I played around with the water for a bit trying to get it to work before I gave up and called.  They sent someone up to my room pretty promptly and it was fixed in about 20 minutes.  I had planned on making my way over to The Shard pretty early and you save a bit on tickets by buying them in advance.   Still once I thought about it even though it is the tallest building in Europe, I saw the £25 price tag as a little too steep.

Inside Bumkin

I finally made it out of the hotel much later than I expected and made my way towards Harrods.   I browsed around more than anything because the prices were slightly absurd but the selection of items was borderline overwhelming.  There I am looking at £700 crystal vases the likes of which I am afraid to even breathe on.  After my browsing was done, my allergies were picking up a little bit.  I stopped over at a pharmacy and bought some allergy medicine and it stopped me from sneezing almost immediately.  I have to say the only disappointment there came from the fact that the only two basketball jerseys they sold were Rodo and Rose.  London you can do better.

Pork Croquette at Bumpkin

For lunch I decided on Bumpkin.  Where they served traditional English fare.  The prices are decent and you feel at home from the moment you walk in.  Looking around everything is done with an eye towards being upscale while still being comfortable and simple.  The warm wooden interior and mixed match chairs gives the place sort of a farmhouse feeling which definitely coincides with the menu that focuses on locality as well as seasonality.  I sat down next to a window that was dotted with several different plants in glass vases of varying sizes that looked to be a hodgepodge of items purchased at a yard sale.  The table was set with a bright yellow flower that used an old soda bottle as a vase.  You couldn’t make this venue more comfortable if you tried.  

Fish and Chips at Bumpkin

To drink I had a Guinness.  I swear, Guinness is better outside of America.  It actually tastes like a pretty legit stout.  I decided to go with the pork croquettes to start.   This dish was amazing.  You get the tenderness from the roasted pork that is then finely shredded and formed into a perfectly shaped cylinder before being breaded and fried.  The presentation was incredible.  You had this wonderful brightness provided by pickled onions as well as this sweet apple and raisin sauce.  All on top of a little cucumber salad.  It was a great appetizer because even though the roast pork is heavy, it was portioned well and combined with the rest of the ingredients it gave a bit of lightness to the dish that made you want to come back for more.

Sticky Toffee Pudding at Bumpkin

For the main course I had the Fish and Chips, with tartar sauce and mushy peas.  Many people are down on fish and chips and British food in general and I totally don’t understand why.  This fish and chip was great.   The batter was crisp and the fish was moist and perfectly cooked.  The fries had the perfect texture, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  I loved it for it’s simplicity.  It was also my first time tasting mushy peas.  I had never been big on peas as a child. It was kind of a point of contention between me and my mother since they are her favorite vegetable.  I despised sweet peas.  As an adult I kind of came around to like peas quite a bit.  These peas were perfect not too sweet and I love the mint that complimented the peas as well.

For dessert there was the sticky toffee pudding.  I am not a fan of overly sweet desserts, except when some form of caramel is involved and then all bets are off.  The sticky toffee pudding was bursting forth with this rich sweet flavor.  This is one of those instances where the English language is a barrier, because it wasn’t a pudding like what you would think of from an American perspective.  It was more like a cake soaked with a sweet caramel sauce.  I was nearly stuffed but ended up powering through the entire dish.

Bathroom at T5 Hilton

Shortly thereafter a wave of extreme exhaustion hit me.  I felt like curling up and taking a nap right where I was.  I looked at the box of allergy medicine I took. “Take one half of a pill every eight hours.  May cause drowsiness. Do not take with alcohol.”  Who does that?  ½ of a pill?  Really.  I guess I should have read, but I was just trying to get some quick relief from sneezing and then suddenly I am absurdly tired.  I made my way to a café for a couple of double espressos to provide me with just enough strength to make it to the hotel.

Spacious Room at T5 Hilton

I checked into the T5 Hilton and the room was one of the best looking I’ve seen in quite some time.  I had tons of space and for a decent price as well.  Everything was very clean and I liked the feature that allowed the TV audio to be played in the bathroom.  I turned on the TV to the music channel and watched some music videos.  One downfall would have to be the fact that there was an overwhelming number of lighting controls.  This booking was a bit of a mistake though because of the location.  I had flying on my mind when buying the ticket so I didn’t take into account the fact that I would be taking a train out the next morning.  I should have gotten a hotel more central to London.

Braised Beef Cheek at The Gallery

Bank Holiday struck me again as I only had one choice in restaurant and I did want to go with the other one because of the Indian influence.  Though the fall back option of the hotel’s other restaurant, Gallery, wasn’t too shabby.  Yes it did have the typical hotel restaurant markup but it wasn’t absurdly priced.  I started off with the Scallops.  They were served over a bed of couscous that had a mixture of tomatoes and fresh mint.  There was also a bit of tangy burr blanc sauce on the plate.

For my main I ended up with the braised beef cheek.  I thought that the a la carte pricing didn’t include sides so I ended up ordering the potatoes and green beans as well only to get them in addition to the potatoes asparagus and carrots that were included in my meal for free.    The food was great at this place and I was stuffed but it wasn’t too memorable either.