Earlier last week, while out to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant with my flatmate Abdul (a Saudi DPhil student in communications technologies) and our friend Nadia (a French DPhil in something to do with butterflies), the topic of ice cream came up and Abdul and Nadia proceeded to gush about the best ice cream they had ever had. Naturally, I was determined to experience this ice cream, and since the shop was in London it seemed quite achievable. So on Saturday Abdul, our other friend Jed (an Idahoan DPhil in the history of medicine) and I forayed into London in search of the best ice cream in the country. Though since this would be my first time in London-town, Jed graciously offered to give a tour of the city, since he is full of interesting and often arbitrary historical knowledge.
Of course it is impossible to see all of London in one day, but we did manage to visit quite a few interesting sites. To be brief, we started off on Baker St. (yes, as in 221B Baker St.), then saw: the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament/Westminster Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the National Gallery, to name a few. My favorite part, though, was a massive used books market along the river Thames...I'll definitely have to return to London for that!
After a full day of sight-seeing, we ended the evening in Chinatown and managed to find the ONLY Korean restaurant in the area. I am proud to say that I successfully introduced Abdul and Jed to Korean food, and they both enjoyed it immensely.
Now, the ice cream. Since Abdul couldn't quite remember where the ice cream shop was, and Jed had never been there before, it took us the entire day to track it down. Finally, after circling the city a couple times (and thus allowing us to see the wonderful aforementioned sites), Abdul found the infamous ice cream shop. With hearts filled with eager hope and anticipation, Jed and I looked at the shop and let out groans of shock and keen disappointment. It was a Häagen-Dazs. After explaining that Häagen-Dazs is an American ice cream chain, Abdul tried to salvage the situation by claiming that maybe British Häagen-Dazs tastes different than American Häagen-Dazs. Unconvinced, we all went in and had some ice cream. In the end, although it was quite good, it was still no different than what we have at home. Oh well. Maybe next time I'll discover some truly delicious British ice cream!
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| The Royal Mews (fancy stables for the Queen). |
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| Buckingham Palace. |
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| The Academy of Sciences. |
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| War memorial? |
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| Busy London street with Big Ben in the background! |
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| The parliament building. |
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| Big Ben with the London Eye in the background. |
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| The London Eye along the Thames. |
Last, I have an Oxford picture for you. This pub, the Eagle and Child, was the regular meeting place for an Oxford writers' group called The Inklings. Members of this group would read their works aloud and offer each other comments and critiques. Famous members of this group included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Hugo Dyson. During one of their meetings in which Tolkien was giving a reading of the Lord of the Rings, Hugo Dyson is famously quoted as saying: "Oh, f***, not another elf!"
Now those are some very familiar spots! Great pics!
ReplyDeleteMy friend Juliet and I stumbled across that pub when we were in Oxford. It has been a while so I couldn't tell you what we ordered. But I suspect she probably played darts, as she had discovered it was a great way to break the ice with the locals. :)
Your used books market reference conjures up memories of Bed Knobs and Broomsticks.
ReplyDeleteHey Laura. How fun. I crisscrossed London but the only place in common with yours was 221B Baker st. Next time you are there try to find out about the guild signs. And i agree with Ben. Portabello Rd. :)
ReplyDeleteLaura. Harold reminded me that I visited very interesting plaza with incredible Jewish, roman, and british History. I will try to dig that up.
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