Only Fools And Horses

15th November 2019

The 10.30AM train took us down to London Liverpool Street, along with a couple of teenage girls who barely stopped talking to draw breath.

Lunch at the Lord Aberconway pub just outside the station consisted of us sharing a fish finger sandwich, shallot tart and fries.

As we were a bit early to check in to our hotel we decided to walk and see what we might discover rather than disappearing underground for a faster, but more claustrophobic journey. Google advised us that it would take about 45 minutes to walk, but Google doesn’t know how distracted we can get so it was likely to take quite a bit longer than that. As it turned out, we didn’t discover anything too amazing as we passed the Museum of London and worked our way through the largely business district of Farringdon towards Bloomsbury.

After checking in we set off for Planet Hollywood in the rain. Our old friend Google who had helped us negotiate the route from train to hotel was clearly not a fan of the rain and had a very bad afternoon. It took us an hour and a quarter to walk round in squares and reach our destination which was only half an hour away from the hotel. A burrito covered in cheese, and teriyaki salmon were excellent and soon helped us forget the sore feet and trials of the journey.

The two minute walk to the Theatre Royal Haymarket was managed far better than our earlier trek where we collected our tickets from the ticket office. We then had a quick look around the foyer, bar and toilets before taking our seats in the stalls. We were 15 minutes into the performance when a group of four turned up explaining loudly why they were late and how sorry they were. Two of them were gone half an hour later which was probably for the best. The woman was obviously not a fan of Only Fools And Horses as she spent most of the performance playing with either her, or her man’s, hair or trying to kiss him. During the interval the lady next to me suggested we should club together and book a room……………… Once we figured out that she meant for the people in the row in front rather than for the four of us we relaxed again. More noisy ignorant people a few rows behind us decided they too would leave part way through the show which improved our chances of enjoying the show. The show itself was very entertaining, especially for Only Fools fans. They managed to include all the classic scenes from the TV series one way or another - the chandelier, Del discovering Racquel’s evening occupation, Trigger’s broom, the bar hatch etc. all featured.

Our return journey to the hotel was way more successful than the earlier race to get to the restaurant on time.

16th November 2019

We queued up for breakfast in the Hotel President the next morning along with a dozen or so other people waiting to be seated - yes it really was that busy, and proceeded to fill ourselves up on just about every breakfast food you could imagine.

Heading off towards Piccadilly Circus the weather was far better and this obviously helped our navigation as we reached our destination without any hitches. We popped into McDonalds for a coffee before making our way to the exhibition of dead people. A two for one offer with our train tickets meant we both got into Body Worlds for a total of £25 and spent the next three and a quarter hours in the fascinating display. All anatomical specimens in the exhibition are real. Body Worlds is the only exhibition of real human bodies from people who approved to donate their bodies for public display and educational purposes. The bodies are preserved and layers are stripped away to reveal the secrets of the anatomy. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed in the exhibition.

Wandered off towards Trafalgar Square and stopped for coffee and cake in St Martin-In-The-Fields crypt cafe - a huge brick vaulted crypt complete with gravestones. Trafalgar Square had a Christmas market so we had to have a quick look round before setting a course back to the hotel.

We stumbled across Le Pain Quotidien, a Belgian bakery and restaurant on Tottenham Court Road and ordered an excellent mixed platter of meats and cheeses washed down with a bottle of merlot. A quick visit to the College Arms on Store Street for a drink and then back to the hotel, but only as far as the public bar on the side of the building for a few more drinks. Later we heard music upstairs and went to investigate and found a private party in progress. We might have been able to bluff our way in were it not for the fact we had the only two white faces there. We made a sharp exit and headed off to our room. This was probably for the best as Michelle discovered that drinking that amount of wine didn’t agree with her, and kept repeating “I don’t like it”.

17th November 2019

Breakfast was a tentative affair for Michelle, although I managed to cope with a full English followed by cereals and pastry. Hotel check out time came and went, as we made our way to a Pret A Manger on Tottenham Court Road. I spotted a homeless man trying to steal a baguette, and when he was spotted by a member of staff tried to persuade everyone in the queue to buy the food for him. There were no takers!

Over coffee we decided to walk to Camden Market as it was a nice day - it might even help to clear Michelle’s head. On reaching Camden High Street we discovered that the rest of London had also had the same idea. We shuffled our way down the high street with the hordes looking at the giant shoes, lips and other oddities decorating the outsides of the shops. Camden is certainly a bit different.

Camden High Street

We reached the lock and watched from a bridge as a narrow boat negotiated the drop in canal level, before one again shuffling along with the crowds to the food area. Michelle decided that sugar was required to make her feel better so we ordered dutch pancakes with all sorts of sweet toppings. This new injection of energy helped us wander around the many stalls tucked away under bridges and archways. The market is so big we didn’t have time to explore it all - but I am advised that we will be going there again.

Camden Lock

After another coffee at Costa it was time to head back towards Liverpool Street. Strangely enough, extremely busy Camden Town also meant extremely busy underground station and Sunday also meant engineering works on certain lines. After some more shuffling along underground tunnels and standing up on trains we arrived at the main line station with time for burger and fries at Leons. The journey home involved a train to Marks Tey, a bus to Colchester, and then another train for the remainder of the journey. Always fun getting back home on a Sunday.