NW Montana seems to have stalled halfway between late winter and early Spring, so I am off to sunny warm England!!! Yeah, I saw some flaws in that thought process from the git-go, but it was worth a shot.
View south of Kalispell.
I flew into Heathrow and it was a quick, smooth process of a long walk to customs, polite greeting, skeptical study of me, then off to the Elizabeth Line to downtown London. London has the coolest assortment of trains, from the relatively new, spacious and bright Elizabeth Line to the cramped tubular 54 year old (am I getting this right? It is 1972 stock?) Bakerloo trainsets. But Elizabeth drops me at Paddington Station which is just a kilometer from my AirBNB in Notting Hill Gate/Queensway so it was off to the races, albeit at a relatively tired pace after 20’some hours of travel.
I stumbled over the Bayswater Arms and ordered a steak and ale pie, and got what appeared to be a factory made pie that was not the best welcome to the UK I could have imagined. But the bar tender was a good sort and there were a couple real ales from the cask, which was a nice treat.
Then I slept for what seemed like days but was just 10 or 12 hours. And woke famished so I went in search of an English Breakfast with all the fixin’s! And ended up at Fluffy Fluffy, twice in two days, for souffle pancakes, first pistachio then the “Signature” with fresh (?) berries and bananas. And both were very, very sweet and good. And the coffees were ok as well. But this whole sweet breakfast thing is beginning to pull me in like some sort of addiction, it started in Chiang Mai and it is getting worse.
I saw a Creme Brulee pancake on the menu and I can see where this leads…
Anyway, I hopped the bus to Wandsworth Bridge Road…
This is a silly question, but why are they pollarded on the right and not on the left? Am I missing something?
Anyway, I walked over to the pier for the Uber Thames Boat, where I saw that they were ready to leave right as I arrived at the head of the pier. And they waited for me. In a large city. They held the boat. I was pretty tickled.
Love the Belfast and Tower Bridge. Love them.
Got off at Greenwich where I saw the uniform Horatio Nelson was shot in. Kind of macabre, but it is history! You can see the tiny little hole where the bullet went into his shoulder…
Then it was off to the Greenwich observatory, which was very cool.
And the Cutty Sark! And the Shawarma guy next to the Cutty Sark!
Pretty darned good!
And an early evening tour of the East End and a mix of Indian and Bangladeshi cafes. Here, I may be missing a few, but I think we had Pakhora and Dahl Baht at Cafe Grill, which were good but not great. For me, I think a good pakhora is all about the dipping sauce. But that may solely be because Gharer Kabar in Arlington had a great tamarind dipping sauce for their Fuchaka/Pani Puri. And I am not quite clear on the differences between pakhora, fuchaka and pani puri.
Excellent lassi at Cafe Grill, though.
Then we were off to another part of Brick Lane, the Eastern Eye Balti House for Saag, Karahi Chicken and another Dal Baht dish, all of which were good but the Karahi Chicken ruled the roost. So to speak.
Our guide shared some “magic Masala” crisps with us, which to my disappointment had none of the results my magic mushrooms that i had in Ko Phangan.
Then we visited Madhubon Sweet Center, which had a dizzying array of sweet dishes. I had something I can not even begin to pronounce but it was condensed milk based and rich.
And we finally ended up in Lahore Kabob House for Chicken Kabobs, Naan and lamb chops. The kabobs were outstanding, the lamb chops were thin and a bit greasy. Stick with the kabobs and leave happy!
The next morning i returned to Fluffy Fluffy.
Later it was off to a park/hostel that I stayed at back in 1994. The hostel was allowed to cut a small hole in the shrubs that separated them from the Opera Holland Park. One bench where four people, were allowed to watch for free. We took it in turns and I got to watch “I am the very model of a modern major general” from Pirates of Penzance. What a great experience! But I could not get in to see if the opening was still there. 
So I went to the Kyoto Garden and thought about life and its unexpected twists and turns, instead.
I returned to the Notting Hill area for a “Local and Wild” lunch tasting. Started with a tiny eclair, some rather nice Sussex Padron Peppers, moved on to a rather mundane smoked trout, a dish described as a Somerset Goat Cheese Agnolotti that I do not remember, an incredibly tough but rich pork belly that nearly got unintentionally ejected across the dining area and a rather nice bit of Sussex Lamb. And an Adnams Gin “Loosener” to tie it all together. Nicely done, The Shed!
And this “honeycomb” thing that was nice but tenaciously stuck to my teeth.
I finished up my London stay with a return to Dishoom, where I ordered a rather good Pau Bhaji, which was nicely rich, just spicy enough, and slightly confusing for me. I am not sure if the buns I was served are the usual vector for eating this dish. I just sliced them open and filled them with the goods. A nice treat!
Then I tried the Chicken Berry Britannia biryani, which was nice but slightly under-spiced. Oddly enough, it almost tasted better when I finished off the remains the next morning.
After Dishoom I sat for a time in Postman’s Park where they have wall plaques that commemorate the acts of heroes who lost their lives trying to help others. It is a sad sort of subject but one worth remembering, nonetheless.
And it has spiky tulips. Which is odd.
