On our way home from Belgium we had a 20-hour layover in London, so after clearing customs we dropped our carry-on luggage at the hotel and took the tube into central London. Our intended destination was Camden Town, but due to work on the tracks we couldn’t get there by train and had to scramble for some new plans. In the meantime the station was rather chaotic with the cancelled service so we decided it would be best to get out on the street and walk for a bit.
Leandra and I visited many parts of London during our February trip so we decided to we made our way across Covent Garden and Holborn back to to the Craft Beer Co.
Craft is a great place for beer in London and it did not disappoint on this trip. We managed to snag the large table upstairs and sent some scouts to check out the taps. When we first arrived only the cask ale kegs were working as they were waiting for a nitrogen delivery, so we started there. Eventually the other taps were fixed, but in the meantime Mike and Tiffany surprised Eric with a bottle of Fonteinen Armand’4 Oude Geuze as thanks for planning / leading everyone around. For a sour beer fan it was an excellent surprise– thanks guys!
happy Eric with his Geuze
After using the locals’ phone to make a dinner reservation, we eventually made our way to La Tasca (Covent Garden location) for a somewhat harried Spanish tapas dinner. Upon arrival, they claimed they didn’t have our reservation but somehow found a way to seat eight hungry people. This place was very busy and very disorganized. Random food kept showing up at our table and the food we did order came out fairly slowly. You could tell the waitress was exasperated, so something tells me the kitchen is to blame here.
After dinner we walked everyone toward the Thames through the government section which is beautiful at night…
the ever-impressive Big Ben
London Eye
After a quick stop at a pub on Whitehall we managed to get on one of the packed subway cars for the long trek back out to the Hatton Cross station and our beds at the Jurys Inn.
all trips to London include a cider for Eric and a Guinness for Leandra