Thursday
We arrived in London’s Kings Cross station, adjacent to the beautiful old brick St. Pancras station. Due to our unfortunate visit to the lost & found office, we also saw the famous track 9 ¾ from the Harry Potter books.
not pictured – a line of tourists waiting to have their photo taken with the trolley, complete with scarves!
Though we’ve been to London many times, Leandra has always visited in the fall or winter. Given the nice weather we decided to head to Kensington Gardens to fully enjoy the spring day, a good choice given the flowers in bloom around the palace.
On our way back to the tube Leandra made some new feathered friends, courtesy of an older gentleman who gave her a handful of seeds to share.
rose-ringed parakeet
A week before our trip we had booked theater tickets with a 7:30p showing, so we decided on an early dinner at Ember Yard. Their small plates menu was perfect for a pre-show dinner. Here is what we tried:
- Course #1: Padron peppers / grilled flat bread
- Course #2: Smoked burger / smoked bream carpaccio
- Course #3: Cheese plate
Wait staff were quite helpful, definitely earned the 12.5% service charge that was added to our check. Especially nice was their help with tastings of wines that were offered by the glass, where they brought bottles of interest to the table and explained the Spanish or Italian varietals. We definitely enjoyed our meal here.
The show we choose was A Mad World, My Masters, playing at the Barbican Theater. While it would have been easier to get to and from the Barbican tube stop, we were on a different line and had to walk up from St. Paul’s so it was a little more confusing. The Barbican is a big complex of art venues, and the theater had nice seats with good leg room and seat width, quite unlike some of the older venues in London! The show itself was a retelling of a Jacobean play, set in a 50’s theme… quite bawdy, over-the-top, and lots of fun!
After the show we visited our favorite bar in London, Craft. I found a sour saison from Anspach and Hobday, while Leandra ordered the Charlie Brown (peanut butter porter) from Thornbridge. We managed to find an open table in the basement and discussed plans for our next full day in London as we enjoyed our lovely beers.