Week 8: 25-31 May 2015
It seems as though Brit’s like their public holidays more
than Aussie’s, because in the relatively brief period of us being here there
have already been 4! Nevertheless, we are more than happy to take them, and
started the week with another bank holiday Monday, awaking in Edinburgh.
Departing Edinburgh and arriving at London Gatwick airport,
we made our way home before heading down the street to Northcote Road, a
popular strip of restaurants and bars just a short stroll from our front door.
We decided to see how the Italian here compared to Griffith (and our recent
visits to Italy…) with a visit to Franco Manca, a chain of sourdough woodfired
pizza restaurants boasting a simple menu of only 6 choices. From there, we went
across to Oddono’s Gelati. Both venues left us impressed and gave Griffith
Italian and Italian Italian a good run for their money!
On Wednesday night, Brendan attended a fund raising event
organised by his work, at a venue called Bounce. This venue is unlike anything
we’ve ever seen anywhere else. A funky cocktail bar and restaurant, filled with
bespoke ping pong tables. But this isn’t just casual ping pong, for Knight
Frank they had teams divided into groups, with multiple elimination rounds to
finally crown an ultimate winning team, and umpires watching and keeping score.
Come Saturday, we made our way across to Buckingham Palace
for the Changing the Guards ceremony, which we had so far not managed to
attend. The ceremony was running close to an hour late, we suspect because they
were at rehearsals for another royal event, Trooping the Colour, that will be occurring
in the next few weeks. For an event that happens every day, we were amazed by
just how many people had turned out to watch.
On leaving the ceremony, we were surprised to randomly bump
into friends we had met a few weeks earlier at Aussies in London drinks. In a
city of over 8.6 million people, spotting some of the limited few people we
actually knew on the street was quite amazing and made us feel a little more at
home. We then hired Boris bikes and cycled the leafy streets of upmarket
Belgravia and Chelsea, to Chelsea Farmers Market for lunch.
Sunday brought weather that London is most renowned for,
cold and wet. Fortunately, we had booked a hire car to collect from Gatwick
airport and were presented with a bright yellow Fiat 500. Roslyn named it Fifi.
Brendan jumped behind the wheel, for the first time outside Australia and first
time since March, and we cruised down the motorway towards the village of
Salisbury, arriving in time for lunch at a local hotel.
After lunch, we did a brief exploration of the village and
stopped by the huge Salisbury Cathedral. From here, we continued around 20
minutes down the road to Stonehenge. The lush green pastures, hedged roadsides
and rolling hills along this stretch of road, were so wonderfully English and felt
so far away from the bustling city.
Since 2012 when Roslyn had previously visited, Stonehenge
has undergone significant redevelopment. Visitors now park at the huge visitors
centre 1.6 miles from the stones, and are required to pay an admission fee for
tickets, and there is a daily limit on the number of visitors. There is then
the option to board a shuttle bus to the stones, or brave the freezing winds
and walk. We chose the bus. This at least provided us, Fifi the hired Fiat, and
the ancient stones security that we were not going to encounter any Griswald family
type mishaps
Having heard many varying reviews over the years, suggesting
anything from that Stonehenge is an awe inspiring mystery to that it’s just
some rocks in a paddock, being there in its presence we felt somewhere in the
middle. Having come all this way to such a significant landmark, it feels as
though you should spend a decent amount of time taking it in. Without a doubt,
the history behind the stones is an interesting and intriguing mystery but when
you are standing there in the freezing cold wind, it is easy to see why some
people think it is overrated. Our total time spent at the stones, including
walking around the perimeter on the designated pathways was probably 20
minutes. From there we boarded the shuttle bus back to the visitors centre,
with the typically designed exit via the gift shop and café.
Highlights for the
week:
- Returned from Edinburgh
- Franco Manca and Oddono’s Gelati
- Brendan went to a ping pong bar
- Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guards ceremony
- Rode Boris bikes through Belgravia and Chelsea
- Lunch at Chelsea Farmers Market
- Road trip, first time driving since March!
- Yellow Fiat 500 hire car, “Fifi”
- Salisbury village for lunch
- Salisbury Cathedral
- Stonehenge
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