Friday, March 24, 2023

London - Hop On Hop Off with Alison

I slept pretty good last night. I keep waking up at 2 am and am awake for about an hour before I some how fall back to sleep. 

Al and I were meeting up at 11 so I had time in the morning to go have some breakfast. I had noticed this little coffee shop just down from the hotel, Caffe Concerto. The place was full ish when I got there but was seated right away. I saw they had a bacon sandwich on their menu and so I ordered a Flat White and this bacon sandwich. 



I didn't expect to get fries with the sandwich for breakfast, but there you go. This sandwich wasn't nearly as good as the other one I had. The bread was too thin and it had mayo on it. Weird. I added the brown sauce because, frankly, that is really what makes this sandwich so delicious. 

Al was early and so we set off to get on the hop on hop off. But before we did we wanted to get a coffee. We walked a little past the bus stop to a Cafe Nero and Al got a coffee and I got a hot chocolate with marshmallows. 

The bus showed up and we were getting on. As we were headed to the second flow, Al was in front of me on the steps, the bus lurched and she lost her footing and fell back on me. Not only did she knock most of the hot chocolate out of my hand and all over me, but she landed on my head and it compressed my neck a little. I didn't notice it then, but later that day/night it really felt like whiplash. 

The weather was partly cloudy and we knew we'd get rain. But we didn't care, we stayed on the top of the bus and road that around most of London. It did get wet and windy and cold, but we persevered. 



We "hopped" off at Victoria station to have lunch. Al remembered a pub in that area from the days she worked in that area so we thought we'd go there. 

We found this pub The Duke of York. She thought it was the pub she was looking for but it wasn't. No matter, we went in and we had lunch. The pub advertised that they wanted you to experience their pub, their food, and your friends without any interruptions, so there were no TVs, no wifi, no brands. And the food, was amazing. I had bangers and mash and Al had a chicken club. 


After lunch we hopped back on and the weather turned again. The wind came up and the rain came down. We saw the rest of the bus tour and hopped off where we started. Al still had some time before her train so we popped into Caffe Concerto for an afternoon tea. Well, she had tea, I had a coffee and then I had a Fanta and we split scones. And the scones were delicious!


Tomorrow I plan to do the hop on hop off and the boat tour that came with it. I'd like to see the Tower of London but I kinda figure the lines will be ridiculous so we'll see. And of course, the weather will dictate what I really do.

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