LONDON / BOROUGH MARKET
Ah Borough Market. Where there's always the constant smell of cheese, meat, cheese, flowers, cheese, spices, and did I mention cheese? We gotta admit, if there was one place we'd recommend people go to go for London, it's here. The crowd, the food, the overall environment is all very British.
London / Borough Market
We decided to spend our last day playing a little tourist but also revisiting some of the places we only visited once before, starting with the amazing Borough Market.
Finally managed to go to one of the hyped coffee chain stores Monmouth. Gotta say, though the line is pretty long, it was some top notch coffee. Not as strong as Blue Bottle, but definitely matching quality in taste.
Suddenly, a pack of wild Minis appeared!
London / Tate Museum
And so we began where we left off, at Borough Market, as we head west along the South Bank towards the Tate Museum.
We have still yet to get any Monmouth coffee, but from what locals have said, it's supposedly London's equivalent to SF's Blue Bottle Coffee. We'll see...
As we walked away from the market, I spotted a brand new S Class. First one I've seen in person and I gotta say, I'm a big fan of this gen. It just oozes class in a slick manner that the previous 2 gens could never touch.
The colors...
Pretty interesting how they set up the Starbucks here. The hole-in-the-wall manner would not fly as well in the US.
A pretty cool LED firework display. They did a good job keeping the light grid low key and hidden.
We've still have yet to go to a Wagamama. Their noodles look quite tasty and the prices weren't too bad either.
The Globe, where Shakespeare debuted his plays. It's still in use today, though nowadays they prefer women to play the roles of women.
What did the fox say...
And here is the Tate Museum which is London's premiere museum for modern art. Looks kinda like a huge factory right?
Of course the Millennium Bridge continues to be an outstanding structure to look at no matter which angle you stand.
Didn't I mention the size? It really is bigger than it look in these photos.
What's wonderful about it is how they left the center hollowed out to continue that theme of scale. Had this been filled up with its many levels of galleries, the structure wouldn't have seemed as impressive. But left in this manner with its cavity open to observe, it gave the impression of a massive hanger where blimps and rockets were built from.
The ever amused Michelle...
Meanwhile a serious battle of good and evil was unfolding below us.
Dude needs a burger or something...
F-YEAH!
Most art museums usually have a pretty good gift shop but this one really had a ton of books I would have loved to go home with.
Last part coming soon.
London / Borough Market
Today we decided to walk around all the areas of London what we haven't yet been able to go to, starting with the ever talked about Borough Market. Unlike the other market places that offer clothes or accessories, this one specialized in food. As one could imagine, it was AMAZING.
It was pretty hard not to buy everything we saw because it all looked delicious.
And unlike other places, this isn't a glorified food court but an actual market where many restaurants would actually shop for their ingredients. For serious foodies it seems.
Definitely the most "Harry Potter" looking area of London I've been in.
I miss 'Murica's love of micro brews and ales, but Europe still has a healthy choice of pretty tasty beers.
Some of the booths were pretty specialized in what they sold, like this one that only had extracts, mustards and a few jams/sauces.
Towards the end of the market there was this little flower shop tucked deep inside under a bridge. Not exactly the usually bright and cheery place one would expect to find a flower shop, but it actually worked pretty well.
One of the great things about this market was the wonderful smells that bombard you as you walk through. Eventually, we couldn't stand it any more and finally gave in to getting some delicious thai chicken curry soup.
Doesn't look like much but it's worlds better than any canned soup.
Michelle posing in front of a Christmas tree before it gets taken down.
More of our adventures to be posted later.