Saturday, 22 July, 2017 – weather: rainy

Today we are going to depart Scotland to go by train down to London. For some reason, Julie is up very early and goes out to go to a market somewhere in town. Some photos.

Julie returns and we have time to have breakfast at the usual place, including Julie’s smoked salmon as usual. It is drizzling a bit as we walk there and starts to rain hard as we walk back, getting a bit wet. We are getting picked up by a taxi at 10:00 so pack up the suitcases and depart our apartment. Our timing is great as the taxi drives up just as we reach the front door. It is a short trip to the train station but it was worth it from the point of view of the rain and the hills. We have a significant wait but that is OK. Julie walks us up all the way to the end of the station which is not where we want to be – when our train is announced we have to walk all the way back to where we came from.

Turns out that this trip is on Virgin Trains which means that some of the things I had read about before coming up here were now true. We could have gone to the First Class lounge but because we were at the wrong end of the station, we did not. We go down to our platform and wait for the train. When it does arrive, we discover that in order to board our first class carriage we are going to have to walk through the increasing rain. Any way, they eventually open up the doors and we go down to the end of the platform and board. Julie is able to find luggage rack space at the front of the cabin. It is a long trip, 4:40, so we settle into the newly upgraded leather seats. Once again my seat has been double booked but because we got there first, we don’t have to move.

Eventually the train takes off. They bring us a new menu, the weekend version which has no hot food and alcoholic drinks are extra cost. Still, there is the Hoisin Duck wraps on the menu and when they bring around the food trolley I order one which is a pre-packaged pair of wraps in a box.

As we got further South, the rain got stronger and stronger. By the time we got to London, it was raining harder than it had been in Edinburgh. We arrive at Kings Cross and make our way across to the Tube station. When we board the train on the Piccadilly Line, it is crowded with no seating for the 8+ stations to get to Earls Court. We have nice chats with a retired couple from Ohio that is also standing up. They get off at Earls Court too.

We make our way up the elevator and exit into Earls Court Road. It is still raining although not horribly and we do get a bit wet. There was a bit of confusion finding our apartment because our road is actually in 4 pieces but Julie’s GPS saves the day. We are met by our Hostess, Katerina. There are stairs down into our apartment but Katerina helps Julie carry the suitcases down. Katerina is a lovely girl and explained everything about the apartment. She also promised to come back the day we check out to help us carry the bags up the stairs.

Let me say something about the apartment. The building is in a large row of older, multi-story apartment blocks typical of London. Our apartment was probably pretty old too but has been fully renovated by Katerina. It is small but fully functional and very modern. Some photos:

Julie goes out to get some supplies and to suss out possible restaurants for tonight.

Julie comes back with supplies and also some brochures for likely restaurants. The most promising seem to be a couple of nearby Lebanese restaurants. We go out and the rain is getting harder and harder, me without an umbrella am getting quite wet. We had tentatively select the Lebanese that was a bit further away but the rain is so hard, Julie takes into the nearer one. It was not a bad choice.

Julie was going to order a fish dish but was advised by the waiter that it would not suit, likely to be overcooked.

There was quite a lot of food and it was enjoyable. The chicken was really nice but we could not finish it all.

There was a young girl (20s any way) sitting at the table next to us. Turns out that she is Australian and studying at Oxford, just like Julie. Amazing.

This restaurant was actually Moroccan. The waiters tried to talk me into having a Moroccan red wine and gave me a taste. It was quite reasonable but a Cabernet which we don’t do these days. Still very kind of them.

Back home, not raining quite as hard but still got a little wet.

Ramblings I was originally going to title this Post Wet, Wet, Wet which immediately triggered all sorts of thoughts like: the group WWW that did the Troggs song Love is All Around; Sir Douglas Quintet, anybody remember them, Rain, Rain, Rain; Dustin Hoffman as Rain Man; Beatles with Rain sung backwards; Creedence two Rain songs with Who’ll Stop the Rain the most relevant at the moment; Gene Kelly and Singing in the Rain; the possibilities were endless.