A Day Out in London

My daughter Sophie was in the UK from Singapore, visiting and going to the wedding of her best friend in Leeds. As well as having a meal together the previous week, we met up in London before she had to fly back. We met up at the train station at Liverpool Street, then parked Sophie's bags at Kings Cross for the day...

We then went off to a restaurant near Kings Cross called Caravan. The area is much improved in recent years, with much building still going on. The sun was out and people were soaking up the rays and watching Wimbeldon tennis on large screens..

The food was a mixture, mostly tapas type dishes; we finished off with a shared waffle...

As our lunch took so long, we had no time to go to the British Museum (it takes a lot of time to get around London) so we went to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry on our way to the Tower of London. I'll post photos of the bellfoundry in another post.

I had booked us in to a walking tour of the city, visiting the Whitechapel murder sites, otherwise known as "Jack the Ripper ". Of course the area is much changed with much urban renewal and bomb damage, so very little is as it was in Victorian times. Still, the guide was a pleasant young man and it was fun to walk around the City, Whitechapel and Spitalfields.

The site of the first murder, under a bridge....

We could see the Gherkin and also the Cheese Grater as we walked around...all the skyscrapers in London have humorous names....the Shard is across the river.....

This is the Ten Bells, the pub where the victims (all working girls) did their drinking...The sign says You Ring my Bell....Ding Dong...of course we bellringers are well used to such jokes....

There are one or two lanes which still retain the flavour of the narrow Victorian tenements, which have now been swept away...

The tour ended at Liverpool St station, and Sophie and I walked back to Spitalfields to look at the silkweavers houses and then have a drink at the Spitalfields Market.

Later Sophie went off to meet her friends for dinner and I met up with Tom and Lily in Chinatown. We had a nice meal and then went off to sample Bubble Tea - it is a milky drink with flavoured tapioca, sipped through large straws.....very popular in places like Taiwan....I am hoping that these two will be able to come up to Suffolk to visit later this summer.