Pubs

January 22, 2007, continued: Back to the London diary...the above pictured is the Admiralty Arch as seen with a line of black taxis beneath it. Black taxis are the expensive taxis, we were warned. But again, what was not expensive in London? Anyway, following the Sherlock Holmes fish and chips and pints, we decided to experience two additional pubs for the afternoon. I decided early on to photograph each pub we went into, but only those pubs, no more or less. It worked out well and I surely will not post each picture of each pub. But our second pub on the tour was called The Salisbury. We've since learned from other seasoned International guests at work that the genuine local pub scene is on the outskirts of London, and what we experienced was the touristy pub scene, but oh well. I liked The Salisbury. It was huge, for one thing. And extremely old. Many things in London are extremely old, adding to the uniqueness of this travel experience as compared with other travels we've taken together. So, after The Salisbury, we went to Lamb and Flag, a pub Dickens used to frequent (where he'd "get bloody pissed in the 1600's," Craig and I decided!) we were informed by our London book. We had plans to meet Alison and Scott that evening, so taking a break from the pub crawl, we walked to the Tower Bridge, where we proceeded to shoot photograph after photograph of this bridge.
When I say photograph after photograph, I really mean photograph after photograph.

I will only include two of the huge set. But clearly from the color of the sky in each of these we were pleased that we chose dusk on this particular night to go. The views were unbelievable. The Tower Bridge is at the Tower Hill tube stop, right where the Tower of London is located. I will get to that later on in the chronicles. Anyway, after spending about an hour trigger-happy at the Tower Bridge, we returned to the Melia White House to change for our evening with Alison and Scott. We had decided the night before to meet at a bar/pub near their hotel. There, we had a drink before beginning our evening pub crawl. The night would find us at a string of pubs: the Wilton Arms, Nag's Head, and the Grenadier, Alison's favorite. We took a cab to Picadilly Circus, where Scott observed, "The cabbie dropped us off in America!" (we were instantly met with signs for TGI Friday's, Budweiser, Hard Rock Cafe.) There we found our last pub of the evening, called the Blue Posts. We definitely weren't ready to be done with our night out, but pubs in London close by eleven and sometimes twelve. So, we broke down and went into a club. Clubs are open much later. We were having a fantastic time with Alison and Scott. They are a really great new couple for us to know. Thanks to Dustin for introducing us here in New York before the wedding so that we could hang out with them in London, too.*I have a lot more of London to cover but I'm really couch-ready tonight. Craig and I ate leftover appetizers tonight from our cozy Superbowl Sunday yesterday (Midwest face off: Bears-Colts! Indianapolis Colts are the Superbowl Champions...!) and it's warmer in the living room than here in the den, so off I go. The temperatures in the U.S. are at extreme lows today. Here in New York it was Zero, maybe in the teens mid-afternoon. Brrr. Bring spring!! More to come.