Bank Holiday Excursions

Well, you've got to do something, haven't you?  Can't sit at home in front of your computer all day, tempting though that is.  So I looked up Free and Cheap Events on Londonist, and found a variety of options.  There were two which appealed to me - an African Market at Spitalfields, and a Spanish Market on the South Bank.

Discussion ensued, and it was decided we would go to the Spanish Market.  However, this turned out to be a complete bust, as it was packed out - you could hardly move - expensive, and generally nasty.  Many stalls sold tapas - but £2 for 1/4 slice of bread with something on top?  I don't think so!  One could have scarcely lunched for under £10 each, plus drink.... and the stalls that had more sensible helpings of food at sensible prices had queues a mile long.  So we gave up and went into Eat, where we bought pulled pork with coleslaw and rice and I had beer and the SW had orange and mango juice, which he said was very dilute and more like squash.  The food, as he said, was not gourmet but very good!

He wanted to visit the Olympic Park.  I've been there often enough recently to know what it is like, and I did want to go to the African market, so we agreed to go to Liverpool Street together and then separate.  So we walked across the Jubilee Walkway, or whatever it's called beside Hungerford Bridge, and through Charing Cross Station, and on to a no 11, which is, of course, a Boris Bus.  Quite fun to get in through the open platform and use the back stairs, as in the olden days, but when we got off we used the middle stairs and middle door, just like any other bus.  The SW got a train to Stratford, and I walked over to Old Spitalfields and the African Market.  This was much better than the Spanish one, far fewer people - or more room to spread around in, one of the two.  And I bought a lovely African-style trouser suit to wear at my niece's wedding, which I had hoped to be able to do.  So a win all round.

I wished the Swan Whisperer had been with me when I saw this poster:

Lamb and rhubarb being two of his favourite things ever!  Although what they are like together I hate to think (I dislike rhubarb, so wasted on me). A koresh, or khoresh, is apparently a kind of stew.

Then I wandered back to Bishopsgate, stopping off at a Patisserie Valerie for an ice-cream, and caught a 35 home.

Meanwhile the Swan Whisperer had seen all he wanted to of the Olympic Park fairly quickly, so followed the Lee Navigation up to the Lea Valley Ice Rink, and then caught a 56 bus down to Barts Hospital.  I would have caught a 48 to London Bridge, but he didn't know about that one.  And then he wandered around and came home about 45 minutes after I did.