Initially this quick stop in London was meant to be a some meetings with the office here and a quick breather before heading south to Nigeria. However, plans change and rather than flying back to Abuja tomorrow we’re heading home to Seattle. So we had the day today to wander around a little before getting back up in the air for the long flight home Sunday afternoon.
Someone suggested that we should look around at the Borough Market and wow, that turned out to be a really great morning excursion. The weather today is great after the overcast, freezing day on Friday and heavy rain forecast for Sunday. So we set out from our hotel near Green Park and a few stops later got out at London Bridge and headed to the market. The first thing I noticed once I turned around was that we were right underneath The Shard, which is the newest skyscraper in the city and I believe the tallest at over 1000′. It’s not open for another week which is unfortunate since the observation deck would have been fantastic today.
The market was just around the corner so we headed that way dodging the Saturday morning traffic and trying but not always succeeding to remember that the cars are coming from the opposite direction in spite of the “look Right”/”Look Left” signs that are everywhere in London as a reminder for us tourists.
The Borough Market isn’t huge but has a really nice collection of permanent vendors mixed in with stands selling baked goods, chocolates, fruit, even someone shucking oysters to order for about $2 apiece. I spent a few minutes going through and sampling some mustard from this huge selection
Then wandered around the corner and ran into big Butcher Shop with all kinds of things you don’t usually find including this rabbit and baby deer minus it’s head. Notice they also had what I hope was fresh quail hanging over the counter. Ahh the things not permitted by the USDA.
Just past the butcher there were a collection of huge Paella pans with multiple varieties of fresh made Paella and I almost stopped to eat, but continued a few more steps , saw this and instantly new what I was having for breakfast.
How was I supposed to pass up a duck sandwich? Warm bread rolls with English Mustard and greens stuffed with hot, shredded duck confit. All this for about $8 and worth every cent. Rich, meaty with just the right amount of juice, fat and crispy bits of the duck skin. Out of this world.
Before leaving the market I picked up some awesome dark chocolate brownies so rich you barely would know they were made of anything but butter and dark chocolate and a small piece of cheese to take down to my dinner with old friends later on tonight.
Leaving the market we walked along the Thames past the Globe Theater to the Millennium Bridge and across to towards St. Paul’s Cathedral stopping with the rest of the tourists to look at the shiny steel balls on the sidewalk nearby.
A bit more walking down Fleet Street and we jumped in the tube back over to Green Park where the rest of the group was going to head out for some more walking around and I changed really quick and headed south to meet up with an old friend from Camp Orkila for dinner.
Brian & Kendra 