It was a rainy day in London so we stayed close to home, or our temporary home, in Mortlake. Fortunately it was a light rain so we could walk, which we did along the Thames past scullers toiling in the drizzle, to Barnes, another suburb that feels more like a country village with a pretty green and old pubs and a good outdoor market with everything from cherry tomatoes, cakes and cheese to kimchee, beef jerky and sushi.
We took refuge in The Sun Inn, a pub that is kid and dog friendly so there were several of both. It proved a good place to come in from the damp, drink some cider, beer or coffee and nibble on halloumi fries, chips and avocado salad.
From Barnes, Dirck and I took the 419 bus to Richmond where we half heartedly joined the shoppers on George Street but more enthusiastically walked down the narrow shop-lined lanes leading to pretty Richmond Green and the grand orange brick Richmond theater. As befits the area that has become a film location for one of the most popular US TV shows, we soon chanced upon a “Ted Lasso Walking Tour,” a young woman holding a sign on a pole, guiding two tourists to see the sights.
We chanced upon Spitalfields Market during a visit to the nearby Great Diary Project, a remarkable effort to “rescue” ordinary peoples diaries, housed inside The Bishopsgate Institute. The market has lots of stalls with fun clothes, jewelry, crafts and woolens and the street leading to it also has alluring shops.
At Gordon’s with Evan!
A short tube ride from Liverpool Street Station got us to Embankment (a short bit also via the new Elizabeth Line) where we met Evan, a graduate student from Des Moines who we’ve know since he was born. Great to see him and his enthusiasm for London.
After an excellent lunch down in the dark cellar of the venerable Gordon’s Wine Bar (excellent cheese and charcuterie boards, the closest I’ve gotten to a Ploughman’s lunch) we met up with Francine and headed to Peckham, a southeast London neighborhood that is starting to gentrify here and there (Bellenden Road) but still feels like the African and African-Caribbean neighborhood it is.
Brew pubs aren’t as big a thing here as in the US but we did go to a funky one, Brick Brewing, that has outdoor seating and cheap prices. After attending a popup art show with work by a friend of Francine and Russ’s, (made by filling hollowed pumpkins with black tar and dropping them from a rooftop onto a white canvas, creating a black splatter paint pattern with pumpkin pulp…no surprise this was work created during the covid lockdown) we had an excellent bits and bobs (Padron peppers, jamon croquettes, picos blue cheese) at The Tapas Room (which has several other outposts including in Battersea.)
Peckham’s phallic bollards (road barriers) by British artist Anthony Gormley on Bellenden Roadpandemic lockdown-induced Tar and pumpkin pulp splatter art Peckham
Today was our long-awaited day with Marion, my dear friend of 43 years who graciously took the train from her lovely country home in an 18th Century tower in Hertford, to King’s Cross, where we talked and walked and talked, wandering around the commercial and residential developments. Construction cranes above buildings, rising every which way.
Coal drops Yard/granary square
As we drank coffee on a balcony in the mall-like station, a military band played below us. Not the oom-pah-pah kind of military band. These were energetic young women and men in military fatigues playing electric guitars. Unexpected.
We had a good light lunch at Gail’s, a bakery and cafe that apparently is a chain. A branch is opening in East sheen, near where we are staying with our pals in mortlake.
St. Pancras renaissance Hotel Bagpipers at Charring Cross.
Last visit I was impressed by the old brick hotel at St. Pancras station so we wandered around more inside. Very cool interior with a restaurant featuring a former train tix counter converted into a bar counter.
We ended up wandering down one narrow alluring street after another, through Russell Square, past the British Museum all the way to my former haunts in Covent Garden, where we stopped for a drink at the atmospheric pub, The Lamb and Flag (circa 1623) for cider, beer and chips.
As seen near Russell Square in Bloomsbury
At Charring Cross station, before hopping on the tube, we joined a crowd watching bagpipers (a favorite of mine.) Oh happy day.
Lovely to be back in London, especially on a warm sunny November day, no joke. We stopped at the National Covid Memorial Wall, a long stretch of wall along the Thames across from Parliament, with thousands of red painted hearts, many with handwritten notes remembering people who died during the pandemic (about 200,000 in the UK). Sobering.
Where our great friendship began.National Covid Memorial
We walked along the river on the south bank past the Tate Modern (where the blockbuster Cezanne show is the same show we saw earlier this year in Chicago), walking over the wobbly bridge into the City of London past St. Paul’s to the third pub we happened upon, the Golden Fleece, which had something approximating traditional pub grub, although not my favorite (ploughman’s) and a good house beer of the same name. The scotch egg that Francine ordered was surprisingly delicious, with a very fresh egg with a soft orange yolk inside a savory mound of sausage and bread.
Onto the Guildhall, the seat of government for the City of London which has an interesting free art gallery and amazingly, ruins of a Romanamphitheater (65 AD) in the basement. Who knew? Francine, of course. Nearby, we popped into a little pocket park near St. Botolph church that has a remarkable Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, a wall with tiles honoring people who died trying to “save another,” including 19-year-old railway clerk William Donald of Bayswater who “drowned in the Lea from a dangerous entanglement of weed” on July 16, 1876 and 31-year-old inspector Frederick Alfred Croft “who saved a lunatic woman from suicide at Woolwich Arsenal station but was himself run over by the train” on January 11, 1878. Another Francine find!
St. Bartholomew’s
We dropped in at my favorite London church St. Bartholomew’s, a 12th century Romanesque beauty that still offers Christmas concerts that I remember fondly. (Also featured in movies including Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love.)
After wandering past the large colorful wrought iron gates of a Smithfield market, we landed at a trendy coffee bar, Prufrocks, in Leather Lane, where I recall my pal Marion used to shop when the NYTimes bureau was nearby on Shoe Lane.
Dinner tonight was superb Indian food at Chook, Chook, an “Indian Railway Kitchen” in Putney.
We happened to sit next to some very nice Italian men the other day at a little sandwich shop in Chicago and got to talking. They offered suggestions of locations for our next visit to Italy. I’m sharing them here (and also noting so I remember!):
The Marche region, in eastern Italy, between the Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic Sea, including Urbino – sights: Ducal Palace (Palazzo Ducale) and countryside that was the background for a famous painting in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery by Piero della Francesca in 1472 (A man gazing at his wife in front of the landscape that they ruled)
Loreto (featuring a basilica with a famous “black Madonna”) – also excellent pork and two open-air opera festivals. (See Rick Steves! and CNN story.
“Do you like opera?” one of the men asked me.
“Yes, sort of,” I said…which was a good thing. The men turned out to both work at Chicago’s Lyric Opera, one as the music director!
Also of note: Ancona, its capital, a port city on the Riviera del Conero, an area with sandy coves, limestone cliffs and medieval villages.
Pesaro, the birthplace of renowned opera composer Rossini. The interior has countryside dotted with fortified hilltop settlements and the glaciated valleys of the Monti Sibillini National Park.
Still on our list for a next trip: Puglia region and Matera.
To my surprise we drove right into the ChautauquaInstitution, the famous educational/ cultural retreat in the western NY town of, yes, Chautauqua, on our drive back to Chicago from Ithaca. Years ago we got as far as the firmly shut outer gate, when passing through the area during in the peak 9-week summer season for tourists and visitors. Back then, we had to pay to get through the gate and enter the enclave, so we didn’t. From the confusing information on various Chautauqua websites (the town tourism website (https://www.tourchautauqua.com/trip-ideas/a-visit-to-the-chautauqua-institution was clearer than the institution’s website), a “Gate Pass/fee” ($30) is required to enter the grounds during the summer. Except Sundays when it’s free at least until 2 pm. In spring, fall and winter, all drive-in gates are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, no passes/fees required
Still almost everything was shut down …or felt shut down …on the crisp Fall day when we dropped by for about an hour. The sign on the post office said “Closed until June 2023.” Apparently some events are offered beyond during the summer season, and some residents live there year-round.
It was fun to be able to drive through and gawk at the pretty gingerbready cottages and stately buildings that host lectures, concerts and dance performances. We also found a table in the almost deserted village green that worked well for a picnic. (And yes, sadly, this is the place where author Salman Rushdie was stabbed by a madman last summer.)
Not Chautauqua….this is Lake George (Adirondacks)
Over the Pennsylvania border in Ohio, we found cheaper gas, as promised: $3.49 at the Love’s station in Conneaut, Ohio vs $3.89 in Chautauqua and $3.79 in Erie. Love’s also has a dog park.
I am very glad I opted (uncharacteristically) to pay $100 extra per ticket for our flights to London so we’d get “changeable” tickets. When my husband tested positive for Covid this week (He’s ok. Bad cold symptoms and initial high fever) it was five days before our flight to London. I discovered it was surprisingly easy to rebook our tickets, pushing our trip back a week (in case I get Covid. So far so good.). We even got $90 per ticket in travel credits. (Never would have guessed the cost would drop.)
London friends I can’t wait to see!
Meanwhile, rebooking our train travel was NOT easy. I couldn’t just change the dates of travel. I had to buy new tickets, which was very easy. Then I could apply for a refund, which was ridiculously difficult. No surprise that it was easy to spend more money but not to get money back. Shame on you, Great Western Railway! This was compounded by the announced rail strike days…with no service on 3 days of our trip. Grrrr.
On another cancellation front, after failing to find someone to give my Joffrey ballet tickets, hours before the performance, I looked closer at the fine print on the Joffrey website and learned that I could exchange them for a credit to use for a performance later in the season. I called the box office and voila! Now I can go to a performance through April 2023 (the current season).
Who we don’t want to see in London
Back to the airline situation: Our “ main cabin” tickets, I learned allow us to change them —- specifically to rebook the same trip and do it severaltimes, if need be, without charge, beyond paying more (or less, as it happened) due to the new flight possibly costing more than the original one. Good to know and handy in case I develop Covid.
Google tells me: “The main difference between main cabin and basic economy is cost. For cheaper airfare and more money in your pocket, you trade flexibility for flight changes and/or cancellations, seat selection options and the ability to earn miles at a high rate. Love them or hate them, basic economy fares are here to stay.Apr 22, 2022”
I asked the American Airlines agent what would have happened if we had the cheaper “basic economy” ticket and she said we would not have been able to change/rebook the ticket. Or that’s what I understood her to say. Surely, I said, if someone is sick, especially with Covid, you don’t want them flying and would help them stay off the plane. She then said something to the effect that they could rebook once. (Not sure about the other particulars ex: change fee? Paying the possible difference in fares? Etc.)
Last January, when I decided not to go to a gathering in Atlanta, due to a Covid spike, Delta gave me travel credits with my basic economy tix (or some such), which I am using for thanksgiving flights to NY. But that was cancellation not rebooking flights.
The fine print on the American website specifies the policy for a variety of what I loosely called “changes” and the varying options, depending on the ticket type/cost. Another variable: the airline you choose. For an American Airlines basic economy ticket for example: if you cancel a trip, you can’t exchange the ticket or get a refund. But if you need to rebook the trip, you can sort of. The process/options are more “restrictive” than higher priced tickets. (The fine print doesn’t mention the possible option of getting travel credits if you cancel.)
Moral of story: ASK what is available and politely but firmly stick up for yourself. Play the pity card if need be. Or appeal to the airline to be reasonable, although this doesn’t always work.
I still have not forgiven American for screwing up my daughter’s (expensive, albeit “basic economy”) flights to a family wedding in New Mexico in early June. They cancelled her flights (for non-mechanical, non-weather reasons! It was due to their staff shortage) and then gave her awful options for other flights. She came close to missing the wedding. And the changes added even more stress to the trip. I was particularly incensed that they would not give her an available seat that was a decent alternative because it was a much higher fare seat. She’d have to pay considerably more.
American has improved its customer service, although I don’t doubt my latest experience had to do partly with having a higher fare ticket. I braced myself for a long wait on the phone for an agent (several hours in the recent past with an airline) but got a call back in a matter of minutes and the agent was efficient and accommodating (again, perhaps in part because I had a pricier, more flexible ticket but still…)
Apple fest 2022 filled the Ithaca Commons with strollers eating apple crisp, tasting various apple varieties with assistance from Cornell pomologists and browsing at craft booths. We learned that the snapdragon apples we discovered last year didn’t make it this year…bad weather conditions but I did buy a few Shizuka apples with a Mutsu- like taste. I also found Cornell orchards apples at the P&C Fresh near the ag school but it had nowhere near the selection of varieties that used to be sold at Cornell’s pomology department when I was a student (class of 81.) Greenstar Market downtown had Mutsus, but P & C did not.
We walked into a new place on the commons during apple fest called the Yellow Deli that was (somewhat oddly) offering free samples of their delicious fare (Rueben sandwiches, chili, cheesecake drinks. But I happened to hear a woman who walked past us say “too bad they are an anti-Semitic cult.” We googled and could not find anything about anti-semitism but plenty about the cult. Apparently there are yellow delis across the US and in foreign counties and they’ve been labeled a cult. Bit of a bummer but good to know.
At Cornell’s arboretum (formerly the plantations)Cascadilla Falls
Onto the next attraction, an exhibit of gorgeous quilts by local talents held at a local community college in nearby Cortland, Tompkins Cortland Community College, aka TC3.
I forgot to mention last night’s excitement.$2.98 a gallon gas in Homer NY. We thought our eyes were deceiving us. We haven’t seen prices like that in years. And in nearby Ithaca, the price is $3.69 to 3.79.
Finally made it to the Adirondacks! They have beckoned from the nearby Finger Lakes of Central NY but we could never detach from Ithaca long enough to visit. They started in earnest about 3 hours northeast of Ithaca, about 2 hours after Syracuse and I’m still trying to pinpoint what makes this region feel so different than the Finger lakes. More rugged, dense woods, dark wood and log cabins, sparkling lakes with the beach at road level. Ithaca is more bucolic farms and pastures high surrounded by wooded hills, above the deep narrow finger lakes, old gingerbread farm houses made of brick or stone, tidy farmsteads.
We stopped briefly in the rugged resort Adirondacks town in Speculator (gotta love that name) where we found a gorgeous little public park beside a small lake, dotted with yes, heavy wood log Adirondacks chairs and benches. (The real deal, not plastic knockoffs.) the park was named after the boxer Gene Tunney who had a trading camp in town.
Lake George
We found a rustic mini mart with a long line for the one bathroom. I asked the bored looking clerk if there was another option and voila, we were at public bathrooms (line-free) a half block away. The leaves were far more colorful, with splashes of red and orange and purple. The roads we drive on to get to vermont were so backwoods that I checked my google maps to make sure it wasn’t set on “no highways.” There simply weren’t any or many.
Adirondacks beach (speculator, NY)Bolton Landing, Lake George Gene Tunney Park, Speculator, NY
On the way back to Ithaca, we drove backroads along the western shore of Lake George which was lovely and rustic…until we got to the resort town of Lake George, which was over touristed. Then we drove diagonally south east, stopping briefly in the pretty college town of Cazenovia. We met Myra and Mike at Salt Point Brewery which was having an October fest celebration, with outdoor dining, a band, beer, pizza, brats and an amazing sunset.
Rain prompted us to visit the Ithaca Commons where we discovered that Sew Green, which sells gently used Eileen Fisher clothing, has moved about a block east into a smaller space on Greene Street. There is a smaller but still good selection. We had a little snack nearby of savory hand-baked pies at Mama Said, then onto Taughannock Falls state park where there was no problem taking Millie, our dog, on a hike along the north and south rim trails.
Small savory piesMillie at Taughannock
Tonight we had a dinner of sandwiches and beer flights at AuroraBrewing Company, sitting outside on a chilly grey early evening so Millie could join us. We had a fabulous view looking across a green pasture and vineyards at Cayuga Lake in the distance and the hills rising up beyond.
