Noah and I were up early for a planned father-son breakfast date, where we took the nearby Northern subway six stops to the north seeking out Honey & Co., a popular London restaurant serving Middle Eastern cuisine.
The cute restaurant seated no more than 20 patrons.
Though it took a little while to get our table serviced and order in, our order was turned around quickly and waitstaff was friendly. They were especially accommodating for Noah, giving him a glass of milk even though it wasn’t on the menu, and at no cost. He loved his simple milk bun with butter and jam, while my leak and onion quiche was excellent. We were back home by 10:00 to head out with the rest of our crew for our last day in London.
For one of the first times so far on our trip, we called an audible and changed our itinerary up slightly. We dropped the afternoon break in favor of getting everything in London done at once in order to get back to our flat earlier, in preparation for tomorrow morning’s train ride to Paris.
Grandma, Noah, Emmie, Gee Gee, and Amanda on the south side of the Thames river.
After taking a bus toward the Thames river, much to my chagrin, we changed things up from the itinerary again, skipping the (replica) Globe Theater tour in favor of more time at London’s Borough Market. It turned out to be a smart decision, as the market was extremely enjoyable and goes down as one of our favorite activities during our time in London.
Noah, Amanda, Emmie, and a cheese-olive baguette at Borough Market.
Highlights of our eating include the olives from Burough Olives; doughnuts and a cheese-olive baguette from Bread Ahead, which has a nearby facility that doubles as a baking school; a wild berry smoothie and fresh lemonade from a stand in the Middle Market area. Dessert consisted of chocolates filled with amazingly gooey sea salt caramel from Rabot 1745.
In Europe’s oldest original operating theatre, dating to 1822.
A few blocks from the market was the Old Operating Theatre museum, a facility located in the attic of a former church, on the site of a former hospital, which contained a number of medical artifacts plus the pictured operating theatre room. While Grandma Mac opted to hang out with Emmie during our museum stop, and I spent half of the allotted time finding Noah a toilet, but Amanda at least really enjoyed the museum stop.
Lots of elevators when taking the tube in London.
After a couple subway rides, we were at Harrods, London’s most famous department store. It was crowded but awfully impressive, certainly when compared to comparable stateside flagship stores I’ve visited in Chicago and New York. We spent a lot of time on the ground floor Food Hall, which featured a tremendous selection of foodstuff, ranging from gourmet desserts to chocolate to fish and steak. Our only purchases came from the large section of the second floor dedicated to Harrods-branded merchandise.
Emmie loved the various Harrods bears.
A kiss for the Harrods guardsman bear.
Our final stop of the trip was at Covent Garden, where we revisited Shake Shack to order a round of burgers and milkshakes. Gee Gee and Amanda also shopped the adjacent souvenir stands and stores to spend their remaining coins, which can’t be converted to Euros once in France. Once the rest of our group was on their way back to the flat, I made one final return visit to Gelupo, bringing my three-day gelato flavor total to ten.
When we return to London, I’ll seek out a place to stay which is close to Gelupo.