Day 1 - travel from New Orleans to London-Heathrow. We bypassed the Endymion madness on a ridiculously warm Mardi Gras Saturday. Our checked bag didn't make the tight connection from New Orleans to Atlanta but we made arrangements for the bag to be delivered to Larry's flat share in Fulham. With Larry as our sherpa we ventured out to Chelsea to take in some coffee, view the conspicuous consumption (dashing between zooming Bentleys and past the Ferrari dealership), and visit the Victoria & Albert museum. We intended to focus on the 20th century exhibit but ended up walking through the British history exhibits with a couple of side trips into the India collection.
Day 2 - we anticipated a rainy day so made plans to make this a "museum" day. Larry took us to Truth Cafe for a hip version of English breakfast (mine had grilled halloumi instead of sausage) and then left us to take the tube down to the Tower of London. We opted for an audio tour so we could get as much historical context as possible without having to travel in a pack. We ended up focusing on the older parts of the tower history. It was fascinating to be able to be in the spaces that one may have only read about before - seeing the remains of the old Roman wall, the tile work in the chapels, the inscriptions left on the wall by prisoners - made for a memorable experience. Although we left before getting to the crown jewels we did get to learn about the ravens.
A short tube ride later to Trafalgar Square and we entered the National Gallery. Slightly overwhelmed by the breadth of the collection, we started with the oldest rooms (13th-15th century) and ended with the Impressionists. One could easily spend an entire day here but we had slightly over an hour. My highlights were my usuals - I just love the Dutch - Brueghel the Elder features here. One surprise was seeing a painting by a woman (!) Rachel Ruysch amongst the Dutch Flower paintings. Although it seemed like half of the EU were in front of Van Gogh's Sunflowers I quite enjoyed his "Wheatfield with Cypresses" and seeing in person Henri Rousseau's "Suprised!".
We raced out to join rush-hour traffic and to meet Larry and his friend, Nicola, for a pint and a curry at Sagar.
After dinner we found our way to 3 Kings Pub (via our first Uber in London). We went to watch Liverpool capitulate to Leicester. There was some loud swearing and agreement that Liverpool were well on the way to becoming the Robin Hood of the Premier League (taking points from the rich clubs to give to the poor).
While we were watching the match Brad noticed someone wearing a shirt that said "Hannan Soccer". He said there was a Hannan High School on the Northshore but I had never heard of it. He had to find out if the shirt was a reference to that school. It was! A teenager had been given a trip to England to watch his favorite team - Liverpool - escorted by his parents, naturally. They were on a similar itinerary for Mardi Gras.
The match result was unhappy but not surprising. Larry's friend Preethi joined us for a pint after the match. We took the tube back to the flat but not before a stop for "Chicago Chicken sandwich". I'm not sure why it's called Chicago but they've got some great spicy sauce.
Day 3 - after a coffee from the Waitrose on the corner (I want one of those industrial coffee machines!) we made our way to Hammersmith station then Kings Cross to get on the northern train to Leeds. It took us a while to figure out why there was a crowd huddled at one end of the train platform at Kings Cross but then figured out it was from the tourists getting their picture taken in front of the 9 & 3/4 platform. Next to the Harry Potter store of course.
At Leeds we switched trains to Settle for our first night in the Yorkshire Dales. The scene from London to Settle got increasingly rural and we took turns looking out the window at the sheep and spotting pheasant in the grazing land. This is the part of England that is apparent from a plane - sheep, green pastures and rock walls. We checked into the Lion Inn, took a walk down to the Ribble River and then had some fish and chips for dinner.
Day 4 - fine day for a walk! Had our breakfast at the inn where Brad discovered that Eggs Benedict were complimentary. After a short cab ride to Malham past some highland cattle we got our bearings and started on our trek. Phase I took in Janet's Foss and Gordale Scar.
Phase II involved more elevation as we went to Malham Cove, where a kind couple pointed out the Peregrine Falcon nesting in the cliff edge. The top of Malham Cove has exposed "limestone pavement" which served as a setting in one of the Harry Potter movies (Deathly Hallows, Part 1). This proved to be quite slippery to walk on.
From here we walked on to Malham Tarn which is a glacial lake and the location of an estate. At this point we were between rain and sleet and we decided it was time to turn back towards Malham. On our way down past Malham Cove again, the sun came back out and it was quite beautiful. A short walk down led us to Buck Inn for a pint (or half pint). We took our cab back to Settle and tucked into burgers (sweet potato and halloumi for mine).
Day 5 - off to Liverpool! we took a train back to Leeds and changed for another that took us to Manchester. From the train we saw snow on the ground outside of Leeds but nothing in the air. Manchester, from what we could see, looked quite industrial and booming. We did see the Etihad stadium from the train but not much else to orient us. From Manchester we made another train change.
We had heard the night before that train service to the main station in Liverpool had stopped because of a landslide in one of the tunnels. But service was still on with some minor detours on the Liverpool end. At Liverpool we got off and on to another smaller train. The workers at the station were quite friendly and helpful instructing passengers about the detour. At this point it was apparent that about half the passengers were foreigners like us. We got off at the new stop and walked into the city centre and the short walk from there to our flat we had arranged through airbnb. The city centre is the kind of open air shopping mall that you find in a lot of cities now. It has conveniences for travelers and locals without any real sense of place. At our flat we received a welcome from the host, June, along with instructions. We took a quick walk while we awaited the arrival of Larry. That night we made our way to the Philharmonic pub. This is a victorian-era pub that has been bought and maintained by a corporation that is purchasing and maintaining old pubs. It gets its name from the proximity to the actual Philharmonic (diagonal). Many of the local pubs have stopped being local in ownership and pubs in general are declining. At each visit to a pub we made sure to try one of the cask ales, since these are such an English phenomenon. We also had dinner at the Philharmonic.
Then off we went to visit another pub, the Ship & Mitre, in search of a pub quiz. The Ship & Mitre had a friendly clubhouse vibe and we enjoyed playing the quiz even though several of the questions were too British for us to understand. We especially enjoyed the quizmaster's pronunciation of Atlanta with an extra "a".
Day 6 - With a tour of Anfield scheduled at 10 we had a short breakfast and then took an Uber to the stadium. We joined our tour of about 30 people and learned about the stadium history, including the reason that the devoted fans area is called the Kop end.
Part of our tour included a pitch-side visit and to go into the museum where you can stand on the concrete like supporters used to before the government required seats installed.
After the perfunctory visit to the gift shop we took another uber back to the flat before venturing out again. This time we stopped at a gastropub close by, The Monro, which has an open fire in the middle.
We decided to walk down to the dockside and visit the Tate Liverpool. We initially went in thinking we would just see the Tracey Emin and William Blake exhibit but ended up staying longer and viewing more of the collection. They organize their pieces in "Constellations", emphasizing theme and context as well as influence, rather than period or media. I think this helps even the most sterile work seem much more engaging, although I had trouble seeing the connection between Emin and Blake but their work individually is stimulating.
After continuing our walk along the dockside we headed back to city centre, collected Larry from the flat and made our way to Mowgli where we got put on the waiting list.
We sampled two pubs during the wait - The Swan and Roscoe Head. They couldn't have had more different vibes. Think Iron Maiden vs. Lawrence Welk. Our dinner at Mowgli was great - inspired by Indian street food.
Day 7 - match day! After a light breakfast we found a bus with some other fans and made our way to the Albert pub where we met some Norwegians and another couple of Americans. Because we aren't season ticket holders we had to purchase a hospitality package that included tickets to this match, which included a meal at the Isla Gladstone Conservatory at Stanley Park. We made our way there slowly, taking in the sights along the way. Once there we were seated with other fans; several from Denmark and 3 from S. Korea.
After the meal we got to our seats at the Anfield Road (or Anny Road) end of the stadium. Our seats were behind the opposition goal with a good view and cover from the rain. Even though the Arsenal fans were below us we still had a good atmosphere. And we got to see two of the 3 goals that Liverpool scored. Final score: 3-1, less than Brad's prediction of 4-1 but close.
We had made arrangements to take a bus at midnight from Liverpool to Heathrow to catch our flight the next morning. We were exhausted but got interesting views of the cities on the stops including Birmingham and Oxford.
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