Day 23 - London

Distance walked: 14.5km, Alcohol consumed: 1 mini bottle of wine, 1 taster of cider, 1 taster of beer

We started today with a food tour run by Eating London. Not as daft an idea as it might sound. We did their East End food tour - so food from all the immigrant communities.

We started off with a bacon sarnie (hangover cure food) from Fergus Henderson's St John Bread and Wine.  They make both the bacon, from a particular rare breed of pig, and the bread. You Could Eat It.

The next stop was imaginatively called The English Restaurant. I had seen it the day before and dismissed it as a tourist trap but it isn't. The building is old and the inside is made from various reclaimed items. The bar from an old pub, the seating the pews from an old church and the floorboards from somewhere and such like. We had a bread and butter pudding with vanilla custard. They put sultanas in theirs. I don't but I do spread my bread with Seville orange marmalade. I like mine better but You Could Eat theirs.

Then we went to the House Of Androuet which is a French cheese monger, where we ate English cheeses - a cheddar and a stilton. They were both excellent examples of those types of cheese but neither thrilled me.

Next stop was Poppies Fish and Chips where we had fish (cod) and chips with mushy peas.  This place is regularly rated as providing the best fish and chips in London. The fish was very good - the batter was crispy and the fish moist. The mushy peas were made in-house, not from a tin, and again where very good (I believe cream was involved which always helps). Sadly the chips were a disappointment. Not crispy at all. Just your standard suburban chips. My gran made much better chips.

Then was a traditional local pub with a resident cat, the Pride of Spitalfields. The cat, Lenny, snubbed me. He didn't want me to pat him which rather put me off. We drank Sharp's Doom Bar (which is from Cornwall) as the local beer, from Truman's brewery, had run out. We also tried an apple cider from Sharp called Orchard. Our guide, Emily, called it farm yard-y in taste and she wasn't kidding. It didn't taste of apples at all but very faintly of the farmyard. She likes it, I didn't.

Then we wandered down Brick Lane in search of a curry. Almost all the curry houses along this stretch had banners declaring them the No. 1 curry house in London for the years 2016, 2017 and even 2018 according to different "regulatory" bodies. We went to Aladin which apparently is regularly rated as being in the top 10 places for a curry. We had a vegetable curry (no heat at all), a chicken tikka masala (spicy-ish but sweet) and a lamb curry (moderately spicy). I liked the lamb but the rest were merely Harmless.

Most of the Jewish immigrants have long since moved out of the Spitalfields area but there are two remaining bagel shops on Brick Lane. One was virtually deserted but the other had a queue out the door. We went to that one of course, Beigel Bake, which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is brisk, to put it politely. You'd better know what you want and also, pronounce Beigel correctly. It isn't bay-gle it is buy-gull. We had a bagel with salt beef and a sweet pickle. It was Not Bad.

The last stop was Pizza East in Shoreditch, where all the hipster hang out, where we had a chocolate and salted caramel tart with a cup of tea. The tart tasted like a Mars bar and was very rich. I guess it was Harmless.

After four hours of walking and (mostly) eating we just wanted to have a nap but this is our second last day in London, so we had to keep sightseeing so we said good-bye to our excellent guide and tottered off to the Museum of London. This gives you the history of London through the ages from prehistoric time to now and is a fantastic museum. Did you know there used to be lions, elephants, hippos (!) and cave bears in the Thames Valley. It is very hard to imagine.

We stayed until closing time then braved the peak hour tube back to the flat. We weren't hungry but ventured out again at 8pm feeling we ought to eat something. We couldn't find any restaurant that tempted us so we bought cheese, wine, prosciutto and some little quiches from a supermarket and went home to watch trashy TV and snack.

Tomorrow is our last day. So sad.