Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

We took a quick trip to London last weekend to celebrate our first anniversary. We had a great time! We saw:

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament:




Westminster Abbey:


Then we ate *wonderful* and *spicy* indian food at the Cinnamon Club, located in the former Westminster library. The inside was lovely, and the food was so so good. More info can be found here, for the foodies in the bunch:
http://iamdata.co.uk/cinn/menu.cfm

We stayed at a small and delightful hotel, the Morgan hotel, where we had a nice outdoor patio. There were lilacs growing! The hotel serves a great breakfast every morning with eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, a broiled tomato, and yogurt, coffee, and toast.



The next day, we walked through the gardens on the way to Buckingham Palace, and we saw flowers and birds:



And then we saw Buckingham Palace. The flag is up because the queen is "in":


After all of that walking, it was time for some eating, so we went to St Johns for lunch. I started with brown crab on rustic toast, which was like crab meat mixed with crab fat -- so tasty and savory. Dennis had roasted marrow bones served with a pick so he could poke out the marrow onto toast, and a spoonfull of grey salt which made it taste so delicious. For the second course, I had meatloaf and spinach. The meatloaf was made of pork instead of beef, and was quite good, but I was tired of it after a bit. Dennis had something tasty, but he can't remember. We bought a cute litte ashtray with a pig on it to bring home.

We stopped in at the British Museum for a short visit so that we could see the new, beautiful glassed-in courtyard, as well as some mummies and pieces of the Parthenon. Mostly I just looked up and gawked at the amazingly beautiful ceiling:


Then we met Shannon and Bill in South London for dinner at the Michelin Rated Chez Bruce http://www.london-eating.co.uk/13.htm

It was fantastic. Shannon and Bill split a chateaubriand that came with the best french fries (chips) that I've ever seen. I guess that's what the Michelin rating buys you.

The next morning we waited around for Pete and Urcella to show up. When they did, they were hungry and tired, so we said hello and then went off to see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge while they slept.




That night we met back up and went to the Tate museum for an hour, and then had dinner at OXO Tower. It was good, but not remarkable, and certainly not what it should have been for the money, but the view was outstanding. The service was reprehensible. After dinner we hung around Soho for a little while and visited a few bars, also fun -- packed on a Saturday night.

The next morning we schlepped back to Paris and met up with Jim and Kristie, who had just returned from Barcelona. Jim had gotten horrible food poisioning and Pete and Urcella were still tired, so everyone pretty much had a lazy afternoon of recovery. Today everyone else has gone out to see more Paris, but Dennis and I are hanging out doing our French homework and recovering from two weeks of travel. Tomorrow it's back to work for us. Quel dommage! It's so nice to have pals visiting -- it's a house full of friends! Tonight we'll dine at Bistro Resto together, and hopefully I'll get to see Nelson, whom I've missed a little.

Jim and Kristie leave on Wednesday, Pete and Urcella leave on Thursday, and Brendan and Cindy come on Thursday, as do Wayne and Brianna, but they're not staying with us.

You'd think we'd be staying around the neighborhood for a while after all of this, but we do have an overnight trip to Amsterdam planned in a few weekends. I'm sure I'll get the travel bug again soon, but for now, I'm tired and happy.

--Aimee