I didn't post yesterday for reasons that will become clear later.
BUT
Yesterday was our last morning in London proper. We packed up the bags and sent them down to Gatwick airport with C while the rest of us finished up checking out of the airbnb. Shortly after, I took for my adventures while the rest of the gang (C/D/S/A/O/H) went to high tea nearby:
I started my morning at Tate Modern, getting my modern art fix. The exhibitions were exceptional, and most of them were exploring the perspectives of folks who aren't traditionally featured in the modern art space. Non-male and BIPOC artists were front and center, and some of the exhibitions focused specifically on institutionalized racism, societal racism, imperialism, colonization, and other similar issues. One of the things I love to do with modern art is to look at it, think about the artist's perspective, and then try to learn something new about the world. This visit did not disappoint.
After my visit to Tate Modern, I headed towards Soho to meet the others, but ended up stopping for lunch three times. The first was in this market the museum, which had lots of yummy stands. I grabbed a scotch quail egg:
From there, I headed up to Soho and grabbed a more substantial bite at Nopi, one of the restaurants run by one of my favorite chefs. The broccolini pakoras and negroni with peppercorn and cinnamon were delicious! Along the day, I passed (and temporarily joined) this protest for higher wages and lower inflation. It was a very diverse group of marchers. Behind a group of black balaclava-clad young mean was a group of retired nurse.
Third lunch was a little bun from a place called Bao. Minced pork, peanuts, and cilantro. Chinese in form, Vietnamese in flavor.
After that, I met up with the gang at Hamsley's, a seven-floor toystore. H & O each got to pick out a thing to take home!
From Hamsley's, we took the tube to Victoria Station and then the express train down to Gatwick airport. We slept at the airport since we had an early flight to Bilbao the next morning. I didn't get a chance to update the blog since all three of us were in the same hotel room and we all turned lights out at the same time.
The next morning, our trip to Bilbao was relatively painless. After scorching heat in London, we were hoping for more of a respite in Spain, but it's unseasonably warm here too. The house we're staying in is a lovely farm house near vineyards, with a few of the Bay of Biscay from the backyard:
Our host Javier speaks some french but no English, so I'm relying on my Spanish to get through most communcations. He's a nice older man who uses half the house as a vacation spot while he rents out the other half. After we settled in, he drove me to Zumaia and Getaria to get a lay of the land while Chef Laura prepared a welcome meal for us. She laid out leek cream soup, crab bricks, poached hake, seafood stew, steak and potatoes, fish-stuffed-peppers, and sauteed local peppers. After all that, a glass of lemon gelato with cava before a cheesecake with a berry vinegar sauce. We were stuffed.
The house is not designed for hot weather, and we ended up needing a few fans to get air moving, particularly on the top floor were C/O/H are sleeping. Also, there are flies everywhere! There are plenty of screens in the windows, but they still find us. At dinner, I started attacking the flies with my steak knife and caught one!
We had a fishing outing planned tomorrow, but the captain has canceled due to weather. So, we'll see what we end up doing! It'll probably be a little lazy, as everyone had an early morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment