The last several days have been a whirlwind. On Friday I met up with Egle, an old friend from high school now living in London with her beautiful baby and husband. We met in Bethnal Green and had coffee at the V&A Museum of Childhood and had such a lovely time. After that I took the Tube to Hampstead to see Rachel. She gave me a quick—and, it must be said, relatively fast-paced—tour of Hampstead Heath, which included a look at the men's swimming pond. Nice to sweat a bit. Then Matt joined us for dinner at the Lord Palmerston, a fantastic gastropub, where we sat in the increasingly cold back garden for hours. I drank ciders and ate loads of fish.
The weekend was full though gently paced. On Saturday we had lunch at nearby Kipferl, an Austrian delicatessen. It was very tasty and very nostalgic for me, especially the Gürkensalat. Our sausage and salad lunch ran £6 per person. Not dirt cheap, but good for the 'hood. Then we took the Tube to Camden Market and walked over to Primrose Hill and back, and from Camden Market we walked along the canal to King's Cross. There we parted and I walked up Pentonville Road to Goswell Road and along Goswell to Old Street. Dinner was at The Well, another fantastic gastropub. Afterwards, I headed out to Leytonstone where I met Gwyn. He gave me a tour of his beautiful house and then we drove out to Stansted to pick Marisa up.
(Say what you will about Stansted, but there is something triumphant about the place. It's not pretty but it does the high-volume trick. I laughed out loud thinking about the Stansted misadventure Vivien and I had back in August 2005.)
Sunday was a gently perfect day, which centered around an extravagant lunch at Roast. The meal reminded me a little bit of New York's Craft.
Yesterday I took the Eurostar to Brussels, where I spent a really great day with the Porcupine crew. I found Brussels much more captivating than I ever have previously, and will write something about the city later today or tomorrow.
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