Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
Above: All-you-can-eat cheese on conveyor belt at Pick & Cheese Seven Dials
Restaurant listings arranged alphabetically might not prove user-friendly in a city as sprawling as London, but I’m stubbornly persisting in that practice. As in the earlier part one, these are scattered all over the map.
Continue reading “Postcard from London, England: Italian, Philippine, seafood and cheese, please”
Above: Watermelon, chickpea and feta salad at Ceru in South Kensington
There were two reasons why I waited so long to visit London. The first was that it seemed like cheating on getting a foreign experience when the natives all speak English. That excuse no longer applies, as most people we encounter while traveling in Europe speak fluent English, with an American accent due to all the Hollywood films they devour. British accents challenge my comprehension more than English spoken elsewhere.
The second bias I possessed was food. No mushy peas, please. That proves my ignorance. Today’s London offers so much more than the old standard pub grub I feared I would have to eat every single meal. Why did I ever wait so long to become enlightened?
Continue reading “Postcard from London, England: Creative kitchens debunk flawed stereotype”
Above left: Monumental effigy of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587). Above right: Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey
There is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
The Tempest, William Shakespeare, 1611
In recent years, you’ve been exposed to an immense quantity of footage showing the interior of Westminster Abbey: the wedding of Prince and Princess of Wales in 2011; the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022); and the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2023.
With no need to cover that aspect, this taphophile is jumping straight to the everyday role of Westminster – a splendid monumental cemetery housing the remains of more than 3,300 elite, a veritable who’s-who of a thousand years of British history. Grave markers underfoot lie ignored, overwhelmed by the sculptural and polychrome effigies and memorials climbing ever higher up the church walls.
If ghosts rise in the night, what bedlam must reign. According to the Westminster website, the remains of 13 kings, four queens regnant, 11 queens consort, and two more queens are interred there. Blood might run thicker than water, yet British bluebloods frequently spilled that of their kin.
Continue reading “Postcard from London, England: ‘Strange bedfellows’ for eternity”
Postcards from Barton Springs 