Muffin Man!

Obviously I'm still blogging about London, and nothing but. I'll probably be on this kick for a while (or until I run out of pictures, which will take some time.) Surprisingly, so far I've made little mention of my tea experiences on this trip, and there's a reason for that. I didn't sit around drinking tea the entire time I was there. No, we moved around a lot, and on the more jet-laggy days I even drank coffee (shock!) Of course there were some amazing moments of relaxing with a requisite spot of tea, and here's one of those moments.

There are many places to take tea in London. Duh. The same goes for New York, really, but they've had it down to a science for centuries, where in my hometown its history is more of a love/hate relationship. So it's hard when I get my rare few days every 3-5 years or so to pick places to take tea in my second favorite city ever. I've had suggestions, and ideas for next time (whenever that is). So the plan goes this way: pick an old favorite, and try one new (to me) place. If I can do more than that, great. If not, fine.

Now if I had only one hour to spend in any part of London, it would likely be in Covent Garden. After that, it would be The Muffin Man. It represents to me all that it cozy in Kensington. It's simple, not overpriced, they're generous with the clotted cream, and the scones are THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!! Oh, and the tea's good too. They have a small selection of teas, but it's satisfying.

Mind you, I've had not-as-good scones there. It seems this happens every other time. So Visit 1: Amazing, Visit 2: Average, Visit 3: Exquisite, Visit 4: Okay...I think this was Visit 5. Do the math; it was wonderful.

I plan to post a short video of our visit there, but until then, here are some pics. We'd just come from wandering in Holland Park, and it was the ideal next move. Or not move; just staying put for a while.

 

It was open!

 

We had "our table"...the one I've felt most at home with since my first time in 1998. It has the view of Wrights Lane, which is right off of Kensington High Street, and the tube station.

 

The scones, in all their homemade goodness.

 

Sheep

In the course of our week in London, it was Chocolate Week and Wool Week. How can you keep up with all these special weeks when they want to overlap each other? Well, you can eat a surfeit of Cadbury bars whilst cozying up in a nice woolen sweater, I suppose.

Savile Row, known all over the world for men's bespoke tailoring, got down to their roots during the Monday of our visit. They wanted to promote buying real British wool products, I think. This means that Bonnie and I had the luxury of seeing real live sheep without having to bus it to the countryside. Not that I don't like the English countryside, but you see there's only so much one can do with a week!


All we needed was a piglet to turn this into "Babe" (well, some singing mice might help):

 

Ram!

 

The good shepherd,and his loyal napping sheepdogs:

 

 

By Any Other Name

You don't take the subway if you want to get on a train in London. You take the tube, or the underground, or maybe a train. Aside from that, a commute's a commute. There will always be crowds, rude people, service interruptions, and annoying transfers. On my rare visits to London, of course, I tend to travel during the less populated times of the day when I can. It doesn't make the move from point A to B endearing, but at least the various place names and different ads help it along.


Oh, and rest assured you will burn calories if you need to transfer to other lines. It's a massive system!

One question: what happened to the Cadbury machines? They used to be the highlight of my ride. And why did I get a cavity anyway?

 

 

 

 

Chillin' with my Holmesey!!!