Blog ≫ 2020 ≫ BACK from our holiday to London and Warwick (day one)
We have been away, our little holiday to London and Warwick. I did not announce it all in advance so you did not rob my house but we have been planning it for a couple of weeks. We had a great time, the boys really enjoyed the activities we found and I really enjoyed the eating and drinking.
Fast train to London on Monday morning, the first off peak one we could get. I'd bought all the tickets online in advance and collected them the day before from a machine. That's a good system I like it and I'll do it again. The train was quieter than it has been, but not empty. We wore masks a lot this week, though Clare's plan was to keep eating and drinking all the time as you don't have to wear one while you're doing this. My plan was to keep eating and drinking too but not for any mask related reasons. We had a cheeky Pimm's on train, some fizzy pop and some comics and some new Top Trumps for the boys.
Premier Inn at Kings Cross was the one we stayed at last time opposite the British Library and was fine. We could get in our room straight away so we did, dropped our bags and decided to walk to Camden. This was maybe a bit much for little legs, but will I remember this next time? I like to walk a lot but they are not quite so able. Nice walk though past some interesting sites. We were heading to the market first to get a snacky lunch from some food stalls, but found ourselves very close to the Brewdog pub, the one I went to when we stayed in Camden before. Yes they are doing food, yes we can bring the kids in, and with a little arm twisting the kids agreed. We had excellent food and got not only the 50% "eat out to help out" discount but also it was Vegan Monday were all vegan meals are two for one, and you can apply this discount with the other discount. Our total for four meals, two drinks each for three of us and a flight of beers for Clare came to twenty quid, amazing. I had an alcohol free stout as one of my drinks, it wasn't super impressive, but would have been very welcome if I'd been driving. We played more Top Trumps and then moved lazily on to the market.
We had booked mini golf in Camden1, aha, turns out I was DRIVING after all. I thought it might be like PuttShack that we'd done before. It was much lower tech than that but a really nicely designed course with lots of fun features. Then a mooch around the market looking at hats and t-shirts and then a sit down drink and rest. Of all the places we could pick we went in the kind of bar I never usually would, but it was right near where we were when the boys were collapsing, and it had a table outside. So would have been a prime opportunity for an ale, but was missed.
We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel after this to save the little legs. I sat in the room with the boys for forty minutes or so while they watched TV and Clare investigated a local pub. Then dinner at Pizza Express, and it was a good one, where they have been a bit disappointing recently. Eat out to help out discount again, nice. Clare had one more drink and thing one and I sat in the bathroom while thing two tried to go to sleep. He didn't try very hard. I texted Clare pretending they were asleep so she'd come back and then I ran before she noticed her mistake. I went back to The Exmouth Arms that I'd very much enjoyed on my last visit but it was even quieter this time and they only had two ales on. I enjoyed the one I had but then went back to the hotel. Even the Euston Tap had closed early.
Next morning we gave up on breakfast at the hotel as the queue was too big. 50% discount and being open to non residents made it too busy. A discounted but disappointing experience in Pret (no cookies put thing two in a bad mood here) and then a bus to Marylebone for the next leg. I'll update in further posts I think.
Cooler but a bit breezy out there today. Weather has been a bit like that all week. I had a little go on the treadmill and then did a 10k around Hythe.
Boys are at Grandpa's house today and one of them is staying over with another friend, the other is coming back here to help me sort out the Lego...
| Country | cases | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 6046634 | 184796 |
| Brazil | 3764493 | 118726 |
| Mexico | 573888 | 62076 |
| India | 3384575 | 61694 |
| UK | 330368 | 41477 |
| Italy | 263947 | 35463 |
| France | 259698 | 30576 |
| Spain | 451792 | 28996 |
| Peru | 621997 | 28277 |
| Iran | 367796 | 21137 |
Coronavirus weekly death graph for USA + Brazil + Mexico + India + UK + Italy
- Removed old plonkgolf.co.uk/venue/camden/ link here.
10k: Ten km, about six miles in old money. Sometimes talking about 10,000 steps though, an arbitrary daily step-count target.