London Arrival

We got to London July 22nd, through Heathrow immigration in record time, and tubed into central London quite smoothly. Our apartment is on the 7th floor of Keats House, in Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, a very new London location for us, in the City of Westminster. The apartment is a two bedroom unit. Since it's someone's actual abode, and not a full-time rental, I won't do any interior pix. Daughter Rebecca had arrived earlier in the day, for a week's stay, and was waiting for us.

Banking over the great city en route to Heathrow

The red dot in the center is where we are; just across the river from the old Battersea power plant, about a mile south of Buckingham Palace, etc.; Battersea is now a humongous shopping center/residential complex

View from our apartment looking toward Southwark

Looking the other way...Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Victoria Tower
in the Houses of Parliament, London Eye, etc.

Grade II-listed Keats House; there are also a Shelley House, a Jane Austen
House, etc.

Battersea power plant, across the river from Churchill Gardens;
not affordable housing these days...

Interim Update #1,283

After Tallinn we jetted across the Baltic to Frankfurt and then to London, where we've been now, with daughter Rebecca, for a week. More pix from Britland soon will appear.

Enjoying the local specialty at the Frankfurt airport

With Chuck and Camilla at Buckingham

Eating Well In Tallinn

Tallinn has a lively and varied restaurant scene, and we ate well during our visit...

Every day started well with the hotel breakfast; sometimes I augmented
my traditional American/English breakfast with some beets and herring and
other local such stuff

Mistakes were made...imagine the disappointment of
the guy who ordered a burger with just mayo when he
got Vicki's double burger with ketchup and pickle...

But on the whole we did quite well, starting with Moon, a traditional
Estonian Michelin-Red restaurant down by the harbor...

A bit of the decor

My borsch

Her chicken Kiev and mash

My roasted aubergine tartar with truffle artichoke sauce 
and sunchoke crisps

Her Napoleon cake, with various stuff; the presentations were fun and
impressive

Another treat was Tai Boh, a Thai resto in the center of
the old town...the modest entry led to a large outdoor terrace
where we ate; the decor of the restaurant was said to be "life-
changing," which we interpreted to mean someone had
watched The Beach maybe way too many times...

My Tom Yum (and a pancakey sort of bread thing they recommended)

Her duck

Her dessert

The food was fine, but the interior of the restaurant was a hoot

Bar

Muay Thai..."get there earlier!"

Upstairs lounge and toilettes

Handwashing station

Speaking of stations...

Lastly there was Chakra, a traditional Indian restaurant closer to our
hotel; the aromas from the kitchen windows and the chefs waving at
us were all the invitation needed; above, Vicki's roasted tika masala

My coconut shrimp curry; both fine and, with papadums and naan,
all we could eat

Tallinn Scenes, 4

 And now, the exciting conclusion of our Tallinn Scenes series...

Our final goal for the day: Tallinn's central market

Baking bread the old fashioned way

Not much else about the market was old-fashioned...it would have
been right at home in any American suburbopolis; this scene is in
the one very large seafood store

Eventual fate of all original Fiat 500s

Finished bread and baker's assistant

Back in old town

Rarest of sights...following a printed map

"Shire...Baggins..."...what are the Nazgul doing here?!

So next day we are approaching and entering the upper fortress

Looking out at a bit of modern Tallinn

In the inner fortress, the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox
Church; very Russian-looking

Clandestine shot of the altar area

For our next church, in order to evade the 2 euro charge, we decided
to fall in between cruise ship excursion groups #78 and #79 and
hopefully pass unnoticed

The church, a former Lutheran one, I think...

"Famous" for displaying the crests and shields of Estonia's great
(Protestant?) families; at this point, we were done, opted out
of the excursion groups and headed back to a great Indian restaurant
for dinner (next post); and for packing up for our next removal...

Parthian shot from Tallinn