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Thursday 3 April 2014

My Very First London Birthday


"Every year on your birthday you get a chance to start new" - Sammy Hagar

                By some miracle I wasn’t jetlagged today. I definitely thought I would be because I went to bed at 7:30pm last night. I woke up and it was a little light out and I felt well-rested and I could hear people in the flat. Then I looked at my phone: it was 10:30pm. I woke up again at 1:00am wide awake. It did not look good. I ended up playing around on my phone for an hour until I got tired again. When I checked the phone next it was 8:20, ten minutes before we wanted to get up in the first place.

                We headed out around 9:30am. We went down to the shop to pick up Oyster cards to get around on public transit, then headed to the train station. It’s amazing how much I can kind of remember in terms of getting around. It was after rush hour when we boarded the train so there weren’t many people on it. When we got to London Bridge we headed to the Tower of London. It’s my favorite attraction in London, our first day in the city, and my birthday, so it made the most sense to spend the day there.

                Instead of buying tickets we actually bought an annual membership. For a joint card it’s only £69 – which is only £34.50 each – and it gets you into the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House and Kew Palace. It’s a pretty good deal and we are already happy we did it. We’re seeing three of those five things in the next four days. We’ll have already saved more money than it cost us. Besides unlimited access to those five palaces for a year, we also get 10% off of gift shop and cafĂ© purchases and invitations to membership events, such as access to a private room at Hampton Court Palace and rooftop tours. Totally worth it! Check out http://www.hrp.org.uk/SupportUs/Membership/ if you’re interested. Even if you’re just visiting, if you plan on visiting more than one of those you’re actually saving money (to put things in perspective: a one day ticket to the Tower of London would have cost us £23).

                We spent half a day at the Tower of London. A lot of people literally go and see the Crown Jewels, the White Tower and take a Beefeater Tour then leave but I never like doing that. I check out each and every exhibit. By all means, check out the Beefeater Tours – they are absolutely hilarious and a highlight of my visits to the Tower – but there’s so many cool little things to check out. I’m a nerd. Whatever. They play the Laurence Olivier version of Richard III IN AN EXHIBIT ON RICHARD III. Why would I not like this?

                After a solid several hours of touring we remembered we were jetlagged. We had a few hours until our dinner reservations so we headed back to the flat. Sarah had a nap. I don’t nap. But we were glad we were able to rest a bit. At 5:00pm we headed to dinner. Our reservations were for 6:45 but I had no clue where we were going so we left early. We ended up finding an easier way to get there literally as we were waiting for our train and arrived around 6:00pm. Not a big deal. I’d rather be early than rushing.

                At 6:30pm the doors to the restaurant opened. We had chosen to have my birthday dinner at Dans Le Noir (www.danslenoir.com). This is a restaurant that originated in France but has expanded to several countries around the world. Basically, you eat in the dark. It’s cool. To begin, you check in for your reservation. You can either get a cocktail from their menu or a surprise cocktail. Sarah and I both ordered the surprise cocktails. They were absolutely delicious, and I can be quite picky with cocktails and martinis. We sat at a table in the lounge where one of the welcome guys came over and explained the menus. You have four choices: Meat, Fish, Vegetarian or Surprise. That’s all you know. We each picked the three course surprise menu along with a surprise wine pairing for each course. After you lock up all your personal belongings in a locker the manager introduces you to your waiter. Your waiter is blind and teaches you how to maneuver in the dark. You grab his shoulder and he leads you into the restaurant, which is pitch black. And I mean 100% black. I definitely walked into a chair. I was concerned it would be unsettling but it was actually fine. I actually found myself behaving as I normally do in restaurants, including facial and hand gestures, despite the fact Sarah couldn’t see me. I also somehow managed to not spill anything on myself. In fact, the most unnerving part was walking to and from the table. You’re supposed to use your other senses. I didn’t really get that, though I did feel like Daredevil does when he gets pictures from his other senses. They are dead serious about the light, though. One guy snuck a cellphone in and took a call and he actually got kicked out.

                As for the food, like I said we got the surprise menus, which could be anything. You don’t find out what you ate until after dinner, when you’re led back to the lobby. Our starter ended up being some kind of crab, with a rose wine which was delicious. Our main was springbok, ostrich and crocodile paired with red wine. Obviously I would never so much as touch those if I saw them on a normal menu. But I didn’t have a choice and it was actually quite good, especially the herbs on one of them (I think the ostrich). Dessert was cheesecake. You can’t go wrong with cheesecake. And dessert wine.

                We finished up quite early (it only took an hour and fifteen minutes) so we had a quick drink at the pub and headed back to the flat. We’re still jetlagged so exhausted. But it was a pretty damn good first birthday and first day in London.
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