The Scroop's European Holiday: London

This morning Mia has woken up with a sore throat and a bit of a temperature. I also have a bit of a scratchy throat so it looks like the lack of sleep and lack of fruit and veg is catching up with us. We have brekkie at the apartment and the kids watch a few cartoons before we get moving for Camden Market at about 10 o’clock. The underground route is simple, about 9 minutes straight up the Northern Line. We walk to Leister Square station, buy our 7 day Oyster cards for the train and say to the man “how do we get to the Northern Line”? He says “It’s closed; you’ll need to take the bus”.....great! We head back up the stairs to street level and manage to find a bus heading in that direction. It is actually a nice change as we can see a lot more from the second deck of a bus. We arrive at Camden Town and stroll along the street toward Camden lock checking out all the tacky souvenir shops and weirdo clothes shops. There was some awesome shoe shops but a lot of it was all a bit same same. When we get to Camden Lock it’s clear it’s a lot more alive with amazing food stalls selling all types of food from all over the world and the smell is amazing. We talk about just eating our way through to the other side and start with a crepe each. We keep moving through the stalls and all of a sudden Kris says “Paul, Paul, I think I’m gunna vomit”. It was pretty hilarious watching her holding it in while scoping the place for an appropriate spot to unleash. As she is frantically rushing around trying to find a spot she manages to get a lung full of fresh air which aborts the spew. I was worried about her but I must admit I was hanging out to see what her plan was because there were heaps of people around and no real place to chuck a spew. That sort of put a stop to the “eat our way around” thing we were thinking of. So we head back down to the start of Camden Town and decide to spend the arvo at Hyde Park. We bus it back to King’s Cross Station and train it to Hyde Park entrance. We walk through the park to the lake where there is a restaurant that sells rolls and cakes. We buy some lunch and get charged a king’s ransom and continue walking along the lake until we find a good patch of lawn. After that we wander around the lake and check out the Princess Diana memorial before making our way back to the tube. Hyde Park was beautiful and it was something we didn’t get an opportunity to do last time because the weather was dodgy. Once back at the apartment Kris decides to have a read (that’s code for sleep) and me and the kids go out and wander the streets of Covent Garden checking out the shops. These streets around our apartment are packed on weekends and it has a great atmosphere. Time for dinner and we are craving some meat and three veg so we decide to check out the many steak houses down the road. We decide on eating at “Steak & Co”. Crap name but awesome food. They serve your steak on a hot stone just shy of how you want it. I ordered medium rare so it arrives on the stone rare. We then have to take the steak off the stone, cut the steak into pieces, put some garlic butter on the hot stone, put the steak back on with some rock salt and wait for it to be cooked to your requirements. When it’s done, whack it back on your plate and dowse it in a red wine jus. I was trying to work out if I have ever in my life had a better steak and I can’t remember a time. If you’re ever in London, eat here, it’s good. Tomorrow we are going to do some genuine touristy stuff. The kids want to do the London Eye again and Kris and I would like to check out the Tower Bridge. Tomorrows forecast, 24 and not a cloud in the sky!