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London’s Fireworks That Brought in the New Year

Happy 2013! On my third New Years Eve celebration in London, I finally managed to bite the bullet and attempt braving central London.

And if you live in London, there are horror stories of central London on New Years. Think elbow-to-elbow crowds, freezing fingers, and waiting patiently for hours and hours in the icy cold to see the fireworks. Once the fireworks finish, think hours of queuing to get onto the street from the bridge you chose, queuing to get into the tube stations (which promptly close from overcrowding), and then queuing to get onto the tube platform, and then jamming yourself quietly into the corner of a tube train to make it home.

But it turns out all the queuing is simply not worth it. Those people are confused and lost.

Because the fact of it is, you can see London’s fireworks without all that. You just need to get to a bridge that’s a bit further up the river. Instead of crowding onto Westminster bridge or winding your way through the heaving crowds under the London Eye – head to a different part of the river.

If you make it to Vauxhall Bridge or even Chelsea Bridge, you’ll have a fine view of the fireworks. And even be able to move spread out your arms and not touch anyone else! Now that’s the definition of personal space in London.

If you had to one of these bridges, all you have to do is stroll up ten minutes before the fireworks go off. There’s no jockeying for position, or shoving your way through. Just easy viewing (provided you get the angle right – make sure that you have a good view of the London Eye where they shoot the fireworks off).

Then, it’s as simple as just making sure not to take any public transport for at least another 60 minutes – everything will be busy and horrible.

Instead, after watching the fireworks, slip into a nice local pub for a crowning glass of champagne to welcome in the new year (try The Warwick or Cask pubs – just double check they’re open past midnight).

Easy, right?

Now the hard part is just remembering all this when 2014 starts peeking its little face out.

Thanksgiving Menu Planning: One Girl’s Opinion

If there’s one thing I love it’s a good list. Or a good stack of cookbooks just waiting to be read – and made into Thanksgiving shopping lists!

This year I’m celebrating Thanksgiving with a dinner party – turkey and all the “fixins”. Which includes in no short order:

• Pie
  • pumpkin
  • pecan
  • apple
• Turkey
  • gravy
  • stuffing
• Cranberry sauce (with orange zest and Thyme)
• Potatoes Dauphinoise
• Green beans
• Sweet potato casserole with pecan crumble
• Cornbread …or  regular yeasted bread…to be decided
• clam chowder (to start)
• green salad

Best Places for Beer in Belgium’s Brugges

 

 

Northern Spain’s Sos Del Rey

Happily back from a beautiful 9 days in the North of Spain, I have learned that I can speak a bit of Spanish, but not understand it, tapas make the best meal in the world, and every day should end with a beautiful glass of red wine. As a result, we ended up in the beautiful village of Sos Del Rey.  Situated in the mountains in Aragon in the north of Spain, it’s unlike anywhere I have ever been in my entire life. The North of Spain is often described as a window into old Spain, and that’s exactly what we found in Sos:

We arrived at the base of the medieval town during the siesta period – the town is on such a steep hill with such narrow twisty streets that all cars have to park at the bottom. We got out, and walked up and into the village. The entire experience was totally strange- clearly people were living here, but amongst the ruins and slate windows, we didn’t see a single sign of life. I guess everyone had closed up their shutters and gone for their daily nap.

We were in the town for a few hours, and didn’t see another living soul – just silence with massive buzzards wheeling overhead.

Outside London, Your Next Stop NEEDS to be Bath

Now that’s some advice I am willing to take! Continuing with my New Year’s resolution to travel more around the UK, this past weekend I headed to Bath. The downtown area of Bath is a dedicated UNESCO world heritage site due to its beautiful architecture.

Simply imagine the setting for a Jane Austin novel, add some cars and tourists, and you pretty much have a perfect picture of the town:

Pulteney Bridge

Continuing with my New Year’s resolution to travel more around the UK, this past weekend I headed to Bath. The downtown area of Bath is a dedicated UNESCO world heritage site due to its beautiful architecture.

Simply imagine the setting for a Jane Austin novel, add some cars and tourists, and you pretty much have a perfect picture of the town:

Pulteney Bridge

Just 1.5 hours from London, Bath is the perfect destination for a day or weekend away from London. It’s amazing how, living in London, you forget what it’s like to have vistas and views. On a typical day in London, you can’t see further than the next block. It’s all buildings and houses, stacked up against each other.

walk or rent a bike to go down the river path

The pillars and balustrades you see here are Victorian – the ground level shows the original Roman ruins

cold plunge pool with projection

Greenwich, a Great Day Trip From London

This year, I visited the London borough of Greenwich for the first time. Famous for the home of Time – Greenwich Mean Time or GMT-  as well as it’s harbour and meridian line.

The borough, located just south of the Thames is the perfect destination for a sunny afternoon.

Unlike many areas of London, in Greenwich it’s almost as if you have entered village or town- rather than just another bit of London. It reminded me a bit of being in Windsor - but much easier to get to of course. Mainly, the streets were not packed with camera-snappy tourists, and there was green and quiet – it felt apart from the general hustle-bustle of central London life.

While there, we bought some pastries and wandered through the National Maritime Museum, and saw some sweet boats, pieces of boats, historical facts about boats, and tools used on boats. Not bad for a quick 30-minute spin through the museum.

We then climbed up the hill through a beautiful park – with the first hints of sunshine and a promise of spring on the air.  The hill offers beautiful views of the city of London’s financial district, although it’s a steep walk up the hill!

As always with London, there’s a pleasing mixture of the old and new in the view: from the Queen’s house, and a royal park, to the powerhouses of banks like HSBC housed in glass towers. Quite a skyline!

Once you reach the top, there is a surprising number of tourists milling around the top – taking pictures of themselves standing on the meridian, touring the Royal Observatory. While we were there – using a telescope to look at solar flares on the sun.

Beigel Bake for Fabulous Bagels London

In England, one thing I have always missed from the USA is bagels. Proper bagels – pumpernickel – toasted with cream cheese, and fresh from your local bagel shop.

And I’m excited and over the moon to have finally found a bagel shop worth a mini-pilgrimage to in London.

The beigels are ridiculously cheap at just £0.25 per plain beigel, and you can buy by the dozen or half dozen. While I was there they only had a few flavours: onion, plain and poppyseed. I’m not sure if it rotates by the day?

I was recommended to try the hot salt beef beigel with mustard. Heaven! What was hot beef to them was corned beef to me, and the mustard cleared my sinuses right out (a new mustard experience for me). But it was one of those perfect food experiences!

I would recommend the place to anyone who has a bagel craving,  or just to hungry people passing through Shoreditch.

The only real downside here is a lack of anywhere to eat. There’s one narrow counter where you can quickly wolf down your beigel of choice, but nowhere to properly sit and savour it – as it deserves to be.

Beigel Bake, 159 Brick Lane, E1 6SB

Welsh Cake with Cheese

I’ve had a bit of a baking drought for the past few months. There have been minimal cakes in my life, and too many store-bought biscuits (suitably dunked in tea of course- how did I not know about this before?!). I’m finally settled into my new flat, and a bit of baking is naturally in order. There’s nothing that says home like cake-baking.

Plus, I’ve recently been introduced to the concept of fruitcake and cheese. Wait! Bear with me here. Before you decide this is clearly a terrible idea, think about fruit and cheese for a minute . . . Fruit and cheese are a classic combination that’s widely accept as delicious.

So why not fruit cake and cheese? As long as the fruitcake isn’t too sickly sweet of course. This sort of situation and combination calls for specific types of cheese, and a specific cake.

You just need to make sure you bake a Bara Brith (a sort of welsh tea cake), and find the strongest, crunchiest cheddar cheese you can find.

This cake is apparently so classically Welsh so along with recipes for leeks and Welsh Rarebit, it must be serious! The recipe is nicely straight forward, and perfect for a Sunday afternoon watching the rain race down the window, drinking marathon cups of tea.

Recipe for Bara Brith

• 450g (1lb) mixed dried fruit
• 300ml (1/2 pint) tea
• 2 tbsp marmalade
• 1 egg, beaten
• 6 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 450g (1lb) self-raising flour
• honey to glaze

Soak the fruit overnight in the tea.

N.B. My cake only took 1 hour to cook, and used a lot less flour (these are probably related). The dough should be stiff, but not dry.

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