Changing the Guard and Pub Crawl

Posted on 2007/07/01 13:26:58 (July 2007).

[Friday 29th June]
After yesterday's "day off", today I returned to the role of entertaining our Japanese guests here in London. Chie opted to stay in and have a bit of a rest in the morning, so I took her family out to witness a pinnacle of touristy behaviour in London - the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The nice thing is that it's actually in walking distance from our flat.

It is quite a spectacle I suppose, and amazing that they go through all that rigmarole every day, but it was hard to really enjoy it as there were just so many other tourists there, and we could hardly see anything most of the time.

Right on schedule, just as the show was coming to an end, the clouds burst and it really bucketed it down with rain. We decided therefore we should go and have lunch at my office - as it was nice and close by, and it would be interesting for Chie's family to see where I work - especially as the food there is rather good, and best of all completely free! This seemed to go down rather well, there was something for everyone there, including sushi for Chie's Dad, and some rather nice desserts for the girls.

In the afternoon I handed over the baton, and I had a bit of a rest whilst Chie did her bit as a tour guide. We then met up again in the early evening around Leicester Square - in fact I decided to walk there from the flat which, given that the rain had stopped by that time, was very pleasant. We had a quick dinner at one of those vegetarian Chinese buffet places, and then Chie's Mum, Mikiko-san and Yuka-chan headed off to see a musical (Mary Poppins) leaving me and Chie to take Chie's Dad on a tour of some of my favourite London drinking establishments.

We started off at the Lamb and Flag as it was close by (and actually rather a nice pub), and then from there took a long-ish stroll over to my usual area - Holborn / Chancery Lane - where we introduced Chie's Dad to the ever excellent Cittie of Yorke. He seemed to rather like it. From there it was then the usual trail, taking in Ye Olde Mitre (which seems to be undergoing some construction work at present, but still retained much of its' usual charm), and then ending up at the whisky society.

Whilst I suspect Chie's Dad is generally more interested in the beer itself than the surroundings in which he is drinking it, I think he still quite enjoyed my little tour. I often have a quandary over what to show people who are visiting London, but have eventually settled on the notion that the best bet is to just show people the bits I really like. At least then I can present things with genuine enthusiasm, which generally seems to pay off.

Next time I am in London I DEMAND to go both the the Old Mitre and Whiskey society. I was expecting the Whiskey soc. to be a bit more "posh", it looks very "new" in the pictures!

Posted by Lox at 2007/07/02 13:26:40.

Yes the London venue is very contemporary, but still rather smart I think. There are also two venues up in Edinburgh, and at least one of those is the sort of type of place that you probably had in mind (historic building, antique furniture, paintings on the walls, open fires, etc etc).

Posted by John at 2007/07/02 16:03:11.

John: Now that's what I had in mind!! :D

Posted by Lox at 2007/07/02 23:33:01.

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