Exploring Westminster and Repurposed Landmarks in London (4/30)

A Full Day of Sightseeing Around London

We had high hopes of touring Parliament on this day, or at least getting into the public gallery to watch briefly. It turns out there were no tours on April 30th. We thought we had tickets, but had purchased them for May 30th by mistake.  

The Palace of Parliament and Big Ben are such an impressive sight. The area is very loud. One group of protesters was blaring "We're Not Going To Take It" by Twisted Sister, demonstrating against the Trump administration.  We found that the distaste of the current U.S. President has global appeal everywhere we went.

A less busy Borough Market was deliciously good

When the tour of Parliament did not pan out, we went to a less busy Borough Market for coffee and donuts. When we were here at the weekend, we could hardly move and quickly abandoned the market. But today, there was plenty of room to peruse the various stands. We bought donuts, took pictures, and drank delicious coffee from the "Life Changing Coffee" stand, a non-profit organization doing important work right here in London.

Take an old defunct power station and repurpose it in style

There's no other word to describe Battersea Power Station than awesome. It's quite breathtaking in size, and these pictures do not really give you a sense of how huge it is from ground level once you emerge from the tube station.

Battersea Power Station was built between 1929 and 1955, decommissioned in 1975, and finally closed in 1983. During the war, RAF pilots used the smoke plumes from the 50-meter-tall stacks to guide them back home. All those ordinary bricks building something that powered 1/5 of London for 40 or 50 years might seem like a waste of manpower, but Battersea Power Station would go on to become an amazing public works repurposing effort. It is now a vibrant shopping center and event space with tons of high-end real estate. 

A short visit to Shoreditch and the Virgin Hotel

Sir Richard Branson was on the news the prior day, talking about his latest venture - Virgin Hotels, and his first hotel in London. It sounded interesting, so we took several tube lines to get over to the Shoreditch area, which proved to be a very challenging walk for both of us.  When we finally arrived and walked into the lobby, we were not that impressed with it, to be quite honest.  It is in a modest 5 or 6-story converted office block, and it looked to have quite a bit of security there due to a media event going on in the lounge, so we left. 

Incredible birthday dinner at Ottolenghi

Stephani treated me to an amazing dinner at the wonderful Ottolenghi in nearby Spitlefields. I wasn't sure to expect as I had not heard about this chef before now, but wow, what an incredible taste sensation. 

The dishes were not large in size, they were massive in taste. Like the Roasted aubergine with curry leaf oil and coconut crunch.

 Or the Labneh with olives, pistachios and oregano.

By far, it was one of the most amazing dinners of my life and such a special dinning experience we highly recommend if you are in a city where they are located. 

Check out the desserts. 

Here are some more pictures from the day: