Back in September, on one of the first cold (well “cold” for our standards as Texans) days of the year, David and I got tickets to a “Royal Day Out.” The day out included a tour of the Royal Mews, the Queen’s Gallery, and Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is only open during the summer months, so we made sure to snatch up these tickets before the palace was closed to visitors.
I had no idea what the Royal Mews were until we showed up that morning for our tour. As I found out, the Mews are home to the carriages, horses, and vehicles that transport the royal family. The biggest attractions at the Mews are the working horses, the carriage that carried Princess Di to St. Paul’s on her wedding day, and the enormous Gold State Coach, which was last used in 2002 for the Queen’s Jubilee. The next Jubilee is expected in 2012 during the Olympics, so this carriage will stay locked away for another two years. In fact, the carriage is so large that the room it is housed in basically has to be taken apart to get the carriage out into the street.
After the Royal Mews, we visited the Queen’s Gallery. The current exhibition at the Gallery is “Victoria and Albert: Art and Love.” I recently saw “The Young Victoria” and LOVED it so I was excited to see some of Victoria and Albert’s prized possessions in-person.
Finally, we ended our day at Buckingham Palace, where we saw the state rooms filled with artwork and sculptures. We walked through Buckingham Palace’s gardens on the way out. I didn’t realize that there is so much green, open space hidden away in the middle of the city. David and I were fortunate to be able to tour the palace, since it is closed for the majority of the year.
On October 17, London Chocolate Week concluded. Throughout the week, different chocolate festivities took place. For example, restaurants around the city featured special chocolate menus, the world’s largest truffle was produced and then broken up into small, bite-size pieces to be sold for charity, and Divine chocolate bars created a signature chocolate cocktail for area restaurant and hotel bars.
On the last day of chocolate week, David, Karen, Jeff, and I decided to have lunch at Borough Market, a huge outdoor food market near London Bridge, and then head down the street to the wrap-up of chocolate week at the Vinopolis convention center. Bad planning on my part led to no lunch because Borough market is closed on Sundays. So we ate lots and lots of chocolate for lunch instead!
As you entered Vinopolis, you paid an admission fee and were asked to sign your name on the wall of chocolate. Just as the name described, this was literally a huge wall made out of chocolate. The pens were simply pointy plastic knives. We all signed our names, and then proceeded into a corridor displaying the history of chocolate.
Then came the good stuff!
The chocolate hall was filled with different vendors from around London giving out samples of their brownies, crepes, bars, spreads, and truffles. Our favorites were the brownies, chocolate crepes with peanut butter spread, truffles filled with sea salt caramel, and a make-your-own chocolate bar. This company was really cool! You go online to the company’s website, select which kind of chocolate bar you want (white, dark, milk, or a combination), and then for a few pence, you start to add ingredients to the bar. I made a dark/milk chocolate bar with sugared lilac and rose petals. David chose gummy bears, and Jeff chose pretzels. The company will inscribe your name at the top of the bar, and then ship the bars to anywhere in the UK or US. Coolest company EVER!
At the back of the room was a separate area displaying chocolate sculptures:
Chocolate Shoes
Chocolate Train with tracks made out of Twix, gravel made from Raisenets, and boulders made out of crumbled chocolate-chip cookies
King Kong Chocolate Cake
Last week, I was in Slovakia again for work. In the fall in Eastern Europe, it is tradition for groups of people to get together and eat goose. So Tuesday night the entire European audit team drove to a small village outside Bratislava to a restaurant known for serving the best goose in that area of Slovakia. And probably also known for having the most dead creatures nailed to its walls.
I didn’t ask for a special meal because I was willing to try the goose. I was not willing to eat the foie gras, though. The meal started with pickles, pickled peppers, saukeraut, and rye bread. Then came the foie gras. Giant goose liver? No thanks. Then the main course was brought out. For our group, we ordered three geese. These came with red cabbage and potato pancakes, which looked more like thin tortillas. I was tempted to make a goose taco, but I resisted.
The goose was really delicious. It tasted like the dark meat of a turkey. For dessert, we each had different strudels. There was a poppy seed cherry strudel, cheese and cherry strudel, and walnut strudel. I chose the cheese and cherry strudel. It was a really fun night out with the team and I was glad to try a new tradition.
I’m typing this blog now as trick-or-treater after trick-or-treater is ringing our bell for candy. Who knew there were so many kids in England that celebrated Halloween? When David lived here, his family basically stopped celebrating Halloween. He never got the chance to trick-or-treat again after he turned 11. It must be different in our neighborhood or the British are catching onto this great holiday because we are quickly running out of candy. I’ve had to resort to giving away my precious Mozart balls (nooooo!!!!) and David has made a mad dash down to the corner store for more sweets! We love passing out candy to all the cute kids in their lil costumes (and they're extra adorable this year with their accents) and David loves terrorizing them in his big bad wolf costume! As one less-than-scared kid put it, "Wow! You proper dressed up!"
Happy Halloween everyone!
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