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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Monopoly Finale

On Saturday, I attempted to meet Jess at St Paul's to see one of the many touristy things here in London that I still haven't seen. Not really paying enough attention to the Rememberance Day and the Lord Mayor's Show Day information, I arrived at Bank tube station to chaos, delays on the tube, and the two minutes silence - was a little weird! Then a pararde kicked off with all the Queen's men... The St Paul's plan was abandoned after realising I was on the wrong side of the parade, and Jess reporting minimal entry to the cathedral.

Instead, Jess and I headed to the first stop of the second half of the Monopoly Pub Crawl, which was the plan for the day! A farewell London adventure for me, and the last chance to finish the crawl that I had been part of back in March.

The first stop for the recommencement of this crawl was Whitehall on the board, and thus The Lord Moon Of The Mall, where our first half pint was drunk, and a hearty pub meal of bangers and mash was consumed.

Charles joined us at the Northumberland Avenue stop, at the Sherlock Holmes, for a half pint of the Sherlock Holmes brew. A walk in the cold London air, and a short tube ride later, another pint was had at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese for the Fleet Street stop.

Andrew, Kristy and Scott joined us at this stop, for the walk over to The Strand and The Wellington pub. Here we were joined by Nat, who wins the award for the most travelled to join the crawl, after flying in from Copenhagen (she's mad! we love it!).

Finding the Marquess of Anglesey was easier this time than the very first time I completed this leg, before we got to The Chandos near Trafalgar Square, and The Moon Under Water for the Leicester Square stop, where we were joined by Laura.

The Comedy for Coventy Street, with the half pints still coming, and a food and half pint stop at The Captain's Cabin for Regent Street on the board. A glimpse of the Xmas lights here showed that they were the same as last year - lame! No pub found at the location outlined in the instructions for Vine Street, and the posh looking establishments and their burly bouncers were none too keen on letting us half pint in there!

A wander along Carnaby Street before O'Neills for Marlborough Street, and a half pint upstairs in The Duke of York as the closest pub to Bond Street.

Our finale was the Oxford Street pub, which was quintessential English pub, The Woodstock, after another peek at last year's Xmas lights repeat! A Winter Pimm's, and then another full pint for good measure, the crawl was done!

Feeling suprisingly well on Sunday morning, I met with Jess and Nat for brunch of the much anticipated eggs benedict at the Glow Lounge. A chance to say goodbye for now to Nat, who has been a great provider of floor space, crazy travel ideas, a great travel companion, and someone who is up for anything, during my time in the UK. Love your work, Miss Nat!

4 comments:

  1. Omigod, I forgot - I suck! And I fly to Australia this Wednesday so I won't see you before I go. I totally suck! Well, I'm very glad we went to see the Spacey play last week - at least we did something!

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  2. Tash, I'm going to miss you!!! Come back and visit!! Have a safe trip home.

    Caitlin, yes you do suck. I flew all the way from Copenhagen, you have no excuse :) Hehe.

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  3. I too will miss you here in London Tash.... What will I do if I need a button for my shirt!! See you next Wednesday in Brissy... Charles

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  4. Excellent stuff. We also did the monopoly pub crawl - we did it back in 2005 - 41 pubs over 2 days (we did one pub for each square, including Community Chest etc. hence why there's 41 - In Jail and Just Visiting we counted as 2 pubs). I plan to finally write about it at some point!! Jonny

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