England on the Fourth of July

I arrived in London yesterday without incident. The Aer Lingus flights to Dublin and London were pretty good: friendly service and, quiet passengers. Many of the passengers had been on vacation in the U.S. using the power of the euro to have a great time. I also overhead that several Irish had come over to attend weddings of American relatives.

You have to pay for any alcohol you want to drink on Aer Lingus, and they encouraged passengers to buy two (or more) bottles or cans of whatever during the cocktail service because they wouldn't have time to serve drinks at mealtime. I bought two bottles of Chilean cabernet. I enjoyed observing the many Irish faces I saw on the plane and on the ground.

Our flat is located on Albert Street in the Camden Town section of London. It's a leafy street of Georgian townhouses, and feels a bit like home as J has rented two other flats in this same building. The flat is on the 2nd story (3rd story for Americans) and the sunny living room (at left) and bedroom looks out onto trees and the street. This is both a blessing and a curse as the view is inviting, but the noise from the street can be pretty jarring. The Jewish Museum is directly across the street and is undergoing an $18 million expansion that will last into next year. There's a lot of hammering, sawing, drilling, etc., during the day. Then there are two pubs on the nearby corner: the Spread Eagle and the Earl of Camden. The crowds from these pubs add a constant din in the evening into the night. And when a staffer dumps all the empties into a dumpsters outside, there is a brain-shattering sound.

Today we managed to find one of the few supermarkets in the area. There are a lot of small scale stores/shops, but very few things on the scale of an American supermarket with reasonable prices and selection. Well, welcome to Morrison's! They even had caffeine-free Diet Coke! A rare find! We will be back.

After shopping for provisions, we took a walk around the Camden Markets. Here along a picturesque canal you find merchants selling cool clothing, jewelry, artwork, knickknacks and inexpensive street food. We had some success in finding purchases and walked out of other stores empty-handed. We ended up sampling the beer at the Crown & Goose and the aforementioned Spread Eagle. The latter is usually subdued, but this evening there were crowds enjoying the fine July weather, Wimbeldon on the telly and imbibing. We can hear them still...

Not too much notice being taken here of the 232nd anniversary of American independence, but a London paper did have a piece about where to have an American meal on the Fourth. In observance of the day, J and I ate dinner at a good Indian restaurant in solidarity with another former British colony that fought for its independence.