London trip 5th November - Tower Bridge and the Bermondsey Mile (See photos below)
13 were Up for it - Yup, Bill, DC, Sid, Nails, Tim, Jaycee, Phil, Tony, Sean, Bolt, Huge and Richee
The butty bar in Stoke set some of us up for the day with Bill's egg opting to drip continuously down on to his jacket and trousers rather than staying on his butty.
Our first port of call was the Borough Market which was as busy as ever. An hour at the Market Porter whilst wolfing pork pies, some with a black pudding layer, soon passed.
The walk over London Bridge to Tower Bridge took a while as we encountered roadworks and diversions. The confusing entrance signs to the Tower Bridge entrance didn’t help. Nails and Sean eventually showed up with Yup holding back to ensure they gained entrance. The glass floor proved too much for Sean as he shuffled quickly around the perimeter. Tony lay spread eagled proving how brave he was. Sean was not impressed. Why a Pizza oven was installed in the engine room was anyones guess although it seemed a great idea to us. Something to do in between raising the bridge. Bill disappeared after finding the toilets with Sid coming to his aid. The shop at the exit provided a wealth of goodies for Nails to peruse. A Border collie was needed eventually to round him up. There’s only so many fridge magnets you can buy surely.
We made it back quickly to the Tower Bridge underground. This was the first mistake of the day. We should have caught the overland train to Bermondsey South and not the underground to Bermondsey. A couple of miles detour ensued with directions being thrown around. Second mistake of the day, we should have gone right, not left!!
Anytime Tone took the reins and led us to the nearest brewery. It was a huge relief to get there, if only to sit down and rest. In turn we visited The Kernal Brewery. Craft Beer, Bianca and finally Cloudwater where Duncle Bills were ordered. 😂 There was no time to visit the recommended Anspach and Hobday brewery. Another time. Sean learnt a valuable lesson and would pay more attention in the future. You should not order beers at £8 for a half unless you actually intended to.
Fireworks surrounded us echoing around the towers although we hardly saw anything as we walked to the indian. It was an impressive start at the Tower Tandoori with plenty of lime pickle etc with curly poppadoms which impressed Goosey. Hot plates next is also a winner but then there were delays in serving some meals by which time some plates had cooled. The menu was limited although they prepared pretty much anything we wanted. The final bill of £25 each was settled at 7.55pm. DC’s requests for after eights were met with the offer of dough balls soaked in a cherry flavoured sauce. The blue touch paper had been lit. After what seemed like an eternity (2minutes) his flabber was gasted. His patience had run out. Like a slow motion film he mouthed to the waiter, ‘How… long….. will…. my,,,,,balls….be?’. Adjacent customers sat in utter disbelief wondering if they had arrived at the doctors surgery in error. As we left, the owner asked me how DCs balls were. I said he played with them for a while, and rolled them round his dish before kicking them into touch.
A 20 minute walk to London Bridge underground quickened with a rush to use the toilets. Long lost friends of Tonys greeted us outside. Did we know them? Yup got left behind as the train doors shut, with a rescue party coming to his aid as he arrived at Euston. Time flew at the Euston Tap before catching trains home. We didn’t get the opportunity to share Nails bday drinks whilst Huge also announced it had been his birthday the previous week. We can but hope.
We must have visited 4 arches and walked around 7 miles. So much for the Bermondsey Mile.
Yup
