We are now leaving London for Porto, Portugal's 2nd largest city, and while we have visited London before, we have not really done it as tourists since we visited over 25 years ago on a family trip when our children were much younger. We have been back a few times, but it was mainly for family smachot.
We stayed in the West End Theatre District and spent our 3 days here visiting museums, walking along the Thames, travelling to Windsor Castle and visiting local markets. We really had no itinerary for London, which, for those who know us, is totally out of character. We usually have everything mapped and timed out so that we have maximum experience, but this time we "went with the flow" and even slept in one morning.
We stayed in the West End Theatre District and spent our 3 days here visiting museums, walking along the Thames, travelling to Windsor Castle and visiting local markets. We really had no itinerary for London, which, for those who know us, is totally out of character. We usually have everything mapped and timed out so that we have maximum experience, but this time we "went with the flow" and even slept in one morning.
Here is the standard London selfie pose....
The wonderful inner courtyard of the British Museum.....
And at Windsor Castle.....and the changing of the guard.....
We used the tube and busses for our mode of transport and walked a lot. Our good friends Josh and Liz Gordon told us about the Oyster Card which is a handy plastic payment card that you can load up with money and use it for all modes of public transit as well as payments for restaurants, convenience stores etc. We used it extensively and it was a super time saver and also meant that we did not need to carry around a lot of cash. We trekked up to the Golders Green area for restaurants and had three rather good meals at the three restaurants that we tried; Novellino, White Fish and Hummus Bar.
Fish and chips at White Fish Restaurant in Hendon....the chips served on "newspaper"...
We also caught two plays; "Beautiful" and "A Comedy About A Bank Robbery". Beautiful is a musical featuring the songs and life story of Carole King and is well worth seeing; it is playing in New York as well, and is coming to Toronto.
A Comedy About A Bank Robbery is only playing in London and it is one of the funniest plays we have ever seen. You laugh out loud throughout. So if you are coming to London anytime soon, spend one night at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus and catch this great comedy.
The weather cooperated and it only drizzled for part of one of the three days that we spent here. And it was between 12 and 17 degrees C. So while we came prepared with warm clothing and raincoats and umbrellas, they stayed packed away in our suitcases.
One of the very useful apps for any kosher traveller is "Kosher Near Me" which uses your location to highlight kosher restaurants, takeout and services that are closest to your present location. We have now used this in a number of countries and while not perfect, is a very valuable tool in terms of locating kosher food. If you do not have this free app, download it now.
One of the truly amazing services for the kosher traveler in the U.K. is the wide availability of fresh packaged sandwiches, wraps and salads, known as DD's Sandwiches, (and produced by Hermolis, known for their excellent airline meals) which consists of a wide variety of tasty and fresh offerings, available in over 80 stores throughout London, including all major supermarkets as well as independent retail outlets, selected airports , railway stations, hospitals and schools. DD's produces over 25,000 sandwiches and other snack foods a week. And locations for DD's sandwiches are on the Kosher Near Me app. Their website also has a list of locations: http://www.ddsandwiches.com.
The last time we visited, you would have to be in a Jewish area to find kosher sandwiches. This morning, I walked 4 minutes from my hotel in the West End using the map on the app to a local Sainsbury supermarket and arrived as the Hermolis delivery person was restocking the shelves with a variety of dairy, parve and meat sandwiches. Average price was £2.5 to £4, $4.00 to $6.50 Canadian
Their products have three "hechsherim" for those interested; Kedassia (London's Mehadrin supervision), KLBD, and.....Halal!
This short trip was also our maiden Uber experience and it went quite well. We registered on line and booked an Uber for the hour long trip from our hotel to Stansted airport for our flight to Portugal. The options were taxi the entire way (very expensive); taxi to Liverpool Train Station and then the Stansted Express train (about £45), or Uber (which ended up at £43). The car was clean, it was prompt and the trip took about 50 minutes.
So we are now on our way on RyanAir to Porto.
RyanAir is a real no frills airline and the flights are very cheap. Our one way 2 hour flight on a Boeing 737 aircraft had a basic cost of £34 each ($55 Canadian each) and then you have the choice of add ons to make the experience a bit more "upscale". You literally pay for every convenience above the basic cost. We chose to pay for our 15 kg. pcs. of luggage (£15 each), fast tracking through check in and security and priority boarding (£5 each) and reserved bulkhead seating (£15 each).
With all of those extras (total of £60), the cost of the two flights only reached £128, or $105 Canadian each!! And while the seats were very narrow, we did have legroom because of the bulkhead and it was only a two hour flight.
A few introductory facts about Portugal:
Bordering Spain to the East and the Atlantic to the West, Portugal is shaped like an elongated rectangle occupying 35000 Square Miles; which makes it 4.5 times larger than Israel and 1/108th the size of Canada.
Travelling north to south, Portugal extends for 650 kms., just a bit longer than Israel which is 470 Kms. from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat.
And here is the flag of Portugal....
Portugal major exports are clothing and footwear, machinery, chemicals, cork and paper products. Portugal is the world's fifth-largest producer of tungsten (the highest melting point of any metal); the world's eighth-largest producer of wine (the category Port Wine has its origins in Portugal); and the world's largest producer of cork.
Lisbon is the largest and main center of Jewish life officially recognized in 1912, but there are also communities in Porto, Belmonte and in the southern coast towns of the Algarve. The total Jewish population of Portugal today is around 1500 / 1800 people. There are active shuls in Porto and Lisbon.
As we make our way from Porto to the hill towns of Trancoso, Guarda, Belmonte, and on to Obidos and Cascais on our way to Lisbon by next Shabbat, we will try to introduce you to a bit of the long and sometimes glorious and sometimes tragic history of Portuguese Jewry. Glad to have you along for the ride....will likely post again after Shabbat in Porto. It sounds like it will be an interesting Shabbat....
Shabbat Shekalim Shalom to all and Chodesh Adar Tov.
Mishenichnas Adar Marbim B'Simcha, as we wave goodbye to England!
Fran and David
ReplyDeleteReally nice post,thanks for your post.tourist attraction near Lisbon
Lisbon sightseeing