Rainy Day in London

Our first full day in London brought a big weather change, with a cool, windy, and rainy day.  We headed out mid-morning to explore the area around the hotel a little and saw few other pedestrians.  

Some of the impressive hotel lobby flowers

I had to get this photo of the phone box!

We returned to the hotel for another lunch at the Brasserie. They had a two-course special we chose, opting for a tomato-kale soup (not photogenic, but tasty) and a really delicious fish pie featuring salmon and cod. It was like a shepherd's pie, but with fish, so lots of yummy mashed potatoes. The little fall leaves and fish skeleton were made of pastry! So cute!

After lunch, Charlie napped and I Netflixed until time to meet Thomas at Harrod's.  After missing the first bus (which didn't pause for long!), we managed to get the next one and met him on the ground floor.

We explored the kitchen and housewares floor and the menswear floor -- the latter offering only top-end designer clothes.  In the Burberry section, I picked up a wool plaid baseball cap marked £350!  Sorry, Thomas!  We then went to the food hall and bought him some good coffee and hot chocolate to take back to his dorm. The food hall was jammed, but fun to see.  Then we went to the basement level to see the Christmas shop and the bookstore and all enjoyed that. Thomas obliged me by posing:

The three of us then took the bus back to our hotel, where we had Happy Hour in the bar before going up to the top floor for dinner at Shanghai Me.  Dinner did not disappoint! 

We had a lovely server who gave us good recommendations.  We opted for the sake flight, which we all enjoyed.

We started with some delicious yellowtail carpaccio with black truffle and four kinds of steamed dumplings, plus Thomas had a plate with five kinds of nigiri (which we failed to photograph).

Yellowtail carpaccio with black truffle

Assorted steamed dumplings -- red are Wagyu beef

For entrees, Charlie had silver cod with yuzu miso sauce (so delicious!), and I had beef with garlic and black pepper sauce (yummy and super tender).  We only managed a photo of Thomas's choice, the Cantonese style roast duck, which the chef rolled in pancakes.

For dessert, we shared two -- the Japanese cheesecake and the chocolate fondant (like lava cake) with ice cream.  We all really enjoyed the food and the experience! Thomas headed back to his dorm, and we were in bed shortly thereafter.

One update from yesterday's post -- the mysterious rice breakfast dish was congee, a Chinese rice porridge.

We again slept past 6:00, so seem to have avoided jet lag, thank goodness. Charlie captured this photo from our room this morning:

We are about to head out walking again, this time in sunshine and 50-degree weather. Thomas will join us again after his afternoon class, and we have an Indian restaurant near the hotel picked out for dinner.  Thanks for reading!