That is good to hear about Paris. I really want to visit there and a warmer feel will be welcome.
I love Rome but it is a big city w tons of tourists so i can see how the locals can get jaded. Rome is just epic in scope and history. And food and drink.
I was trying to figure out what i would call the “Ten Great Cities” and Paris and Rome both made the list easily.
London, Tokyo, Mexico City and New York City were the other easy ones for me.
Choosing ones for China, India, South America and Africa have me going around in circles. Kind of makes me want to make it the Twelve Great Cities.
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Where are you now??
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I got off the tourist track in Rome, visiting a Sicilian cafe in a residential neighbourhood just beyond my map. It was really nice to be away from the menus translated into a dozen languages. Very different vibe with the local people, when they’re not, and you’re not,surrounded by expats, tourists and travellers.
I like visiting small towns and rural parts of the UK for the same kind of experience.
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Have you spent time in Berlin? That’s one of my favourite cities.
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I just left Glacier Park in Montana. Walked a muddy path in the McGee fen.
I got home yesterday.
I have a last post about Plymouth i want to do as soon as life slows down.
Maybe Notting Hill, too.
Good to be home for a couple weeks!
Parked outside the dentist office now, imagining the worst. LOL!
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Gorgeous pics!! Will hope for a wrap-up post about your last stops in the UK. Good luck with the dentist.
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I have not spent any time in Berlin, and regret it. I really have spent little time in Germany other than a week working my way from Köln to Koblenz to Trier. Beautiful valleys and I loved Burg Eltz, but little else stays with me. That and speed boats on the Moselle River. And vineyards hanging on the edge of steep hills. Tiny parking lots. And Spargelsuppe.
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Plymouth was a lot of fun walking-wise and history-wise, as well. I stayed at an AirBNB in Royal William Yard, a huge complex of Royal Navy supply and maintenance stone buildings built for the most part during the Napoleonic Era. All stone, and completely beautiful. The apartment overlooks the marina and of course I waited until the clouds parted to take a photo, which never happened.
Staying in this one, the Brewhouse.
But within the Yard I tried food from 4 different cafes and it was all pretty ok, not great. Seco Lounge was a perfect place to wait for the ferry to the Barbican (opposite side of Plymouth but still on the water) and ordered a fancy banana bread and a cappuccino. The banana bread was sweet and rich but the cappuccino was covered in spice mix and kind of mediocre. Why coffee shops desecrate simple but great coffees I will never know.
I also had a mediocre calamari and Scotch Egg at Hook and Line.
The next two days I went to and returned to Platters in the Barbican area of north Plymouth.
Great owner and host plus outstanding fresh seafood. First day I ordered the Fish Soup and Dover Sole. The soup was good not great but the Dover Sole was outstanding and just £20! I picked that fish clean…
The next day I tried the seafood Chowder that the owner had recommended the day before and it was rich and creamy and tasted perfectly of a variety of fish and shrimp. The main was the Trio, a small sole, sea bass and mackerel filet. All were good but the sole and bass were best.
I needed to walk off lunch so I strolled up to The Box, a contemporary museum of many different displays. My favorites were the festive wooly mammoth that greeted you on the First Floor and the video of workers arriving at the Royal William Yard back in the 1940’s.
I also visited the Fishermans Arms which is a very cozy pub up a side street from the harbour. Great view from there.
As I arrived at the Arms, I was greeted by a cat loudly demanding entry. I gave in, the cat led me into the bar and immediately disappeared behind the bar. I guess he is a local. I order the House Cask Ale and it was a very nice bitter, served maybe around 55 degrees which is the way I like them.
I ordered the Monkfish and it was good, albeit a bit firmer texture than I was expecting but mild and carrying the sauce well.
Went to pay my bill and ran into the Entry Cat.
Took the ferry back to the Yard from Barbican and it was nicely active with a bit of wind of waves. Captain and First Mate were good sorts.
But it was back to the Yard for me!
The next day it was back to the train station at Plymouth…
For a short hop up to Torquay, where I stayed at the slightly worn but nicely welcoming Grand Hotel. It is RIGHT NEXT to the train station which is how I chose it.
I hopped a bus and zipped through the harbour area of Torquay at a stately 10 mph and up the hill to Babbacombe where I got a table at the Waddling Duck. Ordered Crayfish Cocktail with Marie Rose Sauce which I was a bit unsure of, ketchup and mayo is a pretty basic sauce. They turned out to have dressed the sauce up very nicely. Lemon and a touch of Worcestershire Sauce and something else I could not put my finger on, but delicious.
Then I had the Fish Pie which was outstanding. I do not remember ever having it before but it is a nice mix of mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese and chunks of fish with garden peas on the side. Absolutely outstanding!
It was spitting down rain and I only brought my light packable rain coat so I took the walk from the funicular past the little waterfall…
To the Cary Arms where I had an ale and waited out the rain. The place was hopping, I wish I had had time to return to try their food! The Cary Arms is way in the background here.
I also had a rather mediocre pair of dishes near Victoria Parade/Marina. Visited the Dock for a Ham and cheese sandwich of ham, Cheddar and Red Leicester Cheeses. Toasted nicely but only fair.
The next day I tried something a bit more off the beaten path and visited Pho Nam Torquay for a mild Bún Bò Hue. Lady was slightly curmudgeonly and the food was only so-so. Unfortunate.
Then it was back to the Grand for a comfortably warm welcome and a quiet night.
Got the train in the morning along with a good sized crowd. Landed in Paddington right on time, had the Oyster Card ready as I hit the exit gate, walked to the Circle Underground station escalator and was at the Circle Line platform, like a local.
There is a profoundly satisfying thing to some of the smaller achievements in life. Getting to know the intricacies of a large cities mass transit system is one of them. London’s Underground is a huge chaotic mess at first glance, but when you chop it up into parts that are useful to you it becomes a much more friendly asset.
But my AirBNB was in Notting Hill so most of my travel around London was on foot with just quick 3 or 4 stop Underground (or bus) journeys to start out with, to Fulham or Embankment. My first stop was for lunch at a recommended Thai place near my BNB, Rosa’s Thai on Bayswater. I went with an old fave, Pad Kra Prow minced pork with Holy Basil. But they did not have minced pork, just chicken, pork belly or tofu. Should have ordered something else because I got a rather bad, over-salted, over-sweet concoction that bore no resemblance to the dish I love. I think the cook over-salted the dish and then tried to balance the salt with cane sugar? Not sure. But i am willing to try Rosa’s again.
Later I took the bus to Dishoom, which I already spoke of, and walked home via Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, The Green Park, Hyde Park, the Peter Pan statue…
The Bomber Command Memorial…
And zipped into my little ground floor flat just off Notting Hill Gate. Feels like home already. I may be back.
The next day it was onto the Elizabeth Line’s new modern trainsets and off to Heathrow, Queen’s Terminal, United Air and home to Montana.
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Fantastic report! You really got around on this one, great photos, some food hits and misses, but that can happen anywhere. Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
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Wow, what a wrap-up! That Dover sole!! 
The other fishies look tasty too.
Love your reports and pics, thanks so much for taking us along with you!
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I agree-- I was worried Rome was cliche but it blew my mind. So much more grand and wonderful than I could have imagined, even with the tourists. If you know where to get food it can rival anywhere in Europe as well! I was just surprised by the coldness of the locals haha
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very nice!
I remember ordering Banoffee Pie and Victoria Sponge at a tea room in Plymouth when I visited. That Tea Room has closed unfortunately. It was called Shirley Valentine’s.
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I had to speed-read your last post, but I must say, Spring Onion would love tagging along with you—you’d be a fun tour guide for him.
Thank you for your always-entertaining travelogues!
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