Therefore Another Prologue: Orient Express, Day 1

Believe it or not (and honestly we can barely believe it ourselves at this point) we were back on the road again after a very brief intermission back in Braga. We’ll have more to say on this subject later. However, any notion of tiredness sloughed off of us whenever we remembered what this next trip was going to be. See, ever since she was a little girl, Lisa has wanted to take a trip on the Orient Express. For any of you who don’t know, there’s a famous murder mystery by Agatha Christie that has been made into at least two pretty good films. The train features heavily, and the imagery of this art deco masterpiece on wheels can easily capture the imagination. This has been an item in Lisa’s bucket list basically since the idea of a bucket-structured list was introduced to her, and when we firmed up our plan to retire and move to Europe she immediately planted a flag for this trip. Which, you know, great!

The trip is not as simple as “get on choo choo, enjoy life.” The experience begins at Victoria Station in London, where you board a *different* but still shmancy train for a trip to the coast. Then you get on the not-chunnel train that is used for freight, cargo and the like, make it to Calais, and then board the actual Orient Express. We’ll talk about all of this in more detail later. But first, because we are who we are, we took the fact that the journey begins in London as a signal to front load a few extra days there and take in the sights. Gods we can be predictable sometimes.

We had a super early flight out of Porto, bringing us to Gatwick airport. We handle the train into town much more smoothly this go ’round (last time we got on a train going the wrong way and had to pull a U-turn in a station several stops down the line) and hopped into our hotel. Alas, the room wasn’t ready for us yet, but that was fine; we dropped the bags and hit our first intended destination, the Whitechapel Gallery. We started our last visit to London this same way, for the very practical reason that it is a few doors down from the Hyatt that we’ve been staying at recently. There was a very interesting collection of short movies, loosely focused on the movement of the human body, and we took in several of those before kicking back to the hotel to freshen up a little bit and head out for nibbles.

We decided that have afternoon tea was the best way to transition into London life, and chose Roast for our venue. With large glass windows and fairie lights strung throughout, this is a visually appealing place, more know for its dinners than tea. When we arrived, however, there were two large (8+) groups of people enjoying Roasts “Endless Prosecco” tea service. Yes, along with your pot of tea you get glass after glass of Prosecco poured for a couple of hours (for 25 pound surcharge). Tea, as is usual, is a fairly standard offering. At Roast, your pot comes with three plates, the bottom of which offers you five sandwich quarters: chicken curry, egg salad, smoked salmon with butter, cucumber with cream cheese, and roast beef with horseradish. There is a currant scone with butter and jam. The top plate is for desserts: lemon meringue, sticky toffee, chocolate fudge gateau, and lemon cake. This is for each person, and would vary by season.

The sandwiches were very good: just the right amount of filling so it doesn’t squeeze out when you bit into one, and freshly prepared. We both really liked that there was a bit of a kick to the egg salad, and the curry chicken was meltingly good, but all the sandwiches were tasty. The scones arrived hot from the oven with unsalted butter and a tiny jar of jam. Butter was a little scant for two people (too much for only one, not quite enough for two) but the scone itself was perfect. We ran into a problem with the desserts in that the lemon meringue custard was not set, so breaking the crust allowed it to run right out. John managed to drip it into his mouth, but mine ran all over the plate, leaving a meringue top over crust. Disappointing.

The real bummer is that service was utterly “meh”. Our server took our order, delivered the tea, and then vanished. Another server brought our food, then vanished. I’d ordered a glass of prosecco (not the endless one) and it never arrived. No one stopped by to make sure all was well, or offer refills of water. We practically had to go get someone to bring us our bill and then had a bit of a debate about whether to authorize the 12.5% “service charge” they’d added. Not a practice we even think about, being inclined to generosity for such a tough profession.

It turns out that our spot for afternoon tea, Roast, is right in the heart of the Borough Market. Charming and historic, this is a must for anyone interested in high-end delicacies, artisan food, and organic produce. My mouth was watering at all the items displayed, from piles of pomegranates to fresh-prepared pasta. After tea we wandered the market, although many places were closing for the day. It didn’t matter as we have no kitchen to bring food home to, but if we’d been in an apartment, we would have shopped their for the visit. So good!

The rest of our day was spent unpacking and finding space for our stuff in a tiny room with two cubbies in the narrow closet, and two cubbies acting as nightstands. Somewhat disappointing as this was an upgraded room — clearly this is a hotel designed for short-term travelers. Off to bed, not to late . . . we have a big day at the V&A tomorrow.