After
feeling so much better the last couple of days, today I woke up with a bad
headache and a stuffy feeling in my sinuses.
We
headed off to Trafalgar Square then walked the Mall to Buckingham Palace. We have seen this a few times before, but it
doesn’t feel like we are in London without a visit to the palace!
We
then headed over the river to a place we had never been to before, Borough
Market. Again, the beauty of wintertime,
and a Wednesday, meant that the crowds were not too bad at all. Naturally, being cheese lovers, we had to
share the famous toasted cheese at Kappacasein.
There was a short queue to order, and a longer wait for it to be
cooked. It was wonderful watching them
make it, some cheeses were put in at the start, then as it cooked one slice of
bread was lifted and different cheeses were added. When it was finally ready, it was worth every
minute of the wait. Totally
delicious! We wandered around and
sampled various other foods, different sausages and other bits and pieces.
When
we had finished at the market, I realised that I really needed to see a
doctor. I remembered seeing a medical
centre near our hotel, that advertised you could walk in and see one. We headed there and found that there was a
wait of a week! We went back to the
hotel and discussed it with the concierge.
It turns out that finding a doctor as a tourist in London is not easy,
unless you are prepared to wait hours at Accident and Emergency, which I was
not.
The
concierge arranged to a doctor to visit me at the hotel. We had to wait an hour or so, but at least we
were comfortable. When the doctor
arrived and examined me, he agreed that I had acute sinusitis and provided me
with some antibiotics and a nasal spray.
The bill just about finished me off, but when you are sick, getting the
correct medication is most important.
We
had promised to go and see S and L’s house and have dinner near them this
evening, so walked for 15 minutes or so to Holburn Station and caught the
tube. The tube was the most packed I
have ever seen it – we then realised that their house was one stop past Arsenal
station and there was an Arsenal v Chelsea match on. It was a huge relief to reach Arsenal and
have the train empty out. S & L met
us at the tube station and walked us to their share house. After a brief visit we walked to a local
Italian restaurant for a lovely meal, before heading back to the hotel.
2023-12-09