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Published: December 26th 2016
The day began early, at 5:30 the alarm went off. I have not been up that early on Christmas Day, ever, not even when a kid. Our day tour left at 7:25 so we needed to get up early so we were somewhat awake. When I booked this tour, which is something don’t normally do but are doing more so as the years go by and our bodies don’t seem to be the age we believe ourselves to be, but back to the point. The tour was advertised as “Christmas lunch in the Cotswolds’ and a wonderful description of a traditional English Christmas lunch was described with a picture of a quaint inn in the countryside. Regrettably, all was not as advertised. The day was not as hoped for but we would be rewarded at dinner time.
I am writing the post the next day, I have learned a few things during our trips and blogging. When I try to write the same day, which is usually at the end of the day, while I might remember everything, it is also tainted with any bad experiences. If I wait until the next day I can reflect on the entire experience
and hopefully add perspective to the day and put any not so pleasant experiences in proper perspective.
So, yes, the day started early, our pick-up point for the tour was the Strand Palace which is just 2 blocks from our hotel. Walking to the pickup point, it was dark and the streets were empty. Surreal to be in a major world city and the streets basically empty. Our coach was a bit late but since there was no traffic we were able to make up for that. The bus was packed, I was expecting a small tour, as I didn’t really think there would be that many people taking a tour on Christmas Day, guess I was wrong. Interestingly enough, this was just the bus to pick us up and take us to Victoria Coach Station, here there were 20 other tour busses ready to head out for the day.
We did not have to change coaches and after the others loaded on, we were off. The trip started with an hour tour of London, most of which we have already seen, but it did add a bit of insight. After the circle around London we were off
to the countryside. This is when my disappointment first set in. Instead of lunch in a quintessential Cotswold English Inn, we would be having lunch in a pub in Stratford-upon-Avon (more on that later). I am not opposed to eating in a pub but it was not what was advertised and was not meeting my expectations of the day. * * * Let me give a bit of background. We wanted to go to the Cotswold’s because it is the area one of our favorite English cheeses is from, “Cotswold” this is an English cheddar blended with chives. It is a tremendously good cheese and one of our favorite cheddars. Unfortunately, we ended up only driving through the Cotswold’s and there was any mentioned made of this exceptional cheese. * * *. On the upside, Stratford-upon-Avon is the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare and the pub The Garrick is the oldest pub in the city, dating back in time and beyond Shakespeare’s day. Shakespeare in fact frequented the pub, as we would soon learn a proper pub is one of the two social hubs of any village.
Our guide for the day was very knowledgeable and
very English. She explained the traditional English Christmas and all of the history of the sites as we passed by. So, a bit of English Christmas tradition. The traditional meal, is not much different than ours, typically turkey, stuffing an assortment of sides (basically vegetables, carrots, parsnips, some red cabbage and Brussel sprouts) and instead of mashed potatoes they serve roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Dessert a Christmas pudding (described later). The Christmas Crown: It is traditional to wear a paper crown during the meal. This crown is to be found in the Christmas Cracker (not a food item) The Christmas cracker is a cylinder container tied at both ends, you pull and a cracker (as in very tiny firecracker) goes off and small gifts and a joke fall out. Inside is also your Christmas crown (and no we did not wear it). Inside Christmas trees: We all know that the Christmas tree is in fact a German tradition that was adopted by the British mainly because Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s husband was German). The Germans had always had the tree in side that was there tradition, the English decorated a tree outside. Prince Albert was the first to bring
the tree back inside and now that is how we all do it.
Christmas in England was not always popular, Dickens did a great deal to bring the tradition back. On last English Christmas tidbit, there is no Santa Claus here, he is referred to as Father Christmas or St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas (or so the story goes) was a wealthy man who wanted to help the poor at Christmas time, however they were too proud to take his money directly so instead he would go from roof top to roof top dropping coins down the chimney which would just happen to fall directly in to the stockings hanging out to dry, hence the tradition of Stockings hanging on the mantel. I will explain Boxing day, in the Boxing Day Post.
***
After about 75 minutes we arrive in the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare, only the house he was born in is still standing, the home he lived and died in was torn down by the second owner because he grew tired of everyone knocking on his door asking if this was the house of William Shakespeare. The bus let us out so we could
walk to the pub and past the birthplace of Shakespeare, a traditional Tudor style home. The town itself is not very interesting, they do have a year-round Shakespearian festival (I am sure it is just as good as the Shakespearian festival in Ashland Oregon). The Garrick, Stratford’s oldest pub was originally named the Reindeer. It was later changed to its present-day name after one of the owner who was also a renowned actor in his day and apparently is responsible for making the role of Hamlet the most famous and coveted role in the history of theatre (these are not my words, merely repeating what the flyer from the pub says).
History aside, on to lunch. Following the sage advice of my grandmother and all grandmother’s the world round, if you don’t have anything to nice don’t say anything. Or I could follow the advice of Olympia Dukakis’ character in Steel Magnolias “If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit next to me”. So, I will take the path in the middle. It was simply underwhelming. The food was mediocre at best and the portions were completely inconsistent. Jerry had three
times as much turkey and stuffing, I got no stuffing and overall it was just bland. I get that trying to server 75 people all at the same time, is difficult, but let’s face it this was basic and traditional food that all was prepared ahead of time, the Turkey basically gave up his life in vain. I will say the Christmas Pudding was good. I was expecting something like a fruit cake, but it was a type of gingerbread cake with dried fruit served warm and with a nice I think rum sauce. The meal at least ended well.
After lunch, we headed to Ann Hathaway’s cottage. (no not the actress, Shakespeare’s wife). This was nice thatched roof cottage, that would cost 1,000,000 pounds to replace the roof alone. From there we drove through several small villages of the Cotswold, stopping at none. Most people on the bus were asleep, the turkey kicked in. The Cotswold was a central farming center of England, now its primary industries are tourism and antiques. The name Cotswold is derived from two separate Norman (maybe roman) words: Cots, meaning sheep pen and Wolds, meaning rolling hills. In the day, the best wool
in the world came from this region now most of the sheep have been replaced by wheat and canola. There are a few sheep still roaming the Wolds, and the country side is rolling. Even in winter it was very as the British say “lovely”.
Our one stop in the Cotswold’s was a picture taking moment at Blenheim Palace. The largest non-Royal palace in England. It was the home of the Dukes of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (he did not get the title Duke as his uncle was the first-born son), I don’t know, it’s a bit small don’t you think? Not sure Jerry, Tarragon and I would have enough space here. The palace is still lived in, but like most other large estates it must make money to be maintained, so is also a tourist destination as well.
Our final stop for the day was Oxford, the home of one of the greatest institutions of learning in the world. There is so much history here, I can’t really even begin to blog about it. It is the oldest university in England, of course Cambridge University (or the other palace as those that went
to Oxford say) would like to dispute that. The university, which is actually made up of 28 separate colleges, was for the most part closed as it is in between trimester. Trinity College was open and we walked around it a bit. I am not a Henry Potter fan but if you are, this is the place much of the filming was done, especially in the dining hall, which we couldn’t even find.
We opted to leave the group walking tour and walked around the city on our own. It was dead quiet, almost nothing was open and the streets were empty save for the several busses of tourists poking around on late Christmas Day.
That was the last stop all that was left was the trip back to London. Nothing to blog about there, it was dark.
A couple of overall comments here. The tour was enjoyable but not as advertised, I would not recommend it for Christmas day, given the number of things that are closed. If you want to actually see the Cotswold’s rent a car and try your hand at driving on the left side of the road. The others on
Interiors
The Red Fortthe tour were not the age bracket we imagined, we basically thought we would be among the youngest of the gray hairs, but they age range was all over the place, and yes, several typical rude (but amazingly not from the US) tourists. I also now understand all the names of the cities along the Hudson, never understood why they always said Croton-Harmon on Hudson, etc. Now I understand that it comes from England. Many cities are named with the river they are located in the name, such as Stratford-upon-Avon. Avon literally means river.
We were dropped off were we were picked up, only because the entire public transportation system in London is closed on Christmas Day. We returned to our room and rested for dinner, and making some changes in tomorrow’s plans, sleep is needed so some re-arranging is required.
The Red Fort The original place we had planned on having dinner the India Club, was closed so the concierge recommended the Red Fort, as an alternative. It was a great recommendation. Since there was no public transportation we took a cab there, which was were also scarce, we could have walked, but likely would have
gotten lost, given all of the twists and turns that were needed to get there.
The Red Fort is located just above London’s very small Chinatown. It is an upscale Indian establishment (owned by a white English woman) it is very modern in the interiors but the food is amazing. Classical Indian food with a bit of modern fusion (which normally we don’t like, but an exception must be made here)
We went with the tasting menu and wine paring. The price was unbeatable, 10 different items in all three classes of wine all for 69 pounds a person. We of course started with a nice glass of Brut Champagne and toasted to Christmas. Then the food procession began. Before I describe the food, and I will describe each item we had in detail, it simply deserves such treatment, I have a few comments on the patrons. Other than the screaming child (they fortunately had the sense to leave early so as not to hinder the rest of our enjoyment) the cliental was among the most diverse so far. To my left was a large table with an Indian family having a pre-wedding celebration of
some sort. To my right was an Arabic couple, the woman was striking, both dressed in black. Behind Jerry was a table of Germans, and to my far right two tables of French. There were at least four different languages being spoken at the same time.
The Feast
We had a truly non-traditional Christmas dinner after our ok Traditional English Christmas Lunch'
The Appetizers Aj Waini Seabass: Fillet of sea bass grilled in tandoori with a hint of carom. Cooked to perfection and the spices were subtle yet you knew they were there.
Hara Kebab: Spinach & fenugreek patties lightly filled with cheddar, onion and coriander. (we needed more of these)
Poocha Hera Jhinga: Spiced marinated king prawn in a crisp batter with coriander & curry leaves. (Perfect heat level, I could have got a bit hotter even)
Lahsooni Turkey: Charcoal grilled turkey breast pieces, spiced with ginger, garlic and black salt. (literally the moistest turkey I have ever eaten)
The Entrees Nalli Roganjosh: Slow cooked Scottish lamb shank in nutmeg, mace cinnamon and bay leaf sauce (Jerry doesn’t
like lamb but he liked this)
Dum Ka Guinea Fowl: French Guinea Fowl in a saffron, ginger, garlic, coriander and cardamom sauce (The sauce was addictive needed more naan to soak it all up)
Dal Makhani: Black lentils cooked traditionally in creamed tomatoes, ginger, garlic, spices and butter (would could be bad about that, unfortunately Jerry is allergic to Lentils and could not taste it, and the key here is probably in those “spices” that could be anything.)
Bihindi Masaledar: Stir fried okra spiced with tomato, onion and sun-dried spices (again the unknown spices probably made the dish, I don’t even like okra but couldn’t get enough of this)
All served with a Saffron rice.
Dessert Aam Ki Dulf: Indian mango ice cream (Jerry is not a mango fan, but it was so subtle you barely knew it was there)
Each course was served with a perfectly chosen wine. A Gewurztraminer for the first course, a South African Red for the second and a French dessert wine.
Dinner was the highlight of the day, and has been the best meal of the trip so
far.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, needed to work off the food, which took us through Chinatown, literally smaller than Portland’s, through Leicester square, Covent garden and back to the hotel.
Had a bit of wine in the room and I went to the web site of the restaurant to get all of the names of the dishes we just ate so I could be sure to accurately describe them.
Tomorrow Boxing Day and some shopping.
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Mom
non-member comment
A Dickens celebration
Lahsooni charcoal grilled turkey breast!!! What an excellent idea! How was it seasoned. I so love turkey, much better flavor than chicken, say me cells. Must try this but get the seasoning down, eh? Feeling a Dickens flavor as I follow your trekking about. Love Brit mystery shows, BBC. Will you be visiting their studios? Carry on having another wonderfilled time. Much love, mum