No. Neither of us lost our passports. And we didn't need help from the Embassy. And we're not moving to London.
Maxine had done some research before the trip about going to Parliament. Every so often, for years now, we've occasionally seen something on TV called the Prime Minister's Questions. Some of the time it passes for comedy or high humor, especially when Tony Blair was PM. But, it's actually a very interesting part of British governance. Members of the cabinet for the party in power have to come down and answer questions from the "congress" about what they're up to. They don't have a choice. They have to show up, have to get questions thrown at them, and have to answer in some sort or other. Turns out that the British gov't offers passes to this daily event (Prime Minister is only on Wednesday's and it's a hard-to-get ticket) to the embassies of other countries (maybe every country, I don't know, but certainly to the US). And if the embassy doesn't need the tickets for their own purposes, they make them available to citizens. So, we show up at the embassy (Maxine having called from the US in advance to request this), our name is on a list and out pops an embassy envelope with 2 tickets for us. I'll let you know tomorrow how interesting/exclusive this was, because that's when we're going.
Leaving the embassy (we never got inside -- this was all transacted through a partially opened door of a secure 20x20 glass building outside the strong fence that surrounds the embassy. So, leaving the embassy I needed directions to the bus stop I was looking for. Asked 2 guys patrolling in the rain with very serious looking automatic machine guns. They were very nice. No, seriously they were. After you got past staring at the guns they were carrying.
Simple lunch at home because we had dinner reservations at our second pub for the trip, called The White Horse. I'd picked it as one of my A's (top choices) because the beers looked interesting and the foods seemed equal to the beers. Well, the beers were very interesting, but the food quite mediocre. We don't have a very big sample set yet (been to too few restaurants), but we're starting towards the conclusion that the British just aren't big foodies. Or, they are but what excites them isn't very interesting. Or, it's troubling. Like that lunch I mentioned yesterday where I truly did want to verify that the rabbit terrine didn't come with rabbit eyes on the plate. So, gnocchi with mushrooms. Mussels for Maxine. Salad. Bread. Dark chocolate pudding for dessert. Certainly edible, but I (even I) wouldn't come back if was about the food.
But, the beers were good. And by good I don't mean cold, or plentiful, or ones I recognize, or fruitiful, or any of that. I mean small brewers. Distinct flavors. Brewing experiments. Maxine and I split 6 half pints and the bar tender gave us samples of 3 more beers. For the record, the beers were: Thornridge Brewing's Stout (a bit on the thin side, but a nice hint of coffee), Darkstar's 6 Hop Ale (like an American IPA), Cutthroat Porter from Odell Brewing (oops, found out later that I'd ordered a beer from Ft. Collins Colorado), and Dogma Heather Honey Infused Ale (surprised to find out later that this was from Brewdog!). When we got the 2nd 2 beers, the waitress warned (?) us that they were 7% ABV beers. The Porter worked best with my gnocchi and the Honey beer with Maxine's mussels.
We weren't quite ready to leave after finishing dinner, so we went from the dining room (uninspiring) to the main bar (lots more fun). Ordered Adnan's Broadside (a bitter, Maxine) and Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter (they have a brewery as well as pubs, so they're less craft beer). Got into a long conversation with one of the bartenders, Mark. He poured us Curious Brew's Ale (they're a combination project from several brewers and have a secondary fermentation with champagne yeast). He corroborated my plans for 2 other pubs to visit, as well as Maxine's for a gastropub. We went home happy with the conversation and the overall experience.
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