New brew in Bru

 Costa was closed by Harrow on the Hill Station after 6 pm so we went into nearby Bru for a coffee. All coffee bars nowadays seem to offer a good choice of seating, alluring drinks and delicious, unhealthy snacks.

We had a choice of upright chairs, bar stools and banquette seats. I chose the latter to park my big bag beside me within reach. Every wall was differently decorated.

Next, coffee. Our usual coffee with milk on the side. Pretty, colourful cup sets. My saucer was blue.

For food we had a frangipane tart. Almond paste on pastry. Very reviving. 

I looked up frangipane. I discovered it was named after an Italian clled Frangipane.

I asked for tap water. Given willingly,.' of course you can'.

Lovely. Makes you feel welcome and want to go back.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Harrow on the Hill station now has a lift - at last!

Harrow on the Hill station, London, England.

Photo from Wikipedia 

We have waited so long. This is a great new development. Perfect for people visiting Harrow for shopping. Nice for those en route to and from Northwick Park hospital. For tourists hoping to visit Harrow on the Hill school, outside, or inside on a tour.

The bus station beside the train station has numerous bus routes, including South Harrow station, Hatch End station, Northwick Park Hospital and many more.

In addition to helping those who want to avoid stairs, or carry suitcases, sometimes the lifts up and down can speed you so that you catch a train which would otherwise depart whilst you negotiate the stairs.

Lift on the platform, before you reach the stairs at Harrow on the Hill railway station. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Lift on the other platform at Harrow on the Hill train station. Photo by Angela Lansbury

You will also find lifts at Pinner.

What I realized today about the lifts and their cost, is that you cannot just install one lift. You need two, maybe three, depending on the number of platforms.

Useful Websites

https://www.harrow.gov.uk/news/article/11070/a-step-in-the-right-direction-harrow-on-the-hill-station-goes-step-free#:~:text=Harrow%2Don%2Dthe%2DHill%20Tube%20station%20is%20now%20step,line%20trains%2C%20and%20signage%20enhanced.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/HOH.aspx

HOH stands for Harrow on the Hill

https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track/tube

Burns Night With Pipers In Harrow And Readings From Animation Using Burns Skull Cast

Problem
When and where to celebrate Burns night?

Photo in the public domain. From Wikipedia. 

Answer
Anywhere, any time. Last night, Jan 25th, 2018, I saw two pipers wearing kilts playing outside the pub on Harrow on the Hill.

If you haven't been invited to a Burns Night, you can organize your own. Maybe this coming weekend. I went to a Burns Night last weekend. I am on a waiting list for another this weekend.

Did you see the animation made from a cast of Burns' skull? I thought it looked odd, with cheeks so red. Then I saw the portrait of Burns.

I remembered passing a pub with a Scottish name, Wee Bairn, meaning small child.

Useful website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42792795 (3D animation of Burns reading a poem.)
https://untappd.com/b/raindogs-brewing-company-wee-bairn-bitter/145738

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Harrow-on-the-Hill's Incanto Restaurant - and A Romanian With Insights Into P r o e s t i

Problem
Where to eat with fussy friends?

Answer
Incanto Restaurant at Harrow-on-the-Hill.

Harrow-On-The-Hill
The drive up the steep hill takes you from modern Harrow through narrowing streets to ancient Harrow. At the summit is the school.

The statue of Elizabeth I looks down from high on the wall. Henry VIII's portrait dominates the green.

Buildings display various style of architecture. As you drive up your eyes are elsewhere. Parking is at a premium.

Once out of the car, you can enjoy the scenery. On the other side of the green from Incanto is an old red telephone box. It's the only thing which nobody has bothered to paint. But still red, evoking the good old days.

So British. A shop window show the boys' school uniforms and straw boaters. Who's for cricket?

Incanto Restaurant
The deli at the front seems to have expanded. It probably hasn't. I love the amusing signs. In the deli section you can see the food being cooked.

Beyond the beams and glass is the restaurant at the back. Incanto restaurant has changed hands but the standards is still  just as high.

Menu Choice
The choice is not large. However, everything is cooked fresh.

Midweek they have a busy lady's lunch. Pizza.

Children also have their own menu. It's suitable for children aged seven and under in both style and, I presume, portion sizes.

Tables and Seating
It was a hot day and we moved away from the sun streaming though an overhead window to the back. Usually I like to sit against the wall. Back to the wall gives me a feeling of security. I can watch who is arriving - nobody creeping up. A chance to wave down a waiter. A  chance to put down my bag without tripping up the waiters and passers-by. An opportunity to admire the decor, as well as the other diners.

But that's the problem. Other diners can be a distraction. This time I sat facing the wall. I found this new for me position had the advantage of encouraging me to give my dear friends my undivided attention.

Our server was from Romania, P r o e s t i. We had driven through it on the way back to Bucharest. Its the last place you drive through before the airport. We had speculated as to what would make somebody leave P r o e s t i for London.

The girl from Romania was as delighted to meet tourists who had passed through her town as we were to meet her.  (More about her city in the next post.)

We were all trying to lose weight and keep fit, and had our eyes on the dessert menu, so we went without starters. I recalled that the dried parsnip on the soup had been wonderful on my last visit.

Complimentary amuse bouche. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

Just as well we went without the starter. Up comes another course - the complimentary amuse bouche. (French for amuse mouth - an on the house taste.) What was it? Mushroom canapé. Just the right thing to keep the customers amused while the chef cooked up the main course.

Two of us had deliberately chosen different dishes for our main course so we could share out the vegetables and get more variety.

The dishes were a delight to look at. All four dishes looked good.

Meat dish.

Fish dish.

Delightful Desserts
At first we were not happy with the lack of fruit in the desserts. All sugar, pastry, little fruit. However, my chocolate dessert came with a choice of ice cream or sorbets. I find vanilla is boring, are rarely tastes of vanilla. I asked for an alternative. The child's menu had more flavours and the server recited them.

One person chose tiramisu. My friend chose melon, with blueberry sorbet. She said the melon had not much flavour but the blueberry sorbet was the best she had ever tasted.

Chocolate dessert with fruit sorbet. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was equally excited by my dessert.

The coffee came with neatly presented cubes of contrasting brown and white sugar. One row of three white cubes, one row of three brown. I was tempted to rearrange them into alternating lines, checker board style. But I did not want to handle sugar others might be eating.

All in all, a very satisfactory meal.

Descend the wide spiral stairs to the toilets. An amusing picture of two squirrels is at the bottom of the stairs. Inside the ladies is what I missed even in the five star hotel in Brasov, Roumania. Incanto had what all grand hotels and restaurants in London and around England provide. Gourmet hand gel and matching moisturiser.

Perfection.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. All photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright. More articles on London, England, Roumania, other tourist trips and tips on learning languages. Please share links to your favourite articles.

Travel on Trains To The Wonderful World Travel Market at ExCel

Travelling on London's tube is a delight, with tiled patterns, and murals at the stations, art on the Underground, shopping arcades at Bond Street, Poems on the underground in leaflets, people watching and place spotting. You pass landmarks, bridges such as the red bridge, cross rivers, look down on an artificial lake and beautiful boats and gawp up at impressive new skyscrapers, each one a different design, balconies with bicycles, chairs for two around tables, trees in pots, different patterns of office lights at night, rows of circular lights or diagonals of oblongs. Amusing people on the train. Plus, of course, your destination.

Bank Station
The central London station where you change onto the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) is Bank, named after the Bank of England. The station has the London underground roundel (round shape) and tiles showing the dragon of the Arms of the City of London.

The World Travel Market is an exciting trade show with dancing girls and full of opportunities to be photographed with people dressed as animals and a few VIPs - this year I met Miriam Margolyes.

The event takes place every year in November at Excel exhibition centre on the Docklands Light Railway in East London, England, UK. It's where the deals are sealed telling your local travel agent and incoming and outgoing tour operators about flights, hotels, destinations, attractions. You find everything from guidebooks to give away to customers to clothing to wear on safari.

It's also a chance for the media, the travel trade press, the newspapers, TV stations, film crews making videos, and the blogger to plan their next trip.

Security
Security is tight. Not only bag searches. Packs of sniffer dogs at the entrance.

Helpers On Stations
Before you even get there, groups of people on station platforms are shouting orders. On the train, the usual international: 'mind the gap,' 'stand clear of the doors'.

Along the walkways officials direct you to the place to buy a ticket or tap your ticket in and out. With or without megaphones they are shouting information every time you step off a train onto the platform. "This train is ready to depart."

If anybody tries to hold open the door for somebody else, don't. A Big Brother or Big Sister voice tells you and everybody else: "Will the children at the far end of the train stop obstructing the doors - so we can all get to our destination on time!"

Route Information
The hi tech on trains seems to be improving daily. Signs flash overhead on the platform. Across the middle of the train are moving signs, reinforced by verbal messages, "This train is for bank. Change here for ..." If you are lucky they even tell you which side of the train to stand to disembark.

Stations have information phones. Press one button to get travel information if you cannot find your train or platform. The other button is to report an emergency.

The train journey is an entertainment itself. I started my train journey way up North of London and saw the spire of Harrow on the Hill. I recognised the Wembley Arch. it comes and goes through the trees. I never tire of looking at it. It plays hide and seek. I saw it. It's gone. There it is again.

The Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway gives you an aerial view of places you pass. On the Docklands Light Railway we saw two large circular buildings. I was later able to identify them. One was the stadium. The building with the spikes is the O2 where you can often see pop concerts and international artists perform.

Excellent ExCel
At one of Excel's entrance's I saw an informative panel about British successes in the Olympics. I noticed Jade Jones had been awarded an MBE and her sport was Taekwando.


At Excel by the end of the third day I was a bit fed up with so many times having to traipse downstairs lugging my suitcase on wheels, growing increasingly heavy with brochures. However, on one occasion I was rewarded by seeing on the back of the toilet door a useful advertisement for a cabin bag. I didn't have time to read it all a second time and note down the website, so I took a photo of it.


I found one place where you could take a lift down to a basement bar, the toilets, and escape the heat indoors for a stroll and breath of fresh air and a view of the riverside buildings and boats.


On the evening of the third day I was back on the train home, with plans for a dozen trips, including next year to the World Travel Market at ExCel.

As I left I saw a panel about the brand new stations including Canary Wharf on the new Elizabeth line. Something new every day.

More news on the new Elizabeth train line from
www.crossrail.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_and_Monument_stations
Details on the World Travel Market:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Travel_Market
More about ExCel: ExCel.London.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker.

The Castle pub lunch at Harrow-on-the-hill

The sign outside shows you that the castle is a chess piece, that sort of castle, not the crenellated castle I had imagined from the name. Inside you won't find any sign of chess.

However, one room has clocks. As far as I could tell the clocks were purely decorative, all telling different times - and stopped.

The pub is on a corner of the slope near the summit of Harrow on the hill, just a few beet below the landmark triangle by the former King's head pub. At the other end of the street above is the famous Harrow School which Churchill attended. The pub has a famous quotation from Churchill on the wall of the back room.

The quotation is correctly attributed.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were you're wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

Interesting menu features unusual items such as two dishes with Halloumi, Greek cheese, as well as more familiar food such as fish and chips. We waited an hour for our hot food.  I think the staff should have sent olives or nuts or suggested we order a cold starter to share whilst waiting. Despite all those clocks, or perhaps because the clocks were stopped, the place did not have a strong sense of time.

I did not like the black on my bap. I think food cooked until it turns black causes cancer (which is what the cancer websites say). But another diner thought the bap was fine. He happily finished off what I left.

After our complaints about the wait, they did offer money back on the food (not the drinks we'd had whilst waiting). This mollified our large group, from three local clubs, for writers and readers, who are happy to go back and try the food and service again.

As the author of two books of quotations, I think fondly of any pub which has quotations on the walls.

My two books of quotations are:
Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches.
Who Said What When?

Salsify on the restaurant menu - what is it?

I just looked up salsify which is on the website menu of Incanto restaurant, Harrow on the Hill, UK.
The name from either French or another language such as Spanish or Italian means either black bark or serpent (shape) root. It looks like asparagus. The black skin is peeled off before or after cooking leaving you with a white vegetable which looks like asparagus.

I think I have been served it several times and wondered why my asparagus was not mentioned on the menu, and why it was so white and didn't have asparagus flavour. (I assumed they had yesterday's asparagus and were using up the last of it and didn't list it because they were embarrassed to be running out or because it was poor quality. Not wanting to upset the host or staff I kept quiet. Hysterically funny.) Mystery solved.


A fuller explanation of the word origin and where it is and was grown is in Wikipedia.

Harrow School And The Straw Hat

Harrow School at Harrow on the hill is where Winston Churchill went to school, plus a number of other famous people. You can book a tour of the school. I've driven up the hill many times to visit friends who live there, or go to restaurants. On my most recent visit I was lucky enough to see a boy wearing a straw hat, famously part of the school's summer uniform and sold in a local shop. I would have called it a boater. The wikipedia entry for the school says that the hat is erroneously called a boater. But when I went to the article on boaters it mentioned hats worn at Harrow school. 

If you are not lucky enough to time your visit to take a tour or see a boy wearing a boater hat, at least you can be sure of seeing this statue on the wall, day and night, all seasons.

This statue is of Elizabeth I on the south tower. The photo is taken by me.

If you don't wish to stop at a restaurant another option is one of several pubs. The walk or drive downhill through impressively large the trees is very pleasant.

The spire of the hilltop church can be seen from the train to Harrow, even if you are not getting out at Harrow so look out for it.