David's Diary: Thursday, July 5, 2001

Harrods and Covent Garden

Once again, our day started late. It has only been a week since the kids finished school and we really haven't had a break. We decided to have an easy day and only try and see one London Attraction: Covent Garden.

On the way to Covent Garden, we stopped by Harrods to look at the Food Halls. The fish display is created fresh every morning and a fine mist of water pours over the display making the fish look like they have just been caught. There is a wonderful selection of specialty items and we did buy some chocolate chip cookies and chocolate coins as a treat.

We traveled by Tube to Covent Garden. It was crowded, but we stopped for a half-hour to watch a street performer. I got selected as the assistant who had to wrap the performer in cling wrap. It's amazing how dizzy one can get going round and round a street performer trying to wrap him in 60M of cling wrap. The finale was to wrap the performers head in cling wrap, poke a hole in his mouth so that he could breath, then watch while he escaped in under a minute (it didn't look all that hard).

Ennismore Arms Pub

We did some grocery shopping, then returned home to our apartment in Rutland Gate. About fifteen years ago, I first got to know the neibourhood around Rutland Gate. Using an Enon Ronay Pub Guide, I found the Ennismore Pub after more than a half-hour of walking around in the rain. Despite arriving soaking wet, my first visit to the pub was a warm one where I shared the table with a couple who travelled to London every weekend to shop at Harrods. They always had lunch at the Ennismore Pub when they "came to town".

Ennismore Pub is located in Ennismore Mews which were created in 1843-1846. Viscount Ennismore, Earl of Listowel, aquired the land in 1823. The present pub building dates from the 1950's, the previous one was destroyed in World War II. The mews were the stables and carriage houses for the weathy in the Gardens.

When we rented our apartment we knew the general area where it was located. But we were surprised the first time that we ventured out to find that we were literaly around the corner from the Ennismore Arms. After coming to the pub for fifteen years, it's nice that it really is our "local" right now.