But wait! "Goodbye"? & Another dangerous ride

Today, gentle reader, was a travel day, of sorts, as we left Antwerp & returned to our home base in London.  There was some mumbling about looking forward to our nice flat in London -- with spare bedrooms, two sofas in a living room, and less hazardous (if not fewer) steps.

But first the first part of today's title.  On our to-do list for Antwerp was to ride the ferris wheel that is at the north end of the train station, right next to the zoo.  (FYI the one tripadvisor review of the zoo said it was the third best zoo in Belgian.  High praise indeed).

I've never been a fan of such things -- for instance, I've never been up in the London Eye -- but last year in Budapest there was one in the park next to our hotel.  So EH and I went up to see the city.  And now it's a "thing"...

€We discussed longer than may be healthy the taxi ride to the train station.  It cost us 20€ to get to the hotel on Friday, but the driver whipped right to the zoo side today for 10€!  We decided we were on platform 24 (this will be meaningful later) -- a 10€ ride away. :)

Michael said he didn't want to go but would watch our luggage in a seat in the square below it.

Funny moment of the day: it began sprinkling as we stood in line and we watched M, as he said, Jerry Lewis in the Bellhop style, carry six bags to the overhang of the front of the station.

Then we got on the gondola and the voice came on in several languages, finally in English it said "keep your hands inside the car and goodbye."

"Goodbye!"  Not what you want the company telling you as you take off on a ferris wheel ride.  Goodbye?  Not good form in their English.

The train station is one of the top five sights in the city and we got some good shots of its top -- here's my best one

Of course the zoo was right below, but the rain ruined any other pictures.  There's supposed to be one of the beautiful orange/pink flamingos in the pond just below (the reviewer said one of the highlights of Belgian's third best zoo), but the rain on the window is focused.

We walked into the train station and looked at the board.  It was 1140.  B went to the bathroom, as we studied -- there was an 1148 on platform 6, and a 1215 on platform 21.  "We can't make the 1148" someone said and M was yelling at B to hurry back, "we're going"...the escalator to 6 was just inside and, yes, we made it easily.

A pro might not have taken the 1148 -- it was the "S train" -- S it seems for slow.  It stopped every five minutes...almost literally.  We were amused by families getting on and off, one father and son with their bikes.  We stopped at places (almost all the places) we didn't know -- including Duffel, which might be wear the bag was invented.  Or not.

We found the lockers in the Brussels station far easier than Friday's adventure.  We then wondered out of the station the opposite way from how we went on Friday.  There was a large street market that we walked through.  Not much of it was different than other such markets all over the world -- you know 2€ tee shirts, shoes you wonder how they'd feel, flippers, cosmetics, toiletries, some street food (it seemed to be Middle Eastern oriented, so there were several gyro or deli type stands).

Then back to the station, where we came across a Haagen-Daz stand.  Here's my lunch --

BTW this rather violates my rule about ice cream for lunch while on vacation -- you can tell it is NOT ice cream.  Even if it's from Haagen Daz.  It's lemon and raspberry sorbet.  They were both excellent -- the one very tart, the other that kind of berry sweet.

We bought chocolates in a Belgian Chocolate House and then sat and waited for our 355 train.

Our wait included the following convo:  "I am going to have to take a 5€ note home"...to which I say "My son is famous for saying he wipes his ass on $5 bills."  I repeated it about 5€ notes. :)

We got through passport control and security easily and we got a snack.  M wanted to know if I was snacking my way through the trip.  I said yes.  Duh.

But I got a drink that was different, an "infused green tea."  When asked how it was, I said it was "like sex in a canoe."  M didn't know that one.  (if you don't know the punch line, it's "fucking close to water")

The ride to London was not like the one from Antwerp -- it went quickly.  If the intermittent WiFi was better, I would have gotten more work done.  Bummer.

Back to London.   EH, K and I had on our to-do list dinner at Dishoom, or even lunch, and tonight was our only real opportunity, for sure, to go.

So, after discussion with B&M, we headed to Covent Garden, where they went to some other restaurant, while we stood in line 50 minutes in line to get into Dishoom (the line is maybe an indicator of the quality of the place).

Here's the quicky picture of our dinner

On the left is their Black Daal -- which is made with lentils and rather sweet and only a little spicy.  On the front right is their Ruby Chicken, our favorite dish (the picture of our early 2016 lunch includes both of these).  This is the best curry I have ever eaten.  It starts out sweet and then moves to some heat at the back of the tongue.  Upper right are the lamb kebabs.

For prelims, we had these great lamb samosas and those are my bollybellini and K's monsoon martini (made with a lot of coffee)

This might well be the best meal we have.  Everything was excellent. 

During the 50 minute wait, I went for a Starbucks -- the one around the corner was a Starbucks "Reserve" which meant the barista was at the end of a center bar that contains all the items we usually see in a case next to the cash register.  I told K and EH this and K didn't hear "reserve" and kept saying she wanted to see the place.  EH and I didn't get it till she actually said "we can get dessert there."  ???  She heard "dessert" not "reserve" :)

We ate at Covent Garden because the cinema there was showing Solo: A Star Wars whatever...In the end, we went for the theatre right on Leicester Square (famed for its movie premiers here in London...none of the A-listers were there tonight).  It turned out the 9 o'clock show was in 4DX.

If you've never had the 4DX experience, let me just say, you are probably best off.  First, you get the nerdy 3D glasses.  Then you get a big chair that has a foot rest (that you put your feet on sole down, not feet up) and a button that says "Water on/Water off."  WTF??!!?!?  

And then it began!  The chair rumbled, tilted left and right, and, yes, the feet popped up and down.  Oh, did I forget to say there was a lengthy warning, the first part of which said "Steve, you shouldn't be doing this" (heart condition, back conditions, high BP...etc, etc) . 

Then the preview of the format before the movie came up -- a wild car chase -- and you found out that when the car went through a water puddle, you got a spray of water from in front of you; when a bullet whizzed by, you got a puff of air from over your right shoulder into your ear; there was a moment when something rubbed the back of your calves AND, finally, EH's favorite --  flash of light (the first one was on the Lucas Film logo) was a blinding thing.  We were not fans.  And I paid A LOT extra (I wanted to see the movie).  And the theatre was Full!!!!

As to the movie, I liked it.  Quite a bit.  But I get that a) superfans will hate it because it doesn't fit this way or that into the Star Wars story, b) EH afterwards walked me through a bunch of plot weaknesses, not all of which I cared about.  The romantic story worked well enough for me, though it set up for a sequel which I'm not sure I want to see.  

So, all in all, it was a pretty good day.  Let me finish with this bummer: B wasn't feeling well all day.  So they missed the movie (and the rollercoaster of a ride that it was). 

Tomorrow,  Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, then Stratford for King Lear.  Back late, but maybe a post in the middle of the American night (like this one).  Bon jour!