Back in the UK

It's been a couple of months since my last visit to the UK - so it was about time. This time Mathilde came along as well.

I left sunny Nice on Monday morning, arriving at London Heathrow, welcomed by the rain - just to make me feel like home :-) After a day at the office, it was time to reacquaint myself with that famous British institution known as the public house. So off I went to meet up with Stephane, Maxim, Dan and Kartsa in the Guildford Tup for a few beers (in fact the merrymaking got so out of control that I kind of forgot to have dinner).

Tuesday continued in pretty much the same manner, starting with a couple of quick pints in the Heron on the Lake in Fleet with some colleagues, from where Pentti whisked me over to the Stoke in Guildford (he wanted to try the GPS on his new phone) - where I joined Stephane and Phil for the famous Stoke pub quiz. Which we amazingly enough won ! (although I have to say my contribution was quite limited...).




On Wednesday night I drove down to Gatwick with Kartsa to pick up Mathilde.


Thursday - being a public holiday in France (the 3rd one in May already :-), we spent in London. We decided to go to Vinopolis, which we had never visited. It's (as you probably guessed ;-) a museum dedicated to wine. Pretty interesting actually - and not just because of the wine tasting sessions. We wrapped up a very nice day with meeting Nick, Chie and Sinhung in one of our favourite haunts in London - De Hems (a Dutch pub in Chinatown - very much recommended!) followed up with a nice Thai meal near Trafalgar square.



Friday evening started with a meal with Lou and Peter in the Loch Fyne, a nice Scottish sea food restaurant in Guildford. After this, we had a few pints in the White House with the old gang (strengthened by Isabelle, who was visiting for the weekend), and stumbled back to Phil's place (after a quick pint in the Tup, which was surprisingly open after 1 o'clock - this being quite unusual in England...) who had foolishly volunteered to accommodate us.




We spent Saturday with Winston and Weng - who kindly enough came down to see us all the way from Coventry, as well as Bruce. After the Standard Tour of Guildford (which in all honesty has to be said doesn't take all that long), we ended up (surprise, surprise) in yet another pub (the Weyside this time) for a well-deserved (?) pint. After this we sped down to Phil's for a quick improvised dinner, after which we met the big gang at the Drummond (yes, it's another pub), which has benefited from a bit of a face lift. After a few pints there the decadence continued at Dan's place (where we all politely invited ourselves ;-) with wine and Mojitos.... We stumbled back to Phil's at dawn...



Our visit to the Misty Isle wrapped up nicely with that oh so British Sunday pastime - the pub lunch (which we enjoyed at the Seahorse in Shalford, just down the road from Guildford).