Day 5: But I Walked 21,000 Steps, What Do You Mean This Is The Easy Day?

We woke up at 9:30, brushed the cobwebs out of our brains, and set out for the Leicester Square Christmas market. In London, the buses don't run on Christmas Day, and the Tube doesn't either. If you want to use public transit, all you've got available is the "Boris Bikes". These are a system of rentable bicycles named for the mayor who oversaw their installation. There are stations all over London where you can pick up and drop off the bikes, and for £2, you can ride them all you want for 24 hours... if you limit your use to 30 minutes at a time. Each 30 minutes after that is an additional £2. This works because there are stations everywhere. We took two bikes, and rode along several purpose built "bike superhighways" where they basically eliminated a traffic lane, and made a pavement set off by a curb that was only for cyclists. It made cycling super easy and safe, without the general feelings of impending death that often come with riding a bike in a large city. In fact, it was so easy that we completely missed where we should have turned, and wound up at Buckingham Palace.

After ditching the Boris Bikes, we walked to Leicester Square. Here we discovered two things. First, the Christmas market was closed, and would re-open tomorrow. Second, this is where London's Chinatown is, which we will be revisiting tomorrow for xiao long bao, or Shanghai soup dumplings. Remarkably, many of these restaurants weren't open on Christmas. Perhaps they need more Jews in London.

After taking a black cab back near the hostel and crossing Tower Bridge (pretty) and London Bridge (which should fall down and be built up with something that isn't ugly), we did some laundry and went for Indian food. We were told to go to Tayyab's on Fieldston Street, near the famous street of curry houses called Brick Lane. Tayyab's twitter account proclaimed "we make those lamb chops". Do they ever. Alecia doesn't normally care for lamb, but loved those. The lamb and spinach curry, mixed vegetable curry, and naan were excellent as well, and Tayyab's lets you bring your own beer to accompany the food, which is much appreciated when the curry has some good spice to it (they don't sell alcohol themselves). The incredible meal set us back £22.95 (sans beer), which is about $14 or so per person. Tipping is optional in England, but we left one here, because wow.