Monday, June 26: Another posh UK restaurant and the case of the missing sneakers/trainers.

We awoke in time to have coffee while the children had breakfast before walking to school; Steffi walked them there and then went on to a planned coffee at one of the homes of the parents at their school.  While she was gone, we took showers and got ready for our noon reservation at Rick Stein, the restaurant that was supposed to be incredible. I also continued gathering things for our departure early the next morning.

We ubered to Rick Stein and had no problem being seated a little early.  The place was empty at noon, but by 12:30, it was pretty much totally full.  The food was exquisite.

The service was not so exquisite.We had to ask for a wine list rather than having one brought to us initially.  We also had to pour our own water and wine on a few moments during lunch -- no one was coming by to check on us. Steffi also got the incorrect starter. The server offered to replace it for her, but she declined -- unfortuately, that ended up meaning that she had two courses with the same Indian sauce as part of her meal. And then it took a while for someone to bring us the check and then to come around with the credit card machine.  She will try it again for her birthday, but I am planning to write a review for Trip Advisor listing the deficiencies in this upscale restaurant. That being said, it was a visually pleasing place along the River Thames.

Afterwards, we took a bus to Richmond to pick up some things for the evening's repast. After purchasing said things, we walked to the children's school to pick them up and then home.  I was not prepared for that long a walk, so my feet suffered a bit, but we made it back and watched the movie Sing, which we all enjoyed.  We took a break during the movie so that Mark could practice a bit and then go to his cello lesson with Steffi while we entertained Annie.  Steffi made this simple pasta dish that was delicious -- tuna, cucumber, and penne pasta mixed with mayonnaise. Annie made us laugh so hard at dinner.  I was explaining to the kids that Bob reads lips and listens in order to be able to understand what people are saying, so the kids tried to mouth things to see if he could figure out what they were trying to say.  Annie took a big bite of pasta, wanted to mouth something, realized that her mouth was full of food, so covered her mouth while mouthing so that no one could see it.  We all laughed so hard because she did this more than once!


Axel actually got home at a reasonable hour given that work was really hectic, and we said goodnight to the children and then enjoyed some Peller Estates ice wine with really good walnut bread and cheeses. I even put in my notes for next year to get that same bread at Marks and Spencer.  We enjoyed our final time with the English B's.

Our final glitch is still unresolved: the new sneakers I bought in Copenhagen because I kept tripping on the cobblestones went missing.  We looked for them in many places but could not find them -- so frustrating because I definitely was wearing them when we arrived on Friday.

Bed at midnight.