Day #11 - The one with the vino

With the details of the flat pretty much sorted, we decided to dedicate Thursday as a day of fun! Wouldn't you know it, there's an entire museum here dedicated to the wonderful world of wine & spirits. The one agenda item for our day was to visit the Vinopolis museum on the Southbank. We had a leisurely morning (I know this probably comes as no shock to most of you), and decided to gear up for our adventure with a delicious antipasto style lunch. What better way to prepare our palates for the divine grape bouquet that awaited us.

We set off on foot through the Southbank, and stopped by our NatWest bank branch to change our pin numbers. Wouldn't you know it, you can change your pin numbers at the ATM machines here. After our quick pit stop, we continued down the road, and happened to stumble upon the Borough Market. Side note: One of the best parts about living in Europe, is how you can stumble across amazing things without having any sort of plan. This market is straight out of a movie. Vendors were selling cheese, beer, fresh fish galore (we are talking, full octopus, huge mussels, clams, prawns, whole lobsters, etc.), more produce than the eye could see. Specialty/ethnic food aromas filled the air, as vendors cooked in massive 3 ft wide woks (yes, they let you taste a sample on mini spoons). Pretty amazing to see, and very much unexpected. We will definitely be heading back to the Borough Market for some more delectable cuisine. OH! And you will never guess who we ran into at the Market. Yep, our little friends from Missouri that were on our Stonehenge bus tour. Not kidding. Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, 'they' walk into 'ours'. It was such a funny reunion, and we were glad to see they hadn't taken an earlier flight home. Looks like the blow dryer situation had been sorted.

After our little detour, we finally made it to the main event. The Vinopolis museum. After paying our entrance fee, and signing up for our selected tastings, we embarked on a journey of site, sound, taste, and smells from wines & spirits from around the world. We had originally anticipated that we would be reading about the history of wine, and maybe taking a self guided tour. We were very wrong. Over the years (Shayne visited in 2004), this place has gone from a stoic display oriented museum to a lively interactive tasting experience. Let's sum it up for you: Jake's tasting card consisted of 6 regular wines, 2 beers, 2 rums, 2 whiskey's, 2 absinthe and 1 gin cocktail (all aboard!!!). Shayne's tasting card consisted of 6 regular wines, 3 premium wines, and 1 gin cocktail (oh, and because she's a girl, the guides decided she should "pre-taste" certain wines before committing to a full tasting pour - I'd venture to say this was the equivalent of 4 or 5 additional tastings...Shayne would like to add here, it's not because she's a girl, it's because she is nice - you decide). Please leave your judgments about the number of tastings at the door.

We made our way through the various tasting rooms, and the various wine regions, and sat in on a 20 minute instructional course on how to properly taste wines (free tasting by the way!). We experienced the making of a traditional absinthe spirit (flames, sugar, spoon and all - see how to here). No, we did not see green fairies, but we did giggle at the incredibly unpleasant taste. As most of you probably gathered, after our trip through the museum we were ready for a little grub. What better way to cap off the day, than a trip to the Master's Super Fish for a little Fish n' Chips take away. Another great day in the city of London.

Lesson(s) learned: 1) Mixing wine, rum, gin, whiskey, absinthe, beer & fish n' chips is not a great way to settle the stomach. 2) If you are ever in the need for a whole octopus, head to the Borough Market. 3) The world really is such a small place.