Took the day off work to meet up with Sarah in London. Staggeringly the trains worked out perfectly: I tubed from King’s Cross to Paddington and met Sarah off the Bristol train with almost no waiting for either of us. But that trick never works!
We headed to Euston and walked in the general direction of Camden Market, intending to stop at a tapas restaurant Sarah knew called El Parador. Apart from completely missing our target, Eversholt Street (I think we were distracted by gossip), and having to take the long way round, we found it.
Sadly they were full and told us to come back in 25 minutes. We did, and they were still full – but promised that there’d be a table in five minutes. We took this to be a good sign: anonymous restaurant, reasonably random London street, packed.
We waited, and were seated. We waited, and ordered (and drank nice wine). We waited, and ate. It was well worth the delay. We had four dishes, all fantastic. A spinachy creamy thing, a sweet potato thing, a spicy potato thing, and a random veg extravaganza thing.
We left at about 3pm. Later lunch than we expected, but worth it. Avaragado can thoroughly recommend it, oh yes. It was so good I took a photo of the restaurant.
After lunch we took a quick spin round Camden Market (meh) then headed to Covent Garden. To a pub upstairs from a Cornish pastie shop, in fact, that sells lots of Cornish beer. Sarah managed a couple of sips before accidentally tipping her pint all over the place. I finished mine using the more orthodox route.
And then it was back home on the 5:45 from King’s Cross, boarding with seconds to spare. I took a taxi home from the station; the taxi driver told me how he broke his nose in Alpe D’Huez, and straightened it up himself with the help of a little ice and some gritted teeth. Thought I’d share that with you.
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