WHATEVER HAPPENED TO B & E?
date: 07 February 2010 at 19:14:04 - 0 comments
We are planning to go to London for a few days at the start of March. The paperback edition of "A Visible Darkness" is about to be released. The real reason for going, however, is the huge antiques fair at Ardingley on March 1st and 2nd – if you’ve never been to this bonanza, you don’t know what you are missing. London is just 40 minutes away by train, so we will stay in town. That’s where all the bookshops are, the theatres, museums and restaurants.
And the best hotels, of course.
While scanning Internet for a decent hotel at a reasonable price, however, we started noticing something very strange. The GREAT BRITISH BREAKFAST is a thing of the past. The Brits don’t do it any more.
The reason we were looking for a new hotel was a breakfast-prompted question, too.
The last time we stayed at the hotel we have used for nigh-on twenty years, breakfast turned out to be an additional expense. Instead of raising the prices, they had CHOPPED BREAKFAST from the menu, together with all the (non-British) people working in the kitchen who used to cook the food, and serve it, presumably.
It’s not that we are obsessive breakfast munchers, but we do have one small problem. Mike is diabetic – he’s been diabetic for 40 years – and before going anywhere or doing anything, he needs to take insulin, then eat very shortly afterwards. In the past we have wandered around barren British cities (including London) at eight o’clock on a cold, wet Sunday morning and every place that might serve breakfast is closed. As a result, we only stay in hotels which offer breakfast.
It is not a question of paying. We are happy to pay. The real problem is to find a hotel in London at a reasonable price which still provides the service.
The funny thing is that if you ask Italians what they think of British food, they all swear by the GREAT TRADITIONAL BRITISH BREAKFAST. They say that it is the only thing in England that they can manage to digest. We imagine that Japanese and American tourists are no different.
Well, this season in London there are going to be a lot of disappointed foreign visitors. No more BACON & EGGS. No more TOAST & MARMALADE. No more BREAKFAST TEA…
Next time we visit London, we may bring sandwiches and a flask.
On second thoughts, we may have to, because the great British sandwich is disappearing, too. If it weren’t for a Prêt-a-manger, you’d need to go to the British Museum to see one mummified in a display-cabinet.
