Chinatown

After work this afternoon I walked up to Oxford Street and rode a bus down to Piccadilly Circus.  There were two aspects to my mission.  The first was to complete the pink walk of the Wenlock and Mandeville game.  The second was to see if I could find the hat stall where Nedim bought a black hat last year that got lost on the way home.  Both things were in and around Leicester Square.

So, from Piccadilly, I walked east along Coventry Street.  At Leicester Square, it turns into Swiss Court and that is where I found the first statue, Filmstar Wenlock, near the Empire Theatre.  

I continued east at the top of Leicester Square, on Cranbourn.  I crossed Charing Cross Road and came to the intersection of St. Martin's Lane and Upper St. Martins Street.  I took a left, going north, and found the China Town Mandeville.  That was odd, because that one was supposed to be third on my walk.

So, I missed #2.  I retraced my steps back to the Filmstar statue and this time went down Bear Street, south on Charing Cross to the next block.  No luck.  I went north west on Irving until I was at the top of Leicester Square again.  Argh.  I walked back down Cranbourn and stopped at Charing Cross.  I looked at my notes again and noticed that I had written down St. Martin's Court.  OK. I crossed the street and found SMC and low and behold...ta da...Spotlight Mandeville.

After snapping that photo, I went back up St. Martin's Lane until I went east on Long Acre.  At the intersection of Long Acre and Neal Street, I found the last on my list for tonight, Performer Wenlock.

Next up, the hat seller.  I went north on Neal for two blocks.  At Shorts Garden, I went west to the Seven Dials monument. Hello romance novels location!  I had to take a picture of that.

I continued west on Earlham until I got to Shaftesbury where I found the stall I was looking for.  I bought two hats, one for Selim and one for Nedim.  I don't know if they will ever wear them, but many times over the course of last year, we all wished that we could find the black hat from our August trip.

I continued south west on Shaftesbury, passing many theatres.  At Gerard Place, I saw the sign for Chinatown.  I went under the gate and studied the menus of all the restaurants.  I was disappointed to see so many of the bean curd dishes also had pork or prawn or other non-veggie ingredients.  At the end of Gerrard Street at the corner of Wardour, I saw a buffet that had many dishes I could eat.  I paid my 6.50 and had a feast of sweet potato tempura, veggies in a peanut sauce, spring rolls, spicy cucumber and sesame toast.  Yum!

Feeling satisfied, I decided to walk the rest of the way to the hotel -- continuing on Shaftesbury, through Piccadilly Circus and then on to Piccadilly.  When I got to my room, a post card from my Lovey Lamb had been slipped under the door! Woot!  I haven't sent any post cards this year.  I should get in gear and do that tomorrow.