John’s Travel Blog

Added an index of the photographs of churches I have taken and posted on Flickr.

Tags:   abbey · chantry · Church · ecclesiatical architecture · england · Flickr · monastery · photographNo Comments.

El Rincon Latino, 148 Clapham Manor Street, Clapham. SW4

What do you do with four English people, two Irish, one each Welsh, Columbian & French for Sunday lunch. Well if you follow the advice of our Columbian friend, as we did last Sunday, you will head for El Rincon Latino, and have the set meal, £14.95 for three courses, or as four of the others did go for two courses of Tapas followed by a pudding & for the others, large cocktails, for me café con leche.

The set meal was fish & seafood soup followed by fabada asturiana, a very rich stew of fabe beans, pork, black sausage, chorizo & saffron. The pudding was the Spanish Arroz con leche, chilled and quite spicy. Those of us on red wine drank Rioja with the first two courses, and very acceptable it was.

The restaurant is very Spanish, very little pretension, and very intimate and friendly. The food is very good. Mine tasted delicious, and the others assured me the Tapas was superb. Service was excellent, friendly & attentive, without being intrusive.

I used to go to this restaurant years ago when it was owned by two Columbian sisters. I would with swim with friends in Clapham pool, then cross the road for a cappuccino, croissant and a cigarette (permitted in those liberal days). The sisters sold the restaurant a few years ago to the family who currently own it, all from Asturia, apart from one lady who is Catalan.

If you are ever looking for somewhere to eat or take the family for Sunday lunch, this is the place to go, an authentic Asturian experience right in the heart of Clapham. I shall certainly try the evening food next time I am in London.

Tags:   "El Rincon Latino" · Asturia · Clapham · london · restaurantNo Comments.

I couldn’t have chosen a worse few days to visit London as the weather was appalling. I used to be a friend of Kew when I lived in London and as I hadn’t been for about eight years, I decided to test the new camera at Kew. Light conditions were low and it was very overcast so results were interesting. With the exception of the Samsung digimax A7, I have taken pictures at Kew with every camera I have ever owned, especially my favourite, the Nikon F2. I decided to try out aperture & shutter priority, and also try to get to grips with the macro on the Fuji. Results varied, and were not very satisfactory. However, I am not the only person who has found the Finepix S9600 a steep learning curve. Link to Flickr group in right side-bar.

N.B. Kew now costs £12.50 per adult to visit!

The first three photos, all posted on Flicke are of Victorian glasshouses. Architect: Decimus Burton. Exif data can be obtained by clicking on the photo.

& shot from inside the Temperate House:

Tags:   architecture · fuji finepix s9600 · kew gardens · london · victorianNo Comments.