Feast for a fiver
You have booked the flight via Doha, forked out for a visa, and secured a cousin’s sofa bed. Pack an umbrella, and you are ready for London.
Now take a deep breath as you exchange almost R20 for each pound coin. London is expensive, even for locals. For South Africans, a visit to the capital city is a sobering affair. Yet it can be done on a shoestring.
Imagine spending a day out, including lunch, on just £5. How to do it?
Fortunately, many of London’s top museums offer free entry. As for food, one can find a sandwich anywhere in the city for less than a fiver. Better still, skip the soulless chains and head for some ethnic offerings.
The British Museum is the number one activity on the TripAdvisor website; you can spend all day and keep your £5 safe in your pocket. See the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, the mummies, the Easter Island statue and the Samurai armour — free tours are available.
At lunchtime, take a fiveminute walk to Wellbeing Kitchen (232 Shaftesbury Ave), where the chef will prepare a tender and crispy Chicken Katsu as you wait. Served on a bed of rice with a side of curry and a bowl of miso soup, even the small portion (£4.50) provides a filling meal. Grab one of the few tables in this tiny eatery and watch the world go by outside the large windows.
Other popular museums offering free entry include the South Kensington trio — the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert.
On a pedestrianised section of Exhibition Road you will find a selection of eateries. You can have a delicious potato or chorizo tortilla (£4.50 and £4.75) at Casa Brindisa (7 Exhibition Road). Alternatively, Fernandez & Wells sells hearty sandwiches. A couple are priced below £5 (8a Exhibition Road).
London’s Tate Modern opens an enormous extension in June, so art lovers will be flocking to see the new displays. Entry is free and the building itself is worth a visit. The Millennium Bridge is right alongside.
To eat well near the Tate Modern, visit Borough Market at London Bridge. You can taste samples at stalls offering everything from breads to dried sausage, cheese, chutneys, pickles and brownies.
If you are still hungry there is a vast array of food on offer. Possibly the most famous sandwich in town is the chorizo roll you can buy at Brindisa, a treasure trove of top-quality Spanish foods. While you wait your turn, the aroma of sizzling chorizo will have you salivating. A single sausage on a griddled roll with piquillo peppers and rocket will set you back £4.25. It is addictive. You may need to return.
For the best cheese toastie you may ever eat, join the queue at Kappacasein stall at the market for a knockout three-cheese melt on Poilâne sourdough (£5).
A riverside walk will take you past the Globe Theatre, The Tower of London and the HMS Belfast museum ship in one direction and the Houses of