Post by Jody on Mar 6, 2008 13:19:54 GMT -5
Holger asked if I would post a trip report about our recent London Visit. It's a bit long winded. We've been to London so many times, I've lost count so there is not much touristy info here.!
Tuesday, 2/19-20
Checked in online and went to the inaccurately named Fast Bag Drop at OIA, to drop off the luggage. Then a long wait to get thru security, some lunch and it was time to board. We had FF miles so were in World Traveller Plus seats, lots of room and wine made the flight go quickly.
Easy exit thru Gatwick to the Xpress train and a half hour later we were in London. I checked to see how much money we had left on our Oysters for the first day then found a taxi to get us to Jury’s Inn Chelsea.
This is a very nice hotel, at Imperial Wharf, but it would not be for everyone. It has excellent transportation options but is not near any tourist sites . There are however lots of restaurants , a pub, and an M&S nearby. We’ve stayed here before and really like the rooms and the staff.
Our 1st surprise of the day, we were asked to wait as the manager wanted to speak to us. I’d corresponded with Deidre before so we thought maybe we were being upgraded or something. WRONG!! It seems they had a break in their hot water systems and there would be no hot water that day. She offered to call other Jury’s and transfer us or we could stay and get 50% off our rate. Cheapskates that we are, we took the discount and heated water for David to shave and to have Irish baths! Thank God for electric kettles, they really heat the water quickly.
Unpacked a few things then headed up to the King’s Rd. in search of some real coffee at Paul, a lot touch of Paris in London. Got our first sticker shock of the day, 2 coffees, 1 croissant, 1 pain au chocolat..$20.00! I decided there and then that we’d pick up something for breakfast on our way back to the hotel in the afternoons and have it with the coffee I can make in the room. Stopped in at Antiquarious to see a dealer friend , checked out Chelsea Antique market then headed back to the hotel for a nap.
Dinner reservations that night were at La Famiglia, of course. David got his mussels without even asking and followed with kidneys. I had a sautéed monkfish and the veg was a delicious Swiss Chard that was much better than we get here. We split a huge cannoli . Alvaro wasn’t in that evening, he’s recovering from throat cancer, but would be in the next evening so we made reservations for the next night too.
Heated more water , washed and went quickly to sleep.
Wed. 2/21
We were up and out early after our “room service” breakfast and decided to go to Greenwich as it was a market day. Loaded a 7 day travel card on the Oysters and took off. The ride is a bit scenic as the DLR is above ground. It’s amazing to see all the new construction going on around town. Giant cranes all over the skyline.
Walked thru the market for a bit then up onto the campus of old Royal Naval College buildings.Checked out the under wraps Cutty Sark, that is being restored after the terrible fire aboard.
The Painted Hall and the chapel of St Peter and Paul are both magnificent and worth the trip to see.
From there we crossed over the road to the Maritime Museum. It was full of kiddies armed with notebooks and loud voices, but still fun to see. Had lunch at a café inside then decided to bus back to London , passing some places we’d not seen before. Since the bus stopped right at the Imperial War Museum, we got off and David had his yearly fix while I had a ginger beer and rested my poor tired feet.
No trip to La Famiglia is complete for me if I don’t have their ribollita, even if I can never finish the whole bowl. Their starters are “American sized”. David started with a typical Tuscan dish, Carabaccia..a garlic toast , topped with chopped sautéed vegetables, a poached egg and sheep’s cheese. I followed thin lamb chops and and David went for the venison medallions with a wine sauce. No dessert tonight. Waddled back to the bus stop and so to bed.
The water is hot again by the way!!
2/22
Stopped by Covent Garden to pick up tickets for the matinee of Mamma Mia then headed off to another favorite, Borough Market. Wandered around for a few hours, picking up a Panini for me a lamb burger for David and a bottle of wine. Sat and enjoyed them in the warm sunshine before heading back to CG for the 5 PM performance. I don’t know why we’d not seen this show before . We totally enjoyed it . We had loge seats with tons of room even with the 2 other people sharing. Logue seats for us from now on. You just leave this show feeling so happy. I’d see it again in a NY minute.
Walked down to Biagio on Piccadilly and shared their great antipasto platter of meats followed by a roasted salmon with sautéed vegetables and another bottle of wine. And so to bed!
2/23
We’d planned on going to Portobello but decided to get theatre tickets early so back to CG and tickets for Avenue Q.
On mornings of the day of performance concession tickets for we OAPs are half price or less at most theatres. David we intrigued by the posters for this show so we decided to see it instead if Absurd Person Singular.
After getting the tickets back down Piccadilly to the Royal Academy to see the Russian paintings that almost caused a crisis between the UK and Russia! The line was a 1 hour wait but the exhibit was well worth it, a chance to see paintings that had not left Russia before now.
Killed the rest of the afternoon window shopping along Bond Street after finding out Gray’s Antique Center is closed on Sat and Sun.
Nice loge seats again but the show was really disappointing. David says he will never believe another review again. It was “cute” but certainly not hilarious, the concept of most of the actors speaking for Sesame St like puppets. The actors were all very good but the script wasn’t worthy of their talents.
On the way back we stopped at Oriel, just outside the Sloane Square tube. We’d wanted to try it for some time but had never gotten around to it. It kind of reminded me of a French brasserie. The food was very good and reasonably priced ..for London! I had a delicious pan fried sea bass with lots of green beans, potatoes, and served on a bed of duxelles. David was dying for a HAMBURGER, so that’s what he had, topped with Roquefort! Stopped at Paul for breakfast stuff then went back to hotel. I was pooped!
The d**n feet are giving me real grief…I need to change podiatrists!
2/24 Sunday
Woke to a perfect glorious morning! Too nice to stay inside so decided to walk thru as many parks as we could and people watch. We decided to start at Kensington Gardens so bused 5 minutes to earl’s court and tubed to Kensington High St. David said d**n the cost he wanted “real coffee”! Saw a likely looking place just across the road so stopped in there. Boy did we make a find! They gave us menus when we sat down, so glanced at them.. Eggs Benedict with salmon did David in so we decided to go for it! He had that and I had scrambled eggs with bacon…I love well cooked English bacon and this was about the best eggs and bacon I’ve had, served with a nice broiled tomato! D’s eggs were perfect, the manager was so nice , the music was delightful..no rap, just soft ,lovely classics! We had such a nice time and the man was so friendly we said we’d come back for dinner some night…Caffee Concerto..$30.00 but for a lot more good stuff than the $20.00 Paul bill!
Spent some time walking through Kensington Gardens, lots of runners, kids, bird feeding..it seemed everyone had the same idea…enjoy the beautiful weather.
Came out onto Bayswater Rd , browsed through the artist’s displays along the fences, saw a new place for us called The Spire..an old church that was destroyed then rebuilt as apts., retaining the original spire, then caught the first bus we saw, didn’t care where it was going..but it turned out it went to South Bank!
I do love walking around the South Bank, enjoying the buskers and the mimes .
I’d planned on visiting the British watercolor gallery but of course ..closed Sundays! Anyway, walked and stopped and looked and listened..until we got to Millennium Bridge and decided to cross over and head to St James Park.
Good idea but we got distracted at Horse Guards. Hoards of people posing besides the Guards on horseback! Walking thru the arches toward the park, I was really tickled by the poster for the museum.
Doesn’t take much for a change of plans..so in we went. It was really interesting, even to me! Wandered out, found a bus heading in the right direction and headed “home’ for a rest before another dinner at La Famiglia. I know ..it seems to be boring , but try it…you’ll want to try everything on the menu. I don’t even need a menu! We shared a dish of deep fried baby artichokes, then D had swordfish with onion courgettes and balsamic garnish, I had prawns with garlic and basil sauce with roasted veggies. Finished up with gelato and a vin santo with biscotti for me. I d d not share!
2/25 Monday
Up early to hit the Monday morning antiques market at Covent Garden. With all this antiquing you’d think we would have found something we couldn’t live without…but no luck, didn’t buy a thing, not even another picture! Spent an hour or so browsing then headed to the V&A.I’d wanted to see the designs for performance and the Ikat exhibits and we’d missed them both last November. Neither disappointed. Spent some time in the sculpture halls, broke for lunch at Carluccio’s, then back for more museum!
There had been a lot of disruption on both the buses and the tube so decided to head back to the hotel and then have an early dinner at the place we’d found yesterday, Caffe Concerto. We both opted for fish, salmon for me and grilled tuna steak for D. The servings were very large so skipped dessert, though the very kind manager gifted me a marzipan bunny. This place is also a patisserie and I was sorry to pass up all the delicious looking confections.
2/26 Tuesday
Made directly for the Courtauld Gallery this morning and got there just at opening time. We both like this museum, but we dismayed to find the Gilbert Collection of silver and boxes has been moved to the V&A and is not displayed there yet. Didn’t really matter too much as we had come to see the Renoir at the Theatre , Looking at La Loge exhibit.Starting with the early Impressionists , it also featured works by Cassatt and Degas, all concentrating on theatre settings. It was further complimented with French drawings from the permanent collection, with works by Monet, Manet and others. Walked out onto the terrace for some nice river views and some fresh air and sunshine.
Decided to walk up the Strand and Fleet St and search out somewhere for lunch after stopping into St Mary-Le-Strand. Of course right behind that is St Clement Danes, the Wren church dedicated to the RAF. We’d been before but it’s always worth a visit. The magnificent organ was a gift from the USAF.
As we passed by the Olde Cheshire Cheese, I mentioned that people on Fodor’s had been saying the food was quite good and it really was not a tourist trap, mainly journalists and area locals. If that’s so, I have to wonder about their tastes in food. David’s steak and kidney pudding was a giant blob of soggy crust and the kidney must have just been dragged thru it because he couldn’t find even 1 bite of it. I had the ham salad , not much harm one can do to that. Oh well, the wine was good!
Walked a bit further and spied another church we hadn’t seen before, St Bride’s, tucked away between some buildings on Fleet St.It’s called the cathedral of Fleet St and is supported by several news and journalism organizations. Really a lovely quiet spot and worth a visit if you are in the area. They also have free lunchtime concerts throughout the year. Unfortunately there was none the day we visited.
Time to head back to the hotel as we planned on meeting friends at 6 PM for drinks and dinner at the Angelsea Arms, one of our favorite pubs. Made it just on time, Roger showed up about a minute later and we even scored a table! It was so good to see him again and hear about his trip. We were also supposed to meet David West but he’d emailed me, that he might be late so just to go ahead and drink and eat and he’d catch up when he got there!
This pub has a real crowd every evening but they have a separate dining area, with fireplace and lovely old Victorian paintings.
They also have a varied menu and it both good and reasonable, especially for this area. Too bad that it was booked for a large private party that evening!! They were serving food in the pub part and since we had been lucky enough to have a good table, we still managed to enjoy our dinner. We shared a pint of peel it yourself baby prawns, I followed with a yummy pasta with crab, David had some kind of grilled fish , Roger went for the fish and chips. Roger had a very early flight out so he left to make his way back to his hotel and we waited around a bit more to see if David would show up. No luck so we left and took a taxi back to the hotel as my feet were giving me fits! There was an email the next morning from David apologizing but he’d been in the office until almost 9 and wouldn’t have made it to S.Ken before 10, so he’d figured we would have left.
2/27 Wednesday
Made our way to Charing Cross station to meet our friend, Peter, who was coming in from his village in Sussex to meet us. He showed up right on time and we went across to the National Gallery as we all wanted to see the current exhibits of landscape oils and the Pompeo Batoni portraits. An added treat was seeing the finalists for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Sq. Sorry but I thought they were all horrible, not quite as bad as the pregnant woman and the plastic “thing” that’s up there now!
Peter was dying for some Italian food since he’s single , doesn’t cook much and there’s not an Italian place within miles of his village! Found a nice spot next to a nearby theatre, sorry I can’t remember the name. I had a nice pasta with clam sauce. We had lots of good conversation over the 2 bottles of wine we shared before Peter had to leave to catch his train.
David said he was feeling really tired so we headed back to the hotel and he crawled into bed. He came down with really bad chills and a giant headache. Thank God the flu held off until the last day. I left him him in bed and went over to the new M&S store just across the street. It had just opened that day and everyone was being treated to champagne. I felt I had to buy something after 2 glasses so picked up some goodies for the plane tomorrow. Walked on down to the river and took a few photos of all the cranes on the London horizon! It really is a quite pleasant area and we look forward to more shops opening in the development, Imperial Wharf.
Back to the room and David said he felt too lousy for dinner or even to get up. Finally went down to the bar and had a sandwich and a glass of wine before pacikng up our things for tomorrow morning.
2/28 Thursday
Got up around six, David was feeling a bit better, checked out and our ride to Victoria was right on time at 7 AM. It certainly was a treat to have 50% off our entire bill for our 1 day without hot water!!!!
Made it to Victoria, and the Gatwick Express was at the platform so we were at the airport by 8. Thank God for that because the lines were horrible. I’d checked in and printed boarding passes but the Fast Bag drop line was LONG!!! After that line there was another to go thru security. Talked with a nice young man and he was complaining bitterly about the wait times at both Gatwick and Heathrow. He travels on business almost weekly and says it’s been a really bugger lately. Finally made it thru to the gate area at 10 AM….2 hours in lines! We both really needed the coffee and croissants by that time. When we finished that it was time to get to the boarding gate. Plane was not too full and We both had aisle seats. David fell to sleep at once and when the seat belt sign went off , I headed to an empty exit row seat so had lots of leg room! Bad head winds so our flight was about an hour late arriving but fast exit the OIA and then we were home.
Now I have to start planning the Paris trip!
Tuesday, 2/19-20
Checked in online and went to the inaccurately named Fast Bag Drop at OIA, to drop off the luggage. Then a long wait to get thru security, some lunch and it was time to board. We had FF miles so were in World Traveller Plus seats, lots of room and wine made the flight go quickly.
Easy exit thru Gatwick to the Xpress train and a half hour later we were in London. I checked to see how much money we had left on our Oysters for the first day then found a taxi to get us to Jury’s Inn Chelsea.
This is a very nice hotel, at Imperial Wharf, but it would not be for everyone. It has excellent transportation options but is not near any tourist sites . There are however lots of restaurants , a pub, and an M&S nearby. We’ve stayed here before and really like the rooms and the staff.
Our 1st surprise of the day, we were asked to wait as the manager wanted to speak to us. I’d corresponded with Deidre before so we thought maybe we were being upgraded or something. WRONG!! It seems they had a break in their hot water systems and there would be no hot water that day. She offered to call other Jury’s and transfer us or we could stay and get 50% off our rate. Cheapskates that we are, we took the discount and heated water for David to shave and to have Irish baths! Thank God for electric kettles, they really heat the water quickly.
Unpacked a few things then headed up to the King’s Rd. in search of some real coffee at Paul, a lot touch of Paris in London. Got our first sticker shock of the day, 2 coffees, 1 croissant, 1 pain au chocolat..$20.00! I decided there and then that we’d pick up something for breakfast on our way back to the hotel in the afternoons and have it with the coffee I can make in the room. Stopped in at Antiquarious to see a dealer friend , checked out Chelsea Antique market then headed back to the hotel for a nap.
Dinner reservations that night were at La Famiglia, of course. David got his mussels without even asking and followed with kidneys. I had a sautéed monkfish and the veg was a delicious Swiss Chard that was much better than we get here. We split a huge cannoli . Alvaro wasn’t in that evening, he’s recovering from throat cancer, but would be in the next evening so we made reservations for the next night too.
Heated more water , washed and went quickly to sleep.
Wed. 2/21
We were up and out early after our “room service” breakfast and decided to go to Greenwich as it was a market day. Loaded a 7 day travel card on the Oysters and took off. The ride is a bit scenic as the DLR is above ground. It’s amazing to see all the new construction going on around town. Giant cranes all over the skyline.
Walked thru the market for a bit then up onto the campus of old Royal Naval College buildings.Checked out the under wraps Cutty Sark, that is being restored after the terrible fire aboard.
The Painted Hall and the chapel of St Peter and Paul are both magnificent and worth the trip to see.
From there we crossed over the road to the Maritime Museum. It was full of kiddies armed with notebooks and loud voices, but still fun to see. Had lunch at a café inside then decided to bus back to London , passing some places we’d not seen before. Since the bus stopped right at the Imperial War Museum, we got off and David had his yearly fix while I had a ginger beer and rested my poor tired feet.
No trip to La Famiglia is complete for me if I don’t have their ribollita, even if I can never finish the whole bowl. Their starters are “American sized”. David started with a typical Tuscan dish, Carabaccia..a garlic toast , topped with chopped sautéed vegetables, a poached egg and sheep’s cheese. I followed thin lamb chops and and David went for the venison medallions with a wine sauce. No dessert tonight. Waddled back to the bus stop and so to bed.
The water is hot again by the way!!
2/22
Stopped by Covent Garden to pick up tickets for the matinee of Mamma Mia then headed off to another favorite, Borough Market. Wandered around for a few hours, picking up a Panini for me a lamb burger for David and a bottle of wine. Sat and enjoyed them in the warm sunshine before heading back to CG for the 5 PM performance. I don’t know why we’d not seen this show before . We totally enjoyed it . We had loge seats with tons of room even with the 2 other people sharing. Logue seats for us from now on. You just leave this show feeling so happy. I’d see it again in a NY minute.
Walked down to Biagio on Piccadilly and shared their great antipasto platter of meats followed by a roasted salmon with sautéed vegetables and another bottle of wine. And so to bed!
2/23
We’d planned on going to Portobello but decided to get theatre tickets early so back to CG and tickets for Avenue Q.
On mornings of the day of performance concession tickets for we OAPs are half price or less at most theatres. David we intrigued by the posters for this show so we decided to see it instead if Absurd Person Singular.
After getting the tickets back down Piccadilly to the Royal Academy to see the Russian paintings that almost caused a crisis between the UK and Russia! The line was a 1 hour wait but the exhibit was well worth it, a chance to see paintings that had not left Russia before now.
Killed the rest of the afternoon window shopping along Bond Street after finding out Gray’s Antique Center is closed on Sat and Sun.
Nice loge seats again but the show was really disappointing. David says he will never believe another review again. It was “cute” but certainly not hilarious, the concept of most of the actors speaking for Sesame St like puppets. The actors were all very good but the script wasn’t worthy of their talents.
On the way back we stopped at Oriel, just outside the Sloane Square tube. We’d wanted to try it for some time but had never gotten around to it. It kind of reminded me of a French brasserie. The food was very good and reasonably priced ..for London! I had a delicious pan fried sea bass with lots of green beans, potatoes, and served on a bed of duxelles. David was dying for a HAMBURGER, so that’s what he had, topped with Roquefort! Stopped at Paul for breakfast stuff then went back to hotel. I was pooped!
The d**n feet are giving me real grief…I need to change podiatrists!
2/24 Sunday
Woke to a perfect glorious morning! Too nice to stay inside so decided to walk thru as many parks as we could and people watch. We decided to start at Kensington Gardens so bused 5 minutes to earl’s court and tubed to Kensington High St. David said d**n the cost he wanted “real coffee”! Saw a likely looking place just across the road so stopped in there. Boy did we make a find! They gave us menus when we sat down, so glanced at them.. Eggs Benedict with salmon did David in so we decided to go for it! He had that and I had scrambled eggs with bacon…I love well cooked English bacon and this was about the best eggs and bacon I’ve had, served with a nice broiled tomato! D’s eggs were perfect, the manager was so nice , the music was delightful..no rap, just soft ,lovely classics! We had such a nice time and the man was so friendly we said we’d come back for dinner some night…Caffee Concerto..$30.00 but for a lot more good stuff than the $20.00 Paul bill!
Spent some time walking through Kensington Gardens, lots of runners, kids, bird feeding..it seemed everyone had the same idea…enjoy the beautiful weather.
Came out onto Bayswater Rd , browsed through the artist’s displays along the fences, saw a new place for us called The Spire..an old church that was destroyed then rebuilt as apts., retaining the original spire, then caught the first bus we saw, didn’t care where it was going..but it turned out it went to South Bank!
I do love walking around the South Bank, enjoying the buskers and the mimes .
I’d planned on visiting the British watercolor gallery but of course ..closed Sundays! Anyway, walked and stopped and looked and listened..until we got to Millennium Bridge and decided to cross over and head to St James Park.
Good idea but we got distracted at Horse Guards. Hoards of people posing besides the Guards on horseback! Walking thru the arches toward the park, I was really tickled by the poster for the museum.
Doesn’t take much for a change of plans..so in we went. It was really interesting, even to me! Wandered out, found a bus heading in the right direction and headed “home’ for a rest before another dinner at La Famiglia. I know ..it seems to be boring , but try it…you’ll want to try everything on the menu. I don’t even need a menu! We shared a dish of deep fried baby artichokes, then D had swordfish with onion courgettes and balsamic garnish, I had prawns with garlic and basil sauce with roasted veggies. Finished up with gelato and a vin santo with biscotti for me. I d d not share!
2/25 Monday
Up early to hit the Monday morning antiques market at Covent Garden. With all this antiquing you’d think we would have found something we couldn’t live without…but no luck, didn’t buy a thing, not even another picture! Spent an hour or so browsing then headed to the V&A.I’d wanted to see the designs for performance and the Ikat exhibits and we’d missed them both last November. Neither disappointed. Spent some time in the sculpture halls, broke for lunch at Carluccio’s, then back for more museum!
There had been a lot of disruption on both the buses and the tube so decided to head back to the hotel and then have an early dinner at the place we’d found yesterday, Caffe Concerto. We both opted for fish, salmon for me and grilled tuna steak for D. The servings were very large so skipped dessert, though the very kind manager gifted me a marzipan bunny. This place is also a patisserie and I was sorry to pass up all the delicious looking confections.
2/26 Tuesday
Made directly for the Courtauld Gallery this morning and got there just at opening time. We both like this museum, but we dismayed to find the Gilbert Collection of silver and boxes has been moved to the V&A and is not displayed there yet. Didn’t really matter too much as we had come to see the Renoir at the Theatre , Looking at La Loge exhibit.Starting with the early Impressionists , it also featured works by Cassatt and Degas, all concentrating on theatre settings. It was further complimented with French drawings from the permanent collection, with works by Monet, Manet and others. Walked out onto the terrace for some nice river views and some fresh air and sunshine.
Decided to walk up the Strand and Fleet St and search out somewhere for lunch after stopping into St Mary-Le-Strand. Of course right behind that is St Clement Danes, the Wren church dedicated to the RAF. We’d been before but it’s always worth a visit. The magnificent organ was a gift from the USAF.
As we passed by the Olde Cheshire Cheese, I mentioned that people on Fodor’s had been saying the food was quite good and it really was not a tourist trap, mainly journalists and area locals. If that’s so, I have to wonder about their tastes in food. David’s steak and kidney pudding was a giant blob of soggy crust and the kidney must have just been dragged thru it because he couldn’t find even 1 bite of it. I had the ham salad , not much harm one can do to that. Oh well, the wine was good!
Walked a bit further and spied another church we hadn’t seen before, St Bride’s, tucked away between some buildings on Fleet St.It’s called the cathedral of Fleet St and is supported by several news and journalism organizations. Really a lovely quiet spot and worth a visit if you are in the area. They also have free lunchtime concerts throughout the year. Unfortunately there was none the day we visited.
Time to head back to the hotel as we planned on meeting friends at 6 PM for drinks and dinner at the Angelsea Arms, one of our favorite pubs. Made it just on time, Roger showed up about a minute later and we even scored a table! It was so good to see him again and hear about his trip. We were also supposed to meet David West but he’d emailed me, that he might be late so just to go ahead and drink and eat and he’d catch up when he got there!
This pub has a real crowd every evening but they have a separate dining area, with fireplace and lovely old Victorian paintings.
They also have a varied menu and it both good and reasonable, especially for this area. Too bad that it was booked for a large private party that evening!! They were serving food in the pub part and since we had been lucky enough to have a good table, we still managed to enjoy our dinner. We shared a pint of peel it yourself baby prawns, I followed with a yummy pasta with crab, David had some kind of grilled fish , Roger went for the fish and chips. Roger had a very early flight out so he left to make his way back to his hotel and we waited around a bit more to see if David would show up. No luck so we left and took a taxi back to the hotel as my feet were giving me fits! There was an email the next morning from David apologizing but he’d been in the office until almost 9 and wouldn’t have made it to S.Ken before 10, so he’d figured we would have left.
2/27 Wednesday
Made our way to Charing Cross station to meet our friend, Peter, who was coming in from his village in Sussex to meet us. He showed up right on time and we went across to the National Gallery as we all wanted to see the current exhibits of landscape oils and the Pompeo Batoni portraits. An added treat was seeing the finalists for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Sq. Sorry but I thought they were all horrible, not quite as bad as the pregnant woman and the plastic “thing” that’s up there now!
Peter was dying for some Italian food since he’s single , doesn’t cook much and there’s not an Italian place within miles of his village! Found a nice spot next to a nearby theatre, sorry I can’t remember the name. I had a nice pasta with clam sauce. We had lots of good conversation over the 2 bottles of wine we shared before Peter had to leave to catch his train.
David said he was feeling really tired so we headed back to the hotel and he crawled into bed. He came down with really bad chills and a giant headache. Thank God the flu held off until the last day. I left him him in bed and went over to the new M&S store just across the street. It had just opened that day and everyone was being treated to champagne. I felt I had to buy something after 2 glasses so picked up some goodies for the plane tomorrow. Walked on down to the river and took a few photos of all the cranes on the London horizon! It really is a quite pleasant area and we look forward to more shops opening in the development, Imperial Wharf.
Back to the room and David said he felt too lousy for dinner or even to get up. Finally went down to the bar and had a sandwich and a glass of wine before pacikng up our things for tomorrow morning.
2/28 Thursday
Got up around six, David was feeling a bit better, checked out and our ride to Victoria was right on time at 7 AM. It certainly was a treat to have 50% off our entire bill for our 1 day without hot water!!!!
Made it to Victoria, and the Gatwick Express was at the platform so we were at the airport by 8. Thank God for that because the lines were horrible. I’d checked in and printed boarding passes but the Fast Bag drop line was LONG!!! After that line there was another to go thru security. Talked with a nice young man and he was complaining bitterly about the wait times at both Gatwick and Heathrow. He travels on business almost weekly and says it’s been a really bugger lately. Finally made it thru to the gate area at 10 AM….2 hours in lines! We both really needed the coffee and croissants by that time. When we finished that it was time to get to the boarding gate. Plane was not too full and We both had aisle seats. David fell to sleep at once and when the seat belt sign went off , I headed to an empty exit row seat so had lots of leg room! Bad head winds so our flight was about an hour late arriving but fast exit the OIA and then we were home.
Now I have to start planning the Paris trip!
In the beginning we thought it was going to be cute, but it didn't take long before we changed our minds.
hahahha