It feels like coming full circle since 1) we thought that our last trip to Europe in 2012 would be our last for a while, possibly years, and 2) we visited London on our first international trip together in 2007. It's neat to end our multi-year European run where it all began. It's also great to return and be able to see all the things we missed on our last very short and rushed trip.
Our Itinerary (July 22 - July 27, 2014)
Tuesday, July 22
We arrived in London around 6am but when all was said and done in terms of going through immigration, purchasing our 7-day travel cards for the Underground/tube, getting round-trip Heathrow Express tickets, and then getting into the city/finding our hotel, we didn't start exploring until 10am.
Before I get into our adventures I have to give a lot of praise to our neighborhood Marylebone (pronounced Mar-la-bone or Mar-la-bun...?) and our home for the week, Montagu Place Hotel. If you follow my blog you know that I'm a fan of B&Bs and not so much of hotels. In this case, however, I really loved our hotel. It's a boutique hotel, which is a nice compromise between a big chain and a B&B. Everything is on a smaller scale (fewer rooms and closer quarters) but you get the privacy of a hotel in the sense that you can avoid the other guests. The concierge staff was excellent with particular emphasis on Enrico, whom we interacted with the most. The bed was very comfortable, which I'm sure helped me get over jet lag faster than I ever have before. The water pressure in the shower was also commendable. The neighborhood, while close to two tube stations (Baker Street and Marble Arch), was pleasantly quiet at night. I was never awoken by street noise. And perhaps most importantly, the a/c worked famously. I'll get into why that was so essential a little later...
Previous to this trip I had typed up and prepared a very detailed itinerary for myself. I was able to accomplish most of what I set out to do but some things got switched around while others were crossed off completely. One of the items that was completely stricken from the list was London Walks. I was disappointed I wasn't able to squeeze any in because I really enjoyed doing two of their walks on our last trip to London. Oh well. Next time?
We hopped on the tube and made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral. On our last trip we saw it from afar but didn't get a chance to go inside. We picked up the audio guides that go with the entrance fee and listened for a little while. Unfortunately, once we sat down to observe some of the most beautiful mosaic work I've ever seen (on the ceiling) the monotone of the audio guide combined with sitting and our jet lag resulted in a lot of head bobbing. In other words, we kept nodding off! At that point we figured we had absorbed as much information as we could so we left.
Then we crossed over the Millennium Bridge and looked back over to St. Paul's Cathedral for some quick pics.
We continued our walk to Southwark Cathedral right next to Borough Market. Lots of people were sitting in the Cathedral courtyard on their lunch breaks. We took the hint and decided to get a snack of our own.
Our snack of choice was a Scotch egg - a bread-crumbed and meat-wrapped hard-boiled egg. I've always wanted to try one and I have to say, it was quite enjoyable.
Then we returned to the waterfront to make our way to one of my favorite London sights - the Tower Bridge.
A place I really enjoyed visiting last time was the Tower of London. Had there been more time and fewer tourists I might've suggested a second visit this time around.
More pics of the Tower Bridge as we approached and then crossed it.
Once we crossed the Bridge we hopped on the tube to get to Westminster to get some more iconic pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
And on the other side of the river - the London Eye.
We walked past Big Ben on our way to the Churchill War Rooms.
The Churchill War Rooms are something that my parents did when they were in London several years ago and recommended it to us. These rooms served as a safety bunker for Winston Churchill and other high officials during World War II. They did a lot of strategizing down there and despite choosing to not sleep there most of the time, there were provisions for multi-day stays - bedrooms, a kitchen, etc. Several of the rooms were preserved in their entirety while others were restored to what they looked like years ago. It was a very worthwhile visit for us.
One of the things I thought was cool was that one of the cabinet members (I think) had socked away three sugar cubes in his desk and they remained there until the War Rooms were turned into a museum.
Afterward we walked through St. James's Park on our way home.
I think this gate is actually part of Hyde Park:
It was a pretty long walk home because we ended up going through three parks - St. James's, Hyde, and Green. Once we got back we were pretty hungry and weren't up for exploring after walking across what felt like half of London. We ventured just a few blocks down the road from our hotel to Taste of Morocco. The food was actually quite good and reminiscent of my time in Morocco but the service was lackadaisical and the service ware wasn't clean.
That's where our evening ended. I think we both managed to shower but pretty much passed out by 8:30pm and woke the following morning between 4:30 and 5:00.
Wednesday, July 23
Today was Evan's first day of work at the British Library. I tagged along because my plans paired quite nicely with his. My itinerary consisted of Sir John Soane's Museum and the British Museum, both within walking distance to each other and the British Library.
I got to John Soane's about an hour before they opened but fortunately, there was a lovely park, Lincoln Inn Fields, directly across the street. I spent that hour on a bench in the shade and just watched the world go by. All was silent except for some barking (there were several unleashed dogs running around and playing), the sun was out but I was cool in my shady spot, and it was as if I didn't have a care in the world. It was one of my favorite "activities" during our trip.
I was one of the first to get into the museum, which was formerly John Soane's home. I had brought my windbreaker with me in case the museums might be chilly. Oh, what a fool I was. At the end of my day I put my windbreaker back in the suitcase and that's where it remained for the duration of the trip. London was experiencing quite the heatwave while we were in town and there was no relief to be found in most of the places we spent our time. I was devastated. Lol. If you know me, you know how much I love a/c. I've said to Evan many times, if I lived in a world without a/c I wouldn't survive. But I digress. Back to the museum...
Because the museum is in John Soane's former home, it had a very intimate and quaint feeling to it. Unfortunately, that also meant that once people started to stream in it got a little tight in there. That marred the experience a little bit but mostly I really enjoyed myself. No photography was allowed but a few of my favorite pieces of John Soane's collection were the ring containing a lock of Napoleon's hair (John Soane was an obsessive collector of all things Napoleon), several pieces of Roman ruins (how did he get those?), and a truly impressive Egyptian sarcophagus covered in hieroglyphics. Of the museums I visited, it was my favorite. I can thank my grandmother for recommending it.
From there, I went to the British Museum. Aside from the awesome antiquities, it was my personal hell. What felt like a million people were in the building that day and guess what they didn't have? That's right - a/c! I was so uncomfortable I had to fight to stifle the rage that was building inside of me. It's hard to say that I actually enjoyed myself because truthfully, I didn't. At a different time of year I could've spent hours looking at the collections but I wanted to get out of there ASAP.
I picked up the museum guide and followed their directions to the "highlights" and saw a good 80% of them. For example, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin marbles, Egyptian mummies, etc.
I will say that I was really impressed to see artifacts from Mesopotamia. I remember studying Mesopotamia, one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, in elementary and middle school and just being in awe of their technology and sophistication.
Some neat things I saw along the way:
The famous (stolen) Elgin marbles. I remember hearing about them when we were in Greece. I think the Greeks feel cheated out of managing their own antiquities. Rightfully so.
When I was done I made my way back to the British Library, which thankfully, does have a/c.
I waited for Evan to finish up with his work stuff and then we walked across the street to The Euston Flyer, our first and only pub of the trip. We were both very pleased with our meals. Evan got a chicken tikka burger/sandwich and I got fish and chips.
Afterward we returned to the Library to visit their permanent collection of historical documents like the Magna Carta, handwritten Beatles lyrics, original drawings/journal notations by Michelangelo and Da Vinci, etc.
We returned home not long after and once we had sufficiently cooled off set out to find a nice spot for dinner. We only walked a few blocks to an Indian place called New Diwan I Am. I haven't had Indian food in a long time because it generally doesn't agree with me. I'm thrilled, however, that I shelved my misgivings while we were in London because it's some of the best Indian I've ever had. And guess what? My stomach didn't disagree! We got samosas, naan, and while my chicken biryani with vegetable curry was quite good, Evan's meal of chicken tandoori bhuna was excellent. I really hope we can find that dish somewhere local to us.
Thursday, July 24
Since Evan needed to go all the way out to The National Archives/Kew Gardens for work, I decided to do my own thing in central London. We rode together on the tube to Notting Hill Gate and then went in opposite directions.
I got off near Somerset House to spend my morning at The Courtauld Gallery. I was a little confused at first because I didn't realize that the Gallery was within Somerset House. I also didn't know that Somerset House is a huge four-sided building with a courtyard in the middle and houses several different galleries and offices. I started to walk into an office before I realized I was in the wrong place.
It reminded me a lot of Paris actually. Anyway, once I found my way to the Gallery I had some brief relief in the first level because there were individual a/c units in the room with the Middle Ages art. But the next levels (up the stairs) had no such relief. Despite that, I enjoyed the art the higher up I went. I've always been a fan of the Impressionists and there were works by Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, etc.
A couple highlights:
I thought this one was really interesting because it's dot art.
On my way out of Somerset House I walked by a small exhibit and then decided to turn back and check it out. It was free and looked small so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm so glad I did because it was on par with the Sir John Soane Museum in terms of being my favorite stuff to see.
It was an exhibit featuring tattoo artists and their exploration of the themes of time and life and death.
From there I went back to the tube station to get myself closer to Tate Modern. Much like the British Museum, about a million people were there and again, no a/c. I focused on the three levels of their permanent collection and rushed around trying to see as much as I could as quickly as I could. Some of the modern art was that silly variety, like solid-colored canvases. I liked the 3D and surrealist art the best.
Is it just me or does this look like a giant pile of elephant poop?
This is from Pablo Picasso's "The Weeping Woman" series. She originated from his famous work "Guernica" that evokes the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. Apparently, he did many renditions of her.
It took me about an hour with a combination of tube rides and walking to get home. Once I did, I really enjoyed having a couple of hours in the a/c before Evan got done with work. I skipped lunch, despite a growling stomach, to guarantee quality time with the a/c. And if you know me, you know how big of a deal that is. I love food and it shows! I mean, seriously, London. I'm going to lodge a complaint with the UN. Air conditioning should be a basic human right. Why are you living in the Dark Ages? Even the third world has working a/c. *End vent*
When Evan got home we had a terrible dinner at an Italian chain not too far from the hotel - Strada. Do yourself a favor and skip it. I wish we had.
To get the bad taste of dinner out of our mouths we grabbed some lackluster ice cream in Regent's Park. The ice cream wasn't great but we found out about a full English breakfast at the Park Cafe and took note. We also had a lovely walk around, which reminds me of my second biggest complaint about London equal to my annoyance about the lack of sufficient a/c - smoking. Almost everywhere we went we wanted to eat outside because due to the lack of a/c, most buildings felt really stuffy and uncomfortable. Well, that presented the secondary problem of having to deal with smokers. I really can't stand the smell of smoke and it bothers me to the point that I usually have to move away from it. It bothered me that not only could I not escape smoke while eating but at the park, too. Who goes to the green, lush park and then pollutes the fresh air with smoke? GRRR. *End vent*
At least the pictures are smoke-free:
We spent the latter part of the evening walking around Marylebone and Mayfair. I love the painted doors and decorative flowers around the various residences. It's definitely a very polished and posh part of town.
Friday, July 25
Today was a pretty chill day. We didn't really do a lot. We got up at our leisure and went to The Garden Cafe in Regent's Park for a full English breakfast. It wasn't exceptional but it was satisfying. As I recall, we cleaned our plates.
Some more pics of the Park:
From there we went back to the British Library so Evan could continue his research. I kind of helped so I was able to get a "reader" ID. It's good for a year though I'm not sure I'll be back in London in that time. Ha. It was actually kind of neat to be a researcher for a hot minute. You figure people from all over the world come to the British Library to exhaust their expansive resources.
Also neat is the multi-level stack of books that make up George III's library. He was the king in power when America had its revolution. His collection includes incredible first editions of books like the Gutenberg Bible and The Canterbury Tales.
There's a beautiful hotel/train station near the tube stop closest to the Library.
After the Library we tubed over to Covent Garden/Leicester Square, which was an absolute mad house. Think Times Square in terms of the number of tourists. We didn't stick around for long. My head felt like it was going to explode.
We returned home and had dinner at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen). Basically, it's a rip-off of Five Guys with a little more variety. It was pretty good.
Saturday, July 26
We started our morning at The Grazing Goat with an excellent breakfast. Seriously, I had one of the best eggs benedict I've ever had in my life. Evan got an omelet and then we split some pancakes. AMAZING.
From there we went to Portobello Road. I wanted to go on our last visit but I had run out of steam as we were on our way there (I must've picked up a bug on the plane over). I've been wanting to go to this market since watching Bedknobs & Broomsticks, the Disney movie musical.
"Portobello Road. Portobello Road. The street where the riches of ages are sold. Anything and everything a chap can unload..."
Anyway, it was nothing like I expected. Lol. I think we lasted 30 minutes, tops. There were just too many people and it was too hot. Still, I'm glad it's something I was able to check off my list.
We went from one insanely busy market to another - Borough Market. At least we got some good food out of it though. We split some khanom krok, which I had seen earlier in the week and knew I had to share with Evan. My dad used to get these mini coconut pancakes from a vendor on the grounds of the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok, which was right next to our apartment building. I've never seen that street food anywhere else but Bangkok so that was pretty cool.
We also got sandwiches followed by a gigantic cookie that was the size of my face. Seriously. We took a picture, which I won't share here.
And then, because that wasn't enough food, we hopped on the tube and went to Harrod's for afternoon high tea. It wasn't exceptional but it was an experience and I'm glad we did it because it was an excuse to go to Harrod's. We didn't spend a lot of time there but it's certainly more than just a department store. It takes up an entire city block.
We ended the evening at Shaftesbury Theatre where we saw The Pajama Game. I was really excited about it because I've always loved the movie musical. It has one of my favorite scores. Evan wasn't thrilled about it beforehand but he ended up really enjoying it, as did I. It was hard for me to not compare the lead actress to Doris Day and not surprisingly, she didn't measure up. How could she? DD rules! The lead actor, in our opinion, was the stronger singer and performer.
And surprise, surprise the theater had no a/c! We bought a chocolate bar before the performance and after a couple hours in the theater it was a chocolate puddle.
Sunday, July 27
Today we took a much needed break from the city by taking an all day trip to Hampton Court Palace.
I've always been fascinated by King Henry VIII and his six wives so it stands to reason that I'd want to see where and how he lived. It was really special to walk amongst his things and get a glimpse of the grandeur that was his court.
We toured the premises with an audio guide that explained the workings of the Palace. Kate Winslet was the narrator. Apparently, they ate A LOT of meat. I can't remember the exact statistic but something like 75% of their meals were composed of meat. They followed religious protocol in terms of not eating meat during Lent or on Wednesdays (?), etc. but it seems that they expanded the definition of fish to include water-dwelling animals like geese and beavers. Hmm. Sounds like cheating to me!
They also kept huge barrels of wine in the wine cellar. Their definition of good wine was very different from ours today. They produced and drank wine in the same year and the stronger the taste, the better the wine.
The Great Hall was magnificent. It wasn't hard to imagine it full of people eating and drinking especially since it was full of tourists while we were there. Ha. But the interesting thing is that the King never spent much time eating there. Why? Because true luxury was privacy. Apparently, he ate most of his meals in his personal chambers.
I absolutely love the ceiling. It's original from Henry's reign, much like the beautiful blue-green ceiling in the Royal Chapel (no pictures allowed).
An adjacent room with another gorgeous ceiling:
Then we went through the Gallery, which is famous for (allegedly) being haunted by Catherine Howard, the King's fifth wife. Apparently, she escaped her room after being found guilty of adultery (and other lewd acts) and ran down the Gallery to catch the King in the Royal Chapel to beg his forgiveness. She was recaptured by guards before she could reach him and ever since, her presence is felt there.
There's also a very interesting portrait in the Gallery that portrays a revisionist/idealistic history. In it, the King poses with his son, Edward, close to his side, his favorite wife and Edward's mother, Jane Seymour, is on his other side. She was already dead at the time the painting was commissioned, and in fact, the King was married to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, at the time. And his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, who he had previously snubbed and de-legitimized, are painted in the portrait on either side of him but at a greater distance. Apparently, he had reconciled with them at the time but not enough that they deserved to be in touching proximity.
He was such an interesting but impetuous and flawed man. He hurt many people and it seems he hurt the people closest to him the most.
We ended our tour of the Palace with King Henry VIII's quarters. William III and Mary II resided at Hampton Court in the 1700s and their baroque apartments were available to visit but Evan and I had no interest.
We continued our exploration in the Palace Gardens. Just beautiful.
The back of the baroque part of the Palace reminds me of Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.
Near the Gardens was the world's largest vine. Seriously. We saw the Guinness Book of World Records certificate. I think it's been continuously growing since King Henry VIII's day.
Some more pictures on the way out:
We spent about four hours touring the Palace and Gardens. It was awesome. This was definitely my favorite experience of the trip. There's something exhilarating about walking through the same halls as historically significant people. And even though he was kind of a big jerk, I've always been intrigued by King Henry VIII. It's cool to be able to say I've been in his home.
From the Palace we went into town and had a great lunch at Siam Paragon. It seemed authentic enough and even if it wasn't, it certainly tasted good.
When we got back to London it was already late afternoon/early evening. We decompressed a bit in the hotel room and then had our last dinner at another Italian food chain, Zizzi. Fortunately, the food was infinitely better than our last Italian food chain experience. The service was pleasant and our food was delicious.
Before I close things out, I almost forgot that John Lennon lived in one of the townhouses across the street from our hotel. I'm a huge Beatles/Lennon fan so to stumble on that randomly was really neat.
Lastly, we alternated between two tube stations during our stay but our "home" station was Baker Street. Do you remember what famous fictional character lived on Baker Street?
Sherlock Holmes!
Evan and I are so appreciative of this gift of a trip. I had a list of things I wanted to do if we ever returned to London and I was able to cross most of them off. In fact, I'm going to copy and paste what I mentioned in my previous blog:
I'd love to go back to London for a whole week and just take our time walking through the different neighborhoods, see a show in the West End, go inside St. Paul's Cathedral, see Hampton Court Palace, get to Portobello Road and do some antique shopping, go for high tea, shop in Harrod's, and take a couple more day-trips. I'd also like to see some of London's world-class museums.
I can say that I walked through many different neighborhoods this trip, including Marylebone and Mayfair, saw a show in the West End - The Pajama Game, went inside St. Paul's Cathedral, saw Hampton Court Palace, went to Portobello Road (no on the antique shopping), went for high tea AT Harrod's, and even though we didn't go too far outside London, I consider Hampton Court a day-trip. I was also able to visit the British Museum, Tate Modern, Sir John Soane's Museum, and the Courtauld Gallery. I had the National Portrait Gallery on my list but nixed it because I couldn't deal with yet another a/c-free hot zone.
Unfortunately, I can't emphasize enough how uncomfortable I felt during most of the trip due to a lack of a/c and an overabundance of chain-smokers. The smoking issue isn't just London, it's a European problem, but the combination of the heat and the smoke was really bad. If we sat outside to get a breeze then inevitably, someone's nasty second-hand smoke would waft in my face. I was also reminded why it's a TERRIBLE idea to travel in Europe during the summer season - TOO MANY TOURISTS. You'll see our pictures and say, wow, those blue skies are amazing. But you know what? I would've traded those blue skies for gray ones if it meant fewer people clogging up my space.
And don't even get me started on the tube. I didn't talk about it much except to say we rode it here, we rode it there but if the British Museum was my personal hell, the tube was, in fact, HELL. It was oppressively, suffocatingly hot. And it didn't help that everyone was on top of one another. I smelled every variety of BO you can imagine. *barfs*
I'm not sure we'll ever be in London again. Obviously, if there was another opportunity like this one then I'm sure we'd consider it. On our own dime, I don't think so. I definitely see us visiting the UK again one day but I see us spending more time in the countryside. I'd love to visit the Lake District and Scotland. And even though it's not the UK, I'd also love to do a road trip around Ireland. But I don't see us making another trans-Atlantic flight in the near future.
For comparison purposes, here's the link to my blog entry from 2007 from our last trip to London here.
I took several of the same pictures but the scenery is vastly different. It's kind of fun to see the stereotypically dreary London in 2007 and the rarely seen sun in London in 2014.
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