One last day in London

I've been  visiting friends  in Wiltshire for the last 5 days. I don't have any photos as Malmesbury is a small town and the visit was more about reconnecting  with them than about sightseeing.  I did have  a great time though and got to visit lots of coffee  shops and  restaurants in the area.

I headed back to London one day before my flight to meet up with my friend Kris  for the day.   We did a scavenger hunt that started at South Kensington underground station and took us through some fascinating  back streets in the area.  

About midway we ended up near the Albert Hall, so we decided to stop in there for lunch.

After finishing the scavenger  hunt we went to Harrods and had coffee in the roasters there before  heading back to Paddington and saying  goodbye.  Then I caught the train to Heathrow where I am staying the night in the hotel  at terminal  2 before  flying  home tomorrow. 

This is the end of my blog entries  for this trip, but I'm heading to Barcelona  in March, so check back in again  then

A wet New Year's Day

We went to Leicester Square this morning to see Gladiator  2 at the cinema.   The idea was that when we came out it would be the right time to walk to Charing  Cross to see the New Year's Day parade passing.

Unforunately, it was a wet day.  By the time we got to  Charing Cross the only the back end of the parade was passing and most of it was up by Westminster.  I guess the participants  were marching fast to try and get out of the rain.  Even  so the crowd was about 3 or 4 deep, and being short all Becky and I could see were the tops of some banners going past.

We walked down to Fleet Street to try and go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub for lunch.

But the kitchen was closed because it was New Year's Day so they  weren't doing food. We ended up at Ye Olde London  pub near St Paul's instead. 

It was a wet and cold day, so we decided to go back to the hotel for the evening and warm up, especially  since becky was heading back to Heathrow  the next day.

New Year's Eve

This morning  we took a quick look around the V&A. It seemed a shame not to pop in when  we were staying  right opposite 

 In the afternoon we went  to the Ritz for afternoon tea. 

The Palm Court was beautifully  decorated and the staff were very attentive.

It's a  good  thing this was going to be our only meal of the day as were pogged, and  ended up having to  take some of the cakes and scones back to the hotel  in a doggy bag.

We headed back to the hotel to change, and then walked over to the Natural History Museum at 9pm for the New Year's Eve party

There were lots of activities  going on like a band in the main hall, a barn dance and a silent  disco in other halls and we even  played Dino bingo.  Some of the ground floor galleries were open, so after seeing the New Year in with a drink in the main hall,  we went around the Wildlife  Photographer of the Year  display in one of the galleries,  before  heading back to the hotel. 

30th December - Hampton Court

We took the tube out to Waterloo this morning. On the way to the tube station we passed this small green  cabin near our hotel which I thought was worthy of a mention.

This is a Cabman's Shelter.  They were built back in Victorian times when cabmen were seated up on top of a horse drawn carriage,  exposed to the elements.   The cabins provided a place where the drivers could shelter in bad weather and get a hot drink and something to eat.  Inside there's a small kitchen (see the chimney  on top) and some small bench seating. However,  you  can't go inside  if you're  not a registered  London  taxi driver.  You can get a cup of tea and a bacon butty and a cup of tea from the window on the end though.   This particular Cabman's Shelter is very close to our hotel. There were over 100 of these shelters around London at one time, but now only about a dozen  remain and they're listed buildings.

Also, on the way to Waterloo  tube station  we passed  Harrods,  looking very splendid  in all its Christmas  finery.

From  Waterloo  wecaught a train out to Hampton  Court.  It's been  many many years since either of us last came here.

The Palace is very interesting with lots of different  areas from times  when  different  monarchs resided there.  

The Tudor areas of the Palace are the most well known,  but there were also William III's apartments and a Georgian section. George II was the last monarch to use the Palace,  after that the Royal family moved to Buckingham Palace. 

The gardens are beautiful  too.

After much walking around the Palace and it's grounds we made our way over the road to a place called the Coppernose Cafe for something to  eat, before heading  back to the train  station for the return  journey  to London.   

It had been a long day and Becky is still a bit under the weather with her cold so we decided  to spend the rest of the evening indoors and  ate in the hotel  bar.

December 29th - Little Venice and Camden Market

Just near Paddington is a less well known  area of London where 3 major canals intersect and many houseboats are moored. We walked from Paddington station  this morning,  alongside one of these canals to the intersection (an area known  as Little  Venice).

We had intended to stop for a while and then  return to Paddington  to catch the tube to Camden.  But what should we come across  but a narrow boat waterbus that was heading to Camden  Lock.  So we got on that and had a very  interesting 45 minute trip along the Regents Canal down to  Camden.   

The route included going through Regents Park behind the zoo, so we got a free view of some of the animal enclosures. 

When we got to Camden  it was absolutely  heaving. We had intended to get some street food from the market for lunch, but there would have been no way to stand somewhere to eat so we immediately gave upon that idea and decided to head out of the area on the tube. 

In fact congestion around Camden Town tube station  was so bad that they weren't  letting  anyone in.  So Becky and I had to make our way to Mornington Crescent.  I played the Finchley Central  variation while Becky played the reverse court rules and we both arrived simultaneously. 

After  this we went to Leicester Square and watched Wicked at the cinema,  followed by a nice meal in an Italian restaurant.  The evening was rounded out by some shopping on Oxford Street. 

December 28th - A Pub Crawl Around Becky's Old Haunts

We started the day by taking the tube to Russell Square, and from there walking to Queens  Square (where Becky used to live, when she worked in London  back in the 70s).

This is the National Hospital,  where she used to work. 

After that we decided to stop for  a drink. The first place we tried was the Princess Louise, which is a former gin palace with supposedly sumptuous decor. Unforunately,  it wasn't  open yet (which was odd as some pubs were). I couldn't even  take a photo of the inside as the windows were all made of etched glass.

Instead, we walked back to Queens Square and had some mulled wine in Becky's old local: The Friend at Hand.

As well as being a very nice pub in its own  right. The Friend is also famous  for turning up in the lyrics of Grizabella the Glamour Cat from the musical Cats.

From here it was off to Leicester Square to try and see if we could get cheap tickets to a show for New Year's Day,  but nothing seems to be on that day.  By now it was almost  2pm so we decided to stop for a late lunch. 

We walked past Green Park  checking out few pubs like this one on the way

Eventually,  we ended up at Shepherds  Market,  where we had a nice meal at The Kings Arms. 

It was a damp day so we decided to return to the hotel at tea time and spent the rest of the  evening  washing our hair and watching TV in the hotel room.

27th December - The Long Road back to London

We originally planned to  return to London  from Nottingham  by train. However,  we were  unable to get  a train ticket  as all the trains out of  Nottingham that day were fully booked.  I don't know  if it was a reduced  service  that day or what.  Instead we ended upon a national express coach to Victoria.   Progress down the M1 was slow due to thick fog and then it turned out that the driver had to have a break as he had gone over his legal limit of driving without a break.  So we pulled off at Toddington services for 30 minutes.  By the time we got back on the road there had been an accident and we were stuck in a traffic jam for ages. We eventually  got into  Victoria  nearly 2.5 hours late.  The plan had been to get a taxi from  Victoria to the hotel.  But after waiting  at the taxi rank for 10 minutes there were no taxis to be seen so we decided to try the underground instead. Victoria is vast and it took us 10 minutes of walking around with our cases before we even found the underground station.  It was only 2 stops to South  Kensington,  but when we got off there were no lifts or escalators, so we had to lug our cases up 2 flights of stairs.    We were totally exhausted when we finally made it to our hotel. 

The hotel is ideally situated for our New Year's Eve party at the Natural History Museum  as we are right across from the Victoria and Albert  museum (which is right next door  to the NHM).  

 

Both of us are under the weather with  colds so we may not end up doing much tomorrow.