February 1-10.
Highly recommend going to Europe in the winter. Waterproof boots, coat, scarf, mittens - good to go with nearly no crowds, a little rain, and great rates on flights and hotel. We landed around 6am, took the tube into Central London, checked in at the Westminster Hotel (one block off the Thames, couple blocks from the Tate Britain, super-nice concierge named Vijay), left our bags, and on a tip from Lisa S., finally found the Onion Garden, a lovely oasis with coffee and pastries.
After hanging out at the Onion Garden, Day 1 was kind of bust. We were able to get into our room around 11am and immediately took a long nap. Dinner at Pret a Manger near the hotel was all we were up for, but knowing that we were going to land severely jetlagged, we didn't have much planned.
So we made the most of Day 2 by taking a boat from just behind the hotel to Greenwich to see exactly where time starts.
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| The Royal Observatory... |
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| ...and the giant telescope therein. |
From the boat back to London:
On Day 3 we went to the Faraday Museum to see some science and to the Wigmore Pub for possibly the world's largest cheese toastie. I was sure we'd have leftovers...
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| We also ordered what turned out to be the world's best hummus (in my opinion), served with wafer-thin pita crisps and fried artichokes. |
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| So much for the idea of leftovers. |
Day 4. What can I say about Day 4... It started at a fish & chips shop nearing Charing Cross and proceeded to this:
the details of which were horrible and caused major inconvenience, but it could have been worse (passport and phone not stolen), so it the spirit of the Brits, I was able to
and we proceeded to the Sky Garden on top of 20 Fenchurch Street, aka, the "Walkie Talkie" building.
We got a lot of late morning starts (jetlag) so on Day 5 we wandered into Trafalgar Square, must have gotten lunch somewhere... and made our way to a loverly stationery shop before heading to see Oh, Mary! which I had wanted to see in NYC but this was just as good.
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| We had great seats at the Trafalgar Theatre for "Oh, Mary!". |
On Day 6 we decided to get out of Central London so we took a train and then a bus and then slogged along a sketchy, muddy trail to the Anchor Pub in Surrey. Again, if it had been summer, this canal-side pub would have been mobbed, but in early February, we had it practically to ourselves.
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| in case you're wondering, we took an Uber back to the train station versus reversing this journey. |
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| Despite the mud and a bit of rain, it was still a pleasant walk. |
Day 7, another late start and tickets to another play that we bought on the spur-of-the-moment when we walked past the marquee and saw that an Alan Ayckbourn play was on offer. I first read Ayckbourn in college in a Brit Lit class ("The Norman Conquests"), loved it, and then revisited his work when the Intiman Theatre in Seattle produced "How the Other Half Loves" while I worked there. He always seems to mess with the space/time continuum in some way that leads to hilarity... this one did that, sort of, but also depicts a woman's complete mental breakdown (leading to hilarity?).
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| Great seats again, despite the ladies in front of us who didn't seem to think it was rude to chat during the performance, or the lady behind us who OPENED A CRINKLY BAG OF CHIPS AND STARTED MUNCHING DURING THE SHOW. |
Day 8, we wandered around Notting Hill before seeing an improv show with Shoot from the Hip, a British group that Greg had seen on youtube, which was very fun and entertaining.
Day 9, our last day, Greg was coming down with a cold so instead of another excursion out of London which we had considered, we went to Camden Town, walked around, had a nice lunch and a fantastic dessert, paid our respects to one of Camden's most famous and talented former residents, Amy Winehouse (RIP), and headed back to the hotel to pack.
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And that ended our mid-winter trip to London. Despite one really horrible experience, we had a great time, and I still think of London as one of my favorite cities in the world.
