We had a fantastic time in London over the weekend. The transportation went amazingly smoothly for the UK, the hotel was great, the sights were interesting and different (only one church!), and the food was delicious. We explored two big museums, visited Harrods, saw a movie in Leicester Square, ate at Wagamama twice, and celebrated Chinese New Year with about a million other people. We are sorry to be back home.
We took the train to London Saturday morning, arriving at Paddington around 11:30am. Thanks to David's latest fancy phone, we were able to check train times en route and hopped off at Reading to catch a faster train. Hooray for technology!
Since we only had a small bag each, we decided to walk to our hotel. It was a rather long walk, but an enjoyable one since it took us through Hyde Park. The sun was shining so beautifully that we were actually too hot in our winter coats. We passed lots of walkers, runners, dog walkers, parents with strollers, and even lots of horses. There's a designated horse path next to the bike path and people path.
On the south side of Hyde Park is the Albert Memorial, really quite a spectacular monument. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Albert, who died of typhoid fever in 1861. It was completed in 1875 in the "revival Gothic" style.
We rested for a bit there while David plotted our hotel's address on the aforementioned fancy phone, which also acts as a GPS locator and satellite navigation system. It's really something.
Then we were able to walk the rest of the way without a care in the world or a map in our hand, just by obeying the instructions of a gentle but firm British woman's voice to "turn left in 200 yards." Her name is Jane. We also have the choice of Yoda ("in 200 yards, turn left you must") and John Cleese, but they get old sooner than you'd think, so we stick with Jane.
Check-in was smooth at the Parkcity Hotel and the receptionist was very nice. She was absolutely astonished when we told her we walked from Paddington - you'd think we told her we walked from Oxford. I thought Americans were supposed to be the ones averse to walking! Since we were a few hours early, she put our bags in storage for us and offered to put them in our room when it was ready.
Meanwhile, I sat on a comfy leather sofa nearby and flipped through a London magazine, in which I learned a very important bit of information - there is a Laduree in Harrods! Laduree is a snobby tea room in Paris that has the most incredible macaroons. I didn't even know I liked macaroons, and perhaps I still don't in general, but I sure like the ones they make. And David likes them even more. So Harrod's was firmly on the list for the day.
We were just about to head out when the receptionist said our room was ready. She took us up there herself, and informed us that we'd been upgraded to a deluxe room. Well, okay! I think that just means it's a little bigger, but I still felt special. (I took these photos when we got back that night and they're unfortunately rather dark.)
The room was lovely, and the huge bed actually said to us: "You really should take a nice nap before you go do all that walking." We were oh so tempted, but resisted.
The flat-screen TV was absolutely huge and had a personal welcome for us on it with movie previews playing in the background. The bathroom was glorious, with a big tub and awesome "rain" shower. Our shower is so horribly small and I dearly miss having a tub. I am still mourning the fact that we had to leave and can't just live there.
First item on the agenda for the afternoon was lunch, to which we were expertly guided by David instead of Jane. We went through the coolest avenues and back alleys on the way, which looked more like Spain or France than London.
We also saw a number of townhouses that we would very much like to move into immediately, such as these:
Our growling stomachs were very happy to arrive at Wagamama, our very favorite Japanese noodle place that we visit almost every time we come to London. Happily, there are about 20 of them in the city so we're never far from one. Most of them seem to be in a basement, but this was on the fourth floor which was a nice change, and the stairs were quite cool. There was a line since we arrived at UK lunchtime (1-2pm), but it went very fast.
That lovely dish above is my amai udon, which is a lot like pad thai only not in the least spicy and even more delicious. David had a super-spicy curry soup (obviously they do more than Japanese food) that he loved. We left happy as always, and I even remembered to buy a red t-shirt this time. Then it was onto the sightseeing, which I'll save for tomorrow's post.