Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Trip report: return to London, first visit to Oxford & Cardiff

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noe:

It's a bit late, but for future reference. If your plans for the day ever again include Oxford, and you need your weekly dose of Latin, St Aloysius (next door to Somerville) does an excellent full-fig High Mass at 11, with a packed congregation still capable of chanting all the responses, a choir whose repertoire includes most of Mozart, Bach, Palestrina and Lassus (as well as an extraordinary range of 19th century French composers I can't imagine most French people have ever heard of) and not infrequently a small orchestra.

Great trip report - I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

Lee Ann

Monday, March 12, London

I think I slept until almost 11:00am. Once awake I busied myself for a while with organizing and planning. The day was bright and sunny, and just as I was about to head out on my own, Ali cracked open her eyes. When I told her it was well after noon, she willingly got up and ready. We ate chocolate croissants from our stash.

Westminster Abbey
Ali had never seen Westminster Abbey, so that’s where we headed. It’s always a thrill to come out of the Westminster tube station and see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the Thames, and Westminster Abbey! But the Abbey was closed. This was Commonwealth Day, and there was going to be a service or ceremony that the Queen would be attending. Admission to the Abbey was by invitation only. We got to see several groups of guests arriving – mostly women in elaborate hats and sensible shoes.

Red Nose Day
We regrouped and decided to go to the Tower of London. On the tube there were people collecting ₤1 for something. In return they gave a red foam nose. The aim of the fundraising was a mystery to us, but the red nose looked pretty cool, so we made the donation. We heard a lot about this over the next few days, and eventually gathered that the money was for Comic Relief, a charity that helped needy people in Africa and at home, especially with education. Thousands of these red noses were sold, and March 16 was going to be Red Nose Day, when everyone was supposed to wear their noses. There was also a comedy show on TV associated with the fundraising.

Tower Hill station
Nearby is a bit of Roman wall and a statue of Trajan. There was a group of giggling Japanese girls taking their pictures with the statue, so we had to wait our turn for the photo op.

Tower of London [£16]
The line for Tower tickets was short, and we were able to use some 2-for-1 coupons, saving a bunch of money. The usual entrance through the Byward Tower was blocked off. Turns out the Prince of Wales was there, tourist routes were re-arranged. We were diverted to the makeshift entrance where we found a long queue on the sidewalk along the Thames. We entertained ourselves watching some guys repaint the decorative bits of the rubbish bins with gold paint. 30 minutes later, our bags inspected, we entered through the Wakefield Tower.

Yeoman Warder tour
The last tour of the day was getting ready to start (3:30, I think). We assembled for the tour right near the Ravens. Of course, the legend is that if the ravens ever leave the Tower the monarchy will fall. Just to make sure they stay, their wings are clipped.

Because it was Commonwealth Day (or because the Prince was there), the Yeoman Warders were all wearing their fanciest uniforms. Our tour group was very large, but our Beefeater was excellent – quite funny – and he regaled us with stories of the Tower’s long history. After an hour we finished up the tour at the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. We were charmed by the little kneeling cushions hanging on hooks on the back of each pew, just above the kneeler. Ali’s cushion had a “death or glory” design in needlepoint (picture of a skull with the words “or glory” underneath).

Crown Jewels
There wasn’t much of a line, and we found the jewels captivating, especially the Koh-i-Noor diamond that is set into the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Gift Shop
The Tower very cleverly locates a gift shop devoted to jewelry just beyond the exit from the Crown Jewels exhibit. Ali spotted a DVD called ‘Tales from the Palaces.’ The cover featured a prominent picture of a Yeoman Warder, and promised narration by one of the Beefeaters. We purchased it, assuming that it would be a series of historic stories told by the Beefeaters, similar to our tour. When we later watched the DVD on Ali’s laptop we found out that it was actually a TV documentary series about the challenges of preserving the various palaces owned by Historic Royal Palaces. Most of the episodes were about Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. The Yeoman Warders are never seen (except for the cover picture). Although it wasn’t what we expected, we really enjoyed the shows, and finished the entire series when we had free time in the evenings.

White Tower - the oldest part of the whole complex, begun by William the Conqueror in 1066. When we arrived building was beginning to close for the day – the guard had just cordoned off the top floor, so we missed seeing it. The things I especially enjoyed this visit: the armor of King Henry VIII and his horse, and the wooden figures of Gin and Beer.

“Torture at the Tower” exhibit - It was a small and fairly crowded room with lots of panels explaining the different instruments of torture. The devices themselves turned out to be reconstructions based on early descriptions and drawings. Neither of us thought this display was great.

Medieval Palace - We went through this very quickly; we were one step ahead of the guard locking up. It was interesting although we certainly rushed through. We exited up on the top of the castle wall, which was pretty cool.

There is so much more of the Tower to see at a future visit!!

Leicester Square/ Seven Dials area
We headed up this way for dinner. On the way Ali spotted Magma, a shop devoted to design books and magazines, along with a hefty stock of nifty tschotsches. She had seen the previous year, and was happy to come across it again. We spent a good bit of time (and money).

Belgo Centraal [£54.84 for 2]
I had read about the ‘Beat the Clock’ deal there: if you enter between 5:30 and 6:30 you pay that amount in pounds for your dinner (from a special limited menu.) Although we were too late for this deal we were still early enough that we were seated right away. The restaurant is in the basement level and has a kind of industrial-design-meets-medieval-monastery feel to it. Some of the waiters are dressed as Belgian monks. When we saw the extensive menu and monthly specials we were glad that we weren’t doing ‘Beat the Clock’. We ordered mostly specials. There are mussels fixed every conceivable way and a wide selection of Belgian ale. For our appetizer we shared an order of mussels – Thai chili and lime, I think - and a country terrine (duck, pork, peppercorn). Both were very good; Ali particularly loved the mussels – who would have guessed my (former) picky eater would go for mussels? Our main courses were tasty as well; Ali ordered half a chicken, and - shoot, I can’t remember what I ordered, (the receipt says “Herb chump”!?) but I do remember it was really really good. We enjoyed a few of the recommended Belgian ales. Although we were completely, totally full, we decided to split the dessert special: bread and butter pudding with chocolate. The restaurant was out of pudding, however, so Ali made do with a crème brulee.

The toilets at Belgo were particularly amusing. It’s sort of one big unisex facility, with the women’s stalls on the left and the men’s further towards the back. The hand washing all happens at a big fountain/sink in the middle. There was an attendant there, and he operated the foot pedal that controlled the water. When it was time to dry our hands, he spun a paper hand towel through the air towards us. I had to scrounge but I did have some coins to give him for a tip.

I appreciate the feedback, everyone.

Thanks, flanneruk for the Oxford church tip. I have to say, a day trip to Oxford doesn't even begin to touch what there is to see and do, so I'm certain we'll be back. When we were there I gave half a thought to attending church in Oxford, but just hadn't done my homework. Now I know where to ask :)

Great trip report Noe!
I'm looking forward to the next installments!
Interestingly, we have "red nose day" in Australia too (at the end of this month), but here it is to promote awareness of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). It's been running for as long as I can remember (early 80s) and as far as I know, the rates of SIDs has dropped quite a lot since it started which is good.

That's interesting sydnik. I'm not aware of any red nose days in this corner of the world. It was fun to see it all over the TV once we had bought our nose.

Tuesday, March 13 London (to Cardiff)

Morning (Organizing)
We were going to have to make some tough choices of sights and activities for our remaining time in London (2 half days and a full day). I wrote down 6 possibilities, and we each ranked them in order of priority. The results surprised me, although Ali said sh really would have loved to have done/seen them all, and more. I had thought that Ali should see Westminster Abbey it was towards the bottom of the list for her – at least relatively speaking. Based on the combined totals, we decided to see the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery – which are adjoining buildings on the north part of Trafalgar Square – before we left for Cardiff in the mid-afternoon. (As it turned out, we got to do everything except for Westminster Abbey.)

Breakfast was at our local Starbucks – coffee, pastry and email, followed by a trip to the corner Boots for some essential toiletries that we had forgotten, and some hair products that we can only find in the UK. Then we had a shopping errand on Bond Street - to investigate the supply of Herve Chapelier bags at Fenwick’s, an upscale apparel and accessories store. They didn’t have the style we wanted, so we figured we’d pick one up at Gatwick on the way out of London, as we had on the last visit.

St. James Church Antiques Flea Market
We walked south to Piccadilly. We were lucky to pass St. James church, which happens to have an antiques flea market on Tuesdays. We had a great time poking around the different vendors’ wares. I especially enjoyed looking at the stall with old English coins. Ali bought some amber earrings.

Fortnum & Mason
We really only had time to look around the ground floor. I bought some F&M decaffeinated tea bags, and some F&M biscuits as well. There were some Dutchy Originals biscuits that looked delicious, but they were quite expensive so I passed them up. Next time I hope to return to F&M to see more of the store and take afternoon tea upstairs.

National Portrait Gallery
Trafalgar square was not much farther. At the Portrait Gallery we paid admission for the special exhibit of fashion photography. The photos were very interesting, but we both thought there was WAY too much of Kate Moss.

In the rest of the museum (free admission), we saw the Tudor painted portraits, the 20th century portraits, and an exhibit of photographic portraits of leaders of the world’s major religions. I had never been to this museum (except for the restaurant at the top) and I liked it very much.

Hamburger Union
We ate lunch at this cool, casual restaurant with delicious burgers. It’s located right behind the National Portrait Gallery. Our meal recharged us for a power visit to the nearby National Gallery.

The National Gallery
We had an hour or two, and saw various painting rooms and the Sainsbury wing (medieval and early renaissance art). It’s hard to beat this museum. I LOVE the Sainsbury wing, and enjoyed showing it to Ali.

Train to Wales
I had booked 2nd class tickets in advance over the internet – the earlier you buy, the greater the availability of inexpensive fares - and picked up the tickets from an electronic machine in Paddington Station. We found the train car quite comfortable and the ride surprisingly short. It’s hard to believe that Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is only a two hour train journey from London.

CARDIFF

Park Plaza Cardiff
This sleek hotel is an office building conversion on Greyfriars Road just a few blocks from Cardiff Castle. Our room faced an interior courtyard, so we didn’t have street noise. When we looked out, we saw that the shrubbery below formed the words “be happy” or something similar.

We were pleased that the very expensive T-Mobile internet service that we’d arranged in the London Starbucks also worked in the Cardiff hotel, but, as it turned out, we had a good signal only sporadically in our actual room. We sometimes had to take Ali’s lap top to a seating area down the hall (near some meeting rooms) in order to get service.

Evening
Ali met up with her friends to go to a pub for dinner. I walked to Queen Street, the pedestrian shopping street, which was a smaller and tidier version of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. I made a mental note of all the high street shops, including Lush and Top Shop, for future reference.

In a very crowded Sainsbury’s I picked up some food items for a picnic in the hotel room: Paul Rankin Irish Brown Soda Bread (the best I’ve ever tasted), sliced aged cheese (I’ve always liked Sainsbury’s cheese slices), salad, and fruit. It was only later that I realized with a pang of regret that there was a nearby Marks & Spencer food hall. I love buying food at M&S, but am certainly accustomed to Sainsbury’s from previous trips where we stayed in self-catering accommodations. I was excited to find Duchy Originals biscuits (plain chocolate ginger) for £1.99 – I think they were double that at Fortnum & Mason.

I spent the evening wading through a book I had bought from Amazon.com. I ordered it thinking that it was a guide to Cardiff’s sights. Turned out that it was kind of a history book, and even though it was short, the writing was pretty inaccessible. It did provide a few good tidbits we could use in our sightseeing. There were a lot of different guys named Llewellyn and from what I could tell they were mostly on the side of Welsh independence.

Ali wasn’t out too late; we used the computer and got a decent night’s sleep.

I am so happy to have found this site. Thank you NOE for the "London Superthread" you posted. Tons of information. I am also enjoying your report immensely.

Great trip report! I'd love to take my daughter to London one of these days.

Lee Ann

Wednesday, March 14 - Wales

Apparently Ali’s friends had been apalled that I was by myself for dinner last evening and they very sweetly planned for me to be involved in the next two days’ plans. Ali suggested that I treat everyone to dinner tonight, meeting them around 6:00pm.

That left the whole day for us to explore. Ali had consulted with her friends and she was excited about the plan they devised: take the #26 bus which stops at both Castle Coch and Caerphilly Castle, then finish with Cardiff Castle. So, she was our planner for the day.

Fun with Buses
Our hotel rate included breakfast, which was a decent buffet in the hotel dining room. Then we walked through town to the bus station. We got a little confused finding the station and then navigating to the bus. Eventually we were directed to the correct bay for the Caerphilly bus, which was ready and waiting. We got on and had further confusion about which ticket/fare to get.

The bus left the station, and after riding for a while we figured out that we were not on the #26 bus after all but rather the “B” bus, which goes to Caerphilly by a different route, not stopping at Castle Coch. Darn.

Caerphilly Castle [admission £7 for 2]
The town is quite neat and attractive. The castle is an enormous partial ruin – or to be accurate, it is an enormous ruin, partially rebuilt – which sits on a hill surrounded by a moat. It was constructed in the late 13th century as a defense against Llewellyn the Last and the Welsh independence movement. Caerphilly castle served its purpose for just a short time, as historic events soon put an end to the fight for Welsh independence and the castle fairly quickly fell to ruin. The 19th century saw a good bit of restoration work to the inner ward, although the castle retains a distinctive leaning tower.

Caerphilly Castle is significant for its size (the largest in Britain after Windsor) and the purity of its design program. Although it is a fairly late castle, it was built on a virgin site rather than being an addition to a preexisting fortification. Caerphilly was the first truly concentric castle – actually double walled and surrounded by a huge moat and lakes. The original lakes have been filled with water again, and people were out fishing and enjoying the park on this glorious sunny day.

There were some workmen inside the castle walls with their vans and their tools, so that detracted just a bit from the mood. The Great Hall is quite nice, and apparently can be rented out for social events. One of the towers housed an exhibition of Welsh history, which was interesting. We also walked along one of the walls. Ali bought a jar of wonderful mustard at the gift shop. (Luckily it is sitting in my refrigerator for the summer; I used it to flavor some salad dressing I made last night.)

Fun with Buses, part 2
We asked the gift shop attendant about the bus back to Cardiff, and she told us that it would be leaving at a particular time right in front of the flower shop. That was in just a few minutes, so we hustled back down the hill. A bus came by and we asked if that were the correct bus, and the driver said no, we would have to get the bus at a different time at a different place or go on his bus to the main bus station and catch it there. (That was the way it was all day, actually. We asked bus directions several different times and found the Welsh people incredibly friendly and helpful, but they all had a different story as to time and place for the buses.) We rode that bus to the bus station, which was up a hill at the top of town. I was really glad we didn’t have to walk that route! It turned out to be about a half hour wait for our bus, so we sat on a bench and ate our cheese and brown bread sandwiches (last night’s leftovers provided lunch for the next day as well).

From our map it looked like the bus would pass Cardiff Castle, and we could probably avoid going all the way to the bus station. Sure enough, we were able to get off the bus very close to the castle.

Cardiff Castle [admission with tour £13.50 for 2]
Along with our admission tickets we purchased tickets for the tour of the inside of the medieval palace, which cannot be seen without a tour. We had about 30 minutes before our tour was to begin, which gave us just enough time to explore the grounds and the keep on our own.

This castle was built by the Normans on the site of early Roman fortifications; further additions and modifications were made over the next 800+ years. The Norman keep is on an artificial hill, which was abloom with daffodils. The top of the keep has great views over the castle and the city. There were several school groups there, including some Italian girls, and a large group of French teens, who were pretty loud and rambunctious.

The palace tour turned out to be quite good. We had two guides: a man and a woman, who took turns describing the various rooms. They were both excellent and really made the rooms – and the former inhabitants –come alive.

The central part of the palace is 15th century construction, with later additions by the Bute family, the last in a series of noble families who owned the castle over the centuries. It was the 2nd Marquess of Bute who developed the city of Cardiff into a great coal exporting port. His son, John Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, employed architect John Burgess to renovate and add to the original palace. The result was an amazing medieval-revival building filled with extraordinary craftsmanship and elaborate decorationative schemes: murals, inlay, stained glass, wood and stone carvings. Each room had a theme based on mythology or scripture. My favorite rooms were the smoking room and the nursery.

The castle gift shop is quite nice, we bought some particularly tasteful carved Welsh Love Spoons. They had dozens of different designs and several kinds of wood, so it took us a while to choose.

All in all, it was a good castle day. We were disappointed about missing Castle Coch, but truth be told, we would not have had enough time for it. I do think it would have been possible to do all three in one day, but we would have had to have gotten an earlier start. I assured myself that if we were going to miss one castle, Coch would probably be the one to miss, as it’s really a 19th century creation, built on the ruins of a very small 13th century castle.)

Evening
We met up with Ali’s friends and walked downtown. We passed a Toni and Guy salon, and Ali stopped to make a hair cut appointment for the following morning. We like this UK hair salon chain (I think that all the sylists train at the same facility in London). My other daughter had gotten a great cut at a Toni and Guy in York the previous summer. There’s actually a Toni and Guy next door to the Holiday Inn Mayfair, but our time in London was very tight, so a haircut in Cardiff made sense.

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant that the friends like: Chiquito. [£43.70 for 4] It was the perfect place to sit and talk, although the food was not the greatest. At least we can now say we ate Mexican in Wales! I enjoyed seeing Ali’s two friends and finding out about their studies. Their Welsh language and culture class sounded fascinating.

I've been enjoying your trip report. Too bad you missed Castell Coch but as you said it was the one to miss. Caerphilly, on the other hand, is not to be missed.

We managed to get the #26 bus to Coch and Caerphilly. It was still a bit of a walk up to Coch. A couple of older ladies who were on the bus with us were just arriving (at the castell) after we had been there for some time.I think they were surprised at the distance and especially the uphill walk.

Thanks for the additional info, historytraveler. I saw some pictures of Coch, and the setting looks quite dramatic. Ah well, something for next time.

I'll be pausing again until I can organize the Cardiff pictures and post a link.

Here's the link to our pictures of Caerphilly Castle: ttp://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DZsmzZuzbP8&notag=1

Caerphilly really was a striking castle, and we had the perfect weather to visit. After seeing the two castles that we saw that day, I really want to return to Wales and see more castles, as well as some of the abbeys.

I'm thoroughly enjoying your report. Great pictures too...

On Toni&Guy:

They're pretty well all over these days: on a trip a year or two back Mrs F (who first got addicted when their only branch was next door to the office and occasionally travels hundreds of miles to fit in with her favourite stylist) was able to get her fix in both Hanoi and Sydney. They're even in Georgia and a few other bits of America.

flanneruk, I had NO idea that there are 3 Toni & Guy locations in Atlanta (area) where I live! The things I learn on Fodor's.

Here is a link to our pictures of Cardiff Castle:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DZsmzZuzbQE

I had forgotten about the resident peacock flock on the castle grounds. We had a great time with our cameras trying to capture these birds (and posing with them). So, be warned: the last 15 pictures are peacock shots. I have spared you several dozen more!

The pictures from Cardiff Castle are in the previous post; I'll try to add some of downtown Cardiff soon.

Thursday, March 15 - Cardiff

Downtown Cardiff
After another hotel breakfast, we walked downtown. While Ali was getting her hair cut, I wandered around Cardiff. I saw Mary Ann Street on the map, and walked down there to take pictures for my mom (whose name is Mary Ann). This took me through an area of heavy construction. Apparently they are working on the second stage of the huge downtown shopping mall, and many streets have been temporarily closed off.

Arcades
I explored some of the city’s Victorian shopping arcades. Apparently these are a result of Cardiff’s medieval layout – the original largish individual farm plots meant that the streets were widely spaced. Once farmland gave way to town and then city, the long arcades, lined with shops, and roofed in glass, were a way to connect the main streets. I had tons of fun in an antique shop, where I found an antique silver napkin ring, hallmarked 1906, and beautifully engraved. I like to set my table with miscellaneous silver napkin rings, so this makes a great addition. I also saw a lovely gold crucifix, which I did not buy (but now I regret it).

Central Market
By this time, Ali’s hair was beautifully cut. We met up and continued to poke around in the arcades. The Central Market was fun, with seafood, veggies, and lots of non-food stalls as well.

St. John’s
We also stopped at this lovely old church. It’s right across from the new St. David’s shopping center, and standing on the stairs of St. David’s gives a nice view of St. John’s.

Shopping
We walked over to Queen Street to shop in Lush for some of their handmade hair and bath products. We discovered Lush on our very first trip to the UK in 1999, and have been loyal customers ever since. Although we can order Lush products online (shipped to our home in the USA from Canada), it’s always fun to check out the new products and smell for ourselves. The scents are so distinctive – you can smell the Lush stores from blocks away. We resisted all of the clothing stores – we’d bought enough the first day in London!

Cardiff was getting ready to host a big rugby match in Millennium Stadium on Saturday – Wales v. England - in the final game of the 2007 Six Nations contest. You could feel the excitement build in the air. We saw a college rugby team from the US, and I’m sure they were looking forward to the game.

We thought about taking the bus to Llandaff Cathedral, but we got lazy and decided to go to the hotel to drop parcels, regroup, and relax. After a while, I got a strong craving for sea salt and black pepper crisps, so we walked down to the Marks & Spencer food hall and bought a huge bag. Yum! Those things are the greatest.

National Museum of Wales
At 3:00 we met up with Ali’s friends at this big museum, which covers natural history, archeological antiquities from Wales’s earliest history, and art. The friends each had to do a report on an object of their choice from Welsh prehistory, so we went to see and photograph their objects.

Going from the prehistory section to the art galleries, we passed a delightful collection of crystal.

The museum has a fairly strong European art collection – especially French Impressionist art, and paintings of Venice - thanks to bequests by sisters Gwendolyn and Margaret Davies.

I checked out the Roman and Medieval artifacts while the 3 girls went to the natural history displays.

The museum was going to close early because of a big function that was to be held there that evening. They were blowing up dozens of balloons, and every now and then one would pop - it sounded like a gunshot!

We spent some time in the gift shop and then left (why is it that there are never postcards of the paintings I like the most, especially when photography is not permitted?)

University of Cardiff
The friends gave us a quick tour of the University of Cardiff – a few of the main buildings and gardens.

Then we walked – and walked – to their flat, which was a couple of miles north. As we walked I noticed some aches deep within my hip joints, which was kind of strange. No way was I going to walk back to the hotel later.

Ali and I ate dinner at a local pub (food ok but not great) and the friends joined us later for the big attraction - trivia quiz night! The quiz was fun, but we couldn’t hear the announcer very well, so some of our answers were totally off base. Not to mention that UK trivia can be pretty obscure for a group of Americans.

We called a taxi to the hotel. Our driver wouldn't have won any congeniality awards.

Great report - thanks.

Friday, March 16 Cardiff to London

In the middle of the night I woke up and realized that I was nauseated. Uh oh. Sure enough, when morning came, I was sick with a stomach thing. I blame the kid behind us on the bus to Oxford! For the entire day I felt awful and could barely swallow even a small sip of water. Headache, backache, weak. At least I knew why I had felt those strange joint aches the evening before. Unfortunately we had a big day ahead of us.

Back to London
Our train to London was around 9:00am. We skipped breakfast and caught a cab to the train station. The cabbie was playing classical music and was quite a supporter of Cardiff – he was disappointed that we had missed some of what he considered Cardiff’s highlights. We agreed with him – no doubt that we want to return to Cardiff and Southern Wales, not to mention Northern Wales.

I was so shaky that I had a devil of a struggle to board the train; I fell over while hoisting my 21” suitcase from the platform. Once I found my seat, I slept the entire way to London. Every so often I’d open my eyes and see a bit of lovely English countryside or a pretty church go by the window and then it was right back to sleep. In London, I staggered off the train and we made it to the taxi stand - no way could I handle the tube today.

This cabbie was holding the horseracing newspaper on his steering wheel and reading as he negotiated the busy streets of central London on the way from Paddington to our hotel in Whitehall. There was a big race on later today: the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Would Kicking King, the 4-to-1 favorite, triumph? (He did.)

We drove along The Mall towards Admiralty Arch. The street was all decorated with the Union Jack and the flag of Ghana – I guess in honor of some visiting dignitaries.

Thistle Royal Horseguards Hotel [2 nights incl. tax £303]
We had gotten a good weekend rate for a twin room with a Thames view. In early March we could actually see the river through the bare tree branches. Once the trees in the Victoria Embankment got their leaves, however, I imagine it would be difficult to see the Thames.

Good news for us: this hotel’s wi-fi was T-Mobile, so the account we established at Starbucks worked in our room.

Upsides of the Royal Horseguards: The hotel was quite charming, and I liked our room a lot. The room came with a huge walk in closet. Also, it was quite convenient to the Westminster area, St. James Park, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and the London Eye.

Downsides: We weren’t at the hotel very much to enjoy it AND I thought the area immediately around the hotel was kind of dead. The Embankment tube station was about 2 blocks away (not terribly far, but not as close as the HI Mayfair is to Green Park).

On balance I prefer the Holiday Inn Mayfair because I like the neighborhood and the amazing access to the tube (although the Horseguards hotel itself was nicer.) I think the tube lines that go through Green Park station are more versatile, but it might just be that I’m more accustomed to them.

Afternoon
We had tickets for Spamalot for 8:00 that evening. I had ordered them in advance and they were delivered to me in the US. (I had actually meant to order them for pick up at the will call window, but made an error with the mouse. I worried about receiving them at home but it all worked out fine.)

TFL Headquarters
This was our first stop for the afternoon. Here’s the background story:
Earlier in the week Ali had fallen in love with one of the posters hanging along the escalator in the Green Park tube station. It was for an art exhibit at the Gloucester Road tube station sponsored by TFL (through its “Platform For Art” program http://www.tfl.gov.uk/pfa/). The artist was Chiho Aoshima and the exhibit “City Glow, Mountain Splendor” had run until January.

We figured that maybe the transport officials would be happy to give us a poster since the exhibit had already ended. We inquired at the station, and were told that the tube posters were controlled centrally. The tube station manager gave us the business card of someone at the TFL office.

While we were in Cardiff I made some calls to TFL and reached a fellow who agreed to give us two posters of the Chiho Aoshima exhibit (one for each of my daughters) that we could pick up at the headquarters when we returned to London. The posters would be waiting for us at the reception desk or at the security office.

We wanted to make sure we got the posters, so first thing after checking into the hotel we took the tube to St. James Park – the TFL headquarters is above the station. When we entered TFL HQ, the receptionist knew nothing about the posters. Neither did the security office. She was brusque, but in a funny way. She rolled her eyes and directed us to sit in some nearby chairs because “this might take a while.” After about 5 or 10 minutes and several phone calls, she tracked down our posters (they were in security all along!) and we were on our way. The posters were full sized, not the small size that hangs in the tube escalators, and quite nice.

Our plan was to go next to the Cabinet War Rooms. We had just arrived there when Ali realized that it was 5 minutes before the time she’d agreed to call her boyfriend back in the US. So we went across the street to St. James Park. While she talked on the phone I parked myself on a bench in the sunshine across from the pond, watched the birds and realized how terrible I was feeling. By the time Ali finished her conversation, we really didn’t have time to see the Cabinet War Rooms.

Borough Market
I had been haunted by the toasted cheese sandwiches we had seen and smelled (but not eaten) last summer when my other daughter and I visited the market. Ever since I knew about this trip I had planned to have these for an early pre-theatre and pre-Tate Modern dinner (although I had no idea how I was going to eat it today). We walked all over the market without seeing or smelling the wonderful cheese. I asked around and learned that the toasted cheese/raclette folks are there on Saturdays but not Fridays.

Moving on from this disappointment, we poked around the market, sampled, and bought bits and pieces: Turkish delight - rose flavor, assorted varieties of gourmet chocolates, goosenargh cakes from Lancashire, sea salt mixed with spices, and a few other things I can’t remember.

The market was not too crowded on a late Friday afternoon. I’ve also been early on Saturday morning – in August – and it was quite crowded but still navigable.

Neal’s Yard Dairy
I couldn’t wait to show Ali this shop that is located on the edge of the market. We were in for a treat! There was a young man behind the counter who took her on a gustatory tour of English cheeses – describing all the different cheese families and cutting off samples as he went. I nibbled on a few of these to be polite and then I went outside and more or less collapsed on a friendly looking doorstep.

Ali thoroughly enjoyed herself, and bought bits of 4 or 5 different kinds of cheese. As we walked back through the market we picked up some wonderful bread to accompany the cheese. This would be Ali’s dinner. I was in no shape to eat anything. It was a minor miracle and a testament to sheer willpower that I could even be in a food market.

South Bank
We walked along the Thames, passing the replica of the Golden Hind, the Winchester Palace ruins, the Clink Prison Museum, the bridge with the cool plaques about the Frost Fair (I love these), and the new Globe Theatre, before we reached:

Tate Modern
Our goal was to ride the Carsten Holler slides that were a temporary installation in the cavernous open area of the Tate Modern. Tickets were given out for the evening rides beginning at 6:00pm. This was around 5:00 or so and we first spent a bit of time in the gift shop, before figuring out where the queue for the slides was going to be. Then I sat on nearby steps and leaned against a post while Ali looked over much of the museum, including the special Gilbert and George exhibit. Ali felt really guilty that I was waiting for the slide tickets while she enjoyed the museum, especially since I wasn’t able to ride the slides today. I assured her that I was just happy sitting on the floor of the museum –that was about all I could handle. Also I’ve seen the Tate Modern on previous visits, and it’s not my favorite of London’s art museums (I don’t like the thematic arrangement of the galleries).

Because of my vantage point, I got to be the front of the queue. Once it formed, it quickly grew. Ali met me right before they began to give out the tickets. Ticketing went really fast, as the tickets were free. I was a little sad that I didn’t feel well enough to ride, but I could hold her things and I was in a good position to take pictures when she came down the slides. It was a bit tricky to figure out when she would get there, and I wasted a bunch of pictures on people who ended up not being her. Thank goodness for digital photography: delete all the pictures of strangers! My camera flash wasn’t really strong enough, but I got a few acceptable pictures of Ali on the two big slides.

Spamalot [£60 each ticket]
The concierge told us it’s not easy to get a taxi at that time on a Friday evening, so tube it was. The tube was crowded, and then walked – as quickly as I could – several blocks to the theatre, which we reached with not a minute to spare. Our seats were excellent, row E center, and I was never so grateful to sink into a theatre seat.

The show was great, but I didn’t feel well enough to laugh or clap – how pathetic is that? Ali and I know the Holy Grail movie inside out (and have been known to quote sections of dialogue) and at first we were concerned that the play would be too similar to the movie. Much to our relief, we found that the play was significantly different; the plot was not the same, the order of the scenes varied, some characters were missing and others gained new importance. There were far more music and dance numbers and the story ended in a completely new way. I had paid a small fortune for the seats, and I’m glad that we liked the show.

Evening
Ali was meeting some friends after the show, so we stood outside the theatre and waited for them to show up. There was a man who passed the time with us. He had a flute on a little cart, and at first I thought he was a musician from the show’s orchestra, but then I realized that he was holding a bottle of alcohol. He pointed out a little mouse to us, and kept trying to catch the thing. He was quoting Burns to the mouse; this was a fairly articulate street person. I sort of wondered if I should give him money but then the friends showed up, and Ali went off to the pub with them.

I took the tube back to the hotel. When I came out of the Embankment tube station I could not figure out how to get to the hotel. I was so confused, and I felt so sick; I just wanted to get to the hotel and collapse. Which I finally did. Ali later walked back to the hotel with one of her friends and they enjoyed a few drinks and a quiet talk in the hotel bar.