We saw London, we saw France as well as The Netherlands and Belgium
Mar 12th, 2014, 01:43 AM
#142
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I kept a small journal of things I did, what we ate, impressions and emotions of each day. Along with my photos, this will be a souvenir of the trip. Sharing my experiences has made it all so real again.
Mar 12th, 2014, 08:30 AM
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Annhig, The set lunch was £45.00 for four courses. This made it affordable compared with the regular lunch which was £80,00 for four courses. We are open minded when it comes to chefs choices so it worked out for us.
Mar 12th, 2014, 07:33 PM
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Day 29 (10/16) London
We went to the British Museum first thing and saw a special exhibit of Shunga the Japanese erotic art. Most of the images, although explicit, are done in a loving manner and show the pleasure being shared between men and women in equal measure. Most of the images in the exhibit are from the 1600s to 1900s. The drawings were detailed, gentle and beautiful with their delicate flowing lines.
While DH had a bottle of water in the café, I spent some time in the Egyptian section and the Nereid Monument area. I visited the Parthenon sculptures and did a quick walk through of room with the Easter Island statue as well as the rooms with the Assyrian sculpture & Balawat Gates, Nimrud, Nineveh and the Lion Hunts.
We had spent a full day here on our last trip to London so today I just revisited my favorite pieces. I loved every minute of it as these are my favorite rooms.
Afterward we went to Fortnum and Mason to shop and have afternoon tea. The store opened in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. In 1964, a four-ton clock was installed above the main entrance of the store as a tribute to its founders. Every hour, 4-foot-high models of William Fortnum and Hugh Mason emerge and bow to each other, with chimes and18th century-style music playing in the background. I was able to video tape the clock at 4 p.m. when it chimed and opened. There were several people stationed across the street from F & M to also videotape it. The store was already decked out for Christmas and we took a quick walk through to see the decorations before heading upstairs to have tea.
They have redecorated the St. James and it looks very nice with the update. Her Majesty the Queen accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge, officially reopened it and renamed it The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon in 2012. They still have their signature pale blue and white china settings with pale green and gold design on the side.
The tiered serving caddy had a London smoked salmon on blini with caper and lemon cream cheese, a carpaccio of vension on mushroom toast with horseradish cream and hazelnut, a goat’s cheese on walnut shortbread with beetroot and a tomato financier with pesto cream, black olive and silver anchovy with pistachio praline on the first tier.
The second tier had two whole wheat cheese scones with walnut and raisin butter and two caramelized onion scones with mixed herb and tomato cream cheese.
On the third tier was Cucumber with Cream Cheese, Coronation Chicken, Rare Roast Beef with Gherkin & Caper Dressing, Fortnum’s Smoked Salmon with Lemon Dill Butter and Rare Breed Hen Egg salad with Mustard Cress finger sandwiches. They offered a second refill of the sandwiches and savories.
Dessert was a choice from four cakes from the cake carriage. DH had the chocolate Sachertorte with gold leaf garnish. I had a four layer cake slice with mascarpone and coconut filling between the layers. It was garnished with pistachios and fresh raspberries. Both were very moist and lovely.
For tea, I selected a yellow tea of Haung Ya Cha Yellow buds and DH had the Countess Grey. The piano player provided a relaxing background environment and we enjoyed it. They offered as many refills as we wished.
We bought some tea and jam from the food hall to take home. We walked about some of the shops before returning to our hotel.
We opened a bottle of Mouton Cadet Bordeaux 2011. It was very nice with full tannins and a red fruity flavor. This was a very good day!!
We went to the British Museum first thing and saw a special exhibit of Shunga the Japanese erotic art. Most of the images, although explicit, are done in a loving manner and show the pleasure being shared between men and women in equal measure. Most of the images in the exhibit are from the 1600s to 1900s. The drawings were detailed, gentle and beautiful with their delicate flowing lines.
While DH had a bottle of water in the café, I spent some time in the Egyptian section and the Nereid Monument area. I visited the Parthenon sculptures and did a quick walk through of room with the Easter Island statue as well as the rooms with the Assyrian sculpture & Balawat Gates, Nimrud, Nineveh and the Lion Hunts.
We had spent a full day here on our last trip to London so today I just revisited my favorite pieces. I loved every minute of it as these are my favorite rooms.
Afterward we went to Fortnum and Mason to shop and have afternoon tea. The store opened in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. In 1964, a four-ton clock was installed above the main entrance of the store as a tribute to its founders. Every hour, 4-foot-high models of William Fortnum and Hugh Mason emerge and bow to each other, with chimes and18th century-style music playing in the background. I was able to video tape the clock at 4 p.m. when it chimed and opened. There were several people stationed across the street from F & M to also videotape it. The store was already decked out for Christmas and we took a quick walk through to see the decorations before heading upstairs to have tea.
They have redecorated the St. James and it looks very nice with the update. Her Majesty the Queen accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge, officially reopened it and renamed it The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon in 2012. They still have their signature pale blue and white china settings with pale green and gold design on the side.
The tiered serving caddy had a London smoked salmon on blini with caper and lemon cream cheese, a carpaccio of vension on mushroom toast with horseradish cream and hazelnut, a goat’s cheese on walnut shortbread with beetroot and a tomato financier with pesto cream, black olive and silver anchovy with pistachio praline on the first tier.
The second tier had two whole wheat cheese scones with walnut and raisin butter and two caramelized onion scones with mixed herb and tomato cream cheese.
On the third tier was Cucumber with Cream Cheese, Coronation Chicken, Rare Roast Beef with Gherkin & Caper Dressing, Fortnum’s Smoked Salmon with Lemon Dill Butter and Rare Breed Hen Egg salad with Mustard Cress finger sandwiches. They offered a second refill of the sandwiches and savories.
Dessert was a choice from four cakes from the cake carriage. DH had the chocolate Sachertorte with gold leaf garnish. I had a four layer cake slice with mascarpone and coconut filling between the layers. It was garnished with pistachios and fresh raspberries. Both were very moist and lovely.
For tea, I selected a yellow tea of Haung Ya Cha Yellow buds and DH had the Countess Grey. The piano player provided a relaxing background environment and we enjoyed it. They offered as many refills as we wished.
We bought some tea and jam from the food hall to take home. We walked about some of the shops before returning to our hotel.
We opened a bottle of Mouton Cadet Bordeaux 2011. It was very nice with full tannins and a red fruity flavor. This was a very good day!!
Mar 13th, 2014, 04:31 PM
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Day 30 (10/17) London
Well this is the last day of our trip. We spent the better part of the morning packing. Then we went over to Covent Garden. We had lunch at the White Lion. I had the grilled ham slice with free range eggs and fries. It also had roasted tomato halves. It was really tasty. I like the way that most of the restaurants we have eaten in have good food products e.g. free range eggs. Why can't I get these at home? DH had a mixed grill basket of seafood. It was nicely fried and came with fries. He also had a beer that the bartender recommended.
Covent Garden was once associated with a fruit and vegetable market but today has many restaurants and shops for tourists. We walked around the area and watched the street performers. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. DH wanted to see the gift shop of the Transportation Museum.
I went to St Paul's Church, also commonly known as the Actors' Church. Built in 1631, it has long been associated with the theater and puts on over 300 plays and concerts a year. The first known victim of the 1665–1666 outbreak of the Plague in England is buried here. Memorials in the church are dedicated to many famous personalities of the 20th century, including Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gracie Fields, Stanley Holloway, Boris Karloff, Vivien Leigh and Ivor Novello. The main entrance to the church is through the plainer west front, which has a pediment, but no portico and a lovely garden with benches for sitting. Several people were eating their lunch there. Inside, it is one undivided space. A woman was playing classical music and I sat a bit to listen.
We left Covent Garden and took the RV1 bus which travels about, passing the major London sights. We rode a complete loop. It was fun and our travel card covered it. We went over the Tower Bridge, saw the Tower of London, The Eye, traveled past the docks, and back around again. This was a good way to get a close up view of the Tower Bridge. It crosses the River Thames and is a combined bascule and suspension bridge. The bridge consists of two towers tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.
We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus where we had dinner reservations at 17 Air for dinner. We had a Groupon for steak and wine dinner for two. This “steak and wine” dinner consisted of a piece of meat and a glass of wine. Really, that was it. Not even a garnish let alone a vegetable or piece of bread. So we were still hungry after dinner. Time Out had given it a great review but I would give 1 out of 5 stars. The server and head of house just stood at the bar talking in Italian and gave really poor service. We could overhear two ladies seated at the table next to us asking twice for a wine list and then after ordering and waiting about 25 minutes asking how long it would be before their order came. Just inexcusable.
We did some window shopping a bit to see if we could find a good pastry or two for dessert later. No such luck so we stopped at M & S near our hotel and bought two éclairs to eat when we got to our hotel room and I found the pistachio and almond cookies (yay!) before we grabbed a cab to our hotel at Heathrow. It was pouring rain by now. We arrived and spent a bit of time unwinding and eating the last of any snacks and drinks we had brought with us. Now time for bed and up before dawn for our flight home.
This was our second trip to London so we did things that we did not do the first time. The first time we saw Hyde Park, The Marble Arch, The Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, The Royal Courts of Justice, The British Museum, walked along the Thames, saw Cleopatra’s Needle and numerous statues, The Guards Museum where guards were marching, the Horse Guards, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and the London Eye. I mention this so that read*ers know that there is so much to see and do here and we have barely scratched the surface. I already have started a list of what to see and do for our next trip.
I hope you have enjoyed this trip report and that I may have helped first time travelers with ideas. I will post some pictures later once I upload them to Flickr. Thanks to all who came along for the ride.
Well this is the last day of our trip. We spent the better part of the morning packing. Then we went over to Covent Garden. We had lunch at the White Lion. I had the grilled ham slice with free range eggs and fries. It also had roasted tomato halves. It was really tasty. I like the way that most of the restaurants we have eaten in have good food products e.g. free range eggs. Why can't I get these at home? DH had a mixed grill basket of seafood. It was nicely fried and came with fries. He also had a beer that the bartender recommended.
Covent Garden was once associated with a fruit and vegetable market but today has many restaurants and shops for tourists. We walked around the area and watched the street performers. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. DH wanted to see the gift shop of the Transportation Museum.
I went to St Paul's Church, also commonly known as the Actors' Church. Built in 1631, it has long been associated with the theater and puts on over 300 plays and concerts a year. The first known victim of the 1665–1666 outbreak of the Plague in England is buried here. Memorials in the church are dedicated to many famous personalities of the 20th century, including Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gracie Fields, Stanley Holloway, Boris Karloff, Vivien Leigh and Ivor Novello. The main entrance to the church is through the plainer west front, which has a pediment, but no portico and a lovely garden with benches for sitting. Several people were eating their lunch there. Inside, it is one undivided space. A woman was playing classical music and I sat a bit to listen.
We left Covent Garden and took the RV1 bus which travels about, passing the major London sights. We rode a complete loop. It was fun and our travel card covered it. We went over the Tower Bridge, saw the Tower of London, The Eye, traveled past the docks, and back around again. This was a good way to get a close up view of the Tower Bridge. It crosses the River Thames and is a combined bascule and suspension bridge. The bridge consists of two towers tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.
We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus where we had dinner reservations at 17 Air for dinner. We had a Groupon for steak and wine dinner for two. This “steak and wine” dinner consisted of a piece of meat and a glass of wine. Really, that was it. Not even a garnish let alone a vegetable or piece of bread. So we were still hungry after dinner. Time Out had given it a great review but I would give 1 out of 5 stars. The server and head of house just stood at the bar talking in Italian and gave really poor service. We could overhear two ladies seated at the table next to us asking twice for a wine list and then after ordering and waiting about 25 minutes asking how long it would be before their order came. Just inexcusable.
We did some window shopping a bit to see if we could find a good pastry or two for dessert later. No such luck so we stopped at M & S near our hotel and bought two éclairs to eat when we got to our hotel room and I found the pistachio and almond cookies (yay!) before we grabbed a cab to our hotel at Heathrow. It was pouring rain by now. We arrived and spent a bit of time unwinding and eating the last of any snacks and drinks we had brought with us. Now time for bed and up before dawn for our flight home.
This was our second trip to London so we did things that we did not do the first time. The first time we saw Hyde Park, The Marble Arch, The Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, the Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, The Royal Courts of Justice, The British Museum, walked along the Thames, saw Cleopatra’s Needle and numerous statues, The Guards Museum where guards were marching, the Horse Guards, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and the London Eye. I mention this so that read*ers know that there is so much to see and do here and we have barely scratched the surface. I already have started a list of what to see and do for our next trip.
I hope you have enjoyed this trip report and that I may have helped first time travelers with ideas. I will post some pictures later once I upload them to Flickr. Thanks to all who came along for the ride.
Mar 13th, 2014, 07:40 PM
#154
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Lateinlifetraveler,
After reviewing those sites you had visited before in London, you wrote: “I mention this so that read*ers know that there is so much to see and do here and we have barely scratched the surface. I already have started a list of what to see and do for our next trip.”
I hear you. I hope to return in June which will be my 5th visit of varying days in length. Perhaps I will stay 8-9 days this time but I know that there will never be enough time. With each visit I tend to drill down to lesser known museums/points of interest. So much to do and see in London town, eh?
Again thanks for a great trip report – you made us feel as if we were right there with you and DH who sounds like a good sport.
After reviewing those sites you had visited before in London, you wrote: “I mention this so that read*ers know that there is so much to see and do here and we have barely scratched the surface. I already have started a list of what to see and do for our next trip.”
I hear you. I hope to return in June which will be my 5th visit of varying days in length. Perhaps I will stay 8-9 days this time but I know that there will never be enough time. With each visit I tend to drill down to lesser known museums/points of interest. So much to do and see in London town, eh?
Again thanks for a great trip report – you made us feel as if we were right there with you and DH who sounds like a good sport.
Mar 14th, 2014, 04:18 AM
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Thank you for taking the time to post this, very enjoyable read. You have given me lots of ideas to add to my planning for return visits but I think I put on a few kilos just reading all about the wonderful food you had��
Mar 14th, 2014, 04:40 AM
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Thank you for the review of the Ledbury. We are planning to go, as we stay nearby, but haven't been yet. I'll be sure to make a reservation now that I have seen your review.
It's in a nice street, with some lovely shops. There's a popular pub there as well, the Walmer Castle.
Did you know that the Ledbury was attacked during the London riots in 2011 and the chef and staff fought off the attackers?
http://tinyurl.com/ot77l4x
It's in a nice street, with some lovely shops. There's a popular pub there as well, the Walmer Castle.
Did you know that the Ledbury was attacked during the London riots in 2011 and the chef and staff fought off the attackers?
http://tinyurl.com/ot77l4x
Mar 14th, 2014, 05:22 AM
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Latedaytraveler - I hope you have a great time on your next trip. The more you visit, the finer tuned you can make your trip with areas that most travelers do not take the time to see or do. That makes the trip more personal.
