travelgirl2

I'm really enjoying your report, as I also did a 5 day solo trip to London. It's making me think I should go back soon.

Brendan Fraser is a real cutie and I always thought he seemed like a nice fellow. It's good to know that he is down-to-earth. The other diners must have been so jealous of you!

yk

I'm glad to see that most of you agree that Brendan Fraser is considered "famous." At least he's famous in my book.

This was certainly the highlight of my trip, but I hope those of you who are reading this trip report also enjoy the rest of the sights that I visited.

< did the waitstaff know that that was Brendan Fraser? >

I don't think our waiter knew - he knew it was someone famous because of the request for autograph but not really who he was.

yk

<b>Day 3 morning
John Soane's Museum, Courtauld</b>

This is the only day that I had the evening free. I know Janis and a few Fodorites recommend <i>against</i> going to TKTS booth at opening time, but that was the only free time I had.

I arrived at the <b>TKTS</b> booth in Leicester Sq at 9:50am. I was expecting a long queue. To my surprise, there wasn't. Maybe about 20-25 people were in line. I got in line and contemplated what to see that night. I was inclined to see a musical, such as Billy Elliot or Avenue Q or Spamalot. Two young guys were in line in front of me. They look very American (T-shirt, jeans, flip-flops) and I struck up a conversation with them.

They are, yes, Americans, from &quot;Southern Cal.&quot; And yes, fresh college graduates. They just arrived in London the day before and staying in a hostel in Piccadilly Circus. They are lucky enough to take a month off before starting their jobs, so they're on the first leg of their &quot;European Grand tour.&quot; Talking to them reminded me of my younger years...

Anyway, they decided to go for Avenue Q. As for me... well, I saw that <b>In Celebration</b> is also available. I figured that I could always see the popular musicals in NY, but how often can one see Orlando Bloom in a West End play? &pound;25 was how much I paid for my ticket. I was only in line for 20 minutes.

The tube strike had ended the evening before. Despite that, I had decided to travel by bus for the next 2 days. The max one pays on Oyster PAYG for buses is only &pound;3/day, much cheaper than the tube.

I caught a bus heading towards Holborn for <b>Sir John Soane's Museum</b>.

The museum is free - apparently that was the wish of Soane. He loved collecting marbles, stones, terracotta, busts etc from the Greek/Roman period. The whole museum is packed with &quot;stuff&quot; from floor to ceiling! It really is quite amazing how much stuff he had. Two famous collectibles (IMO) are:
- sacrophagus of Sethi I; really beautiful sacrophagus with hieroglyphics inscribed on both inside and outside
- Hogarth's The Rake's Progress series

I spent no more than an hour there, though anyone who's interested in Egyptian or Greek/Roman antiquities could spend much more time there.
http://www.soane.org/

Next I headed south to the <b>Courtauld Institute of Art</b>. I had visited it just 2 years ago, but I was drawn by the current exhibition on Lucas Cranach. It is a small exhibit, a total of 5 oil paintings, and many more drawings by him. In the next room were more drawings by German painters, including 2 by Albrecht D&uuml;rer.

After the exhibition, I went to the permanent collection galleries. It doesn't seem like anything has changed since my last visit 2 years ago.
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/index.html

Now it's lunch time. I took Patrick's suggestion and went to <b>Boulevard Brasserie</b>. I ordered from the 2-course Prix Fixe menu:

<i>Duck liver parfait with toasted brioche and cherry compote</i>

- and -

<i>Fennel and sweetcorn risotto with Parmesan and truffle oil</i>

The liver parfait is HUGE. It was the size of a 3x5 index card and was at least 1/2 inch thick. I was full after attempting to eat half of it. The risotto turned out to be cooked in a creamy cheese sauce, which of course was extremely heavy.

Even though both were tasty, I could barely finish half of the food. I guess I just picked 2 dishes way too heavy for me. Lunch was &pound;13.
http://www.boulevardbrasserie.co.uk/index.asp

cmcfong

I just wandered over to the Europe board and there you are, yk, one of my all time trip report favorites. This one certainly doesn't disappoint. Thank you!

janisj

Wonderful report yk! Sometimes, serendipitous, last minute trips turn out really special.

All that fun and Brendan Fraser too

P_M

What a cool trip, yk!! And a brush with fame to boot.

Here's an FYI just in case you ever need it. I'm a BofA customer too so I'm always sniffing out Barclay's. You mentioned seeing only one Barclay's ATM, but there are more if you know where to look. ;-)

A couple of years ago I was at LGW and the Barclay's ATM at customs was out of cash. I asked a security guard if more were nearby and he told me to go up the escalator and look to my left. I did and there were several more ATMS, with at least one or two Barclay's.

Thanks for your report, and I'm jealous about Brendan.

sarge56

So very cool,yk! But I truly think that we are so unaccustomed to seeing these stars &quot;face to face&quot; that when we bump into them, our subconscious sometimes tricks us into thinking,&quot;no, couldn't possibly be xx&quot;.

My 20-something daughters are going to be SO jealous. They absolutely LOVE Brendan Fraser. I thought he was just adorable in &quot;Blast From the Past&quot; with Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek. If you haven't seen it, rent it. Wonderful movie.

Lucky you! And your trip sounds wonderful. I am so happy to always hear of women who are not afraid to travel without their spouses. (I have two sisters who wimp out at the idea of traveling without their husbands! AGH!)

MORE! MORE!

yk

sarge - After Brendan revealed to me who he was, the only movie (other than Mummy) that came to my mind was
&quot;Oh, you're also in that movie with Alicia Silverstone!&quot;

&quot;Yes. That's Blast from the Past.&quot;

I was quite embarrassed that it was the only other movie I could think of. But hey, at least I didn't say, &quot;Oh, you're the <i>George of the Jungle</i>!&quot;

BTW, this is the 3rd European trip I have gone solo since I got married 2 years ago (and I've gone many solo trips before we were married). It's too bad DH can't go, but I can't sacrifice my love for travel to sit home while he's at work!

Bokhara

Thanks yk - I like to travel solo too and am really enjoying your report.

KMOWATT - we share a surname! I'm Australian - where are you from?

kmowatt

How about that Bokhara!! I was born just outside Chester on the Wirral peninsula - in a village called Willaston - there were a lot of Mowatt's in that small village! Originally our name was Mowat (with one &quot;t&quot but got messed up in WW1!! Same overall family though - did you know that we have our own tartan, even though we are a scept of the Sutherland Clan? But watch out who you talk to in Scotland becasue we fought on the side of the English at Culloden!

Where does your family originally come from?

yk

<b>Day 3 afternoon
Churchill Museum/Cabinet War Rooms, Imperial War Museum</b>

After lunch, I caught a bus towards the Parliament and got off at <b>Churchill Museum/Cabinet War Rooms</b>.

The admission is a steep &pound;11 (audioguide included). Even though I had a 2-for-1 voucher, I was not able to use it because
1) I was by myself
2) I didn't have a valid rail ticket

One first goes through a series of rooms, which were kept untouched since the end of the war. Then one is directed to the Churchill Museum which opened in 2005. I have to say that I didn't enjoy the Churchill Museum. Call me old-fashioned, I still prefer the old-style of display with text and photos, artifacts etc. The CM consists of mostly interactive, multi-media displays. I lost interest quickly.

After the CM, one is redirected to another series of War Rooms including map rooms, living quarters etc. I definitely enjoyed the CWR part much more.
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00f

I left after 90 minutes. With still a few more hours of free time this afternoon, I decided to visit the <b>Imperial War Museum</b>. Again, it was easy to catch a bus there.

The IWM is free, and is huge. I can imagine one can spend a whole day there. I had only about 90 minutes to spare, so I decided to visit the Holocaust exhibit which is highly recommended here.

Not that I have gone to too many Holocaust museums, but this was really very well done. Apart from the usual texts and photos, there are a number of TVs stationed throughout the exhibit. The TVs show video interviews of several Holocaust survivors. Watching these videos bring a much more personal experience to the exhibits. A number of visitors were sobbing.

I had little time left after the Holocaust section, so I quickly ran through the <b>Trench experience</b> in WWI section, and the <b>Blitz experience</b> in WWII section. I'll have to return to IWM in the future.
http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00b

I took the bus back to Northumberland House for my requisite afternoon nap.

Plan for that night was seeing <b>In Celebration</b> starring Orlando Bloom at the Duke of York's Theatre. Despite having 1/2 price tickets on sale, the theatre was not full. My seat was in the Balcony.

Anyway, the play is rather boring. It is about a coal-miner's family reunion in the 1960s with the homecoming of the 3 sons. The play is set in Northern England, so it took me at least 15 minutes to get my ears used to the Northern accent (which is not the easiest to comprehend). Orlando Bloom played one of the 3 sons, and his character is the most introvert and awkward amongst the three. Throughout the entire play, he rarely spoke, and when he did, it was just plain awkward.

Now I understand why they were selling tickets at half-price.

When I left, I saw another crowd of very enthusiastic women waiting in the alley way for Orlando. I passed.

Dinner that night was in Chinatown. I ate at <b>HK Diner</b> on Wardour Street. I found this place last year and thought the food was quite good. Since I ate such a heavy lunch, I decided to go for a bowl of congee with shredded duck, and a plate of stir-fry baby bok choy. Dinner was &pound;13.

yk

<b>Day 4
Hampton Court Palace</b>

When I was planning this trip, I initially was going to visit both the Kew Gardens and HCP on the same day by taking a boat ride on the Thames which linked the two. However, the day before I left, when I checked the ferry schedule again, they have changed the sail times. If I stayed with my original plan, I would have just 3 hours at HCP. I decided to skip Kew Gardens completely (I'm not a horticulturist).

I took a bus to Waterloo station, and from there it was a easy 35-min ride on the train to HCP. r/t ticket was &pound;5.70. Train to HCP leaves 2x/hr.

It was a Friday when I visited HCP, and I was very surprised by how <i>un</i>crowded it was. I somehow had visions of it being like Versailles, packed with tourists and tour groups after tour groups. That was not the case at all at HCP.

I had a voucher from daysoutguide - buy 1, get 2nd half price. Since I already had a valid rail ticket, I decided to &quot;recruit&quot; a visitor to join me so that we could both save a few &pound;. It worked and it came out to &pound;19.50 for 2 (audioguide included).

I'm embarrassed to say that even though I had visited HCP 14 years ago, I had no recollection of what it's like (except the front facade) nor understood the historical aspect of it. Hopefully I'll remember this visit better.

Throughout the day are guided tours of the Palace. Each one is about 30 minutes and led by a costumed guide. I took 2 of these tours. One is a tour of Henry VIII's Palace. Only a few rooms of Henry VIII's tudor-style remained, but fortunately that included the Great Hall. 500 years later, it still WOWed me! The other tour is of the King's Apartments (King William). The year is now 1700 and the current style is Baroque. It very much reminds me of the French palaces.

I also toured the rest of the palace on my own including the Tudor Kitchens, Queen's Apt, and the Georgian Rooms.

There are 2 other smaller exhibits. A permanent exhibit on the historic background of the Palace; and a temporary exhibit on the young Henry VIII.

After the Palace, it's time to visit the Gardens. A small section of the gardens was fenced off - they were filming a movie called <i>Young Victoria</i> starring Miranda Richardson. I could see many actors in costumes, but couldn't make out who's who from a distance.

I had lunch at the Tiltyard restaurant. I ordered a French Onion soup, a salad, and a yogurt drink. It was &pound;11.50.

I visited the Maze, then the rest of the gardens - Privy Garden, Fountain Garden, Knot Garden, Pond Garden, and the Banqueting House.

On my way out, I remembered to visit the Lower Orangery - where Mantegna's <i>Triumphs of Caesar</i> panels were hung. I have to say, I wasn't that impressed. I don't know if it's because of the lighting, or if it's the poor state of the paintings, or if there's a thick build up of grime? It seemed very dark inside and I just had a difficult time seeing the figures, the paint etc.

All-in-all, I spent 6 hours at HCP. I think that's a good amount of time there, and I'm certainly glad that I didn't try to squeeze in Kew Gardens in the same day.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/

After my nap back at Northumberland House, I woke up fresh and ready to head out for the night.

I took the bus to Royal Albert Hall for a BBC Proms Concert. It was the penultimate concert of the 113th season of BBC Proms. I had bought a regular seated ticket in advance (&pound;20) instead of the last minute &pound;5 standing tickets.

My seat has a decent view, though it was advertised as &quot;limited leg room.&quot; They weren't kidding! I am only 5'2&quot; and could just fit my legs in. I don't think anyone taller than 5'4&quot; can sit there comfortably.

Tonight's concert featured the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by James Levine. The programme consists of
Elliott Carter <i>Three Illusions for Orchestra</i>
Bartok <i>Concerto for Orchestra</i>
Brahms <i>Symphony No.1</i>

I'm by no means a classical music fan though I do enjoy going to symphony concerts. Of course I enjoyed the Brahms most because it's such a familiar piece. The audience wouldn't let the orchestra leave - so 2 encores were played.

The concert ended at 10, and I began my walk towards my dinner destination - <b>Tom's Kitchen</b> on Cale Street.

Tom's Kitchen is a cheaper branch of the michelin-starred Tom Aikens Restaurant. My reservation was for 10:30pm. When I arrived on this Friday night, the place was still packed and buzzing.

The ma&icirc;tre d' asked if I mind sitting at the bar facing the open kitchen. Of course not. I thought it would be fun to watch the chefs cooking.

As it was late, I decided to order just a main course. I asked my waitress for suggestions. In the end, I picked the Pan-fried Sole with Peas &quot;&agrave; la fran&ccedil;aise.&quot; The entree comes with a side and I requested a green salad instead of potatoes. I also ordered a beer.

It was entertaining to watch the kitchen staff working their magic. It reminds me of Hell's Kitchen on TV - but of course far more professional. The main chef in the kitchen would bark out orders such as &quot;one medium filet&quot; or &quot;two soles&quot; and the staff would respond &quot;Yes Chef!&quot; Other exchanges include,
&quot;Where's the garnish?&quot;
&quot;How long for the sole?&quot; &quot;Three minutes, chef!&quot;

After each dish is put together, it goes under inspection by the head chef, Ollie Couillaud, before it goes to the hand of waiters to be served.

Within the first 20 minutes of my arrival, the kitchen was hectic. It was still gettting plenty of orders. But by 11, it quiet down and the kitchen staff began to clean up for the night.

In the meantime, the ma&icirc;tre d' came over to keep me company. He was <i>very</i> friendly. He was interested to know why I'm dining alone so late, where I was from, what I'm doing in London etc etc. He himself is French and hoping to make it to NYC some time.

My meal was delicious. I never had thought I would like peas. And the salad dressing was divine! I also had a Banoffee cheesecake for dessert. Everything was great and dinner was &pound;30.
http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/
NYT review: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/05...l/05bites.html

After dinner, I walked a few blocks towards King's Road, and caught a bus back home. Another fabulous day in London!

rkkwan

That'd be your 3rd visit to Hampton Court. The first one was 25 years ago, though I don't think we went inside. Only the grounds.

cova

yk, I went to &quot;In Celebration&quot; at the end of august. I left at the interval.

A couple of the actors kept forgetting the lines, and between that, the boredom and the girls fawning upon Orlando ...

I should have gone to &quot;Elling&quot;, but you must learn ...

Cova

Bokhara

Hi Kmowatt: fascinating! - rather than hijack yk's thread, would love to chat with you on email. Mine's bokhara77 at hotmail dot com

yk

Cova - Well, the performance I attended wasn't nearly as bad as yours. I think overall the actors did a great job, especially the one who played the father. It's just the play itself is boring and the plot never got anywhere.

yk

<b>Day 5
Royal Academy of Arts, Wallace Collection, Marylebone, Tate Modern, and Dinner with a famous Fodorite!</b>

Today is Saturday, my last real day in London. I started with the <b>Royal Academy of Arts</b> at Piccadilly. The current exhibition is <i>Impressionists by the Sea</i>. I had pre-booked a ticket online, but turns out it was not sold out. It is quite a nice show and one can see how the subject and style changed over a span of about 20 years (1860s-1880s). The paintings come from many musuems on both sides of the Atlantic.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhib...mpressionists/

My next stop was the <b>Wallace Collection</b>. I decided to walk there from the RA via Bond Street. I sat down briefly on the bench between Churchill and Roosevelt for a photo-op.

This was my first time visiting the Wallace Collection. Admission is free. One can get an audioguide, but that really isn't necessary. Each room has information leaflets on the highlights. I was very surprised by how rich the collection is. I also did not realize the crux of the collection is French (age of the French Revolution). Wallace was the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford. Several generations of the marquesses had been collecting lots of art, and the 4th Marquess lived in Paris during the time of the French Revolution. A lot of furniture, paintings, porcelain went on sale after the revolt and the marquess bought lots of it. Wallace eventually inherited the collection and brought it back to London.

Some of the highlights include
~ Many beautiful sets of S&egrave;vres porcelain (It boasts the finest museum collection in the world. I think the best collection is in the Queen's collection.)
~ French Rococco paintings by Boucher and Fragonard
~ Furniture used to belong to Louis XV and Marie-Antonette; and also 'Boulle' marquetry furniture
~ Great collection of Dutch paintings, including Rembrandt's Titus, and the most famous painting there - <i>The Laughing Cavalier</i> by Frans Hals.

Wallace's widow bequeathed the collection to the nation, but with the terms that &quot;nothing may be added to it or taken away.&quot; Hence, one has to travel to the museum to see its art as nothing are allowed to go on loan.
http://www.wallacecollection.org

I ate lunch at the new Wallace Restaurant. It is in the enclosed courtyard and a beautiful setting. One-half of the courtyard is for dining a la carte. The other half is for a cheaper &quot;light fare.&quot; Since I was in a hurry, I went for the light fare.

The menu is quite french, to go along with the collection. I ordered a plate of melon and prosciutto. I think this is the only non-French dish on the menu. Lunch was quite expensive at &pound;11. The service was also not the best. The waitstaff is nice, but terribly understaffed.

I wish I had more time to spend at the museum, but I had to get going as I wanted to take another walk with London Walks.

I walked to Oxford Street and joined the 2pm <b>Old Marylebone Walk</b>. Given it was a Saturday, the group is quite a bit larger than the Hampstead one I took a few days earlier. We had about 30 people. The guide actually took us inside the Wallace Collection, and it was nice to pick up some tidbits that I had missed.

The walk started near Bond Street, but ended in Baker Street. It was nice, but I think I enjoyed the Hampstead Walk more.
http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Saturday/default.aspx#157

After the walk, yes, you guessed it right, I went back to Northumberland House for my afternoon nap. I had to energize myself for the evening.

My last art stop was <b>Tate Modern</b> for it's <i>Dali and Film </i>exhibit. To get there, I took the bus to St Paul's Catherdral and then crossed the river. I had also pre-booked the exhibition ticket for 6:30pm entry (Tate Modern is open late on Saturdays), which was again not necessary.

This was a <i>huge</i> show. Very crowded also (it closed the following day). A lot of Dali's paintings are quite small in size, so it's hard to get close enough to see the details without being pushed aside. It has several films on view, including <i>Un Chien Andalou</i>, <i>L'Age d'or</i>, and the Disney movie <i>Destino</i>. I had seen some of these in a previous Dali show &quot;It's All Dali!&quot; in Rotterdam. My favorite is the photographs shown in the last room from the book <i>Dali's Mustache - a photographic interview</i> by Philippe Halsman.

One could easily spend hours at this show, and I wish I had known that as I would have skipped my nap and gone earlier.

I had about 20 minutes to spare before leaving for dinner, so I rushed through the 2 floors of permanent collection. It was really quite a shame I had so little time. Even though I last visited Tate Modern in 2006, I believe the curators have rehung most of the permanent exhibits. I was able to pause for a few moments in my favorite gallery - the Rothko Seagram Murals room.

I left Tate Modern at 8:15pm as I was meeting fellow Fodorite 111op and his mom for dinner at 9pm near Goodge Street. I walked back to St Paul's and took the tube to Tottenham Court Road. It turns out I had more time than I thought, so I got out there and walked towards Goodge Street instead of changing for the Northern line.

111op had made reservation at <b>Pied &agrave; Terre</b> on Charlotte Street. I know that area very well as <i>way</i> back when I spent 8 months living in a dorm on Charlotte Street, just a block or 2 from the restaurant.

Even though our reservation was for 9pm, we weren't seated until 9:15. We waited upstairs at the bar, which was completely empty. All 3 of us decided to go for the &pound;80 tasting menu.

I asked for tap water, and 111op joked that I had to nerve to order tap water at such a fancy restaurant. I thought overall the food was good - but not great. The tasting menu had 9 courses:
Oyster, Scallop, Foie Gras, Halibut, Lamb (the main course), sorbet (palette cleanser), cheese, dessert, and then petit fours. You can see the menu here:
http://www.pied-a-terre.co.uk/default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=81
(Our first course was changed to poached oyster as they had run out of tuna.) We also had an assortment of amuse-bouche before our first course.

You can see photos of the food taken by 111op (begins with photo 36)
http://tinyurl.com/34qekb

My favorite course was the lamb. Several of the dishes were rather salty. I was glad we ordered tap water - otherwise we would probably consume several bottles of mineral water because of the salty food!!! The service was fine - but we noticed multiple waitstaff dropped a number of things. I found out (much) later that Pied &agrave; Terre actually has 2 Michelin stars. I have to say, I have never dined at any Michelin-starred restaurant. I don't think our dinner experience deserves 2 stars. Since we didn't order any other drinks, our bill was &pound;90pp.

It was fun to catch up with 111op again (I think we meet up once or twice a year?), but I hope his mom wasn't too bored.

By the time we finished, it was almost midnight. We caught the tube back to Northumberland House - they were staying there also.

111op

I'd forgotten to comment on the clumsy waitstaff.

It was fun to see you again also -- and thanks again for taking the time to help with my reservation problem at Northumberland.

My mom enjoyed meeting you again -- actually she remembered that when we met in 2005, you didn't wear glasses. I, of course, didn't remember.

For what it's worth, her favorite was the foie gras. She also thought it was better than Da Fiore.

Personally I still haven't had a really, really memorable dining experience. I mean, these places are nice, but $180 for a meal? Ultimately I don't think that that money spent is really worth it, but it is a nice experience dining at these places.

It's like buying a shirt for $350. Could a cotton shirt really be worth for $350?

I think that there were some interesting flavors apart from salty. The chef is Australian, and I think there're some Asian influences.

By the way I checked the paper edition of the Michelin 2007 guide for London today. Yes, the restaurant does have **. So I guess this was a good way for you to embark on your culinary adventure (even it was a little disappointing -- as these experiences usually end up, as I said).

Gordon Ramsay is still the only restaurant in London with 3 Michelin stars.

tuscanlifeedit

yk: totally enjoying your report.

Cova: Hello dear. I'm sick in bed, but have the laptop, which is fun.

I wish I knew who Orlando Bloom is! I feel out of it. However, I do like Brendan Fraser, and Blast From the Past is genius. Christopher Walken is so amazing.

111op

By the way, I should add that as a point of comparison, we spent 229 euros at Da Fiore, and I left a 10 euro tip. So Da Fiore wasn't much cheaper than Pied a Terre. I'd say that P a T was actually reasonable value -- if I dare say so. Da Fiore has one star, but Pied a Terre has two.

And we just ate at a Japanese restaurant tonight near Union Square. It was about $80 a person.

Sadly money just doesn't go far these days.