‘ello Gov’na
I’ll admit that one of the best things about our stay in London was the fact that our adventures were not as mentally draining as our previous stops throughout Europe and Asia. Although we got by in most places with our limited language arsenal (Mike’s fairly extensive German skills, a few language books and my ability to nag him until he asks for help and/or directions), being back in a place where our language is the official language is somewhat comforting. You really underestimate the extra energy necessary to navigate your surroundings when you must first translate whatever it is you are trying to read/find/etc. (Cairo was especially a nightmare since both the words AND numbers must be translated from Arabic, thus making conversing, driving, exchanging money and doing pretty much anything besides hiding out in your terrible hotel room somewhat stressful.)
So, with all that said, we had a fantastic time in London. It was another brief stay for us (i.e., less than 4 days); however, we made the most of our time and saw just about everything we wanted to see. We arrived in London from Dusseldorf in the late afternoon and checked into the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel in the Knightsbridge section of the city. After dropping our luggage off in our room, we decided to scope out the area around where we were staying. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes of walking, the weather took a turn for the worst, so we ducked into a cute little pub around the corner. An order of fish and chips washed down with a few beers helped us to forget about the cold rain coming down outside and gave us a great first taste of London. Once the rain let up, we made our way back to the hotel and crawled into bed to rest up for the two full days of Wedding of Wonders excitement that awaited us.
The next day was filled with the quintessential tourist things across the city including the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, Covent Garden and numerous other stops in between. We arrived at Buckingham Palace just in time to be overrun by about a million tourists attempting to get a glimpse of the changing of the guards. Since we did not pack our German tourist coats for the occasion, we quickly moved through the enormous crowd, snapped a few pictures and made our way to the Underground en route to lunch.
On this particular day, we had plans to meet up with Mike’s friend Jim Vint from the FTI London office. Jim was one of the first people that Mike met when he started at FTI, so it was nice to catch up with him since he moved to London almost two years ago. We had a nice, delicious lunch at The White Swan in the Holborn section of the city where we reminisced about how quickly the last 5 years have simply flown by.
After lunch, we said goodbye to JV and continued east towards the Tower Bridge. Along the way we stopped to see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge.
Although the clouds looked slightly ominous, the weather held up and made for an absolutely beautiful walk along the water. We passed the London Bridge (which is not at all attractive) and approached the beautiful, much more spectacular and freshly painted Tower Bridge.
We arrived just as a large boat entered the vicinity, causing the bridge to open in order to allow it to pass through. Since the bridge opens only 2-3 times each day, we were lucky to witness this considering we did not hang around for too long.
We climbed the steps leading up to the bridge walkway and headed north towards the closest subway stop.
A few stops later and we emerged next to the Parliament building which is home to the famous Big Ben.
Just across the water from Parliament is the super cool-looking London Eye. Although we did not have the opportunity to take a ride, I thought it was pretty awesome that you could actually rent out one of the bubbles and host parties inside as you look out over the city, drink champagne and hang out with your friends. That is something that we will definitely put on our list of future activities.
After we had our share of super touristy attractions, we hopped back on the train and went back to the hotel for a quick nap. A couple of hours later, we woke up, got dressed and walked back to the nearest Underground station so that we could grab some food. Once we arrived at the station, we noticed that all of the entrances were blocked off by gates. There was one gate slightly open, with an employee blocking the opening, so we decided to ask why the train was closed so early. He broke the unfortunate news that there was “a person under the train.” Yikes. He told us that it would be a few more HOURS until the train would re-open (double yikes), so we would have to walk around the corner and catch the bus to Piccadilly Circus.
For dinner, we made our way through Piccadilly and over to Covent Garden and wandered the cobblestone streets until we found a little restaurant on the main square. A pot of mussels, a bottle of wine and a warm brownie later, and we were already tired and ready to call it a night. The next morning we would be off to Stonehenge for a photo-shoot and The Fat Duck for a marathon tasting menu, so we needed all the sleep we could get.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:32
I’m guessing Lars is too young (and too German) for me??
June 23rd, 2009 at 14:41
I just want to say two things: that I demand more blog posts and that I had a dream about your wedding last night and it was awesome. Can’t wait for the real thing! (does that count as three things?)