London Saturday, Aug. 6-9, 2011

Our plane trip was uneventful even with 3 children under the age of 4 close by.  When we first got into our seats and I heard a sort of screaming baby, I cringed.  After everyone settled in, all was well.  Though I may have gotten around 2 hours of sleep and watched part of Arthur (the new version) on the plane, I felt ok.  We got off the plane, went through immigration, gathered our luggage, found our driver booked through - info@londonairporttransport.co.uk/, and were on our way into London. From the time our plane landed and stepping since our home for two nights at the Crown Plaza Kensington, it took 1 hr and 20 minutes.  Unbelievable!

Our driver was congenial and also brought our friends, Trish and Dave arriving later that day.  The receptionist, Daniella, was friendly and efficient.  We are paying with our room at the “Clown”” Plaza with Priority Points through my credit card…. Wonderful inventions!  Our room at the CP has two double beds, looks over a nice garden beside St. Stephens Church and worked nicely as our home base until we move to The Chesterfield Mayfair on Monday.  After settling in, we showered and immediately went to sleep for a few hours.

After waking up and taking showers, we headed to the lobby and reached our friends who had just arrived and gotten into their room.  We asked the concierge who was most helpful during our stay at the CP-K for restaurants, and they were only a few blocks up the road.  After lunch, we walked around Kensington and happened on a pub, The Stanford Arms, just a block from our hotel.  We all hoisted a local beer and enjoyed the setting.  When we returned to our hotel, we hit the bar, made friends with the bartender and found a nice little cove to enjoy talking and making plans for our next two days in London.

On Sunday morning the news on the TV was all about the fire in Tottenham the night before.  Throughout our stay in London we were not affected by the riots at all.  We were all well rested nap and a good breakfast at Garfinkels (2 breakfast for 10Ls) we got our Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) tickets, changing to a two day pass and hoped on the top of the bus and saw the sights.  The traffic was extremely heavy that morning as there was a marathon going on in the city.  We saw the biking segment later that afternoon around Buckingham Palace later that afternoon.  Around 1:00pm we were near Piccadilly Circus, and we had to be at the Palace for our 2:00pm ticket pick up, so we hopped off and walked down Piccadilly.  Having stayed at the Park Lane in London a few times, I was familiar with the area, so we walked as I looked for my markers.  We had a great stroll and we made it to the Palace with plenty of time to spare.  The queue to get into the Palace was long, we were moved quickly to our time. 

The Palace was opulent to say the least, but the queen is one of the richest women in the world.  The Palace is both a home and a work sight.  Kate’s wedding dress was on display and it was a draw for many.  It certainly was beautiful, but I liked the cake.  All the special flowers and decorations were intricate and looked good enough to eat!  We could also get closer to the cake than the dress.  As our tour ended onto a back lawn, it was pouring rain.  We walked to the gift shop and then the exit.  Along the way, we splashed through many mud puddles and my sneakers ended up with some Royal Mud on them…..  picture enclosed.

After a walk towards the next HOHO stop, we found a pub (imagine that!) and stopped for lunch/dinner and a beer.  We found our HOHO bus and headed back to Kensington, passing Harrods on the way.  We dropped our stuff in our rooms and found our special corner and our favorite bartender.  

On Monday, we got up, ate breakfast at Garfinkels again and checked out, leaving our luggage for later.  We found our HOHO bus and settled in for the day.  The Kensington area of London is serviced by the blue line, so we road to Marble Arch and changed to the red line.  On this route, we went through Trafalger Square, by Parliament and Big Ben, over to the London Eye, London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.  When we returned to Marble Arch, we got the blue line westbound and stopped at Harrods.  I have been in London a few times and my visit to Harrods was my first.  We walked slowly around ogling all the finery, through the food court, up the famous Egyptian Elevator to the third floor.  We found Florian’s Café and had lunch.  We made no purchases at Harrods, but headed back to the HOHO stop and caught our bus back to Kensington, gathered our luggage, hopped into a taxi and our next stop was the Chesterfield Mayfair, our included Regent hotel.

 The Chesterfield is a very nice, very English hotel with fabric wall coverings. 

Crystal and I were given our key and we told the bellman our room number.  Our key didn’t seem to work, so I left Crystal and went back to registration.  I was told I had gone to the wrong room.  With a smile on my face, I said, showing the young lady the number she had written on my card, “I went to the right room.”  She corrected herself and our keys were rekeyed for the room across the hall.  When I returned, Crystal was beginning to settle in our first room with our luggage.  We then noticed a nice plate of strawberries in our room….. hmmmmm.  Looking at the card, they were sent to someone else.  Darn!  We checked out our new room that was set up with a king bed.  That would not do, so I called reception and was told they would check on it.  After waiting 15 minutes, I called reception again and was told our beds would be switched out at turn down.  OK, got bags moved, settled in, found Trish and Dave and found a pub for some drinks.  We enjoyed the local flavor, I was on wine by this time.

More later……..