London

Monday 28 December - London

We’ve arrived!

Well here we are in sunny London – no seriously – we did have a beautiful, bright, sunny first day here and absolutely made the most of it.

We landed at Heathrow at 6:30am. It was dark, but as we looked out the plane window at the London street lights it was as though we were looking at a spider web of diamonds – so pretty.

The early start made for a quiet commute on the tube to the Barbican and a crisp walk to our accommodation. Dumped our bags then didn’t waste any time in heading off to enjoy the sunshine. Walked to St Paul’s, down Fleet St and then grabbed a bus to Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall to Big Ben. A nice young man on the bus gave his seat up for Louise. Clearly this had nothing to do with her age and everything to do with his manners (yeah right).

Our goal for today was to hit the post-Christmas sales, so we walked through St James’ Park – stopping to watch squirrels play and to look at the huge variety of ducks in the pond – and up to Piccadilly Circus.





From here it was straight to Carnaby St. We then continued on to Oxford St – along with every other human being in London it seemed! Enjoyed more shopping before deciding it was time to take refuge in a pub for a warming meal.



After quite a massive day of walking, jostling with other shoppers to find the perfect bargain and generally enjoying being back in a favourite city (not to mention being extremely tired from not really sleeping on the plane) we made our way home for an early night.

Tuesday 29 December – London

Where did the sun go?? A quick look out the window at the drizzly rain confirmed that today would be a perfect day for… more shopping! Caught the tube to Covent Garden and visited a couple of friends – Paul Smith and Ted Baker. Couldn’t resist some more bargains (loving this exchange rate!) but decided that a more sensible (and quite necessary) purchase would be an umbrella! After making our £5 investment, we wandered through Covent Garden before finding the most beautiful little pub tucked down a cobbled lane. Enjoyed the hospitality (and the fire place!) at The Lamb and Flag before venturing off to the National Gallery. Spent a few hours looking at some old favourites (a visit to Constable’s The Haywain is a must every time, as is Van Eyk’s The Arnolfini Marriage and Holbein’s The Ambassadors) before heading for home to get ready for tonight’s entertainment – our first London pantomime!!

The performance of Dick Whittington by the Charles Court Opera at a great pub in Islington was an absolute highlight. The Rosemary Branch pub has a brilliant atmosphere – with a bar area downstairs and an intimate performance space upstairs. After enjoying a hearty meal we settled in for a night of amazing singing, hilarious gags, audience participation and a novel take on a classic tale. A brilliant night.



Wednesday 30 December – London

Today was a day for catching up with friends – but not before we did some more shopping! In actual fact, we didn’t intend on doing any shopping today but we’re just suckers for a good sale.

The first goal for the day was to find some new works by street artist Banksy (thanks for introducing us to him, Di!) that we read had been done on the tunnel walls alongside Regents Canal in Camden a couple of days before Christmas. Managed to find them which was a real hoot.




No visit to Camden would be complete without a walk through the market and… the shoe shops! Grabbed a couple of bargains before heading off to catch up with Alan who was witness at our wedding here a few years ago. It was great to see him again. From there we went back to Covent Garden (back to The Lamb and Flag in fact – Phil is a fan of their Ploughman’s Lunches!) where we spent the afternoon catching up with our dear friend Tim. Looking through the beautiful leadlight windows as the daylight faded, we realized it was time to prepare for our entertainment this evening – a visit to the Southwark Playhouse for a promenade performance of Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol.

Neither of us had been to a promenade performance before and it was quite an experience. The performance space was in the vaults under London Bridge Station, so it was a massive area and a real rabbit warren of rooms. During the course of the play the actors, in character, led us from one room (and scene) to another. Only a limited number of tickets were sold for each performance, so there was always a good view and plenty of opportunity for audience participation (we were invited to sit at Bob Cratchit’s Christmas dinner table during the ghost of Christmas present scene!). It was quite an extraordinary experience.

Thursday 31 December - London

First thing this morning was to venture back to Camden to exchange one of yesterday’s purchases (don’t worry, Phil – it was an unusually small size – nothing to do with the English breakfasts… Cornish pasties… beer…).

A satisfactory exchange and some more new shoes later (couldn’t resist!) and we were on the bus to Chelsea for a really enjoyable wander. A highlight was a visit to The Conran Shop. Ab Fab fans will remember an episode when Patsy and Edina paid a very interesting visit to the shop’s restaurant.



Commenced our New Year’s Eve celebrations with a meal in Leicester Square before enjoying a performance of Avenue Q. After the show, we attempted to walk down Whitehall towards Big Ben but – not really surprisingly – the street was closed. Already (10pm) thousands and thousands of people were waiting around the foot of the clock and along the river bank in preparation for midnight and access points were being closed before our eyes. Ducked around the back way via The Mall and cut through St James’ Park – eventually managed to get a reasonably good spot in front of Westminster Abbey. Stood in the freezing cold for an hour and a half but it was worth it. At midnight, we saw and heard Big Ben chime in the New Year and saw the brilliant fireworks around the London Eye. Beautiful snowfall on the way home capped off a great evening. Made it home by about 2:30am. Tomorrow - Paris!


1 January – London to Paris

Up early (who needs sleep?) and made our way to King’s Cross St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Enjoyed the English countryside - much of it covered in snow - as we headed towards the coast. Just before we entered the tunnel, we passed through the most amazing snow storm – it was a lovely parting view of England.

More on Paris soon!

Thanks to you all for your patience in waiting for this first post. Happy New Year!