London 2023 - Day 2 / London

Steps today: 36 576 / 24.11km

There was supposed to be a Tube Strike today, but thankfully it was cancelled...  as it turns out we walked our butts off today and never took the tube anyway! 

Just for today, we decided to have breakfast at the hotel because it was convenient. I didn't bother looking for a room with breakfast included when I booked this trip because we don't really care about it that much.  We're fine with a coffee and croissant on the fly, and besides if I eat too much for breakfast I won't be hungry for lunch. 

It was a buffet breakfast, 15£ each (about 25$) and NOT worth the price!!! 

We started our day with a walk through Kensington Gardens so I could see the Diana Statue in the Sunken Garden. We were too early, it was about 8:30AM and it only opened at 10. OK, save it for another day.

Next on my list was to see the Wetherby School.  Royal Watchers might know what that is:

 

But when we got there, there were bus loads of children getting on busses, presumably going on a field trip, and I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures.

Off we went to next destination: the façade of a row of buildings that was all trompe l'oeil...  we couldn't find it. ha! perhaps it was just THAT good?

Next on the list was The Rolling Bridge in the Paddington Basin. A foot bridge that rolls up like a snail when boats need to pass. Sounds really neat!!!   but in real life it wasn't rolled up and was so unimpressive that I didn't even bother taking a picture. Google it if you are curious.

On the way however, we did stumble upon this cool bronze public sculpture: Table of Love

From there, we walked over to Marble Arch, only to discover that it's covered up for restoration. Too bad.  Also, the Still Waters statue (Horse Head) has been moved so we missed that too. (We never bothered to find its new location)

It was getting close to Gin and Tonic O'clock, and I wanted to go to St Christopher's Place nearby. It's a pedestrian area off the busy road full of restos, cafés and boutiques.  I discovered it on my 2016 visit and found it very charming so I wanted to show it to Frank.  It was disappointing, but the pub stop for a drink was great! The Lamb & Flag.

Another restaurant chain I discovered in 2016 was "Yo! Sushi".  Novel for me because I had never had conveyor-belt sushi before and the experience was a lot of fun! I had lunch there again when I was in London in 2019 and Frank was game to try it out for himself. Sadly, most of them seem to have shut down, I suppose this kind of restaurant concept can't survive in a post-Covid world. We found one not far from were we were, but the belt wasn't running so what's the point.

Instead, we ended up at Prezzo (another chain) for lunch but because I had a bigger than normal breakfast, I kept it simple with a Margherita Pizza.  It was just enough!

After lunch, we strolled through London's famous triade of public squares: 

Piccadilly Circus which is always too crowded for me:

Leicester Square. I like the Swiss Glockenspiel and  Mary Poppins statue (although her face looks weird). I totally forgot about Mr Bean's! oops!:

 and Trafalgar Square which is always difficult for me because there isn't ever a tiny drop of shade!:

From here, the next logical step was to walk down the Mall to Buckingham Palace

Then onwards to the Official Buckingham Palace Souvenir Shop so I could buy the one souvenir I wanted from this trip. I am not a shopper and I don't like to buy souvenirs because I hate knick-knacks, but this is something to hang on the Xmas tree so it's not so bad!

It was about 2:45 by then, and we really needed a rest and a pee! We searched around with surprising difficulty and finally found a place to collapse. Notes (yet another chain)

We felt revived after this, so it was off to the Embankment area to see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and especially Big Ben which is no longer under wraps!

Big Ben looked marvelous! Last time I was in London in 2019, it looked like this:

And now:

Across the bridge, we walked along the National Covid Memorial Wall. It was very moving. 

We crossed back along Embankment Bridge so I could get shots of the London Eye. No plans to ride it this trip. It's expensive and I've done it 3, maybe 4 times already. It's enough.

4:30 ish by now, and for us that means thinking about supper. Yep, even on vacation we are "those" kind of people. Eat early and turn in early.

You probably will not be surprised to learn that we ended up at another Caffe Concerto. I had a delicious cheese, mushroom and spinach omelet.

We felt good after supper, so we decided to walk home. That's another advantage of eating early!

We walked down the Mall again towards Buckingham Palace again, but this time on the other side of the street so I could see the Queen Elizabeth Memorial. I really like it!

I like to call this one: "When the King and Queen waited into waist-high water to save a drowning boy"

St James Palace:

And we made it Wellington Arch just when the sun was starting to set. It took time to get a picture with no people in the way, but the wait was worth it.

I wanted a nightcap before calling it a day, and Frank was generous enough to indulge me.  

I love sherry, specifically: Harvey's Bristol Cream and I knew just were I could get some on the way back to the hotel: The bar at the hotel where I stayed in 2019! Cheers!

We made it back to the room by around 8 and collapsed into sleep.

Day 2 Map: