Jolly Old London

Friday, February 15


Fran and I got into London at about 7 a.m., but had to wait about one hour to get through customs. No such thing as Britsh efficiency. Neither Fran nor I really slept on the plane, which made me even more grumpy and irritable. - I was about ready to kill someone by the time we made it to the front of the line.


Finally, Fran and I checked into our lodging, The St. Martin's Lane Hotel, a swanky, super mod place with rooms designed by Philippe Starck. Strack takes his name very seriously; our room is extremely...well...stark. But it's really cool - all white, with one hallway painted brillaint, neon yellow. There's no decoration on the walls, save for one pink flowery plant in a terracotta pot.


To the left: Our hotel is just beyond the "BOX" sign on the left, which stands for GYM BOX.


We're in the 'West End,' the Theater District near Covent Gardens and SoHo. We have a great view; outside our window is the spinning globe of the Coliseum Theater, and we can see the London Eye, as well as Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square.



After checking in, Fran and I explored Covent Gardens' markets. But we succumbed fairly quickly to jet lag and decided we couldn't fight it any longer. We went back to our hotel room and took a four-hour nap. When we woke up, we went out for excellent, up-scale Indian food at The Red Fort, at 77 Dean Street. We walked around Chinatown and also grabbed drinks at The Salisbury.


Saturday, February 16


After grabbing breakfast and coffee at Nero Coffee, we walked to Trafalgar Square on our way to The Strand.

We stopped in for a drink at a very empty, very dead bar called The George (Fran thought it was some famous bar, but turns out that it wasn't true...oh Franny.)


Next we walked around searching for The Temple Church, founded by the Knights of the Templar in the 12th century. It's between Fleet Street and the Thames, and it's hidden pretty well among modern-day buildings. You have to go down a few alleyways and turn some corners to find it. (This is the church talked about in the book and movie, "The DaVinci Code.") It is an amazing piece of history; the stones even have the appearance of being incredibly old, and there are tombs of the Knights of the Templar outside.


Next, we headed further down Fleet Street to see St. Paul's Cathedral. It is huge and also quite old and incredible.


Then, we walke across the Millennium Bridge to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. But we decided not to go in, because the structure there now is not even close to the original; the actual Globe was on land aobut 200 yards away, and this version had been built in the 1990s. But it must have been so neat to see one of the Bard's plays here back in the day.


After walking the Queen's Walk along the Thames, we crossed Tower Bridge and toured the Tower of London, which was built in 1078. This was my favorite part of the day; the history here was unbelievable. For fans of "Braveheart," like my husband, it's impressive to hear that Edward I, or "Longshanks" (he was 6'2"), lived here during the time of William Wallace and the Scottish uprising.


Also incredible were The Crown Jewels, royal crowns, scepters, bracelets, and rings encrusted with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and of course, diamonds. Lots of them - and giant ones at that.

We also saw a surviving Roman wall from 200 A.D.


Tonight, we went to the Mozart Opera, The Magic Flute, with a major twist - it was performed by a South African company, using marimbas and a trumpet, instead of violin and the flute. It was really, really good - the voices were amazing.

For dinner, we had fish and chips at Rock and Sole Plaice, at 47 Endell Street, Covent Garden, a fish and chips joint that had been open 1871. My favorite: mushy peas, a staple that goes along with fish and chips. Mmmmmm.