A weekend in London

---

I had to go to London for work last week and due to other work committments the following week it turned out that I was going to have to stay the weekend in London so I could go onwards straight to Madrid and then back home to Dubai.

It wasn't the end of the world as it turned out as Dave had to be in Paris that week as well. So he decided to buy a cheap ticket and come on over to London to join me for the weekend as another tourist.

Before I had left for London I spoke to one of the girls in the London office and asked what the temperature was like in London. She said that it was lovely and that I wouldn't need my winter coat. BOLLOCKS!!!!! It was freezing. I can't remember the last time that I was that cold. I spent the entire weekend and the days before it absolutley freezing my fingers and toes off. There was this horrendous biting wind that felt as though it was going straight through you. I truely can't remember the last time that I was that cold.

Dave seemed to bear up just fine under the cold, in fact he loved it, whereas I nearly died. I don't understand how he manages to stay that warm. His fingers were toasty whereas mine felt like little ice cubes.

Anyway, Dave arrived late wednesday night and after I went to work on Thursday we decided to go on the Jack the Ripper walking tour on Thursday night. This was actually quite and interesting little walking tour and if the weather had been a little warmer would have actually been quite enjoyable I would imagine. The tour walked all around the East End and actually took us to some of the murder sites. It was quite spooky to realise that some of the cobble stones that we were walking on were actually the same cobble stones that Jack the Ripper would have in fact walked on after the murders. The guide went into the gruesome details of all the murders and even told us some of the theories about who the man could have been. All in all very interesting and I would recommend it. Just not in the cold.

The next day we got up and decided to do a little more wandering around. The very first thing that we did was to go and buy some half price tickets to a show. Chicago to be precise. We then wandered around the shops where Dave and I changed roles and he did all the shopping while I just looked on. Lunch was in the most fantastic little pub where I had a glorious Steak and Ale Pie. Yes that is right my vegetarian crown has slipped most remarkably and I have been having quite a few steak pies recently. Anyway this pie was just divine. Not the least because we were very hungry after a morning of walking around. We then pottled off back to the hotel so I could have a bath and warm up before we went to the show.

Chicago was fab. A great show and just like the movie. Big mama wasn't the best but the other actors were fantastic. This was in fact the first show that Dave had ever been to so I imagine that it was a bit of an eye opener for him as well. The theatre itself wasn't the nicest. In fact it really was a little manky. But the show was very good. It was actually the first show that I had ever been to on the West End as well.

The following day (saturday) we got up and continued our little site seeing jaunt. This time we walked for miles and miles and miles. We decided to walk from the hotel in Picadilly all the way to St Pauls cathedral. Well this is a little walk let me tell you. When we got there we then decided to go into the cathedral and walk all the way to the top. All 700 stairs or so. It was a bit of a hike. And was terribly windy and cold at the top as well.

I had forgotten just how beautiful St Pauls actually is. The mosaics in there are just stunning. And apparently they are also relatively new only being installed when one of the Queens (Victoria I believe) commented that the place was a little too dull and dreery for her to worship in. Well they did a magnificient job of livening the place up. I have never seen more beautiful mosaics.

Once we managed to drag ourselves away from St Pauls we started on a bit of a quest. We wanted to go to Spittlefield markets to have a look and maybe some lunch. So off we toddled, walking our way through the extreme cold. Unfortunatley when we got there the markets weren't open and there wasn't any nice pubs to have some lunch in. We (I) were so cold and had walked so far, and were therefore soooooooooooo very hungry that we felt like another jolly good steak pie. And so the quest commenced. We started walking back towards Picadilly and going into every pub that we walked past to try and get another good pub lunch. Unfortunatley the first three or four or ten pubs didn't seem to have a good pie. But we had to have a drink in them anyway just to make sure.

Finally we found a great little pub that was serving exaclty the same pie as yesterday just at the start of the West End. It turned out that it was part of the same chain so that made a bit of sense. And the pie was just as fantastic. We were gasping for it by the time that it arrived.

After we consumed our long awaited and much deserved pie we headed back to the hotel for a wee lie down. And didn't actually manage to leave it again for quite a long time. We were exhausted after the nie on 8 miles that we had walked.

We did manage to find another pub for dinner and then it was straight home to bed.

---