40th Celebrations in London

---

Day 1:

3rd November

With my 40th birthday looming, my wife, another couple we know and I decided to book a few days at an apartment to celebrate. We live in London, so getting to our accommodation in Bayswater was easy. Ours friends live over in Watford, and we’d assumed they’d be getting the tube in, but Dave had just bought a new VW Passat from his local dealership and - desperate to trial out his new toy on the open road - insisted on driving.

We arrived at our apartment in Bayswater just after lunch and lounged around until Dave and Sarah arrived around 3pm. On the first night, we decided we’d just order some food to the apartment and watch a film with a few drinks, ready for a busy day on the Friday.

Day 2:

4th November

Because they hadn’t lived in the area long, Dave and Sarah wanted to do lots of touristy things - including the London Eye and Madame Tussauds . My wife and I had pretty much exhausted the tourist hotspots with our other friends, but we were happy to oblige. It took a bit of persuasion, but Dave eventually agreed to leave his new car at the apartment and we just used the tube to get around. There’s a Pizza Hut and a few nice bars near Bayswater and, as we didn't want to risk missing the last tube back, we just stayed local on the evening. We called it a night around 11:30pm, as my wife informed me we had to be up and out early the next day.

Day 3:

5th November

We were up and out by 9:30am on the Saturday - and I realised why when my wife told me she thought climbing the O2 Arena would be a great idea and had booked tickets to surprise me!

We stopped off at the Costa just outside of the O2, where a much-needed breakfast helped to calm my nerves. The climb wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined - and the views made it worthwhile. I wasn’t too keen on the 30 degree decline on the way down, though! After the O2 we took the tube to Leicester Square, where we managed to get some bargain tickets to Les Misérables for that evening. We grabbed dinner at Jamie’s Italian in Covent Garden before the show and then headed back to the apartment.

Day 4:

6th November

Dave and Sue were keen to avoid traffic on the way home - so we decided it would be best if they headed off early. We made breakfast in the apartment before they headed home just after 9am and my wife and I headed to Oxford Street to start some early Christmas shopping. All in all, a lovely weekend celebrating the big 4-0.

---