A Return to London

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Normally, I would write these posts as I am traveling, but this time, I felt like I was more in need of the rest whenever I had a down moment, than I was in need of recording exactly how I felt at the time. So instead, I’m putting pen to paper, as it were, while flying home at the end of a week away.

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We left on a Saturday evening for London, planning to spend three days there to prepare for our conference in 2013. I had big plans to watch some of the television shows and movies offered on our Virgin Atlantic flight, but I was just so darned tired, so instead, I mostly slept.

Arriving on Sunday morning, I was keeping my fingers crossed that our hotel rooms would be ready for us – all I wanted to do was sleep. The Sherlock Holmes Hotel was our destination – it’s been a hotel that we’ve frequently stayed in during our trips to London, and it was always a lovely little boutique hotel until they were bought out and became the Park Plaza.

You’d think that would improve the hotel but sadly, no.

As we readied to check in, we were behind a couple checking out. They had arranged for a particular rate when checking in and had been upgraded, but assured three times by the manager that the rate would remain the same.

Nope.

On their bill was a higher rate. And in addition, the woman said that there were tiles falling out in the shower and the shower wasn’t working properly. They also couldn’t close the curtains to their room. After a great deal of argument, the hotel finally agreed to let them have the original rate, and they checked out.
It didn’t give me much hope.

Overall, the hotel was and is fine. The issue is more that the level of service and attention to detail just isn’t there anymore. For example, it wasn’t until the last day that I found out that they supplied the rooms with hair conditioner – I’d just never had any. I also couldn’t figure out how to get into the mini-bar on the first evening. It turned out I had to call the front desk to have them unlock it, which is fine, but there were no instructions to that effect anywhere in the room.

And it was next to impossible to log into the wifi - they didn't tell me my correct room number (I was on the mezzanine floor, so that altered what I was supposed to include when I logged in), and even when I called them up to get that information, it still didn't work. They eventually gave me a conference number to use so that I could log in. What a pain!

My dad had bigger problems in his room, with the shower not having any pressure at all. They sent someone up to look at it, and his solution was to pour drain cleaner down the drain…not a plumber, I see. After some debate, my dad had them move him to another room, where the shower was fine.

But, we had beds to sleep in, and that was the main thing! The first afternoon, I slept for several glorious hours – I’m sure I’ve told you before that the most comfortable mattress you’ll ever sleep on is the one you reach first when you’re jet lagged. I later learned that the bed wasn’t as soft as I initially thought, but I was out like a light that first afternoon.

I’d set the alarm for about 4, because my dad had mentioned that we should try to wake ourselves up enough to head to the Rajdoot up the road for a curry. That was something I could drag myself out of bed for!

I puttered around and showered, and my dad texted me to suggest we meet around six. We walked down to the Rajdoot and sat at the same table in the tiny dining room that we’d been in before. It seemed to be only Americans in there, which was a bit odd, but we ordered our food – papadams to start, with some chutneys and sauces, followed by a lamb vindaloo and pilau rice for my dad, and what I thought was chicken tikka masala and pilau rice for me (I actually ordered just chicken tikka, which is basically the same, but without the delicious sauce).

And, of course, we ordered naan bread. Yum!

I tried dipping the naan into some of the vindaloo, but felt that if I continued to do that, I’d just end up burning off all of my tastebuds!

But it was delicious and filling, and a good way to start off our trip to London!

The next morning, we had coffee down Baker Street at Starbucks (I know, I know, it’s not English, but I love me some Starbucks!). Much to my disappointment, I learned that they do NOT have the pumpkin spiced latte there. I settled for a caramel latte, and we chatted about work a bit before heading over to our firm’s offices for a quick tour (they’re new digs for them) and a meeting about the plans for 2013.

Following our meeting, we headed over to a little French restaurant just up the street – I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me, but the firm is right in Covent Garden, so there are lots of lovely options for dining there. I don’t think I’ve been back to that part of London since we were there as a family in 1992!

There were five of us for lunch, and we had a lovely time chatting. I had the squash risotto, which had good flavour, but was a bit undercooked. But I suppose that’s understandable when you’re trying to get five meals out at the same time, and risotto normally takes FOREVER to make!

After lunch, we walked up the road a bit to see the temple which they film as the outside of MI-6 in the popular British shows “Spooks.” It’s one of my favorite shows, and unfortunately, this year is the last series. But fortunately, the series had premiered the evening before, so I was able to watch it live, which was excellent!

Then, we took a bit of a detour to go and see the new Corinthia hotel, which our hosts had suggested as a venue for the conference. It’s a new hotel, just near to the embankment and the Millenium Bridge, so it would be well situated. The hotel itself is beautiful, close to a lot of things, but on a side street where it’s a bit quieter. So we think it will be perfect, depending on what they come back with for a proposal!

Then, it was back to the hotel to do a bit of work, and a bit of shopping. I headed out on my own, with instructions from my dad on how to get to where I wanted to go to avoid getting lost (I have that problem frequently). I first headed to Boots, which is England’s version of CVS. My mom had given me a mission to find a few things for her, so I was on the hunt. She was looking for body scrub from Sanctuary spa, which is in Covent Garden and their products are carried at Boots.

I wanted to turn cartwheels when I finally found it, because I’ve been looking at the airport every time we fly through to no avail! So I picked up two tubes of that for her, and some Boots skin products for myself (they’re very highly rated) and I was off to the next shop.

Next up: Emma Bridgewater. She is best known for her pottery, but also has some other kitchen ware, and is one of my favorite shops on Marleybone high street. There were a few things my mom was looking for there as well, including a bird tin and a tea towel with a map of England on it. Walking back from dinner the night before, my dad and I had gotten the lay of the land and peeked in the closed shops to make sure that we’d find the items on the list, so I already knew they were there.

I wandered around a bit (it’s a little shop, so there isn’t TOO much wandering to be done), picked up a bird tin and the tea towel, as well as a couple little spoons that say “One mouthful” on the handles. I love fun little things like that. I ended up having to get the series of three bird tins, because they don’t break up the set. So I hope that my mom actually wanted all three, because she’s getting them!

I decided to meander a bit down the street rather than making a beeline for the next shop on the list. I stopped into a little bookstore that I love, which always seems to have so many interesting books on display. I picked up a book about the Bletchley Park codebreakers for my dad – although his father wasn’t part of the team of codebreakers, he did spend much of his career at Bletchley Park, so I knew my dad would appreciate learning about what it was like then.

I continued down the street and into a large kitchen store, where I could have spent days and a fortune! They had so many beautiful things in there, and I’m just a sucker for kitchen goods. But I behaved myself and left with just a coffee mug with dogs and cats on it. And I think it was the only thing I bought that's actually made in England and not in China!

Finally, I was off to Cath Kidston. My mom had noticed several months ago that she had a store in Heathrow, and she’d asked me to pick up a bag that she liked (Cath Kidston does bags, some clothing, kitchen items, and more – even dog collars!). I searched and searched the terminal in vain during my next trip through Heathrow, but it turned out that the shop was in a terminal I never seemed to be in.

So when we realized that we’d actually have some time in London, I promised my mom I’d go. The shop was very funny, with all their cute and kitschy stuff along the walls. I found one of the bags my mom wanted, as well as the pajama bottoms she requested, and at that point, I’d gotten everything on her list except wispa bars! (On a side note, we also realized when I got home that the security tag was still on the bag - I'm not sure how I got out of the store with it still on there, but no alarms rang!).

That evening, we were scheduled to go first to the flat of one of our attorneys, and then out to dinner with him and another friend of ours, so I checked in with my dad to see if I should pick something up to bring with us. I couldn’t think of anything, and so we’re going to send him something later.

By then, I was shopped out so I headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.

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