after a loooong 10+ hour flight we have arrived. No turbulence to speak of but we did see a phenomenal electrical storm off the starboard side of the plane. We swooped down over the west coast of Scotland, looped around London proper on arrival path to Heathrow. We had a birds-eye view of the city in its entirety (think Google Earth) on a lovely afternoon. We spotted the Tower of London, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace from the air...
Arrivals through Heathrow were calm and orderly - one would expect no less! and finally found our driver for the transfer to the Hotel. The Chesterfield is a lovely small hotel in the middle of Mayfair. The Saudi Embassy is down the block and the US embassy is a few streets over. The hotel itself used to be the residence of Lord Chesterfield in the 1700-1800s and we are ensconced on the second floor in the Phillipe Suite. Niece Katy and I share a king sized bed in the main room and brother Greg is ensconced in the sitting room side in a pull out sofa bed. This doesn't seem to affect his sleeping at all!
The rooms are decorated in the genteel British style with old books, plates and prints on the wall and lovely wall paper. The only mishap so far is Katy somehow blew out the circuit Friday morning for the majority of lights, so Greg had to shower in a windowless bathroom by the light of his handily packed flashlight.
So we spent an hour or so settling into the hotel Thursday afternoon, then set off to walk around the neighborhood and find the Audley pub (frequented by the Obama girls) for dinner. The pub was packed with "beer fishes"-Greg's name for the ale guzzling hordes that drink and smoke outside the pubs. Thankfully for us, smoking is outlawed in pubs in the UK so we can sit inside and not inhale a pack an hour.
Our dinner served to us by a lovely Brazilian lassie consisted of:
Greg: fish n chips-a lovely large fillet of cod (tail included) crisply fried in light batter, a generous handful or two of french fries (chips) and mushy peas. The peas were quite tasty, flavored subtly with mint.
Katy: chicken hot pot-diced chicken in a mild white sauce covered with sliced potatoes and cheese, then heated until red hot in the oven. This was accompanied by overcook broccoli, peas and carrots as well as a small bit of french bread and a huge amount of butter.
Becky: cottage pie-minced beef cooked with peas and gravy then covered with mashed potatoes served again with the ubiquitous broccoli, peas and carrots.
Greg had a cask drawn ale, I had a shandy-lager mixed with 7-up and Katy stuck with diet pepsi.
back to the hotel to collapse into bed about 9:00 pm...Greg and Katy slept through the night, I, alas awoke at 1:30 and stayed up until 5 or so...
Arrivals through Heathrow were calm and orderly - one would expect no less! and finally found our driver for the transfer to the Hotel. The Chesterfield is a lovely small hotel in the middle of Mayfair. The Saudi Embassy is down the block and the US embassy is a few streets over. The hotel itself used to be the residence of Lord Chesterfield in the 1700-1800s and we are ensconced on the second floor in the Phillipe Suite. Niece Katy and I share a king sized bed in the main room and brother Greg is ensconced in the sitting room side in a pull out sofa bed. This doesn't seem to affect his sleeping at all!
The rooms are decorated in the genteel British style with old books, plates and prints on the wall and lovely wall paper. The only mishap so far is Katy somehow blew out the circuit Friday morning for the majority of lights, so Greg had to shower in a windowless bathroom by the light of his handily packed flashlight.
So we spent an hour or so settling into the hotel Thursday afternoon, then set off to walk around the neighborhood and find the Audley pub (frequented by the Obama girls) for dinner. The pub was packed with "beer fishes"-Greg's name for the ale guzzling hordes that drink and smoke outside the pubs. Thankfully for us, smoking is outlawed in pubs in the UK so we can sit inside and not inhale a pack an hour.
Our dinner served to us by a lovely Brazilian lassie consisted of:
Greg: fish n chips-a lovely large fillet of cod (tail included) crisply fried in light batter, a generous handful or two of french fries (chips) and mushy peas. The peas were quite tasty, flavored subtly with mint.
Katy: chicken hot pot-diced chicken in a mild white sauce covered with sliced potatoes and cheese, then heated until red hot in the oven. This was accompanied by overcook broccoli, peas and carrots as well as a small bit of french bread and a huge amount of butter.
Becky: cottage pie-minced beef cooked with peas and gravy then covered with mashed potatoes served again with the ubiquitous broccoli, peas and carrots.
Greg had a cask drawn ale, I had a shandy-lager mixed with 7-up and Katy stuck with diet pepsi.
back to the hotel to collapse into bed about 9:00 pm...Greg and Katy slept through the night, I, alas awoke at 1:30 and stayed up until 5 or so...
No comments:
Post a Comment