Day 6: Travel to London


Most of today was spent in travel from Madrid to London, which sounds like it should be jiffy quick but in actually is hampered by a long customs line to get into the UK. I'm not sure if it's always like that or if it's a result of Brexit, but regardless it took over two and a half hours to get through. (The girl in front of us fainted and was carted off in a wheelchair...it was all very dramatic.)

But once we were through the line, we hopped into a taxi and whisked through some countryside as the sun set and then into London, which is decorated for Christmas like Santa himself lives there. Our hotel is the Park Tower Knightsbridge, across from Hyde Park, and the lobby is lovely.




Since we had 9 p.m. dinner reservations at a restaurant called Celeste in the nearby Lanesborough Hotel, we stopped for a quick drink at the bar...even the drinks taste like holidays.


A hotel we passed on our walk, all lit up...


A Christmas tree made of Valhrona chocolate!


Below is a picture of Celeste, a one-star Michelin restaurant that felt like you'd stepped into some genteel Victorian aunt's parlor for dinner.


The amuse bouche was a pastry ball that I didn't realize was filled with white truffle cream, so that went poorly for my outfit.


We also shared a scotch egg, which is a lightly fried egg that's been wrapped in chicken and veal in this case.


I also had a white truffle risotto with mushrooms...there really can't be enough truffle.


And finally, the best part of the meal...a "textures of hazelnut" dessert that was all different forms of hazelnut, including truffles, cookies, and sorbet. It was SO good and I will think of it fondly and often.


To end this uneventful post (the next two days do get more exciting) is a picture of the view from our room...since we're across from Hyde Park, we can see the seasonal Winter Wonderland that's set up for the holidays, complete with rides, Christmas markets, games, and live music. 


Comments

  1. JackieDecember 31, 2018 at 1:35 PM

    WOW, What a view!! Loving all your pictures and stories 😀 Can't wait to see and read more!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JackieDecember 31, 2018 at 1:36 PM

      Oh and that risotto looks so delicious!

      Delete
    2. EricaDecember 31, 2018 at 3:05 PM

      Thank you! Your comments make my day! :D And the risotto was so good...so rich and flavorful and perfect for a chilly day.

      Delete
  2. RachelJanuary 2, 2019 at 6:26 AM

    You do have some amazing pictures. That is one fabulous view!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EricaJanuary 2, 2019 at 1:15 PM

      Thank you! I went to that park four times, it was super fun...though the noise from the street directly below was less fun. But who needs sleep anyway!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Magic in London, Part One

Image
Since London is a huge and historic city with endless things to do, you can't visit without doing something new (even if you're staying for fewer than 48 hours). So first up on the agenda--the Dickens Museum! Dickens lived there for two years, from 1837 to 1839, and it's the only house in which he lived that's left standing. Also he wrote Oliver Twist there! And while Dickens isn't my personal top-tier Victorian author, I'm up for any literary site and especially any insight into Victorian times. In another life, I'm a Victorianist at an East Coast college, wearing wooly sweaters while I read in my toasty office. I don't know why so many of these are sideways...just tilt your head. Anyway, on the lower level you can wander through the kitchen and Dickens' wine cellar, where I learned that Victorian families kept pet hedgehogs to eat bugs. Elowen enjoyed drawing "Bill Spikes" (puns!) while I looked around. On the next floor, Elowen charged ...
Read more

Otherworldly Magic in the Puzzlewood and a Visit to Hereford

Image
Our second full day in the Cotswolds was supposed to be rainy and also it was a bank holiday, so we didn't think we'd be able to find parking or enjoy the little towns we had slated for the day. Instead, we decided to drive to Puzzlewood (which was actually very close to our hotel in Wales) and then visit the Cider Museum in Hereford, both things I'd really wanted to do and was feeling angsty about missing.      Puzzlewood is an ancient woodland (dating back at least 10,000 years) in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire England. A local landowner laid down a mile of windy, maze-like pathways in the 1800s for his children, friends, and neighbors, and it later opened as a tourist attraction in the 1900s.  I wanted to make sure we had it mostly to ourselves, so we were there and in line at the ticket office before the gates even opened--then we dashed in!       It's even more glowy-green and otherworldly than it looks in the pictures, and it truly feels...
Read more

Mdina, the Silent City

Another highlight of Malta (perhaps more legitimate than Popeye's Village) was Mdina, known as the silent city both because no cars are allowed other than those of residents and also because it has only a few hundred residents.  The city gate I'm sure in summer it's pretty packed, but we had the city largely to ourselves...just a few other tourists and some horse and carriages. And it's truly lovely...the streets shine, smoothed by hundreds of years of feet walking through history before you, and there are so many narrow, winding alleys in which to get lost.  It's been inhabited since prehistory, with a Phoenician settlement in 8 BC. Then the Romans captured it and it kept passing hands through the centuries until the Order of St. John (a Catholic military order) took the city over in 1530. It later belonged to the French and then of course the British got it back, and then MUCH more recently it was used as a filming location for King's Landing in the first seas...
Read more