We spent about 36 days here in 2010 and 2011 so we did not have grandiose plans for this part of our trip. Rather, we planned to basically live here for a week. Visit a few sites, enjoy the restaurants we have liked so much in the past and just hang out.
Since this blog is supposed to be helpful to other travelers and a way for us to remember all we are so fortunate to do, here is a review of the highlights of the first part of our week.
We started things off right upon our arrival on Saturday by dining at our favorite restaurant anywhere, Patara on Beauchamp (www.pataralondon.com). We have now eaten here about a dozen times which is why we had to try the one in Vienna. This location is much better. More intimate, more selections, spicier food, less expensive than Vienna (especially the wine), all of the staff is Thai and all about service. And, of course, they know and remember us from visit to visit which translates to a discount every time. Wish we got treated that way at our regular haunts in Denver.
On Sunday I found an LA Fitness nearby where I purchased a week’s worth of passes. They were nice enough to sell a week to me at about a 65% discount off the published daily price. I thought that was a very nice thing to do. Then it was laundry day but we still saw our first new discovery on this visit. An “organic deli and patisserie” with what they term homemade food called L’Opera on Brompton Road near the big museums. You select your food from the case (it changes each day) and they put it together. Nice people (our server here is from the Phillipines), reasonable prices and excellent food. Dinner at Daphnes (www.daphnes-restaurant.co.uk), a place on Draycott we found on our long Sunday afternoon walk that included Hyde Park, Knightsbridge and Kensington. Another good pick as the food was excellent with a pleasant staff including our Hungarian server (by the end of this trip it will be very apparent the international nature of London).
After lunch again at L’Opera, on a rainy Monday we re-visited the Courtauld Institute Art Gallery at Somerset House. It is a small gallery in a very cool old building but contains work by all the big guns. Somerset House was built in 1770 and the courtyard is currently set up with a giant (much larger than Rockefeller Center) skating rink. We had dinner at Ciros Pizza Pomodoro on Beauchamp (www.pomodoro.co.uk). We had been there twice before with my granddaughter Isabelle. I like it because they have cheeseless seafood pizzas. Again, treated like regulars with free after dinner drinks and an invite to return for the live music on Saturday night (even though they were fully booked). Our server here hails from Spain.
On Tuesday we spent the afternoon in the Covent Garden and Leicester Square area. This popular area is already decked out for the year end holidays. The great discovery this day was Stanfords (www.stanfords.co.uk), an unbelievable travel store with more travel books and maps than I have ever seen. I estimate it is probably a 30,000ish square foot store devoted to travel. I have been having so much trouble finding what I want in the way of travel books and maps at both our local and chain bookstores in Denver and am always reluctantly resorting to Amazon. This place has everything. Dinner at Tamarind (www.tamarindrestaurant.com), a wonderful Indian restaurant in Mayfair that we have been to before but not enough. It deserves more visits. Oh yes, the staff is Indian of course.
Next, Off to Oxford.
