London trip shaping up
Last night I started planning in earnest for the business/pleasure trip I'm making to London in February. My client has secured rooms at the Millennium for the three nights I'm at their meeting, so I used Hotwire to book a room for the three days before the meeting. Got us a room at the Intercontinental Mayfair for $189 a night (yes, dollars, not BP); right on Hyde Park Circle across from the Buckingham Palace Gardens. Tube station right there, so it should be nice for getting around our first few days there, and it will be an easy transfer to the conference hotel, which is on Grosvenor.
Should mention: The "us" in this case is D and me. I really can't wait to travel with him again, and it should be amazing seeing his reaction to the UK, even if all he's getting this time is London. Here is the itinerary so far:
So that's the plan so far, at any rate. I'm really excited.
Should mention: The "us" in this case is D and me. I really can't wait to travel with him again, and it should be amazing seeing his reaction to the UK, even if all he's getting this time is London. Here is the itinerary so far:
- I purchased tickets to the RSC's production of As You Like It. Unfortunately, the only productions available to us were the day of our arrival: As You Like It at 1:15 and Julius Caesar at 7:15. JC is one of my least favorites even under non-jetlagged conditions, and I'd hate for D's first exposure that he'll remember to quality Shakespeare to be JC, so we're doing the AYLI. I don't think this will be an issue; our flight arrives at 9:25, so barring major delays there should be plenty of time to get from Heathrow to the hotel, drop our bags, and either take a cab or the tube to the venue. Depending on our mood after the show, we'll either do Westminster or just wander around a bit and try to find some decent food or maybe a lively pub with a match on. Brompton Cemetery sounds appealing, actually; the son, like me, has a thing for cemeteries and hey, he's also a Coldplay fan.
- Sunday, we'll head out to Hampton Court Palace. D has watched the first two seasons of The Tudors with us (and I may try to NetFlix season 3 to watch with him before we leave), so he is actually pretty psyched about Hampton Court (and it was one of my favorite palaces to visit, mainly because I kept hoping Catherine Howard's ghost would make an appearance).
- Monday, we'll hit Westminster and The Tower, with a stop in Leicester Square to pick up discount tickets to Les Miserables, which we'll do that evening. Yes, I've seen it live something like eight times now (yes, I've lost count), and Devon has seen it once, but it's his favorite musical and it's LONDON.
- Tuesday - Thursday, I'm in my meeting and busy pretty much all day. I'm going to give D the assignment of going to British Museum one day and Madame Tussauds the other. I'm rather bummed to not be doing the British Museum, but I'll expect him to give me a full report.
So that's the plan so far, at any rate. I'm really excited.