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| Living room in my Suite at Waldorf Hilton |
I made it to my hotel after about twenty minutes of walking
around in a huge circle, something I would do almost all the time during my
stay in London. For my first night I
was staying at The Waldorf Hilton. It is
located right in the theatre area. When
I arrived my room was not yet ready as I had expected since it was something
early like 8 am. When I booked the hotel
room, I must have had some you only live once sort of reasoning in my head
because I also registered for
the eStandby upgrade. I paid for all of my rooms in advance. The eStandby gives you an upgraded room at deep discounts usually half the price or much less. In this case that upgrade was a staggering 80£. Yeah hindsight is 20/20.
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| TV while you take a bath |
I felt like a bum which is the only way you really can feel
after being on a pressurized tube in such close quarters for 7.5 hours. They offered me the chance to take a shower
in the changing room while I waited for my room to become available. The irony of this situation is that if I
didn’t get that stupid upgrade my room would have probably been available at
that point.
They also offered me breakfast in the executive lounge. When I got up to fix myself a plate from the
buffet, the eggs looked startlingly light in color. Also the bacon was well below what I would
consider crispy so I didn’t try that but I did go for the sausage and a bit of
smoked salmon onions and capers. I also
got a slice of cheddar for the eggs.
Then there was something unexpected. Those eggs were wonderful, probably some of
the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had.
Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. What I thought would be an example of bland
British food was actually light clouds of eggy goodness. I’ve had good eggs before but these were
great especially for a buffet.
I would then wander around the neighborhood for a little
bit.
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| Salted Caramel Cupcake and Espresso |
The Wladorf Hilton is right in the
center of London, relatively easy to get to from London Heathrow since you only
have to take a single train ride. It
also has the advantage of being close to many theaters, shopping and lots of
restaurant and pub options. I stumbled
into Primrose Bakery. I really only went
in because I’m a huge fan of Hunger Games and Primrose is the name of Katniss’
sister. That’s beside the point I had
the salted caramel cupcake alongside an espresso from Caffé Nero to round out a
good breakfast. The cupcake was great. It was sweet but not too sweet and had a very delicate texture. That saltiness along with the sweetness of the cupcake made a great combination.
Without the benefit of
internet, even though I downloaded the maps to my phone, those maps were pretty
much useless to me since they weren’t searchable and I had no indication of my
GPS position. It’s hard enough for me to comprehend which direction I need to turn to
go north when headed east. Throw in a
couple of twists and turns for a system of roads that seems to
be created by a
civil engineer who must have been on acid at the time of designing the city
streets. I was very easily confused by
the city. Rather than doing much sightseeing,
I spent much of my time being completely confused and walking around in huge
circles. I did spend lots of time
browsing through stores as well as watching some street performers. One actually did a pretty cool magic trick
that was pretty entertaining.
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| Complimentary soda, water and macaroons at Waldorf Hilton |
Checking into my room it was well worth the wait. The room was huge. I had much more space than what I honestly
needed. I walked into a living room with
complimentary sparkling and flat water alongside some macaroons. Off to the left where I thought was a closet
was actually a second bathroom that had just a toilet. In and to the right you walked passed a
pretty big full bathroom that had a tub with a TV and a shower as well. The amenities of the hotel room were
definitely first class.
After leaving the hotel for a second time, I tried to make
it on my own but ended up walking in more circles before I ended up in front of
Carphone Warehouse. I had to have a cell
phone at this point and needed the maps in order to get around. I ended up getting a Sony Xperia as a phone
which was pretty cheap, but I think I fell into the thinking of pounds as dollars,
because the £90 I paid for the cell phone was actually about $140. Not too bad of the phone and the rates were
extremely cheap. If I would have stayed
in London for the entirety of my trip, I would have really come out ahead since
my intitial £10 would have likely been enough for all of my talking for two
weeks.
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| Carpaccio at Coq d'Argent |
By this time I was starving and decided to seek out one of
the places that were recommended in the travel guide that I was reading. Silly me for not reading the dates and times
that the place was open, because I ended up going to the place only to find out
that it wasn’t open. I had dinner
reservations at the Savoy later on and this quick lunch that wasn’t too far
from where I was sounded perfect. I
ended up going in nearly the complete opposite direction and getting a three
course meal at Coq d’Argent.
Dinner started off with a Carpaccio. The interesting addition on to this
particular dish was mushrooms that were pickled a little bit. The plating was really elegant and the
pickling of those mushrooms was a great way to introduce some acid into the
dish.
For the main course I had the Duck. The duck was tender and was accompanied by a
rich orange sauce. It was very tender
and juicy and didn’t seem greasy at all despite the confit method of preparation.
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| Pineapple carpaccio at Coq d'Argent |
I did order the Potatoes Dauphinoise as a side to go along
with my main course. Unfortunately, the
potatoes were just slightly cold. I
didn’t mind that much since they took them off of the bill and gave me fries
instead (due to the time it would take to cook another Gratian). The highlight of the meal was the dessert though which was one of the best that I've ever had. I started and ended my meal with a carpaccio and my dessert would be this awesome pineapple carpaccio. It was sublime. You had the fresh pinapple along with this wonderful vodka lime foam that provided a little bit of tartness in order to balance out the sweetness of the coconut ice cream. This dish made the experience here more than worth while and I'm glad I was convinced to spend the extra £3 for the three course set menu.
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| Farmhouse Terrine at The Savoy Grill |
I would have dinner a little later at The Savoy Grill. I was looking so forward to having a meal at
one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants. I
guess all that anticipation led to a bit of overhype for me. My thoughts and expectations of what the meal
would be was much higher than the actual meal was. From a value standpoint, I have to say the
name has given the establishment prices that are absurdly high. I honestly could have passed on the whole
thing.
Dinner there started with the farmhouse terrine. I got sucked into it as an appetizer because of the foie gras parfait that was served along side it. It was a solid dish. The meat was succulent and you get the decadence that is added by the foie gras. The green tomato chutney adds a bit of acid to bring everything together and brighten up everything. The dim lighting of the restaurant kind of obscures the ability to see the elegant plating of the dish.
I think my fault came in when it came to the entree selection. I think I would have been much better off if if I went with one of the many selections from the "Roasts, Braises and Pies" section of the menu. Don't get me wrong my Rib Eye steak was pretty good. Cooked to the perfect temperature and was very juicy and didn't need much of the sauce. However when I look at the menu and I compare that steak at £34 to a lamb wellington at £26, I kind of feel like an idiot for my selection. You do get a nice flavor from the wood grill, but that particular steak was slightly overpriced in my opinion.
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| Raspberry Souffle at The Savoy Grill |
Though I was ready to burst by this point I still decided to try out dessert, I went for the raspberry souffle. About as light delecate and perfect as anything in I can remember, I suddenly felt betrayed by my stomach's inability to finish consuming it. It was a really good dessert non the less.
The next morning, I started off relaxing a bit in the bath
and enjoying some British television. When
I finally got my things together I took a short ride on the tube to my next
hotel. Bad sense of direction prevailed
for a little bit as I thought I could manage by just seeing the directions and
I walked the wrong way for a little bit.
I then made it to the Tower of London Doubletree to check in.
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| Room at The Tower of London Doubletree |
The Tower of London Doubletree was definitely the best value
throughout the entire trip. There was an
iMac in every room, which also doubled as the TV. It might not be the hotel of choice for those
who are not tech savvy or have a hate for Apple. It turned out to be just perfect for me as I
used the iMac to stream my Slingbox from home in my room while I left computing
to my actual laptop.
Another great thing was that the hotel threw in a
complimentary bottle of white wine. I
definitely took advantage of it drinking to my heart’s content. I also had a complimentary drink at the
Hotel’s bar. On the top floor, the bar
overlooked all of London. I don’t know
exactly the cost of the drinks, but I do know that mine was pretty tasty. I only had the one drink there using the
voucher.
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| View from Sky Lounge at Tower of London Doubletree |
I quickly headed out of the hotel and over to the Tower of London. Then there was the terror of
Bank Holiday was upon me. The crowds
were absurd. Queues as long as the eye
can see. I made it to the inside and
opted to skip the free tour that starts every 30 minutes at the entrance in the
interest of saving time. Eventually I
got wrapped up in a two hour wait to get in to see the crown jewels. I cannot say that it was worth the wait,
especially since you can’t take pictures.
Still it was a great time. The
torture chamber was a slight let down since there were only four torture
devices.
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| Tower of London Bridge |
I made my way out and got a quick sandwich right outside at
a little stand called apostrophe. It was
pretty tasty and was perfect since it had very chewy crusty bread. The spicy chorizo stood up well next to the
hearty multigrain bread and you got a little sweetness from the roasted red
onion. It was served warm with a touch
of arugula and tomato.
Eating as I walked I made my way towards the Tower of London Bridge Exhibition. The bridge had lots of
places that you can stop and take pictures through the openings in the windows
and see a lot of the city of London. I
didn’t like the idea that you could only leave the top of the bridge via a
really crowded elevator. Again in the
interest of saving time I skipped over much of the movies and such.
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| Calamari at All Bar One |
I did some more exploring on foot as I passed by a small
liquor store called Oddbins. I was very
interested in trying some of the local beers and this gave me the opportunity to
try out a couple. I ended up going for
the Sweet Bee Honey’d Wheat by Brupond. What I had
stumbled onto was a craft beer from a nano brewery that is owned by someone who
grew up in Colorado and went to college in Chicago. Extremely small world. The trippy part is that it’s a vegan brewery
and though you can taste honey notes in this light hefeweizen, there is no
honey added. All of their beers have
that unfiltered haze as well.
For dinner I stopped off at All Bar One. Mostly because as I was walking by, it looked
fairly busy and I saw that I could get a two course meal for 10£. I decided to go with the calamari
which was
light and perfectly fired to a crisp and served with a sweet chili sauce I also had the asparagus and goat cheese
risotto. It was a nice dish that succeeded
in having perfectly cooked rice. It was
a little heavy but not so much that it would keep you from moving. You also had the brightness that was added
from the asparagus and mint. To drink I
had a couple of pints of Apsall, which feels like the local equivalent of
a Bud Light, while tasting a lot better.
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| Live at Muse Concert |
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| Crazy Acrobatics |
I made my way back to the hotel and suddenly I was about to
be late for the highlight of my trip.
The Muse concert. At that time I
realized I had no time to take the tube and figure it out so I took a taxi. To make matters a bit more complicated. I forgot the tickets. Fortunately I figured this out a little early
on, and the cab driver I had was nice enough to take me back to the hotel and
wait on me without starting the meter.
He was a cool guy that spent some of his 20’s in California. His son was the same age I am and went to the
Muse concert the night before small world.
I made it to the stadium right in time about 15 minutes
before Muse went on stage. It gave me
plenty of time to press my way towards the middle of the crowd. I was wondering how their European tour could
be so much better than their US Tour. I
mean pyramid of screens from the ceiling how do you beat that? You beat it with
giant robots shooting fire, acrobats floating from balloons, a huge stage with
tons of pyrotechnics and special effects.
I really felt like the $70 I paid for my ticket was ripping them
off.
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| Amazing Pyro |
The concert was followed by much wandering because of the
concert, many of the nearby tube stations were closed down. It was a bit of a nightmare. It was kind of funny because a couple from
England ended up asking me for directions.
Then we talked for a while as we wandered aimlessly towards well I don’t
know. We looked for another tube
station, but I ended up opting for a bus ride back after seeing the chaos that
was the tube stations.
I settled in that night to catch some basketball via
Slingbox. It was the NBA playoffs after
all. The bottle of wine that was
provided for me came in handy as it was my drink of choice. The Heat destroyed the Pacers that night and
I went to sleep somewhere in the middle of the third quarter to wake up early
for more sightseeing.
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| Food Display at Harrods |
My morning didn’t get off to the best of starts as the hot
water in my shower wasn’t functional. I
played around with the water for a bit trying to get it to work before I gave
up and called. They sent someone up to
my room pretty promptly and it was fixed in about 20 minutes. I had planned on making my way over to The Shard pretty early and you save a bit on tickets by buying them in
advance. Still once I thought about it
even though it is the tallest building in Europe, I saw the £25 price tag as a
little too steep.
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| Inside Bumkin |
I finally made it out of the hotel much later than I
expected and made my way towards Harrods.
I browsed around more than anything because the prices were slightly
absurd but the selection of items was borderline overwhelming. There I am looking at £700 crystal vases the
likes of which I am afraid to even breathe on.
After my browsing was done, my allergies were picking up a little
bit. I stopped over at a pharmacy and
bought some allergy medicine and it stopped me from sneezing almost
immediately. I have to say the only disappointment there came from the fact that the only two basketball jerseys they sold were Rodo and Rose. London you can do better.
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| Pork Croquette at Bumpkin |
For lunch I decided on Bumpkin. Where they served traditional English
fare. The prices are decent and you feel
at home from the moment you walk in.
Looking around everything is done with an eye towards being upscale
while still being comfortable and simple.
The warm wooden interior and mixed match chairs gives the place sort of
a farmhouse feeling which definitely coincides with the menu that focuses on
locality as well as seasonality. I sat
down next to a window that was dotted with several different plants in glass
vases of varying sizes that looked to be a hodgepodge of items purchased at a
yard sale. The table was set with a
bright yellow flower that used an old soda bottle as a vase. You couldn’t make this venue more comfortable
if you tried.
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| Fish and Chips at Bumpkin |
To drink I had a Guinness.
I swear, Guinness is better outside of America. It actually tastes like a pretty legit stout. I decided to go with the pork croquettes to start. This dish was amazing. You get the tenderness from the roasted pork
that is then finely shredded and formed into a perfectly shaped cylinder before
being breaded and fried. The
presentation was incredible. You had this
wonderful brightness provided by pickled onions as well as this sweet apple and
raisin sauce. All on top of a little
cucumber salad. It was a great appetizer
because even though the roast pork is heavy, it was portioned well and combined
with the rest of the ingredients it gave a bit of lightness to the dish that
made you want to come back for more.
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| Sticky Toffee Pudding at Bumpkin |
For the main course I had the Fish and Chips, with tartar
sauce and mushy peas. Many people are
down on fish and chips and British food in general and I totally don’t
understand why. This fish and chip was
great. The batter was crisp and the
fish was moist and perfectly cooked. The
fries had the perfect texture, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I loved it for it’s simplicity. It was also my first time tasting mushy
peas. I had never been big on peas as a
child. It was kind of a point of contention between me and my mother since they
are her favorite vegetable. I despised
sweet peas. As an adult I kind of came
around to like peas quite a bit. These
peas were perfect not too sweet and I love the mint that complimented the peas
as well.
For dessert there was the sticky toffee pudding. I am not a fan of overly sweet desserts,
except when some form of caramel is involved and then all bets are off. The sticky toffee pudding was bursting forth
with this rich sweet flavor. This is one
of those instances where the English language is a barrier, because it wasn’t a
pudding like what you would think of from an American perspective. It was more like a cake soaked with a sweet
caramel sauce. I was nearly stuffed but
ended up powering through the entire dish.
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| Bathroom at T5 Hilton |
Shortly thereafter a wave of extreme exhaustion hit me. I felt like curling up and taking a nap right
where I was. I looked at the box of
allergy medicine I took. “Take one half of a pill every eight hours. May cause drowsiness. Do not take with
alcohol.” Who does that? ½ of a pill?
Really. I guess I should have
read, but I was just trying to get some quick relief from sneezing and then
suddenly I am absurdly tired. I made my
way to a café for a couple of double espressos to provide me with just enough
strength to make it to the hotel.
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| Spacious Room at T5 Hilton |
I checked into the T5 Hilton
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| Braised Beef Cheek at The Gallery |
Bank Holiday struck me again as I only had one choice in restaurant
and I did want to go with the other one because of the Indian influence. Though the fall back option of the hotel’s other
restaurant, Gallery, wasn’t too shabby.
Yes it did have the typical hotel restaurant markup but it wasn’t absurdly
priced. I started off with the Scallops. They were served over a bed of couscous that
had a mixture of tomatoes and fresh mint.
There was also a bit of tangy burr blanc sauce on the plate.
For my main I ended up with the braised beef cheek. I thought that the a la carte pricing didn’t include
sides so I ended up ordering the potatoes and green beans as well only to get
them in addition to the potatoes asparagus and carrots that were included in my
meal for free. The food was great at
this place and I was stuffed but it wasn’t too memorable either.
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