Thursday, May 3

We arrived on Maxjet airlines (the new all business class airline) at Stansted Airport and took the Stansted Express train to Liverpool station in London. We then took a taxi cross town to our hotel, the Citadines South Kensington. Fare was £24.60 without tip (that's about $50.00).

When the desk clerk in the hotel looked up our reservation he told us that there might be a problem (for me) with the apartment, considering the fact that I use a cane. It wasn't mentioned in any of the literature from the hotel or on their web site, but all the one bedroom apartments are duplexes and this might cause difficulties for me. We went to see the apartment and didn't even bother go up the flight of stairs between the living room and kitchen downstairs and the bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The stairs were steep and narrow. They let us look at two other apartments, both studios. The first one had two twin bed on different walls and only one window. The second one had a sofa that folded out into a double bed and two windows. This second room seemed much more pleasant, so we took it. We had previously stayed in a Citadines hotel in Paris and had had a one bedroom apartment that was all on one floor and was really nice. Apparently this was not available at this location.

We walked the three blocks to the Waitrose supermarket and bought some basic provisions, including microwavable dinners for that evening. We went back to the hotel, ate our dinners, watched some British TV, opened the sofa-bed and fell asleep.

Friday, May 4

We had oatmeal for breakfast and ventured out to explore the neighborhood. We walked around in the general direction of Kensington High Street passing through a pleasant upscale residential area. We had late lunch at a Café Rouge in Lancer Square. Al had the ‘Confit de Canard' (duck) with a glass of red wine and I had a ‘Salade Niçoise avec saumon' (salmon) with a glass of cider. It was a very nice meal, up to the usual standard of Café Rouge. (Unfortunately we never got back there during this trip) We walked back to the hotel and rested for a few hours.

Then after our rest, we walked over to the South Kensington underground station to meet up with the ‘London Walks' guide (and all the other tourists) for a guided tour of Knightsbridge Village. During the walk we stopped at two different pubs and had half pints of dark ale. The guide was both informative and entertaining. We walked through some lanes hidden behind Brompton Oratory that we would never have known about. We saw the houses of some very wealthy people and the guide told us a story about his mother who was ‘in service' in a house like one of these when she was a teenager. She had come from the North of England and was completely on her own in London. Her employers told her that they were sending her salary to her parents, but told her parents that they were paying her directly. Of course they were not paying at all. She was able to "escape" from this service with the help of another servant. We ended the walk opposite Harrod's and Al took a photo of the department store lit up at night. We then took a bus back to the hotel because I was really tired and fell asleep immediately.

Saturday, May 5

We had the usual oatmeal and tea for breakfast and took the underground to Portobello Road to look at the stuff in the antiques/flea market. There wasn't much new or different from two years ago so we went through there much quicker than last time.

The Café Rouge on Kensington Park Road where we had eaten before, wasn't there anymore and nothing else in the area appealed to us, so we started walking towards Holland Park. On the way we found a Pizza Express. I mistakenly ordered a pizza with 4 toppings, not knowing that the small round individual pizza would have each of the 4 toppings that I had chosen on 1/4 of the pie instead of all 4 toppings together over all the pie. Apparently this latter is called American Style Pizza. Al had a simple cheese pizza, which was just fine.

After lunch we went to Holland Park and wandered around. We saw the peacocks again, as well as the Japanese Garden and the rhododendrons in bloom. We sat on a bench near the playground and had ice cream cups. We had entered the park through Holland Park Ave at the North end this time and we exited on Kensington High Street at the South end. We caught a bus back to the hotel, where we rested a while.

We took a walk on Gloucester Road to look for a place to have dinner. We found a place called House of Coffees, where you order your food at the counter and they bring it to the table. Among the choices were pizzas, panninis, salads and pastas. We both had grilled panninis with lattés.

Sunday, May 5

The usual breakfast.

Small crisis part 1 - the (cheap) plastic toilet seat hinge (which had been hanging on by a thread) broke. Al reported it to the desk (around 10:30 am) and was told that it would be fixed during the day. We left the hotel and then stopped at the French coffee and pastry shop ‘Delices de France' around the corner from the hotel and had lattés.

We then took the tube in the direction of Greenwich. Everything was fine until we transferred at the Bank/Monument station for the light rail. We then found out that they were doing construction during the weekend and that we could only take the light rail to Westferry, where we would have to take a shuttle bus to Inland Gardens and then get back on the light rail for the remaining one stop (after passing under the river) to Greenwich. We followed the crowd of people who were also in the same situation and eventually reached Greenwich.

We had wanted to see the Cutty Sark, but it was under repair. (The week after we got back we heard on the news that there was a fire there and it was mostly destroyed) We had seen the Greenwich Royal Observatory the last time (which was very interesting), so this time we headed for the National Maritime museum. On the way there, we stopped off to see the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College and took a lot of photos of the trompe l'oeil paintings on the walls, windows and ceilings.

The Maritime museum is very large and there's a lot to see. We visited the Nelson room, which interested Al much more than I. We walked through the Emigration (by ship) exhibit, which I had seen before at the Imperial War Museum (while Al was looking at canons and guns). We had salami, rocket (arugula) and tomato relish sandwiches in one of the cafés and then started figuring out how to get back to London. We knew that we didn't want to go back the way we came and were considering taking one of the expensive, slow tour boats to Tower Bridge, where we could catch the tube, but we weren't thrilled with that either. I asked the advice of an employee of the gift shop and she told us where to find the British Rail train to get us to Charring Cross station. That turned out to be much simpler and cheaper and faster.

Small crisis part 2 - When we got back to the hotel (about 6:30 pm) we discovered an unrepaired toilet seat. Al went down to the desk again and was told that there was no one on duty today (Sunday) to do a repair and since tomorrow was a Bank Holiday Monday, nothing could be done about the problem until Tuesday. This was obviously unacceptable, so Al convinced the desk clerk to give him the part so that he could fix it himself. They apparently had a supply of these hinges, so we assume that this happens frequently there. Al fixed the toilet seat in about 10 minutes - end of small crisis.

We went back out to Gloucester Road, where we had dinner at Il Borgo, a pleasant, expensive Italian restaurant. Everything was extra, including the unasked-for £2.50 basket of bread. Al had spaghetti and popetti and I had chicken with mushrooms. The food was delicious.

Monday, May 7

The usual breakfast.

As it was a Bank Holiday Monday and chilly and raining, we wanted to stay in the immediate area and go to the least crowded of the nearby museums. We decided to go to the V&A (Victoria and Albert). We made a good choice because as we passed the Museum of Natural History, there were lines all the way down the block and there were also very large crowds heading towards the Science museum.

The ground floor of the V&A was very crowded and we headed for the cafeteria (a beautiful Victorian space) where Al had a latté and I had a hot chocolate and we both had scones with clotted cream. To get away from the crowds we went up to the second floor to see the silver objects, each one more fantastic than the previous one. The whole thing exuded extreme wealth and beauty. It seemed to go on forever and we were experiencing sensory overload. We moved on to the John Sheepshank collection and saw some beautiful paintings by British artists Charles Robert Leslie, William Mulready, John Constable and Carlton Alfred Smith. We passed through the European and American art rooms and saw some beautiful art nouveau objects and saw the Italian Castings Court from a walkway above it.

When we left the museum and the rain had slowed to a drizzle. We went to the nearby Pierino's Italian restaurant, where we've eaten a few times before. The first time we were there, the decor was very traditionally Italian, but it had been redone in a severely modern style. Al had spaghetti bolognaise and I had baked penne siciliano (with aubergine and spinach), which I unfortunately had to send back because I found some broken glass in my dish. They got me a replacement as quickly as possible and it was delicious, but I ate it very gingerly! They made no gesture of apology.

We walked back to the hotel and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, May 8

The usual breakfast.

We were starting to run out of clean clothes, so we filled a laundry bag and brought it in to the Launderette Centre on Gloucester Road, which does ‘service washes'. The woman told us that we could pick up our washed, dried and folded laundry in the afternoon (£8.00 for a small load).

We took a bus to Kings Road (in Chelsea where we stayed last time) and then walked a few blocks to the National Army Museum. By this time, after all the chilly, rainy days, Al was starting on a pretty serious cold. We had scones and lattés in the museum café and then went upstairs to look at the exhibits to see anything that we had missed in our previous visits. We saw a World Wars exhibit with some interesting paintings and maps.

The sun had come out (and it was even warm out) and we walked back to Kings Road and had large lamb pasties and Triumph Cornish Red Traditional ale in West Cornwall Pasties. We stopped at the Waterstone's bookstore and bought a few books. We walked back to the hotel and rested a bit before going out to pick up the laundry and some sandwiches for dinner.

Wednesday, May 9

We woke up to find that the milk in the refrigerator was spoiled, (and I make oatmeal with milk) so we ate really good (not too greasy) full English breakfasts with really good lattés in the Med Kitchen restaurant on the Gloucester Road side of the hotel.

It was raining on and off, so we took the tube to the half price ticket both in Leicester Square and got tickets to the play ‘Whipping It Up' for a few hours later. We walked to Holborn and the Sir John Soane's museum, which we had seen years earlier, but it was worth a second look. It's a very strange place with a complicated interior architecture and many tiny skylight covered courtyards filled with paintings and sculptures that, in some cases, you can only see through the windows of other rooms and passages.

We bought sandwiches and drinks at a very crowded Prêt-A-Manger and ate quickly at a tiny table in the back. We took another route going back and got a little turned around, even following the map at every turn. We found our way back to the right area and made it to the theater in time for the play. It was amusing, but not hysterically funny - too predictable. ‘Whipping It Up' refers to the ‘whips' in Parliament and all the finagling, bribing and threatening that they do in order to pass whatever legislation their party needs to have passed.

We took the tube back to Gloucester Road and picked up some long-life milk (UHT) in the Waitrose supermarket. We went back to the hotel and started packing for the next day's trip to Paris. I set the refrigerator temperature to as low as it would go. Then we had dinner at Da Mario's Italian Pizza restaurant. (The credit card receipt indicated that it's part of the Pizza Express chain) Al had rigatoni with ham and cream sauce and I had pasta fagioli soup and melanzano parmagiana. Al's cold was really bad by this time, but we both had wonderful ice cream parfaits (called Cappo Caffes) for dessert.

Thursday, May 10

Today we went to Paris.

I had set the two alarms (the hotel's and my rented cell phone's) to go off at 6:15 AM, but I woke up before that. We finished packing our two small suitcases, had cold cereal for breakfast and took the tube to Waterloo station. (With Al dragging the suitcases) We easily found the Eurostar terminal and while we were waiting we shared an egg and bacon bagel. We went through customs and onto the train to Paris.

Thursday, May 10 to Saturday May, 12 - Paris.

The links to the photos (and journals) of our weekend in Paris are at the end of this page.

Saturday, May 12

We returned to London.

We arrived at Waterloo station, took the tube back to the hotel and unpacked as we watched the last part of the Eurovision Song Contest. We had seen the entire program two years earlier and that had been fun, (mostly because of the BBC announcer making fun of the absurd costumes and songs) but this time we only got to see the voting part, which is pretty boring except for the comments by the same droll BBC guy about how political the voting is - countries aren't allowed to vote for themselves, so they do the next best thing and vote for the countries closest to themselves, both geographically and culturally. The western European countries that pay for the contest hardly get any votes and it's almost always an eastern European country that wins, despite the quality of the song or the singing. Italy dropped out of the contest years ago because of this and I don't blame them!

Sunday, May 13

The usual breakfast. (MMMMM! Good oatmeal)

All the other stores were closed, so we did a small grocery and produce shopping at the small Emperor Stores grocery across the street on Gloucester Road. They had pretty good fruit. We stopped at the Café Deco on the same block and had lattés and pastries.

We again walked to the V&A in the rain. We looked around on the main floor this time and saw the Indian and Middle-Eastern galleries. We also saw some British and European decorative objects from 1500 to 1900.

We strolled over to the nearby Thurloe Square and ate lunch at the Dino's Italian restaurant there (part of the chain). It was pretty good and not as expensive as some other places. Al had minestrone soup and spaghetti bolognese with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and I had minestrone soup and linguini pesto with a glass of Bianca della Venezia.

It had stopped raining, so we walked back to Gloucester Road and stopped by the internet café. We bought some sandwiches at Partridges gourmet store and ate them in the room.

Monday, May 14

The usual breakfast.

It was raining again - pretty hard this time. We dropped off another load at the laundromat and then took the tube to the Courtauld gallery on the Strand. We had been there on a previous trip many years ago, but I still remembered being impressed by the paintings, especially Manet's ‘The Bar at the Folies Bergère'. It was just as beautiful this time, as was Renoir's ‘La Loge', Sisley's ‘Snow at Louveciennes', Boudin's ‘The Beach at Deauville', Cezanne's ‘Man with a Pipe' and his ‘Lac D'Annecy' and Pissarro's ‘The Quays at Rouen'. We also liked Gainsborough's ‘Portrait of Mrs. Gainsborough' and two more modern ones by Roger Fry, his self protrait and his portrait of Nina Hamnett.

We had lunch in the gallery café. Al had broccoli soup, a bagel with lox and cream cheese and a salad and a latté. I had the broccoli soup as well and also a salmon quiche with a salad and tea. We then walked down to the embankment and caught a bus back to Sloan Square in Chelsea. For the (relatively) low cost of a city bus ride, we got an unguided tour of some of the most touristy parts of London. In Chelsea we walked past Lancaster Apartments where we stayed last time and then went into Nell Gwynn house (another short-term apartment hotel) to look around and ask for a brochure.

We took another bus back to Gloucester Road, where we picked up microwave dinners for that evenings meal at the Waitrose supermarket and then picked up our laundry at the laundromat.

Tuesday, May 15

The usual breakfast.

We took the tube to Russell Square, (which we walked through in the rain) to reach our goal, the British Museum. By this time, Al had given me his cold, even though he kept some of it for himself, so we were both not feeling that well. We headed right for the café (food stand and some tables) in the glass roofed courtyard that is the new bright, airy and crowded, center piece of the museum. Al had a latté and scone and I had a hot chocolate and a pain au chocolat. We traipsed around the European Middle Ages exhibit and the British Victorian exhibit and then headed for another museum café for lunch. We both had tomato soup and roasted panninis. After that we walked through the Egyptian Galleries and saw the Elgin Marbles gallery, where they have the marble sculptures that were taken from the Parthenon in Athens. It's quite impressive. We also tried to squeeze through the crowd to take another look at the Rosetta Stone - we had seen it before on another trip.

When we emerged from the museum and wonder of wonders, the sun had come out! We went back to Russell Square, took pictures of some flowers and sat on a bench enjoying the little bit of nice weather. We took the tube back to Gloucester Road, stopped by the internet café and then got take out for dinner at House of Coffees - Al got a chicken pie and I got an individual pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, olives and tomatoes - American style - all the toppings on the whole pie.

Wednesday, May 16

The usual breakfast.

We watched Nicolas Sarkozy being inaugurated on one of the French TV stations that were available on the TV in the hotel room. (4 British, 2 Italian, 2 German and 2 French)

We took the tube to Victoria train station, where we caught a train to Dulwich, a nearby suburb. (A 15 minute ride) We walked from the station to the Dulwich picture gallery and it was sunny. Of course, our first stop was the gallery's glass-enclosed outdoor café where we had lattés and pastries. Then we went inside and looked at all the marvelous paintings. Unfortunately, by this time, we were getting pretty over-museum'd. We saw some marvelous (very large) Canaletto's, including one of ‘Old Walton's Bridge' in England. We found out that he had spent 9 years painting in the UK, but this was the first non-Venetian painting of his that we had seen.

When we left the gallery it was cloudy and drizzling again. We walked a few blocks into the tiny town center and found a Pizza Express. Al had lasagne with a glass of Chianti and I had rigatoni with ham, mushrooms and cream and a glass of Pino Grigio. We took the train back to Victoria station and picked up some take out sausage rolls from the ‘Délices de France' in the station. We returned to the hotel by tube, rested awhile and then heated up the sausage rolls for dinner.

Thursday, May 17

The usual breakfast.

We walked down Gloucester Road to see if the internet café was open. It wasn't open yet, so we went across the street to the Coffee Republic and had lattés and shared a large double chocolate muffin. By that time we were able to stop by the internet café.

After that we walked over to the Science Museum, which is in a very, very modern building, contrasting enormously with the many Victorian buildings surrounding it. It's all open space with very strange (and annoying) lighting. We went upstairs to the 18th century scientific instruments exhibit and spent a lot of time studying various thermometers and barometers. We walked through the Health exhibit and then went down to the lunch room where Al had a cottage pie with vegetables and potatoes and an English Breakfast tea and I had vegetable lasagne with salad and potatoes and apple juice.

We walked back to the hotel to rest and pack for our trip home the next day. After we were packed we had our last night's dinner at Il Borgo (the expensive restaurant with good Italian food). This time, when they brought the un-requested basket of bread, Al asked the waitress if we would be charged for it, she said ‘Yes' and he said ‘Then take it away!' She did as she was asked, but she wasn't happy about that. When we ordered our dinner this time, the atmosphere wasn't as inviting. Al had liver à la Romano with a glass of house red and I had chicken with mushrooms and cream and a glass of the house white. Al had a Tiramisu and I had a Coppa Ciocolatto (ice cream parfait). The food was very good, but when the check came Al noticed that they had charged us for the bread that we had refused. Al pointed it out to the waitress and she corrected the check, but not happily. Despite this annoyance, we would eat there again because of the quality of the food.

I set two alarms for 5:00 AM the next morning - one on the hotel's stereo/clock radio and one on my rented cell phone.

Friday, May 18

The alarm on the cell phone rang at 4:00 AM because I had changed the time when we went to Paris (which is one hour later than London), but I had failed to change it back to London time. It was probably a good thing because we took the extra time to do the final packing and to have the usual breakfast.

We were in the lobby at 8:00 AM and the taxi driver arrived at the appointed time to take us to Liverpool station. This was actually not a taxi, but a limo service. The first thing the driver said to us was that he could easily drive us directly to Stansted airport for £60.00, instead of Liverpool station and he assured us that we could get a refund on the return trip part of the Stansted Express rail tickets that we had already bought. We agreed to that suggestion and the ride to the airport went very smoothly. It turned out that the driver was wrong (or intentionally lied) about our being able to get a refund on our unused return train tickets. It may still have been worth the extra expense since it saved Al from having to drag the luggage around so much.

We waited in the relatively crowded Maxjet business class lounge for our flight to leave. We found out that the reason for the crowd in the lounge was all the passengers from the previous day's canceled flight to Las Vegas. The plane was being repaired and the airline had paid for their overnight hotel stay. When Maxjet gave them the choice of going back to the hotel and leaving later in the day or getting a full refund for the flight, a young Irish couple that we had met, said that they were going to take the refund. It didn't pay for them to wait around a hotel in London to get the two days that were left of their vacation in Las Vegas - it's a shame that they flew in from Dublin for nothing. Apparently Maxjet has one plane for each route - London/New York, London/Las Vegas and London/Los Angeles. I guess we were lucky that our flight departure from London was only two hours late! The flight back was also longer because they had to fly further north to avoid high wind conditions over the Atlantic. The Flight took over 8 hours. When we landed at JFK, we had been up for about 18 hours.

We took a cab back from the airport ($42.00 with tip) and were home by 6:55 pm (11:55 pm, London time).