2007 big vacation: Day 1 - SF to London 2007

When are you not, but really Joe and I were more ready for this vacation than even we'd expected. Very busy times at work for us both this past 6 months. Ahhh, and so far it's working out even more relaxing & restorative than hoped.

Part of that is due to having planned well. Back in February Joe saw an amazing price (cheaper than, say, SFO to Chicago) on non-stop British Airways flights to London and we decided to just go for it and picked this early November date semi-randomly. We both adore London and had never been here together. What's great is that not only do we both love it, we love most to do the same thing: walk all over the place, plus visit a few museums, see a few shows, and find interesting places to sit & eat & drink & people watch.

Knowing that the dollar was unlikely to improve internationally until the administration changes to one with a fiscal clue, we realized that staying all 9 nights in London could get pretty costly. I was also eager to share with Joe my love of the Landmark Trust, so I booked our weekday nights at a marvelous spot which you'll hear more about later. Despite staying in an historic building which appears often in guidebook photos of the place, those four nights were cheaper by far than two here in London. Plus we get to take a multi-hour train ride - which is an activity we also both love - through the beautiful English landscape getting there.

One of the great benefits of Joe's work is his Club Quarters membership and our home away from home this weekend and next in London is another illustration of what a great service they provide. Well-designed, small, practical rooms and great facilities. I'm writing this sitting on a sofa in the "living room", sipping a cup of tea, and enjoying the wifi. Lovely wood-paneled room with tasteful modern furniture, books, an espresso/coffee drinks machine, printer, and other accoutrements for the traveler. Club Quarters is primarily used by business travelers which leaves the weekends cheaper & less busy. When Joe & I went to New York City we stayed at the Rockefeller Center location and loved it. If you have a chance to use their services I think you'll find it a welcome change from the standard hotel room and its generally ugly interior decoration.

--- An aside ---
As I write, I'm sitting on the sofa with my stocking feet up on the edge of a glass coffee table. My tea cup is in front of my toes. A few minutes ago I noticed a vibration in the table and felt the cup quivering against the tabletop. And then again. And again, at an irregular rhythm. I'm guessing this incredibly subtle effect must be the vibration of the London Underground passing by below. The duration is about right for a short train going by.
---

Our last really great piece of planning was the decision to bring fewer clothes and just do some laundry during the week. Turns out Club Quarters even has facilities for that, which makes everything nice & easy. We cannot recommend highly enough the delight of traveling with only carry-on luggage. Cuts out a whole chunk of potential airport annoyances. Joe printed our boarding passes from the office Friday and so we just strolled in through security - almost no line contrary to my expectations - with his small Timbuk2 bag (his laptop & camera), my new little Kavu purse, one small shoulder bag (actually a conference giveaway) and one roll-aboard. Despite getting to the airport just two hours before our flight, we actually had time for a relaxed, perfectly adequate pasta dinner near our gate before the boarding began.

As I mentioned in a Twitter post, Joe slept 2/3rds of the flight - the lucky bastard - and I not at all. *sigh* I did get to watch La Vie En Rose and Ocean's Thirteen which was nice. Our flight was, y'know, 9 and a half hours in a plane. Ugh. But we arrived on time and - after walking right past the people waiting to collect their checked bags, ha! - breezed through customs and down to the Underground station. Then the inexplicably pleasant hour of rollicking along from Heathrow into central London. Don't know why that vibration is so much more enjoyable than the airplane one; maybe something to do with being more like the motion in the womb or on a hip when the mother is walking?

At this point I finally dozed a bit and was thus well primed for a nap at our hotel after the short walk down from Leicester Square station.

--- London tip ---
Often it's faster to just come up out of the station and walk overground than to transfer to a different tube line for a journey of one more stop.
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Incredibly satisfying to be back in London. I do love this city very much and definitely want to live here for a while at some point in my life.

After a highly restorative two-hour nap, Joe & I set out semi-randomly in search of dinner and quickly found a good candidate which we were very happy with: the Lyceum Tavern on the Strand. This is just a very short walk from Trafalgar Square but far enough to have more of a local crowd. Joe enjoyed his pint of Samuel Smith stout and we were both very pleased with the food. We had the pie special - mushroom & other vegetables in a stout-based sauce with a beautiful pie crust atop - and a ploughman's plate. Much fortified by food & atmosphere of this local, we set ought again for more tramping about.

Being cocktail geeks, I'd noted on our map the places recommended in the New York Times article on innovative bartending in London. We thought we were right near the Lobby Bar at 1 Aldwych and went round about several blocks where we thought it would be but finally gave up and instead headed down over Waterloo Bridge aiming for a southbank destination. Turns out we just gave up 1 block shy of it, so we'll give it a go another night.

That walk proved definitely worth it! A gorgeous night - clear and 13 degrees celsius. Perfect for walking, admiring the lights of the city, especially along the river. London in November can be glorious and the area within a few blocks of the Thames between Westminster Bridge and Southwark Bridge is an ideal region to enjoy it.

We walked down over Waterloo Bridge and then along the water toward Blackfriars. We angled down some of the littler streets, connected up to Blackfriars Road and so down to Baltic, just by The Cut. Hip space - though once you're inside it's hard to know you're not in NYC or San Francisco except by the accents around you - and a good cocktail list. We had a Gin Garden - very nicely balanced - and a really good Vesper. Not sure what made the latter so good; they use Beefeater London Dry Gin and Ketel One vodka and may have allowed more ice melt than I usually have. We'll have to experiment a bit to recreate the experience - it may be somewhat subtler than would truly evoke James Bond, but it's a better drink this way.

After resting our feet and wetting our whistles we thanked the nice barman and headed on back by different small streets - including the very quiet neighborhood of Roupell Street which we quite fell in love with - and back to the Hungerford Bridge and so up to our home away from home about 9:30pm.

Feet a bit tired, we lazed about in the room for a couple hours reading and then - blissfully - got sleepy. We sealed the bargain by taking some melatonin and were fast asleep soon.

Alas, I only for a bit over 5 hours, so I may go back upstairs now and try for nap #1 if Joe isn't ready to head out in search of breakfast.

Our vague plan for today includes more walking - yay! - plus a bit of museum going. Hope everyone else is having a good weekend too wherever they are.