Day 1
We arrived in London's Waterloo Station on Thursday afternoon after a three hour train ride through the Chunnel. Grabbed a taxi and headed for our apartment at Scala House - the same place where stayed when we visited London two years ago. Scala House wouldn't win any interior design awards (it looks rather like it hasn't been touched since the days of Beaver Cleaver) but it's super convenient, spacious, and has everything we need to be comfortable - washer/dryer, full kitchen, etc.
Note: during our taxi ride, we noticed a sign on the back of a utility truck that said:
"This vehicle makes frequent stops. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause you."
Yep, we're back in England alright. So polite.
We were starved by the time we got in, so we went down to "our" corner pub, the Fitzrovia, where we had met our friends Mark and MaryAnn for dinner last time were we here. After a quick pint and some pub grub, we jumped on the Tube and headed down to Leicester Square and sat on a park bench for awhile, watching the world go by. Afterwards, we made our way down towards the Tower Bridge, where Michael took some amazing night photos of the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and the rest of the city lights. (I can't post the photos right now, because they have been already uploaded off the camera, and the site where they are stored is currently down.)
After a long walk home we collapsed into bed, happy to be back in London!
Day 2
We left our place around 9:45am and headed for Canary Wharf, the ultra-modern business district where Michael's company, HSBC, is located. One of his European colleauges, Gino, was meeting us to show us around the "mothership". Wow. This building was super modern, spotless, and amazing in every way. I guess it's to be expected from the largest bank in the world. Here's a shot of the lobby:
After spending a couple of hours with Gino, we hopped on the DLR to go to Greenwich. Here I am waiting for the train:
Hey M&C, That's Me Wearing "The Dress"
Famished after disembarking, we headed for a little pub right next to the Cutty Sark for some beers, fish and chips, and bangers and mash:
Mmmmm ... Fish and Chips
The Cutty Sark
Afterwards, we walked around the Old Royal Naval College - from the grounds of the college there are some amazing photos of Canary Wharf. That's Michael's building on the far right:
Skyscrapers as seen from Old Royal Naval College
We never did make it up to the Greenwich Observatory, because we kept missing the little shuttle bus and our legs were just too shattered to walk up the hill.
After Greenwich, we kicked back for a few hours in the apartment, the headed down to SoHo for dinner at Pizza Express. Then we tubed it to the Tate Modern, and saw some amazing pieces - Michaels' favorites were Salvador Dali, mine were Henri Matisse. Quick Tube ride back to the apartment where we collapsed and had probably the best night's sleep we'd had since leaving home.
Ahhhh ... London. It's good to be home.
Next time: sleeping in, Trafalgar Square, Harrod's, and dinner with Michael's coworkers.
