Playing Catch-up : London Trip

As mentioned in my previous blogpost I recently spent a week in London on business the week before Christmas but I did manage to get in some site seeing and shopping. I stayed at the London Marriott County Hall which is an outstanding hotel that sits on the banks of the Thames just across from the Palace of Westminster, location of Big Ben and the British Houses of Parliament. It also sits right next to the London Eye, the big Ferris wheel contraption that was built in celebration of the millennium. Great way to see the city from above the skyline (443 ft).

Fortunately for me London is a rather dense city so alot good places to see are within walking distance which let me wander through Whitehall, Westminster, Trafalgar, Soho, Piccadilly, Hyde Park and around the area of Buckingham Palace. I hit the British Museum for a few hours on one day, way too much to see fully in a day. But it was cool to get to see the Rosetta Stone and parts of the Parthenon up-close.

Going to Harrods and a couple of other stops farther away meant I had to take taxis which were thankfully very plentiful. When you take very narrow streets that are twisty and sometime hard to distinguish from alleyways, mark the roads with all kinds of unfamiliar signage, and fill it with people driving very fast on "the wrong side of the road"...well, the MadBuilder was not about the risk a traffic accident by trying to drive himself around. However the excursion was a success, I brought back many trinkets for people back home.

It appears now that I may be making a return trip for more business in late January, but I look forward to making a return vacation trip some day with the mad angel. In the mean time I have posted a few of the pics from my trip HERE for your viewing entertainment.

Most surprising discovery from this trip: The place is full of French! In my wanderings about I think I overheard more people speaking French and slavic languages than English.

Things to get used to on my trip:
1) Remembering which direction to look when crossing the street because of people driving "on the wrong side" of the road.
2) Hamburgers, by default, come with Mayo on them. MUST remember to ask to leave it off.
3) British Airway's 1st Class meals consist entirely of "frou-frou" food involving all manner of strange things done with goose-liver pate, duck and snails, and other things foreign to the MadBuilder's more simple tastes. But the excellent seat/bed/pods on the plane are soooo cool as to make a 10 Hr flight bearable.
4) Ask for a "soda" in a restaurant and they will bring you sparkling water. ACK!