Paul & Libby’s World of Travel

We awoke to a rainy morning in London.

Given the weather and our early flight to Oslo tomorrow, we didn’t do too much today away from the Allen House. We spent the morning playing and packing. This was followed by Emerson’s nap and then lunch.

Good Times @ Allen House

Libby went out to the bookstore for a bit in the early afternoon. The weather having improved, we then all went out for a visit to the Early Childhood Learning store (great educational toys for little ones), a romp in Holland Park, and a stroll in the surrounding neighborhood.

Homes near Holland Park in Kensington

After this, I deposited Libby and Emerson back at the Allen House and then headed to Whole Foods to procure dinner. I have to say, I love the Whole Foods on High St. Kensington. Like all Whole Foods, it’s insanely expensive compared to normal grocery stores… this is made worse by the exchange rate between dollars and pounds. Nonetheless, it really is a foodie’s paradise. Thirty-five dollars later, dinner was en route home. Yum!

All in all, this has been an unusual trip to London for us. Travel arrangements (late in; early out), the weather, and having a toddler-in-tow (Emerson at 17 months) conspired to radically alter our normal pattern activities. We’ve either skipped or greatly curtailed: dining out, theatre performances, visits to museums, shopping (window or otherwise), day trips outside of London, and organized walking tours. Instead, we spent more time in parks and remaining closer to home.

Were this not our [insert number that’s too high to bother counting] trip to London, it might have been a let down. Indeed, I’m sure some of my faithful readers (assuming I have faithful readers) might think our time in London oddly spent… even wasted. Why not do more? I maybe even had the same thoughts at the start of this week. But, honestly, it’s nice just to be back. Likewise, it was comforting to know that we’d have a low-stress means of getting Emerson adjusted to the time change (which was actually much easier than we’d anticipated). And, really, London’s more like home than a tourist destination for us. Indeed, this trip—perhaps more than any other—underscores that point for me.

I’ll finish packing tonight. Then it’s off to the airport by 4:30am. (Ouch).

All were awake by 8am this morning, but Emerson still seemed rather tired. So, we had breakfast and played at the timeshare until 11am when she had an early nap. After her nap, we fed her lunch and then headed out to explore London once again.

We’d intended to visit the London Aquarium today, as it was supposed to be cooler and rainy. It was cooler, but the rain never appeared. As a foreigner, I’ve noted three things about weather forecasts in England over the years: 1) on the whole, the British seem more enthralled by the weather than Americans (somewhat ironic as the climate is fairly mild), 2) British weather forecasts seem rather vague (in the States we show “high-resolution radar” and “dynamic forecast models” from high technology systems with names like “Pinpoint VIPIR HD,” whereas the British seem to rely on imprecise language like “fresher” and non-descript graphics, such as grayish blobs), and 3) despite the reliance on loose predictions only, the actual weather seems to differ greatly (e.g., “off and on showers” ends up as “cloudless sky”). But, I digress…

In any case, we opted to take advantage of the good weather and went on anther “walk about” today. We tubed to Victoria Station with the intent of walking back home via Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Mayfair, and our seemingly daily stomping grounds: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. That’s another 4-5 mile walk.

Buckingham Palace (from Green Park)

Libby and Emerson (outside Buckingham Palace)

Our visit to Mayfair was fairly brief. We popped by the Royal Academy, though we skipped the Summer Exhibition. We strolled through Burlington Arcade (I like—though never buy—the vintage watches) and up New Bond Street (Libby likes—and I wish she would never buy—the purses) for some window shopping. We then rambled through the back streets of Mayfair, one of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Were I to have the means (highly unlikely) by the time our Allen House leasehold runs out, I’d be very tempted to get our next “fractional ownership” at Marriott’s 47 Park Street in Mayfair. A few years back, we visited there for an evening on a special promotion—I still have the welcome bottle of Dom Perignon in my cellar.

View of Mount Street from The Connaught Hotel in Mayfair

We returned to our flat by 6pm, picking up dinner en route.

After dinner, I ran out to get a few groceries and other supplies. One often hears that London is an expensive city, I’ll let you be the judge. Here’s my grocery list for the day: two bottles of beer (Innis & Gunn Blonde and Innis & Gunn Original), two bananas, half a pound of fresh cherries, a box of Ritz crackers, two “fancy” donuts, and a pack of toilet paper (4 rolls). Cost: about $21.

Tonight, we did laundry (who says we that we don’t know how to live it up?) and relaxed by reading/writing after putting Emerson to bed at 8:30.

Tomorrow is our last full day in London. On Friday, we’re off to Oslo, Norway.