This morning we woke up and had a small breakfast in our room. The Hoxton Hotel offers a complimentary in room breakfast of a banana, yogurt (with granola), and orange juice. Greg enjoyed this light breakfast while I enjoyed tea and oatmeal (brought from home due to my dairy allergy). I must say I am very impressed with The Tube in London. The website is extremely informative of pricing, maps, and trip planning resources. The Tube itself is clean, easy to navigate, has friendly staff, and is all around efficient (comparing this to Boston). Here's some easy resources for the Tube: Purchasing tickets before traveling to London Maps Pricing Trip Planner Greg headed off to work and I headed to the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern has a mix of free exhibits and paid exhibits. This time around I opted for the free exhibits. I left the museum after a leisurely 2 hour tour and didn't feel as though I missed out on anything. For lunch I hopped back on the Tube and headed to Borough Market. It was a quiet Monday at the market and I will admit that even though fewer stalls are there I prefer it to the packed house on the weekend (Last day in London we also visited the market). I walked around trying to decide between the wonderful smells, displays, and lines for food. I finally decided to get a Porchetta sandwich from Roast Hog. I enjoyed tender Porchetta (roasted pork) on a ciabatta, with rocket (arugula), and a spiced apple sauce. The "icing on the cake" was a crunchy and lightly greasy piece of skin. A perfect sandwich! Time to walk off the sandwich! London Bridge is just up the road from Borough Market so I headed in that direction. I stopped and took photos from both sides of the bridge and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. I decided to head back to the hotel for a rest but no rest for the wicked. My room wasn't quite ready yet so back out I went. I walked down Great Eastern Street and ventured into Old Spitalfield Market. The Market is a wonderful mix of stores, vendors, restaurants, and stalls. It's definitely more upscale and less hectic than Camden but has a certain charm about it. I purchased a couple of tops and found a great restaurant for dinner one night this week. Back at the Hoxton Hotel I decided to have a drink and relax in the lobby. I chose one of the couches and ordered a Lychee and Rose Fizz (a small but interesting drink) and relaxed with my AFAR Magazine. Once Greg got out of work we headed across the street to The Jones Family Project for dinner. To read my full review visit here.
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We're finally home from our trip and the laundry has commenced. Here's the first part of our trip review :-) Heading to London British Airways contacted us during the day on Saturday to tell us that our flight was going to be delayed by 4.5 hours. After taking off at 1:30 am the pilots were able to make up some time and had us landing in London only 3.5 hours late. We filed a claim online for compensation but naturally British Airways wrote us back saying it was due to extenuating circumstances and therefore they weren't liable. Right! You delayed three different planes that day because of operational maintenance (the phone agent told us) but somehow you're not liable. We met our driver Ivan who picked us up in a very roomy car and quickly drove us to The Hoxton Hotel. To read my full hotel review visit here. After a quick drop off of our luggage we headed to the Old Street Tube Station. We got to talking to a really friendly employee who suggested we start our tour at Camden Market. I was psyched as I've read about it online. Camden Market is a funky area with stores, markets, restaurants, and more. It's a mix of a flea market, hipsters, and restaurants with a bit of punk rock thrown in. We purchased a gorgeous painting and then decided to get some lunch. We sat at the Honest Burger stall and we were so glad we did. To read about my full review visit here. After lunch we headed down to Waterloo station and walked over to The London Eye. 38 GBP later we were in life for a clear view of sunset over London. It didn't really feel like we had a half an hour ride but the views were wonderful. After the ride we were feeling a bit tired so we headed back to Waterloo and purchased some waters and beers for our room. A quick Tube ride later we were back at The Hoxton for a relaxed night. I booked a day trip to Heidelburg through Viator. When I headed to the local office which is ETS Tours Frankfurt I was the only one for the tour.
Itwas 9 am and the tour was scheduled to depart at 9:30 am. The gentleman behind the desk asked that if the tour didn't go would I be interested in The Rhine Day Tour. At first I wasn't keen on this since it was a full day but he assured me I'd be back by 6:30. I aged to the tour. The gentleman then said it doesn't leave till 11:15 so why don't I go for the city tour too. Then he stated that naturally none of this would be an extra cost to me. Fabulous!!! After the city tour I had a bit of time. When I asked where the Rhine tour ended he asked what hotel I was staying at and offered me a return drop off there. Amazing! I'll right about the wonderful day trip later on (highly recommend it) but I just had to speak up now about the friendly, intelligent, honest, and generous staff at ETS Frankfurt. Yesterday I started the day with a walk through Frankfurt ending at The Stadel Museum.
I have mixed feelings about the museum. Naturally they have some very impressive pieces but I'll get into that more in my full review. Afterwards I choose some currywurst and fries for lunch and continued my rambling. For dinner we chose Apfelwein Klaus. The service was friendly, the food hot and good, and the atmosphere is terrific. Our last day i'm London was terrific. We got to spend the whole day together. We walked and took the Tube all over.
We visited spitalfield market, Tower of London, London Bridge, Borough Market, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Whitehall Palace, and Coventry Market. For dinner we enjoyed amazing seafood at Weight Brothers Spitalfield. Don't forget full reviews of everything coming when we get home!! We fly British Airways on Sunday to Frankfurt. We checked in to The Hilton Frankfurt. After a quick cat nap we decided to go for a walk. Today was Fasching!! A type of Mardi Grass Parade. We walked along checked out the crowds, drank lots of beer, enjoyed currywurst, and had a fun time! For dinner that night we headed to Paulaner for terrific beer, and delicious German food. On Monday Greg headed to work at the Frankfurt office. I decided to wander around in the rain. I checked out the shopping area, the river area, and enjoyed a pretzel on the go. I also bought done adorable wooden toys for my nephews. For dinner we enjoyed nice service, fresh ingredients and lovely permutation at Urban Kitchen. To end the night we enjoyed Radlers (beer with lemonade) at the Hilton Frankfurt bar. |
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