London, baby!: Monday

Alright, welcome to the first part of our London trip! If you’re here for the yarny goodies, you’ll have to wait until the Wednesday installment. Monday was all about

Flying, walking and eating cupcakes

We left for the airport Monday morning around 9. Our flight was at 10:50. I had left behind my blowdryer and my Ishbel since my dad assured my that they would have the former at the hotel, and I was worried that they would take away the latter at the airport. What I hadn’t considered was that they would also take away my skin tonic and makeup remover (both over 100 ml bottles – I thought you just couldn’t bring more than 100 ml, so the bottles were both about half-full) so I had to go without during our stay.

I don’t have any pictures from the airport since the camera was tucked away safely in my suitcase. As I mentioned earlier we could only bring one piece of carry-on luggage. Insane! How was I going to transport home all the yarn and goodies I’d buy in London?! Fortunately dad didn’t pack a whole lot so we were able to fit it all in on the trip home.

The flying part went alright; I got rather air-sick when we were descending and there was a lot of turbulence during the flight, but I neither vomited nor peed my pants, so all in all I think it was a success. From Stansted airport we took the Stansted Express to the centre of London, and from there the tube to our hotel:

The Ramada Jarvis Hotel. A four-star hotel – allegedly. The interior in the lobby was really nice, and the beds and the food was great quality, but when we arrived they only had a room left on the smoker’s floor. The windows would only open about 4 inches in one side, the air condition seemed to be broken (it was freezing when we turned it on, humid when we didn’t) and the room smelled like wet dog when you’d taken a shower. Other than that, it was a fairly nice hotel and I enjoyed staying there. Wouldn’t pay full price, though – we were able to get one of those package deals they provide and only paid about half. Maybe that’s why the room wasn’t very good?

After we’d checked in we went for lunch at a small restaurant that served really nice paninis. Mine was a tuna melt. I was so starving my hands were shaking and when I was done I’d eaten so fast I almost felt sick. But it was a really good panini (even if their chocolate milkshake wasn’t that good). We then headed over to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park – we lived right across from it! I think the neighbourhood inspired a lot of people to keep fit – at any time of day we always saw at least a couple of joggers out for a run.

It was a really hot day and there were loads of people hanging about on the grass away from the paths. Lots of dogs, children, people sunbathing.. And it’s a beautiful park! We took a quick look at Kensington Palace (I believe it was called) and the accompanying little garden, and then we headed towards the only ‘real’ destination for the day: the Buttercup Cake Shop.

(If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see me take the picture and dad standing beside me.)

I’d chosen two bakeries for us to visit during our stay, and this was one of them (the other being the Hummingbird Bakery, which we visited on the last day). It was extremely hot and humid inside the shop, so we took 4 cupcakes to go to eat in the Gardens. Their selection wasn’t that great that time of day, and I wonder if the humidity was good for the cupcakes to just stand out in the open, but they tasted fine enough! From left to right, top to bottom, it’s a Banoffee (banana cake with frosting and toffee sprinkles), a Chocolate Purist (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting), Banana (banana cake with banana frosting) and a (I believe) Black and White (vanille cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles). Mine were the Banana and Chocolate Purist. I liked the Banana one best, the chocolate ones was kind of dry (though maybe that’s because I didn’t eat it until later that evening). The cupcakes were huge; one was enough to make me feel stuffed!

We hung out in the Gardens for a while after we’d eaten a cupcake. There were lots of these garden chairs that cost £1.50 to sit in (apparently) and dad took a picture of me looking very ungraceful. We didn’t take a lot of pictures of each other, and I don’t have a single one of me smiling. Not sure why, I was smiling a lot during our stay. Dad caught me off guard in a lot of pictures, though, resulting in that half-open eyes and mouth look that makes you look mental.

We went back to the hotel and actually didn’t leave until the next morning. We were both stuffed after a large, late lunch and eating the cupcakes, so we stayed in that evening. I hadn’t brought any knitting or books, so thank gods there was a TV with shows that I knew! Maybe it was a good thing we didn’t go out to explore the city, though, as a sudden thunderstorm hit us in the early evening. Lots of lightning flashes and crashing thunder and heavy rain, so it was quite nice to stay in. It didn’t seem to bother the Londoners, though – still lots of people walking around beneath our windows!

And that was Monday… Tuesday was a bit more exciting, but there was less picture-taking. Tuesday = shopping!