Another trip to London, another beautiful day of relaxation in one of my favorite cities in the world.
Springtime In London: A Day Of Rest To Begin Our Holiday
After landing in Heathrow Terminal 2 on JetBlue, we mapped out our options to get to Bermondsey, part of the London Borough of Southwark, where my sister-in-law lives. As it turned out, taking the London Underground Piccadilly Line saved us a few minutes versus waiting for the Elizabeth Line and saved us an hour versus taking Uber.
At 10:00 pm, the Tube was mostly empty and never really filled up even in central London, where we transferred to the Jubilee line at Green Park. A very simple journey.
Upon arrival, we had a late supper and then went to bed, where we all slept very well after the daytime light from New York to London. I arose around 6:00 am BST and got my work done for the day.
The kids slept in the maid’s quarters and here’s how I found them at 9:00 am…
It was my daughter Claire Marie’s birthday and my sister-in-law baked her a cake…Claire Marie got a party in California before we left, one in London, and another one upon our arrival in Germany…not bad for a fifth birthday.
As is typically the case when I visit London, there wasn’t much on the agenda. We walked over to Southwark Park later in the morning and the kids had a wonderful time playing on the playground.
We had lunch in Pavilion Cafe. The kids at chips (French Fries) and I had a healthy salad with chicken breast, pearl couscous, and hummus.
Then, delicious coffee at NoNo.
We spent some more time with my nephew and niece, both of whom are younger than my kids, then headed back to Heathrow for our evening British Airways flight to Basel. Once again, we took the Tube and found it eerily empty, especially as we drew closer to Heathrow. Taking Uber would have taken nearly twice as long!
CONCLUSION
I’ve written affectionately about London before and it remains a city I could easily see myself living in. Yes, it is expensive, but there’s something beautiful, dignified, and functional about it. I love starting my European holidays with a night or two in London and this trip merely reinforced that.
Next stop: Basel…and a lovely vacation in Germany.
> Read More: London Is Growing On Me…
Belated Happy Birthday Claire Marie! Good haul on the three cakes.
3 birthdays in 3 countries. Not bad at all.
The best part about your blog is when you feature your kids!
I started reading your blog just before Augustine was born.
I have outgrown your blog but I will come back sometimes to see how your kids are doing (and growing up).
Congrats.
Nothing better than London with the kids. Would be hard for me to be so close to Borough Market and not go for the raclette stand. Piccadilly line gets a bad rap – took it as well when I was solo with the kids off a daytime to London flight. Hopefully they won’t start charging more money for it once they deliver the new train sets… if that ever happens. Go check out the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum with the kids next time you are there.
What a fun time, and a great trip report. We love the UK too – I grew up there so it is like our 2nd home.
I was there over the summer, and unfortunately my cell phone got stolen out of my hand in the Knightsbridge area – 3 masked e-bikers. Growing up in the UK, the main threat was terrorism, not OCG’s. I was using my cell phone for directions.
Londoners were very helpful, and took me to the close by Apple Store to lock down my account, and to get a burner phone.
Apparently cell phone theft is an epidemic in London (1 in 3 Londoners have had their cell phone swiped out of there hands).
So just a word of caution for your future trips.
In future, I will just leave my cell phone in the hotel room safe, and use my watch for directions.
Very sorry to hear about the theft. What do you do for pictures without a phone?
In all our years of frequent travel, this is the first time something like this has happened. We are always on alert in Central Europe for pick- pocketing etc., but we never anticipated this level of aggressive theft, especially in the UK.
I am glad for countries like Singapore and our trips there, where nothing like this would ever happen.
This is a sad fact of life in London now. As regular visitors we have long since abandoned wearing a watch or using our phone on the street. A friend had his watch snatched in Marylebone just before Christmas last year, and phone theft is endemic. Wearing expensive jewelry on the street is just asking for trouble. It’s just like visiting Sao Paulo or Karachi – keep it low-key, and don’t flash your wealth about.
That’s a great point. We will probably have to go old school with our SLR, or take one of our non-activated / not “signed-in” old iPhones for pictures, and reconcile when we get home.
Spend time outside of zone 1 and 2 to get a different look and feel of London.
Sad and disappointing, indeed. Because of this endemic problem, a lot of the wealthy middle eastern folks have now abandoned London and now frequent Geneva and Zurich.
The Metropolitan police duly took a report from me, and I kept updating them with the location of my phone, but to no avail. They indicated that even if I gave them the location of my phone with near certainty, they would need a ‘for cause’ warrant which is not easy to obtain for such crimes
Unite the Kingdom !!