God Save The Queen!

In 2011, we decided to spend Spring Break in the Blighty! I wanted to make sure we checked out London as well as the famous countryside in the short one week time we had in England. We began our journey on a direct flight from Denver (In the early 2000’s ,Denver really took off as an international airport with direct flights to multiple European destinations). We arrived early in the morning and went straight to our hotel. We were staying in the heart of London at Hilton Trafalgar Square. Once we settled down, we began exploring Trafalgar Square. There is a really nice monument and it was a fun place to be around. There is a National Gallery right at the Square. Surprisingly, it is completely free to enjoy! We made our way into the gallery… there is so much history in this place. It shows how the Britishers conquered the world. To my wife and I’s surprise, both kids were kind of interested in the gallery. We had a wonderful afternoon and then we decided to find a nice place for dinner.

You Did Not Tip Enough!

We started walking and saw an Italian joint that we thought we would check out. It was on a garden level (a few steps below the ground level). We went in and the place was kind of empty. There was maybe one other party in the restaurant. When the menus came, you could tell this restaurant catered to tourists. The entire menu was made of pictures! No words were necessary. I thought it was interesting. The entire experience was kind of weird. We found that the service was poor and the meal was subpar. Anyway, after dinner, we got the bill and I usually like to pay in cash. So I put the cash on the table with just under a 15% tip. Granted it was a little less than I would normally tip, but given the bad service, I did not feel like tipping any higher. We got up and began to walk out. We were walking up the stairs and I was the last to walk out. This waiter ran after us. So I stopped and asked him what the problem was. He said I did not pay my bill. I said I just put cash on the table. He said it was not enough. I said it was £20 or so more than the bill. But he said that is not enough tip! I just laughed and walked away. I still get a chuckle as I write about this incident!

The next day, we decided to do typical touristy things. We walked to see the parliament building. Since the parliament was not in session, we could actually go inside and see the chambers; that was fun for me. From there, it was on to Westminster Abbey, the Royal Church. The church has an interesting history. Coming from America where church and state are always separate, it was interesting to learn the comingling of church and state. Before our next stop, we needed some fuel. So we stopped at Pret A Manger—A famous sandwich chain. We really liked the fact that they had so many vegetarian options. After the fuel in the tummy, we continued our sightseeing to Buckingham Palace. It is an awesome structure and we were just admiring the beauty of the place. We timed our visit so that we could see the changing of the guards. It was a unique thing to see for sure. We got to test the famous steadfastness. Both kids joined me in trying to distract the guards, but they would not flinch. Their eyes would not even blink. We really enjoyed that.

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And We Are Walking, We Are Walking….

We had a reservation for Hi-Tea at Kennsington Palace. We had already walked a few miles that day to see the monuments. I convinced everyone that Kennsington Palace was not that far so we should just continue walking. Everyone was in a good mood so they all agreed and we continued our walk. If you know the area, it is quite a walk… about two miles or so. But, you see, the Kennsington Gardens are less than half a mile from the Palace. The walk within Kennsington Gardens to Kennsington Palace is over a mile! Everyone was thrilled that we were on the grounds. But then the path kept going and going. The kids started to complain. I kept telling them, “do you see that building? That’s it. That’s where we are going.” Finally, we arrived at Kensington Palace. The kids were exhausted! Thankfully, there was some good food on its way.

We had a really good time at Hi-Tea. After the wonderful experience, we walked into the world-famous Harrod’s department store across from the palace grounds. They had some unique stuff and it reminded me of the glory days of American department stores. After some time at the store, it was time to call it a day and return to our hotel. I asked everyone if we should walk back to the hotel. And it was a resounding NO. We took the cab back to the hotel. We decided to visit an Indian restaurant nearby our hotel for dinner that night. I guess the 200 years of colonization has its advantage—those of you who are history buffs, yes, I know 200 years was only for a portion of India and not the entire country, but still, it was 200 years! London has some of the best Indian food you can find. We went to this place that was wonderfully decorated with original puppets from Rajasthan, India (Rajasthan is a state in India known for some of the best puppeteering). It looked like they had the menu from across all of India—India is a diverse country with diverse cuisine to match. They had 10 different regional Indian cuisines as well as what we call Indian Street food.

The next day, we took a tour of the Countryside. We chose the Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Roman Bath tour. It was an all-day affair. Our first stop was Windsor Castle. It was known as the summer capital of the country, as the Royals used to move to the castle during summertime. We got to see the marching of soldiers at the castle—I am sure it is purely for tourist purposes nowadays. It is some palace, to say the least. We continued towards Stonehenge after the castle and our bus stopped at a small gas station with a restaurant in the back for lunch. After a quick lunch break, we went straight to Stonehenge. It was a gloomy day, and kind of chilly, so we were cold. We liked the audio self-guided tours, so we decided to do that at Stonehenge. I thought it would be nice to have a picture of Stonehenge in my office, so I picked up a lunar henge photo from the gift shop—I still have it in my office at home! We then continued our journey to the Roman Baths. Since we had visited Italy just a couple of years ago, the roman baths were not that impressive for us, but it was certainly something to see. After a long 12 hour day, we finally returned to the hotel.

The next day, we decided to take it easy in the morning and just hang out at the hotel. We spent the afternoon at the Madame Tussauds museum. This was an incredible experience! All of us just had so much fun in this museum… it was unbelievable. We took pictures with the Oscar, and Julia Roberts, and Angelina Jolie, and George Clooney, and Barack Obama, and Gandhi, and on and on. The kids even held the Olympic Torch! It was a wonderful time. That evening, we had reservations for the Lion King performance at the Lyceum Theatre in West End. West End is London’s version of Broadway. You have to commend Disney’s production genius. It was an amazing show for all ages—everyone was happy.

The following day, we decided to visit some of the iconic tourist destinations in London. We started our day with the London Bridge. At first, it is not impressive, but once you learn how old the structure is, you have a newfound respect for the place. We continued to the Gherkin—a famous egg-shaped building. Then, we continued to the London Eye. We enjoyed the relaxing ride on the gigantic Ferris wheel which gave us a view of the entire city. During the afternoon, we went to the Shakespeare’s Globe. They preserved the entire theatre, and we saw how they used to conduct plays in the Shakespeare days. It was really interesting to experience.

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That evening, we went to a restaurant that had bunk seating! I had never seen anything like this in my life. There were customers sitting in booths. And then between booths, there were some steps that led to more booths on top! I chose to take the upper booth (did not want to see other people’s shoes while we were eating)! They serve you in a unique way as well. They climb halfway and then hand over the dishes to you. It was just a fun experience… one of those you talk about throughout your meal.

We decided to spend the final day hanging out and souvenir shopping before returning to Denver. The trip was a blast. London is one of those cities that caters to all ages and everyone finds what they are looking for. What was your trip where everyone in the family was excited to have visited? Please do share in the comments section. Until next time…