Weekend in London (2)

On Sunday, we had all day to ourselves - our flight wasn't until the evening - so, after another leisurely breakfast, we checked out and then headed for the West End. We got off the Tube at Oxford Circus and popped in to the Apple store (Jo needs a new phone) and John Lewis (we're thinking of buying a Kindle). We then meandered through the West End, stopping occasionally in some of the lovely peaceful garden squares, and checking out the many blue heritage plaques on some of the buildings - Jimi Hendrix right next door to Handel was one of them!

Once it was respectably late enough for us to do so, we stopped for a quick beer at the Audley:

Eventually we ended up at Shepherd Market, a place I used to frequent at lunchtimes in my days at Black & White's Devonshire House. It's a lovely little sanctuary in the heart of Mayfair - no traffic and lots of eateries - very "continental". My favourite pub was Ye Grapes so we went back there, and we were delighted to find that the current owner/manager apparently had a Thai wife/partner so we had a lovely Thai meal and a couple of pints for our late lunch:

Then it was off to the airport and back home again - a lovely weekend.

Weekend in London

We flew down on Friday morning and bought our Oyster cards for the Tube at Terminal 5. We decided to get off the Tube at Green Park, immediately underneath my old office at Black & White 40 years ago. From there, we strolled past Berkeley Square - no nightingales singing - and headed for one of my old lunchtime drinking haunts - the Guinea Grill. I used to stand outside eating the Desperate Dan Cow Pie, washed down with pints of Young's Special, so we repeated this:

We walked from there to Covent Garden and, after a quick stroll around there, we headed off towards our hotel at St. Pancras, with a quick pit stop at the Craft Brewing Company.

Our hotel is part of the magnificently refurbished railway station. Here's Jo in the reception area - the old Booking Hall - and outside:

In the evening we got to Shepherd's Bush Empire in good time to get in when the doors opened and get some super seats in the front row of the balcony. More details of the gig on my Music blog (http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.co.uk/).

Breakfast on Saturday morning was a treat:

The British Museum was our first port of call on Saturday morning:

Magnificent building and wonderful displays but it was all a bit too much to take in - and the huge crowds and lack of air made the overall experience a little less than wonderful.

We figured we just had time to travel out to Camden Lock and the markets there. What a busy, buzzing place:

In the evening we headed to the Piccadilly Theatre to see Jersey Boys, but we had a pie and a pint in the adjacent Queen's Head first of all. Here's Jo outside the theatre and a selfie of us inside:

More to follow.