19 to 23 Sep London, England

London was our last stop and by then we were exhausted.

Our itinerary
19 Sep - Oxford Street and Pollen Street Social 

We went shopping at Oxford Street. Primark is so addictive! I had to stop myself as we had made a reservation for dinner at Pollen Street Social.

20 Sep - Stonehenge and Geales Restaurant

We decided to do something less hectic and only booked a half day tour to Stonehenge. The thing about guided tours is that they always start very early in the morning. I wanted the full day tour initially as it will bring us to more places but A preferred a half day tour. The journey to and fro Stonehenge took almost 4 hours and we were given 45 minutes to visit. We had late lunch at Geales Restaurant. No trip to London is completed without Fish and Chips.

 

21 Sep - Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Big Ben, Piccadilly and Angus Steakhouse

We woke up early to catch the Changing Guards at Buckingham Palace. But when we reached, it was already very crowded!  There is a website for the Changing Guard Dates and Timings so it is helpful when planning your itinerary. I will suggest that you do not wait outside the Palace. We stood along the main road and had quite a good view.

 

From Buckingham Palace, we walked past St James Park and reached Big Ben. Big Ben refers to the massive bell inside the clock tower. By then, it had started to drizzle again. We continued walking until we reached Piccadilly. If you are planning to visit Chinatown, this is the vicinity. We saw a supermarket selling durians! Side track - recently I came across a newspaper article about an evacuation in Plymouth, England due to durian. Source from Asiaone

 

I love musicals so one of the must-do for me is to watch a Broadway show! It is cheaper if you buy the tickets on the day itself. We paid  £39.50 instead of the usual price  £65. There were too many musicals to choose from and I was spoilt for choice. I eventually decided on the musical "Dirty Dancing". If possible, I will really like to watch one musical everyday!

We also visited the M&M's World at Leicester Square. It is the largest candy store in the world. Check it out at M&M's World - London. If you are a M&M fan (like me), you must visit this flagshop!

We ended the night with dinner at Angus Steakhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 Sep - Hyde Park and Four Seasons Roast Duck

It was a lovely day for a stroll and people watching in the park! We also wandered further and ended up at Bayswater Station. We did not know there are actually many Chinese restaurants in this area. One of the restaurants, Four Seasons Roast Duck, had newspaper articles plastered outside their shop and it caught our eyes. Although we were still very full from breakfast, we decided to order some roast duck and fried rice to share. The duck meat was indeed yums!! Watch out for the red signboard.

 

 

 

 

London, I hope to be back!

Double Tree by Hilton London Hyde Park Hotel

Address: 150 Bayswater Road, Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom
Nearest Metro: Queensway (Central Line) and "walkable" distance to Notting Hill and Bayswater Station (Circle and District Line)

 

I like the location of Double Tree; just minutes to the Queensway Station (Central Line) or 10 minutes' walk to Bayswater Station and Notting Hill Station (Circle and District Line). Hyde Park is just opposite the hotel and we could enjoy a morning's stroll.

 

Upon check in, the reception gave us two warm chocolate cookies which made a really nice welcome gift. The room is clean and the décor is modern. They have my favourite brand, Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries They also have a coffee machine in the room. The Wifi speed is reasonable but you need a pass code to access. This pass code was only valid for 24 hours and we had to obtain a new code from the reception daily.

 

We stayed on the first floor and unfortunately it was facing the back of the hotel. It started to get really noisy very early in the morning when the workers went about doing their jobs. There were still some minor renovations going on and it was very disturbing. There were some days when we left the hotel early for some guided tours and we needed to take a nap in the afternoon before continuing the rest of the day. We requested for a change of rooms as we did not want to be woken up so early everyday but the reception cited "hotel is full". Later we went online and saw that they were still accepting reservations for the day.

 

This hotel has a great location and it will be a pity to write it off. I will suggest this hotel to travellers on business trips or short weekend getaways and try to request for higher floors at the time of reservation.