A Little Trip to Old London Town

A couple of weeks ago I spent a very pleasant couple of days in London in the company of two of my cousins, and a friend. We stayed in a lovely apartment in the former Midland Grand Hotel which is in front of St Pancras railway station. The lower levels of the building are now the Renaissance St Pancras Hotel, while the uppers levels contain 67 apartments.

Isn't it just the most beautiful building? Especially when the sun shines!

 This is the corridor outside the apartment we stayed in; it reminded me of The Shining...

And, because I'm a fantastic blogger, I completely failed to take any photos of the inside of the apartment. Suffice to say, it was VERY nice, over three levels and with all mod cons. This is the link, in case you're interested in seeing more (with much more professional photos than I could ever manage!)

We spent our two days in London doing touristy things such as visiting Liberty

where I was forced to sample the carrot cake (for research purposes, you see...); lovely plate, don't you think?

We had dinner at J Sheekey, the well-known fish and seafood restaurant near Covent Garden. I had scallops for my main course and forgot to take a photo, but I did take a snap of THE MOST delicious Spotted Dick and vanilla custard that I had for my pudding.

Clearly this trip was based solely around food and drink as the next morning we found ourselves in the Food Hall at Fortnum and Mason.

Again for research purposes, I tested out one of their many eateries, although I did only have a coffee this time.

 Because, just minutes later we were sitting down to Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court at The Ritz.

What, no scones? That's because they like to serve them warm, so they wait until you've eaten your fill of sandwiches (and they keep refilling the plates as many time as you like.)

Champagne selfie. I know, I know.

Ooo look, the scones have arrived. And a piece of lemon drizzle cake from the sweet trolley.

 Here we are; and my cousin Jo appears to be asleep.

When we finally managed to drag ourselves away from the loveliness of The Ritz (not long after spotting Sir Jeffrey Archer), we took a stroll along to the Burlington Arcade and onwards to Regent Street. After that we had to head back to the apartment for a little lie down.

When we had fully recovered we ventured out once again, through King's Cross Station (which is now really rather snazzy - the roof being a case in point, with lights that change colour constantly, not to mention umpteen shops and eateries all around.)

 It was time to put on our cultured heads and set out for the theatre to see Jeeves and Wooster, starring Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen. If you like a good farce (be careful how you say that), you would love this. It is fantastic. I was enthralled from beginning to end and cannot rate it highly enough. If you get the chance, go and see it. Immediately.

The next day it was time for us to say our goodbyes, but not before Joanne and I tracked down the elusive Platform 9 3/4 for a photo op. Unfortunately my next stop wasn't Hogwarts, rather Waterloo and the train home to the West Country.

What a lovely couple of days being a tourist!