London!

It took us several modes of transportation to arrive at our hotel. But after a short 55 minute flight from Dublin to London Heathrow, the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, then a short taxi that dropped Richard at his office and me at our hotel we had officially arrived in London!

Paddington Station

While Richard was off meeting the folks in the London office, I was a total tourista today. Having spent a lot of time in London a little over 10 years ago I wanted to hit a few favorite places and try out a few places I had missed back then. I only had a couple of goals for the afternoon and pretty much just wandered from place to place. I started with Trafalgar Square which was around the corner from the hotel and relatively empty since it's not high season.




Trafalgar Square











And in honor of Texas Independence Day, March 2nd, I had to make a stop at the Texas Embassy Cantina 1 block from Trafalgar. I don't know if it's different management from 10 years ago or just a new chef, but the salsa and enchiladas I had was actually very good. And the Cadillac Margarita with Patron silver was absolutely delicious!







Next I hopped the tube over to St. Paul's Cathedral. Photographs are no longer allowed inside the building which made me very sad. And there was restoration on one side of the building's exterior. Nevertheless it is still as beautiful and facinating as ever. Here are a few shots of the cathedral.












Then I went in search of what I heard was the best view of the city, Primrose Hill. I'm not saying it was a bad view, it just was not that impressive. But it was an interesting neighborhood and a nice park that borders Regents Park. So I walked back to the hotel through Regents Park and got a few pictures of the park beginning to come back to life in spring.















That night Richard finally got off work and we went to his favortite Filipino restraurant in London, Josephine's. It was delicious. We had the lumpia of course and pancit and several other wonderul dishes.

Richard had scouted several bars to check out. Long Bar at the Sanderson Hotel was very "LA." It reminded us both of the bar at the Standard. The billiard's room adjacent to the hotel lobby was very cool. That's Richard very darkly behind the purple pool table.

Next we stopped at Annex 3, an eclectic place owned by antique dealers. I ordered this fruity cocktail at the outrageous price of £9. It was served in a tiki glass. Very silly. And finally, we made one more stop, the Artesian Bar in the Langham hotel. It draws its name from the Artesian well it is built over. They bottle their own water from it. They carry over 50 different types of rum and make dozens of specialty cocktails with them. The decor was romantic and stunning. Every detail was attended to. They even had linen cocktail napkins monogramed with an A. Our bartender, Ales, was the best bartender I've ever seen. He was knowledgeable and friendly and made one hell of a drink. I discovered two new rums that are delicious. Foursquare and Cockspur. Ales made us a Healthy Heart cocktail. It was Cockspur 12yr shaken with freshly squeezed pomegranate and lime juices then sweetened with pomegranate molasses. It was fabulous.

All and all a fabulous day and night in London.