Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Got up early and had enough time for a quick cup of coffee before heading back to Edinburgh. Ron kindly offered to return the kilt for us to Stirling. We said goodbye to all that were up, packed up the car and drove back to the airport. We found the car rental office and settled up, then took the shuttle and checked in for our 11:15 flight. We stopped in the British Airways lounge for a while, and then boarded our plane. It was a quick flight down to London Heathrow, although we had to circle in a holding pattern for a bit.

The luggage was there this time and we found a taxi to take us to the Dukes Hotel near Piccadilly. I've stayed at the Dukes for many years - it's a small, boutique hotel on a very small, quiet street near Green Park. We checked in, but our room wasn’t ready yet, so we left the bags and wandered down the street to find some lunch. We stopped at an Italian place that was packed with business lunchers, and had a nice meal - fried calamari, pasta and fish. When we walked back to the Dukes, our room was ready and we rested for a while.

We went to another local restaurant for dinner called Just St James, which is about a two minute walk from the hotel. We had foie gras, roasted skate and sea bass – very tasty.

Thursday, October 14, 2004
We slept in and eventually got out around 10:00 or so. We stopped for lattes at one of the multiple coffee shops in the neighborhood – there must be at least four Starbucks alone within a five block radius – and caught the Tube up to the British Museum – saw the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone and the Assyrian carvings. We did a bit of shopping in some of the electronics stores near Tottenham Court Road, and stopped in a pub for fish and chips and a burger.

We caught the Tube to South Kensington and visited the Natural History Museum. We walked up Knightsbridge, past Harrods and back to the hotel. Whew! I had a chance to do some work on the computer and we rested our feet.

Originally, we had planned to have dinner with two of my friends but they both had to cancel. We had the hotel make reservations at a Chinese restaurant called Memories of China. They had a nice prix fixe menu with three different appetizers and two entrees. Very nice.

Friday, October 15, 2004
We got up, applied some Starbucks caffeine and hit the Science Museum just as they opened. After touring for a while we again walked up Knightsbridge, stopping in Harrods this time. We wandered up and down the floors, admiring some of the (very expensive) items on display. We walked further down the street and Gary bought a few souvenirs for people at home.

We went to Langan’s Brasserie for lunch, right down the street from the Dukes. It is co-owned by Michael Caine. We were a bit under-dressed, but they found a table for us and we had a nice meal – Caesar salad, avocado with vinaigrette and Dover sole. Quite yummy. We went back to the hotel and I did a bit more work and we watched television.

We had early dinner reservations at the OXO Tower Restaurant. It is located across the Thames near Waterloo station and is on the top floor of a building right on the river. It has lovely views of St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and Parliament. Unfortunately it was drizzling, so we couldn’t fully appreciate it. Dinner was good, although I thought it was a bit over-rated. I had roasted duck breast and Gary had a steak. We took a car back and just relaxed.

Saturday, October 16

We got up and walked up to Piccadilly and got tickets to the evening performance of The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged”.

We decided to head out of London and go to the Royal Air Force Museum located in Hendon. We took the Tube as far as Hampstead, where they had bus service for the rest of the route. We rode in the front row on the top of a double-decker bus – quite a view. I understand that London is planning to get rid of the double-deckers so it was fun to have a chance to ride in one.

We got off in Colindale and walked about ½ mile to the museum. What a place! They have a small building that houses about a dozen aircraft with some great interactive TV displays, and a history of important flight events.

They have one of the old Mosquito planes from WWII and the BBC was there filming the last meeting of the Mosquito Pilots Association. They have apparently decided that it is too much effort for them to get together any more, but there were many of them in attendance.

After the introductory displays, we went into a huge pair of hangars next door where there were probably two hundred aircraft. Wow. Very well presented, and we spent a lot of time looking around. We looked at the museum café, but decided to head back to Hampstead to get some lunch. We found a cute French bistro and had onion soup, goat cheese, steak frites and salade nicoise. It was very nice. We caught the Tube back down to London and made reservations for dinner at a nearby restaurant before the theatre, then caught a cat nap at the hotel.

We went to dinner and were the first people in the place. They had a fixed price two or three course dinner which was quite good. We had salads and duck confit, and Gary had sorbet for dessert. The theatre was a short walk away, and we found our seats – not the best as they were quite far in the back. The show was great – three American actors who endeavor to cover all of Shakespeare’s work in two hours. They compress all of the comedies into one funny blended version, summarize the royalty-related tragedies in a football game, and spend the most time on Hamlet. There was audience participation and a couple of unlucky souls were dragged up on stage. Very, very funny. We walked back to the hotel and had a drink in the Dukes bar before turning in.

Sunday, October 17, 2004
We got up and took the Tube over to Victoria station where we bought rail tickets to South Bromley to visit my friend Keith and his family. We had enough time to have a quick bite of breakfast before leaving. It was only a 15 minute ride to the southern suburbs, and Keith and his two sons Edward (age 8) and William (age 6) picked us up. When we arrived at the house, Jane had champagne glasses waiting for us in their conservatory and we sit and catch up. William showed me that he still has the little Virgin Airlines remote control plane that I brought him last year. This time, we brought some bath salts for Jane and Gamebox games for the boys. They already had one of them, but the other appears to be a success.

We drove to a nearby pub in the countryside and had a nice lunch – the boys ran out and played in the yard while the grown-ups talked. Keith and Jane were taking the boys on a five day holiday to New Forest the next day so we didn’t want to keep them out too long. We drove back and stopped at Biggin Hill Air Force Chapel to take a couple of pictures of the aircraft outside on our way to the station. The boys love trains so they all waited on the platform with us until we left.

After arriving back at Victoria Station, we decided to walk back to the hotel, stopping to buy a new bag to carry all of the purchases. We walked past Buckingham Palace and through Green Park back to the Dukes.

Since we are changing hotels tomorrow, we packed up most of our stuff before dinner. We had reservations at a restaurant the Maura has recommended for many years, Quaglino’s. It is very near the hotel and is a lovely space. We had mussels, crab/lobster cakes, and steak. Very nice.

Monday, October 18, 2004
We got up and finished packing, check out and took a cab for about two blocks to the Ritz Hotel. I like the Dukes because it is so quaint and quiet, not to mention nearly 100 pounds cheaper per night. My client, Rick, prefers the Ritz, so for convenience sake we moved. It is, truly, a spectacular place - with all the splendor of grand old hotels. As we checked in, they were making preparations for a parade along Piccadilly Circus for the British Olympic Team. Our room faces the street, so we will have a birds-eye view.

We dropped our bags off and headed back across the Thames to the Imperial War Museum. There are many things to see: Montgomery’s tank, a V2 rocket, a new D-Day display and a huge series of rooms dedicated to each of the wars in which Great Britain has been involved.

After a while our brains were overloaded and we decided to walk back across Westminster Bridge. We stopped at a pub for lunch and then walked past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

We walked through St James Park and made it back to the hotel just as the parade was ending. London is competing to hold the Olympics in 2012 - "Back the Bid" posters are well in evidence. I was so tired that I needed to take a nap for a while. We’ve walked a lot in the past few days!

I had to meet Rick for a business dinner that night, so after I got dressed we went downstairs to have a drink. They announced that there is a dress code in the hotel, and Gary’s jeans didn’t cut it, so we went back upstairs and he changed clothes.

I had a dinner with Rick and his wife Susan, Andrew Fisher, our London broker, and the lead reinsurer on the program. We went to a nice restaurant just a short cab drive away and had a nice time. When we got back to the hotel, Gary and I went back down to the bar for a while – no jeans, of course.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004
We were up early and met Rick for breakfast. The prices really are outrageous – the Continental breakfast alone (rolls, coffee, juice) is 23 pounds, and with the dollar trading at $1.70, I think breakfast for three people was close to $100. Ouch!

Rick and I caught a cab to Lloyd’s and had a full day of meetings. Gary had more fun, getting over to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the HMS Belfast, The Royal Academy and more shopping.

We met Susan and Gary to head out for dinner. When I gave the address to the cab driver, he told us that it was right across the street! Oops. Andrew Fisher and another reinsurer joined us for dinner. It was very relaxed and enjoyable. We walked back and had a last drink in the Ritz bar before turning in.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004
We woke up early and decided to head to the airport. We had a very chatty cab driver on the ride out to Gatwick, checked in and went to the Continental lounge to wait for our 12:30 flight. It was an uneventful 8 hour flight, with a very enthusiastic flight crew. They fed us a big lunch – steak and salmon, with ice cream sundaes or cheese and fruit for dessert. I watched a movie called The Terminal starring Tom Hanks - very cute – and took a nap for a while.

The flight arrived a little early, around 3:00. As we were leaving immigration, I ran into a former colleague who had been on the same flight. We got our bags after a bit of a delay and found our driver waiting out front.

It took a little under two hours to get home – we arrived just in time to rescue Suki from the vet’s office. She was a little shell-shocked, but definitely enjoyed being home. We unpacked, did laundry and ordered Chinese take-out for dinner.

Can't wait for Jim and Jacque's tenth!