Travel Blog: Back in London

For this flight we thought we'd try Air Transat to see what their premium Club Class was like - just as much so Larry could describe it to his clients as anything else. Considering the size of the aircraft, there were only 12 seats in Club Class, right at the front of the plane. Now we weren't expecting a full business class since Air Transat is a charter carrier, but we had hoped that the seats would recline quite a bit further than they did, and that there would be at least a little more legroom...We're writing this while sitting in a highway bus on the way to Dover to meet the ship, and it seems like there is only marginally less space between these seats than on the plane. On the other hand, the service was very friendly and the food was quite good.

Our arrival at Gatwick was smooth and quick, and our transfer driver was there to meet us. The first part of the drive was nice and fast; then we got off the motorway into the southern outskirts of London and straight into traffic. Once into Central London, our driver had a little trouble finding the actual front entrance of The Savoy Hotel so we drove around a rather large block (which included the River Thames) three times before he finally got us to the door.

The Savoy Hotel is now managed by Fairmont and recently went through a huge renovation project. The hotel itself originally opened in 1889 and has been an icon in Central London for more than 100 years. Actually, the hotel is on the site of a palace built in the 1200s by order of Henry III that was also named Savoy. It is located on The Strand, right beside the Thames, down the street one way toward Trafalgar Square and The Mall, and the other way to Fleet Street and St. Paul's Cathedral. Here are a few photos of the hotel:

The main entrance

In the courtyard - this is where breakfast and tea
are served

The Savoy has its own tea shop - tea, pastries, chocolate
and petits-fours

In the American Bar

Not having had much rest on the plane, we were both tired and hungry by the time we reached the hotel. Our room wasn't quite ready, so we left our bags and set out to find lunch. Simpson's-in-the-Strand is a very famous restaurant known for its roast beef and other British specialties, also established in the late 1800s. Since it was virtually next door to the hotel we decided to eat there. Roast beef sliced tableside (thin slices, but you get three) with a HUGE Yorkshire Pudding and side of what Monica called 'Deconstructed Bubble and Squeak' - roasted potatoes and lightly cooked savoy cabbage. It certainly was delicious, but we were both fading fast by the end of the meal. Good thing the hotel had already phoned to tell us the room was ready...

Inside view of Simpson's

In the evening we decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a stroll up to Trafalgar Square. From there we couldn't resist walking under the Admiralty Arch and along The Mall. Before we knew it we had walked all the way to Buckingham Palace.

We were still full from lunch, so we visited the American Bar (also iconic) at the hotel before heading upstairs. Monica was introduced to a new drink called the Corpse Reviver No. 2 (No. 1 being more well-known, more potent and made with different ingredients). And that was it for the night.

Friday morning looked pretty bright through our window (which faced a small laneway between wings of the hotel), but by the time we finished breakfast it had clouded over and was raining lightly. Oh, well, we were planning on going to St. Paul's Cathedral anyway and had brought our rain gear just in case.

As we walked along we remembered the recommendations made by our friends Michel and Judy - the Twinings Tea shop and the tucked-away Temple Church were not to be missed. It was a good thing that Larry recalled the church, for there is only a small sign pointing down an alleyway to tell you where it is.

The Temple Church is actually named after the Knights Templar, now (in)famous for possibly having possession of and hiding the Holy Grail, the chalice Jesus used. The order of the Templars was charged with establishing the Catholic Church in England, and in the early 1200s began to build this church. The so-called 'Round Church' portion was built to replicate the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, that houses the tomb of Jesus. In London it is the burial ground of some of the most important figures involved with the Magna Carta, as this particular church played a pivotal role in the negotiations up to its signing at Runnymede in 1215, and after that, William Marshal, the First Earl of Pembroke, was the guardian of the young prince who would become Henry III. Both William and Henry were imperative in ensuring that the rights of the people and obligations of the King set out in the Magna Carta became firmly entrenched in the common law, as they continue to be today. For those not familiar with the Magna Carta, it is the document that establishes that the King is not above anyone else, and is subject to the same laws as his people; it also sets how decisions on taxation would be made, so the King could no longer just create a tax because he felt like it or needed some extra cash.

Outside the Temple Church

Looking toward the altar. The Royal Family
have visited here on many occasions

The tombs of the First and Second Earls of Pembroke

This was a very interesting stop, and we have to thank Judy for letting us know about the Church. We would definitely have walked right by otherwise.

Our target for the day, St. Paul's Cathedral, is almost as impressive as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and seems to be almost as big.

Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed inside, so once we get a chance, we will 'borrow' a couple from the cathedral's website and post them here. Anyone who was old enough to see the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981 would have seen some of the inside. All we can say is that the aisle is long enough for Diana to have had second, and third, and fourth thoughts before she got to the altar!

Some of the most impressive parts of the cathedral are the memorial to Wellington and the mosaic ceilings over the Quire and High Altar (photos to come, we hope). The cathedral was designed and built by Christopher Wren, an amazing feat when you hear about how the cupola was engineered. The other feat was that the building was actually completed during Wren's lifetime; something not very common in any part of Europe at the time.

The audio tour also included a visit to the Crypt, which is the same footprint size as the main floor, and among others boasts the tombs of Christopher Wren, Admiral Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and others who became important and well-known in their fields, like artists, lawyers and doctors. Although Winston Churchill's state funeral was held here, there is only a monument to him in the Crypt - he is buried at his family's ancestral home of Blenheim Palace.

We spent a lot of the afternoon here, but the rain had only let up a bit, not stopped entirely, by the time we were done.

Our stay in London was capped off by a dinner at the Savoy Grill, which is once more under the Gordon Ramsay umbrella. It was everything we had expected and more. We had Beef Wellington for dinner and a Cherry Crepes Suzette for dessert. Of course, we could resist taking some pictures here, but we didn't: