Coming out of Covid it was time to get our Euro trip back on the books. Rather than hit the Scandinavian countries, the dollar wasn't looking to terrible to the pound or euro so we landed on London, Scotland, Amsterdam, and finally Paris for this one. We started in London getting a great view of the city from Sky Garden, then moving on to a tour of the Tower of London. Where the moat used to be is now a lovely wildflower garden making for some great photo-ops.
We got a peak at the crowned jewels and while I probably wouldn't wait in that line (in the heat) again it was still fine. St Pauls cathedral juts out from the city, juxtaposed quite well the Shard doing so in a more modern fashion. I think I had pretty low expectations for some of the large old buildings that we were set to be touring on this trip, and everyone blew those expectations out of the water. Any time I was already impressed with an interior, you'd look up and be in awe. We were also fairly easily amused imitating some of the poses seen around the Abbey.
The British Museum had fantastic exhibits, it was just really hard to get past the crowds of people and very warm temp inside. No AC, the greenhouse effect, and all the warm bodies made it a little uncomfortable, but still interesting none the less. We did have the opportunity to swing by the palace as well as enjoy some general bopping around the city.
Kicking off the next day we had a tour at Royal Albert Hall. This also happened to be one of the more "strict" timelines since it was guided, and I only found out while lollygagging taking photos on the way to the hall. Fear not, I hustled the rest of the day. Royal Albert Hall was another venue I had low expectations for going in and was then blown away. The hall does the premiers for all of the Bond movies, it's an incredibly well known concert hall, and even hosts sporting events. The ability for the stage to be configured based on the type of performance was incredibly well thought thru. Last little fun fact, their organ is made from 9,999 pipes totally 9 miles. After touring Royal Albert Hall, we worked up an appetite that only London could satisfy.
Brian knocked our traditional afternoon tea out of the park with the Thames Foyer at the Savoy. This had to be booked months out, and from the moment we sat down it made sense as to why. The service was superb, the explanations to go along with the food and drink were great, and the caliber of the sandwiches and desserts were on point. Sara also thru out an extra star to the experience for the ease at which they handled non dairy requests. I don't know that this would have been something I had chosen to do on my own before hand, but it was definitely a super positive experience (and I'm thrilled to have done it).
We enjoyed Gordon's wine bar from the patio while plotting our next little scheme, which would be a short trek out of London proper to hit up Sipsmith for a gin tasting. After navigating a collection of subway and trains we arrived to find out the brick and mortar was closed, but there was a pop up tasting back on the south side of London... One uber later and we were still able to sip on some gin and enjoy shaken and long poured martinis.
Our day trip from London was the next experience, which put us out of the city to Leeds Castle. The grounds were fantastic and included some old ruins as well which made for some great variety. Not far from there was Canterbury Cathedral where we had a lovely self guided tour follow by some amazing tapas at El Sol. Once our bellies were full we bopped over to Dover to take in another castle as well as the white cliffs before returning an almost unharmed rental car and preparing for an early morning to head to Scotland.
