A Very Luxe Few Days in London

 It was close to midnight by the time our plane from Reykjavik landed at Heathrow and we got our luggage and cleared customs and immigration and got a taxi to our hotel "near the Palace." The taxi driver got lost (actually I think he was trying to scam us) I suspect he legit was unfamiliar with the neighbourhood because people at that address must generally use private drivers (more on that later in our trip, we had lots of wonderful experiences with being picked up by impeccably-suited gentlemen in black Mercedeses meeting our planes and trains and buses.) I thought "near the Palace" meant a general district, but our hotel was literally around the corner from Buckingham Palace smack-dab in the heart of the iconic power centre of London. And the hotel was every bit as elegant as the setting demanded. Travel-grimed in blue jeans we felt quite out of place. 

Rawther elegant (said in a posh London accent)

Here's a closeup of the embroidery on the pillowcases (and sheets, and towels, and on the extra thick bathrobes...)

Breakfast every morning in this lovely dining room

And another closeup. See the handle on the back of the upholstered chair? That's so the waiter can gracefully pull the chair out for you. Took me a minute; channeling my mom and paternal grandmother to remember the traditions.

And our delightful doorman. Doesn't it look like Dan is the formal one and our doorman is the lively one? 

We took advantage of the location to explore all the traditional tourist sights, museums and monuments, and catch up with a former shipmate who lives in the area now. Pix from those will be in the next post, photo-dump style. But we also tried something we'd never done before -- a proper afternoon tea.

We have a friend who calls herself the "Tea Diva" and hosts events. We excitedly messaged her this photo, "Joa! We're thinking of you. We're having tea. In London. At 4:00. Right around the corner from Buckingham Palace." Literally right around the corner: those are the Royal Mews across the street. 

Here's a clearer view of the table setting. This is actually "Royal Afternoon Tea" because it started with a glass of champagne.

Kate pours Dan’s tea; there were about 15 teas to choose from. There’s a little strainer placed across the cup to catch any stray leaves that made it into the pour, and a small silver dish to put the strainer in.

An assortment of sandwiches: the small round ones on top were vegetarian chicken salad, others included baba ganoush, egg salad, tomato, and the one at the back is cucumber sliced so thin you could see through it.

The middle tray contained 3 different types of scones for each of us, served with lemon curd, clotted cream, and some kind of berry marmalade. The top and bottom trays (one for each of us) contained 4 different types of desserts. Blackberry eclair, lemon meringue tart, carrot (??) cake, and the chocolate one with the crown on it (yeah, because we’re literally around the corner from Buckingham Palace; I thought it was just a name but it’s the real deal) was filled with a liquid chocolate.

Ondiyeh (sp?) explained all the desserts to us. (Yes, we had two servers for this meal.)