London trip (November 2012)

London trip (November 2012)

I love going back to London, there is always so much going on.

Katy and I fancied seeing the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain, so decided to treat ourselves and include a visit to the theatre to see War Horse.

We set off on the train, and arrived at the Imperial Hotel around lunch time. The hotel was surprisingly good, and had fabulous views over Russell Square to the Post Office Tower.

Getting to the Tate was a nightmare. Although it was only seven stops on the underground, what with the tube changes and the walking from Pimlico to the gallery, we spent another hour travelling around the city, just to get across London. We had a timed ticket, so as we arrived with time to spare we searched out the Tate’s café. Although it was a Tuesday in November, the café was packed. We had to queue for our food, and then wait for a table. Not impressed.

At three o’clock we were allowed in to see the artworks. As we had paid £12 each for timed tickets, I was looking forward to a leisurely stroll around the paintings, but rather like the café, it was packed! Each painting had around twenty people stood in front of it, so I either had to push my way in, or wait for a gap to appear. After struggling to see anything, or read the accompanying text, I began to get a headache. Now I never get headaches, but I got a real ding dong of a headache here, which got worse, as I got jostled around the milling crowd. Eventually I had to give up and went to sit down in an area of the Tate which is free to enter. Oddly, there was no one in here, even though the art was almost as good! Katy was also feeling tired, so we decided to abandon the Tate, and head to Covent Garden for our theatre treat. I couldn’t face the underground again, so we found one bus that took us back to Oxford Circus, and another bus which got us to Holborn. This turned out to be a smart move, as the first bus went up Regent Street, and we were able to see the splendid Christmas lights.

We arrived in Covent Garden, and found a nice pub with food to while away the time before curtain up. Still suffering with my headache, I went for a salmon tagliatelle and a glass of chardonnay. Unfortunately, my salmon was covered in black pepper with fought with the wine, and made my headache even worse. I had to abandon both and set off in search of a chemist selling anadins!

My headache had just about abated as we settled down to watch War Horse, which was an incredible production. (See separate review).

After the show we walked back to our room at the hotel, and enjoyed the fabulous views of the capital at night.

Breakfast at the hotel was good, and after a leisurely morning, we headed home. Our train to York was running late, so we missed our connection home, and were delayed by an hour. C’est la vie!