This was my third visit to London. I first visited London with my parents and sister as a 14-year-old as part of an SOTC package tour to Europe. The second visit was about 7-8 years to attend a Development conference organised as part of a UN body. This third one was a five-day vacation with Bhavana and four-year-old Abhishek.We took the day flights of Jet Airways both ways. It was literally quite refreshing to not be flying out of India in the middle of the night! As soon as we landed in Landon, the Tube strike started. It made travel within London that much more difficult.
We stayed at the Citadines South Kensington. Because of our food restrictions (Jain food), we like to do some bit of cooking (breakfast atleast). Citadines has service apartments. It is nicely located, a 3-minute walk from Gloucester Road Tube station. The rooms were a wee bit small. There was an internal staircase connecting the lower level living room and kitchen to the bedroom on the upper level. Abhishek loved going up and down.
We spent most of the days going around London, except for the one day we went to Bath We met with some of my friends (and their families) for dinner. The Sunday we spent with one of my closest friends (we have known each other for 30 years) walking around London and catching up on old times.
Overall, it was a very nice vacation – perhaps a little short! But then that is always the case with vacations.
Tomorrow: Shopping
