Well here we are on Saturday evening! After arriving in London on Wednesday afternoon, I’ve had a lovely first few days, with shows, sites, and time with friends. Thanks to Thursday being spent quite leisurely with friends, there’s not much “news” to report, so you get a combo post – Thursday and Friday as a 2-4-1 special! Lucky readers. 🙂

So, Thursday. What a nice day of catching up with not one, not two, but THREE different friends, which was delightful. Because I figured we would have more of a low-key day, I decided to start the morning with a walk, though because this hotel is in a new-to-me neighborhood, I wasn’t sure quite sure where I would go. I figured I would pick a destination I was familiar with and walk towards it, so I picked Trafalgar Square. Because, why not? It’s a fave of mine, after all! And it was about the right distance away for me to reach in my allotted “walking time” so it worked out well. And the weather behaved fairly well in that it wasn’t raining and it was somewhat sunny, but it was definitely BREEZY. Although I’ve never been to the UK at this time I’ve year, I’ve visited in colder times, so I came prepared with a few different jacket options. If I had looked more closely at the “real feel” temperature before my walk, I would have chosen a heavier coat. Oh well!

A couple of shots of my destination – Trafalgar Square. Now THIS is a square I’ve been to many times before.

By the time I got back to the hotel, it was time to shower and meet up with Matt, after he enjoyed breakfast (I didn’t opt for breakfast here this time, though I’ve had my share of breakfasts at these hotels and they’re always pretty good). While I walked, he was coordinating with a couple of our friends on times and places to meet, though the weather unfortunately starting getting greyer and a bit rainy. Although schedules didn’t align for us to see our friends all together, it actually worked out perfectly fine as we literally saw them one after another, so we got a whole afternoon of catching up, right up to the evening. 🙂

Our first stop was the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel (quite the long name!), which was easily reached via Overground to King’s Cross (which worked out nicely, as we were able to use the station right around the corner from the hotel rather than make the walk to Aldgate East). I haven’t actually used King’s Cross or St. Pancras stations a ton (though Scott and I used it to get to Cambridge in 2017 and Ruth Ann and I used St. Pancras when we went to Paris in 2007 and Brussels, which I think was in 2009ish), but I’m going to need it for a new-to-me destination on my current trip, so it was handy to know how to best get there. Although they are their own stations, King’s Cross and St. Pancras are part of a pretty large complex, with both stations serving as large rail hubs to lots of destinations, both inside and outside of the UK. St. Pancras is the home of the Eurostar, which provides rail service directly to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. If you’ve never considered it before, definitely do so the next time you’re in the UK. While I’d never advocate for not giving a UK visit the time it deserves, it is really nice to be able to hop a train to other European cities, potentially just for the day (Ruth Ann and I did both Paris and Brussels as day trips, though be aware those make for LONG days if you’re going there/back in the same day). On this trip though, I was happy for St. Pancras to be the location of a nice catch-up with Louise, who Matt has been great friends with for years and who’s become a friend of mine over the years, too! I hadn’t seen her in person since just before the pandemic, so that made this meet-up all the more special! Catch-ups like this always serve as good reminders of the value of friendships and taking the time to just understand how we’re doing and what’s going on in our lives. ❤ And to get to do it in a setting as nice as the St. Pancras Hotel was a bonus! We just had some nibbles and beverages (not the adult variety!), but it looked like a good place for a future tasty meal. I’ve added it to the list! And you can see what you think of the hotel bar in the photos below.

While Lou had a train to catch, Matt and I were on to our next destination with the next friend of the day, Sophie! As I’ve likely mentioned before, we original met in 2005 through my friend Ruth Ann and we’ve been friends ever since! I spent many UK trips either staying with Sophie and her family in Lewisham or at her mom’s house in Blackheath, so I always appreciate time with her. I’ve been lucky enough to see her a couple of times since the pandemic let us travel again, but I’ll always welcome another opportunity to spend time with her.

Matt and I just walked back to King’s Cross, where Sophie met us (walking from Euston, another nearby, larger station) and we started our catch-up in a coffee shop there. Between her work and all the fun things happening with her husband and two (grown) boys, we never run short on topics! We did figure we should move on from station at some point though, so we walked to the nearby Coal Drops Yard, a recently-redeveloped shopping complex, and chose Casa Pastor as our next catch-up spot. I love a Mexican restaurant and, while this one looked neat, I can’t say I was overly impressed with the tacos I had as the sirloin in them was REALLY tough. They were tasty aside from that, but I almost couldn’t cut the meat! But the company more than made up for that. 🙂 As always though, the time passed by quickly, so we said our goodbyes to Sophie and made our way to meet up with our third friend of the day. So many friends, so little time!

Last but not least in the parade of friends was Steve, who I’ve known since 2000. Doesn’t that feel like a lifetime ago?! He was a bit of a surprise meet-up though as he was in the city for an appointment anyway (he lives in Brighton, near Matt) and said he’d be happy to meet up if it worked with our evening plans, which it thankfully did. As we were both coming from different parts of the city, we met up at Piccadilly Circus and found a bar at Americana London (NOT chosen by me, the resident American, I’ll point out!). We thought it was just a restaurant at first, but it turned out they had a “hidden” bar at the back that the host led us to when we arrived (no secret staircase/door or anything – just not visible from the front of the restaurant). We were more pressed for time by this point (more on why shortly), so we just had time for one drink (the adult variety, this time) before saying our goodbyes. Although Steve was at the little Doctor Who convention in Wales I went to last September, I didn’t get to see him much, so I’m glad we got to catch up more on this trip! Spoiler alert though – this may not be the last time I see him on this trip. 😀

We missed getting a selfie with Steve, but both Matt and I were excited to head to our evening plans after seeing him, which were thankfully just down the street (so we didn’t have far to walk in the still VERY breezy weather). Our destination was the Theatre Royal Haymarket to see The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring Sarah Snook of Succession fame. Both Lou (who has tickets for it, but hasn’t seen it yet) and Sophie (who hasn’t been able to get tickets!) were very excited to learn we were going to this play and I had heard plenty of positive buzz about it and I have to say that it delivered. I’m no Dorian Gray expert and have never seen any version of the play or film previously (though I knew the bigger plot beats), but this was SUCH a good play! Ms. Snook is the ONLY cast member and she plays EVERY role, in a mixture of live and pre-recorded performances, shown on a variety of screens on the stage. It was such a unique way to tell a story – the screens, the choreography (not the dancing kind, but the movements are VERY precise), the multiple roles, the self-recording (yes, in addition to playing every character, Ms. Snook had to literally record herself for display on the screens at multiple points in the show), and more all add up to a unique, memorable performance. Although the show is only running for another six weeks or so, go see it if you can!

Outside the theatre.

And that was just Thursday! Although we didn’t “do” a lot, seeing multiple friends was a lot of fun and reminds me what a big part of my travels my friends play. So glad I was able to get so much time with them and even more glad to have seen such a fabulous play to cap that all off.

And now, it’s time for Friday. 🙂

Can you believe Friday began with seeing ANOTHER three friends?! Okay, I’m cheating a little bit on that one as I’m including Matt as the third friend this time (he was the fourth one on Thursday!), but it was another lovely way to spend part of a day. This time around, it was friends David and Darren, who we met for brunch at a cute place near London Bridge, Café Piazza (which was near enough to our hotel that we were able to walk there). I last saw them on my first big post-pandemic trip in 2022, when I watched my first Eurovision final at their flat (not sure how I’d never done that before then). We had fun gabbing about Doctor Who (we’re all fans) and a variety of other topics and also enjoyed some tasty food (my avocado toast was very nice!). The restaurant is in the Hays Galleria, which I’d never been to before, so it was fun to visit somewhere fresh. It was pretty reasonably priced as well, so between that and the quality of the food, I think it’s worth adding to your list if you’re in the London Bridge area.

With this being Easter weekend, we said goodbye to David and Darren so they could head off to see family, while we made our way to Canary Wharf and the Museum of London Docklands, which is a new-to-me museum, though Scott and I did visit its old location (also with Matt!) way back in 2013 (our first international trip together!). While the focus of the museum is on the Docklands (the riverfront and former docks for the city of London, where endless amounts of goods came in), the museum is also currently home to Fashion City, an exhibition about the important role Jewish Londoners played in the global fashion/style scene. While neither of those things are of particular interest to me, I’m almost always down for a good museum, especially with friends. Speaking of which…

Enter another friend! My friend Lisa, who I’ve recently gotten to see at Doctor Who conventions in both November and January, was able to join us for the afternoon. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten to see so many UK friends on the same trip without going to a convention before! I told them all how I appreciate the fact that they come together to hang out when I’m visiting. 🙂 We did have a nice time exploring the museum together, which is free, though Fashion City has an entrance fee of £15. It’s full of interesting stuff, even for someone who doesn’t care much about fashion. As for the rest of the museum, I’m always happy to learn more about my favorite city, so it was neat to gain some knowledge about the Docklands. And there’s other content to see as well – it’s a surprisingly big museum! There were multiple times where I rounded a corner expecting to see the end of the exhibits, but there was always another room, display, etc. to see. It’s also a very kid-friendly museum (maybe even more this particular weekend, since it’s Easter), so expect to see plenty of kiddos running around!

And now, for something completely different! Photos. 🙂 A few of these were happily shared by Lisa, who just happens to be a photographer (amongst other talents). Check out her site here!

Heading into the museum and thence to Fashion City.

A couple of pieces of equipment used in the Docklands, including a meat trolley (left) and a sugar cart (right).

The museum also has some World War 2 displays, so I snapped a couple photos from that section, too. The thing on the left is a consol shelter, which would have been used by outdoor workers during air raids.

Really glad we were able to visit this one! Even if fashion isn’t your thing, it’s still a well-done museum that provides good information about some important London history, so it’s worth it. And if you can visit it with a couple of good friends, all the better! And as an added bonus for me, I’m almost certain this was my first time visiting Canary Wharf and I’m always happy to see and experience new parts of my favorite city. 🙂

Knowing Matt and I were seeing another West End show in the evening (more on that shortly), Lisa was happy to accompany us there for a pre-show drink. As an actor of both stage and screen, not to mention a regular theatre-goer, Lisa knew exactly where to take us for a relatively quiet place to get a drink amidst all the hustle-bustle of Leicester Square and the West End. Koha is right in the heart of the action there, but it’s tucked away on a side street that I’m certain I’ve never walked down before, with the added bonus that it faces not one, but TWO theatre stage doors, so you just may see some actors milling around before or after their shows. On this particular day, we happened to see Sir Ian McKellen (currently in Player Kings) and Brian Cox (currently in Long Day’s Journey Into Night) chatting ten feet from where we were enjoying our drinks, so that worked out well! On top of that, Lisa saw multiple actor friends of hers who were there working on shows, so we had a revolving cast of actors stopping by our table to chat and catch up. It’s a good thing we sat outside!

Lisa was sitting at the perfect angle to get a couple of photos as we enjoyed an afternoon of conversation.

So that was fun, right?? It was delightful to spend the afternoon with Lisa and I’m so glad we got to meet some of her friends while we were hanging out. And it was also fun to see a couple of celebrities randomly in the street! As Lisa wasn’t joining us for our second West End show, we sad our goodbyes so she could get a train home, while we walked towards the Shaftesbury Theatre to see…Mrs. Doubtfire! Yes, the fun, family-friendly, early-90s comedy has been turned into a West End musical and I was definitely excited to see it (as was Matt!). I was 10 years old when the movie came out and we owned it on VHS, so I watched it…a lot.

As with Back to the Future, I was wondering how the movie would translate to a stage musical in 2024, but it worked really well! All the beats were the same, along with the major plot points and even some of the most famous lines (yes, “Hellloooo, dear!” is included!), but with updates to other dialogue and set pieces to reflect it being set today rather than 30 years ago. The cast all delivered really good performances and most had excellent singing voices, particularly Laura Tebbutt as Miranda and Carla Dixon-Hernandez as Lydia. And Gabriel Vick as Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire did a fabulous job! I can only imagine what a demanding role it is, just based on the costume changes, but to sing and dance on top of that adds another layer of complexity. It was a really fun show! We were in the third row, so had a great view for the most part, but this stage is a bit on the high side, so I don’t recommend sitting any closer than row C (there were a few times when people in front of us quickly stood up to better see what was happening on stage). In fact, you may want to aim to see a few rows back, maybe in E or F. I found myself referencing SeatPlan.com a lot to try and find the best seats, so if you’ve not used it before, definitely do so because you can see reviews of and views from lots of seats at tons of theatres. Super helpful!

Our nice view of the stage, plus a look at the rest of the theatre. Very nice!

Well, I think that’s about enough for one post, isn’t it?? These first couple of days were a great way to start this trip and both shows I saw with Matt were SO good (very different from each other, but both delightful). I’ve now made it to Sunday morning, where I was lucky enough to go through the “spring forward” time change for a SECOND time, since we already did it in the US a few weeks ago. Matt went back to Hove yesterday, though we did get in another fun museum visit before he left (look for that in the next post). Today, I’m off to a new-to-me Hidden London tour, so come back to read all about it soon!