Since my last post, I’ve moved to my “home” hotel for this trip, met up with my friend Felicity, and enjoyed a fun day and evening. Ready to read about it? If not, just scroll to the pictures. 🙂

You already know what I’ve been up to thus far on the trip, since I wrote my first post just this morning! Since then though, I migrated from the Roxy Excel to the Hub by Premier Inn London Marylebone, which is shaping to be a perfectly cromulent home away from home for the next six nights. Regular readers will be familiar with these hotels because I’ve stayed at them on several London trips as they continue to be comfortable and reliable. Long may that continue! This is another new-to-me-branch and I’m actually in a ground floor room with no window (just a “simulated one”) this time, which I’ve never done before as I’ve always asked to be put in a room with a window on previous trips (I figure since I’m staying in these hotels for several nights at a time, it’s nice to get a little natural light), but this time, I just checked myself in via the kiosk in the lobby, so didn’t have anyone to ask about getting one. I like a really dark room when I sleep and you can’t get darker then a room with no ambient light, right?? Check out the (windowless) room below!

The predictability of these hotels is nice, isn’t it? This room looks like every other Hub I’ve stayed in!

I actually wasn’t able to get into my room right away as it was only about noon when I arrived from my other hotel, but I knew I could have the hotel staff hold my luggage for a few hours, so I dropped it at the front desk. Although Bill is staying at the Moxy for the rest of his time here (and was enjoying sleeping in late, so didn’t make the journey with me), my other friend Felicity is staying at the Hub with me and she was just about to arrive after I got there. Our original plan was to all travel together, but as she was also flying standby, but from Chicago, her best shot to get to London was actually by connecting via Boston, which she did, with a several-hour layover in the airport there. She soldiered through it like a champ and landed in London around 6:30 AM – oof! While the plus side of that is that she had a whooooole day after arriving (nice to not have to burn a day due to travel), it also meant she had to stay awake that whole time as well. She filled her time with travel from the airport, walking around Regent’s Park, a croissant, and even a manicure, and then managed to sync up with my hotel arrival almost perfectly as I only had to wait about five minutes for her. A proper meal was her first priority, so we headed out to a nearby pub, The Thornbury Castle, to grab lunch. We had a nice meal of a bacon cheeseburger for her and a chicken sandwich for me, enjoying conversation, food, and a pretty quiet pub (it didn’t start getting busier until right before we left). While there was nothing stand-out about the experience, it was certainly fine and I’d go back there again!

One of us arrived a day earlier than expected and got a full night’s sleep and one of us didn’t. Can you guess which is which? 🙂

With conversations had and food eaten, we coordinated with Bill to let him know we were going to do a bit of our traditional shopping at Forbidden Planet (for nerd stuff) and Fopp (for movies). Well, I say “our” tradition, but it’s really mine and they were happy to come along for the ride. 🙂 We had to strike a balance of doing something that would be easy-breezy and not take up too much time, but would also take up ENOUGH time to make sure we wouldn’t get back to the hotel before the 3 PM check-in time. Thankfully, I was successful in both our shopping endeavors as I found a couple things to buy at each place, Bill was successful in meeting up with us, and we were all successful in getting back to the hotel after check-in started. Believe me when I say I felt Felicity’s happiness in being able to shower and get settled after her travel as I felt the same way yesterday! Of course, I had to check in as well, so I took a bit of time to do that, including unpacking properly, which I didn’t do at the Moxy since I was only there for one night. I think I’ve said before, but I really like getting “settled” into hotel rooms – hanging up clothes, putting stuff in drawers, pulling toiletries out, etc. Just makes it feel that much more like “home” for however long I’m there!

With settling done, I hung out with Bill in the hotel bar for a bit while Felicity did her own settling. The bar/lobby area of Hub hotels is always comfortable and chill, so I never mind passing some time there. When Felicity joined us, it was Bill’s turn to be hungry as he hadn’t eaten at the Moxy or anything, so we hatched a plan to head towards the West End so Felicity and I could be close to Wyndham’s Theatre, where we were going to see Born With Teeth, starring (now-former) Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa alongside Edward Bluemel. Would you BELIEVE that we decided to go to Pizza Express?! To my faithful regular readers who know that I end up going there on pretty much every UK trip, I thank you. To everyone else, don’t judge my dining options. 🙂 In this particular case, we knew (or hoped, at least!) that it would be fast and convenient, which we needed as we only had about 45 minutes between when we got there and when we had to head to the theatre. Although it seemed like we might not have enough time at first, our server was excellent and made sure our pizzas were made as soon as we ordered them. They actually came out within a few minutes, resulting in us finishing with more than enough time to walk to the theatre. Thanks, Pizza Express!

Although Bill didn’t join us at the show (when we first starting planning this trip, he actually wasn’t going to arrive until Friday, so was happy for us to buy tickets without him), he did join us for the short walk to the theatre before puttering around the city a bit and then heading back to his hotel. As for the show, it tells the story of the relationship between William Shakespeare and William Marlow, which I (nor Felicity) knew anything about, but it sounded intriguing, plus the fact that it featured a star of Doctor Who as co-lead (there are just two characters), so it felt like a solid bet for us. Happily, that proved to be true as the show was pacy, intriguing, and engaging. It runs just 90 minutes and has no intermission, so the time really flew by! I can’t say I’ve watched many shows with a cast of only two (though I very much enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray here last year, which had a cast of just one!), but both actors in this one were excellent. If you’re in London during it’s run, I’d definitely recommend it!

I’m certain Felicity was beyond ready for bed by the time the show ended, but she indulged my suggestion of “stage-dooring” to see if we could meet and get a photo with Ncuti. The process is in the name – go to the theatre’s stage door after the show ends and see if any of the cast will come out and meet with patrons, sign autographs, take photos, etc. Although neither of us had done this at any other show, we’d heard that Ncuti had been doing it for this show, so we figured it would be worth trying (a US friend saw the show earlier this summer and was able to say hi and get a photo with him, which is what prompted us to try). It was a really smooth process! We only had to wait for about ten minutes before he showed up and then he met with maybe 10-15 people before getting to us, so the whole process took about 20 minutes at most. He was super nice with everyone and happily signed programs and took photos with folks who wanted them. After enjoying him in Doctor Who and in the play, it was really cool to say hi! Not sure if either of us will have another stage door experience at other shows, but at least we know how smoothly it can go!

For my first full day of this trip, it wasn’t TOO full of things to see and do, but it was certainly enjoyable. I’m very glad our little travel trio is together again, especially with the way our plans shifted last-minute. And now I’ve stayed up far too late writing this post (after midnight – eek!), so it’s time to sleep. More to come on this London adventure soon!