If my last post didn’t already alert you that I’m back in the UK, surprise! Yes, it’s time for another trip to my favorite locale, this time with my friend Felicity. We got here early Wednesday morning and are just about to wrap up our second day here (well, third day, since it’s now Friday night), so I’m already feeling behind in my blogging duties. But if time has taught me anything about writing this blog, I’ll get the posts for every trip done…eventually. 🙃

This trip started because of a Doctor Who event in a new-to-me UK city (more on that when the time comes), which prompted me to ask Felicity about joining (she’s usually up for an excuse to come here!). With plans made a few months ago, the day of our flight quickly arrived, with both of us wondering how another standy experience with Delta would treat us. Since there were plenty of seats available, we had no worries about getting on the flight (so, no last-minute flight changes as Bill and I had to do around this time last year), but had to keep our fingers crossed on any potential Delta One upgrades to fancy, lay-flat seats. Although things looked promising up until even earlier this week, we ultimately didn’t get them. That said, we DID get into Premium Select, which is the next best thing and very much appreciated. Although we weren’t seated next to each other, we were only one row apart and had nice seat-mates, pretty good food, and a safe, quiet ride to Heathrow. Can’t say much fairer than that, can you?? As usual (for me, at least), no sleep was had (Felicity didn’t fare much better, but we both rested at least), so we were pretty tired by the time we landed at 6:30 AM London time. Being tired is a small price to pay for international travel though, isn’t it?

Before digging into the London-ness of it all, here’s some of our “getting there” photos.

It’s not a huge space, but was still pretty comfortable.

Plane selfie time, this time with bonus legroom photo. There’s a fair amount of space in Premium Select seats, plus added width and more recline as compared to economy and Comfort+, so it was a comfortable way to spend several hours on a plane.

As I’ve mentioned before, I really enjoy those little Cooper’s Gourmet biscuits! The chicken I had for dinner and the quiche I had for breakfast were all pretty tasty (though that dinner roll was a bit on the stale side).

Tired, but well-fed, we landed at Heathrow before 7 AM, earlier than our scheduled landing, but about 20 minutes later than we otherwise would have because we had to circle the air due to so many arriving flights. After quickly deplaning (nice to be near the front, plus on a flight with lots of empty seats, so exiting wasn’t TOO much of a cattle call), I was a bit worried that passport control would be hugely busy (especially when we saw folks from multiple other recently-arrived flights walking that way with us), but it was all for nothing because we had to wait for MAYBE two minutes before passing through the e-gates. Efficient as always, Heathrow! Unusually this time, we had to go to baggage claim as I had to check my carry-on bag because I was bringing some full-size liquids for a friend of mine. As I’ve previously said, I would never normally check a bag when flying on standby in case I don’t end up on the flight, but since there were ~150 seats available, I felt it was a pretty safe bet. And continuing its efficiency, Heathrow delivered my bag within a minute of us arriving, so it didn’t even add any time to our journey. Love when everything goes to plan!

Remember how we landed before 7 AM?? Well, that made getting into our hotel a bit difficult, even after factoring in the transit time from Heathrow into London via the Elizabeth line, directly to Farringdon, which is about a ten-minute walk from our first hotel, the Hub by Premier Inn London Farringdon (Old Bailey). That’s a mouthful of a name, isn’t it?? As regular readers know, both she and I have stayed at other Hub hotels and have always been happy with them, so we picked a new branch to stay in for our first couple of days. Felicity even planned ahead and booked early check-in for a small fee, but I figured I’d either soldier through it or try to just get early check-in on arrival. In any event, Felicity couldn’t even get into her room because early check-in starts at 11 AM and we arrived before 9!! As always though, the staff very helpfully stowed our bags away, giving us the freedom to do some wandering, which was pretty necessary because we had to stay awake!

Since it wasn’t even 9 AM by the time we left the hotel, we knew there weren’t really any “attractions” (museums, etc) open that early, but we quickly discovered an old church literally around the corner from our hotel (isn’t London great for that sort of thing?), so we decided to stop in and check it out. Holy Sepulchre London, also known as the National Musicians’ Church, is a neat old building and is the home of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Memorial Chapel and dates back to the 11th century. The current building was rebuilt in the mid-1400s, but didn’t get its current designation until just last century, in 1950. Nice to start our trip with a cool slice of history, just steps from our hotel!

Stained glass and a side chapel.

After our impromptu church visit, I thought it would be most useful to just head generally towards a familiar area, so I suggested Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square because a) it’s only about 1.5 miles away (so pretty walkable) and b) I always love seeing that part of London, so may as well continue staying awake by seeing some familiar sights! We also knew we could easily find a cafe to rest our feet upon arrival, which indeed we did. I had zero interest in food yet, but Felicity got a light bite of a croissant and latte, while I got an overpriced hot chocolate.

It was nice to rest our feet after a walk on zero sleep, plus it helped us kill some time before making our next couple of stops at both Fopp and Forbidden Planet, which are also regular stops (mostly for me, but Felicity is always amenable, too). Nothing was purchased, but enough time was burned by the time we finished that we could swing back to the hotel so Felicity could get into her room. No such luck for me sadly, so I stashed my stuff in her room and waited in the lobby while she got to take a glorious shower. It was honestly tough to stay awake while sitting in the quiet hotel bar/restaurant, but I just about managed!

Here’s a few more photos, including a look at my room, which I didn’t get into until after 3p when standard check-in started.

A couple of Trafalgar Square photos in the sunshine!

A couple more photos of the seating area by the bar and the other seating area connected to it.

The room was as reliably comfortable as all my other Hub experiences. Always good value!

With Felicity ready to head back out, we made our way to a couple of new-to-us museums. We hadn’t definitively planned anything for the day, since we knew we’d have a hard time staying awake anyway, but since we DID need to stay awake (and since I didn’t have a room to crash in yet anyway), we made our way to Dr. Johnson’s House, a small museum fairly close to our hotel. It’s the former home of Dr. Samuel Johnson (imagine that!), a poet and playwright (amongst other things) who’s probably best known for A Dictionary of the English Language, which is one of the most influential dictionaries in the English language.

While it is a bit weird to think of a dictionary being “influential” it makes a lot more sense when you realize it dates back to 1755, an era where not many dictionaries or collections of words even existed. Although this wasn’t the FIRST English dictionary by a long shot, it became the most comprehensive, both in terms of its depth and its organization, making the language that much more accessible and understandable. And, kind of amazingly in my opinion, he wrote it totally on his own over seven years, with only limited “clerical assistance” to copy over some illustrative quotations. I’m sure seven years sounds like a long time to work on something, but remember this was the 1750s, when nothing was automated, fast, or easy!

So are either of us dictionary aficionados? Certainly not! But do we both appreciate a random, informative museum? Yes! And given we were there in the middle of the day on a Wednesday, it wasn’t busy, so we had an easy-breezy time exploring it. It’s not very large, but is spread across multiple floors, so we had a nice time taking it all in. Felicity also had a nice conversation with the person working in the shop, who sold us our tickets and immediately surmised this wasn’t our first London visit because this museum would almost never be on a first-timer’s must-visit list. While that’s probably true, don’t let it deter you from visiting, especially as it only costs £‎10 to see it.

Check it out below!

This room houses Dr. Johnson’s desk. As he didn’t have many possessions, it’s pretty cool that this still exists.

Probably unsurprising to learn that there are some dictionaries on display in this museum.

We had a nice time at our first museum, so we decided to head towards another one. Though, to be fair, London Charterhouse isn’t totally a museum, per se. It’s a complex of buildings that began life in the 1300s as a priory, built on top of a Black Plague burial site, and later became a school (which still exists, but has moved outside London) and then an almshouse for senior citizens who meet certain criteria. It’s still in use for that purpose today, with ~40 residents living in individual apartments (though they do eat communal meals).

As we arrived, and before we walked in, a very helpful volunteer named Tony asked if we wanted an overview of the place before walking through it, which we were happy to get! Guided tours are offered, but we didn’t get there at the right time to join one, so Tony’s overview was really informative and gave us a lot of info about the history and use of the buildings. For example, we learned that when part of the land was dug up as part of the prep work for the Elizabeth Line, a collection of skeletons was found and DNA testing showed they were Black Plague victims. And, contrary to accepted beliefs, the bodies weren’t just thrown in a mass grave, but rather seemed to be respectfully buried. Also interesting to learn is the fact that all residents are referred to as “brothers”…including female residents! They aren’t a religious order or anything, but that designation seems to be a holdover from the Charterhouse’s roots as a priory. As another fun fact, the Sunday services in the chapel that we toured are open to the public, so if you’re looking for something unusual to do on a Sunday morning, that might be it!

Anyway, onto the photos of this interesting place.

This peephole gives a preview of a skeleton, which can be seen in full around the corner. This is one of the skeletons found in the Elizabeth line dig.

By the time we finished up this visit, we were tantalizingly close to being able to head back to the hotel so I could get checked into my room. To kill a bit more time on our walk back that way, we stopped for a quick drink and a snack of pork crackling at a small, random pub, which hit the spot and gave us a chance to rest our feet. When we knew we’d for sure hit the magical hour of getting to the hour just after the 3 PM check-in time, we made a move back there.

It was soooo good to get there, drop my stuff, and chill for a bit. We didn’t have evening plans, other than an early night, but shortly after we got there and I got a few of my things unpacked (no point in doing a full unpacking, since it was just a two-night stay), my friend Lisa messaged to say she was nearby and free to meet up if we were interested. After missing her on my last couple of trips, she’s one of the friends I was hoping to catch up with, so we were happy to head towards Covent Garden to meet her. We had an excellent few hours catching up, gossiping, and enjoying some tasty food and drink! I was pleasantly surprised at how late we managed to make it there (nearly 8 PM!), but I think we were both beyond ready for sleep (I know I was!).

Of course, I’ve got a final few photos to share, though I sadly didn’t get a photo with Lisa!

An easy bus ride got us back to our hotel, where I very quickly realized I was NOT going to get any blogging done that night (hence why this post is finally getting finished on Friday, rather than on Wednesday). I was lights-out for the evening just after 9 PM, fell asleep quickly, and stayed mostly asleep and in bed until nearly 8:30 AM. Huzzah! We had a great day out on Thursday, featuring another friend and a familiar activity (but in a new location), so come back soon to read all about it!