Ladies London Trip

The first week of November, I went on a ladies' trip to London with some of my friends here in Zurich.  The ladies here try to do some kind of getaway weekend with friends once a year and I think it is a fantastic idea, especially when you live in Europe and places like London, Paris, and Rome are a short plane ride away.  This year they decided to go to London and I was lucky enough to be invited along.  I was so excited that they had picked to go to London because it is one of my favorite cities and I wanted to go one more time before we left.

The eight of us flew to London Thursday night and stayed up late chatting in our beautiful four-bedroom apartment we had rented.  The next morning, everyone popped out of bed early, got ready, and headed out the door to Oxford Street to go shopping.  London is an excellent place to go shopping in Europe because they have a huge variety of stores and even though the British pound is stronger than the Swiss franc, things are priced cheaper, so you still get a deal.  We first stopped at the Riding House Cafe near Oxford Street for a great breakfast. (A quick side note, these pictures were taken from a bunch of different people on the trip)

My friend, Meike, showing off her great breakfast

I ordered eggs benedict and the hollandaise sauce was to die for

The whole group at breakfast

Some of us at the cool counter

We then spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon shopping.  After some successful buys, we headed back to our apartment to drop off our purchases and get ready to go to tea and a show.  I took some pictures of our adorable street and building where our apartment was. (Thanks to Julie for finding such a great place!)

Our cute street in the Marylebone neighborhood

The building where we stayed

Some of the ladies in front of our building

We left our apartment and went to the Haymarket Hotel near Trafalgar Square for our tea time.  We sat at a great oval table where we were served things like fresh mint tea, tiny cucumber sandwiches, fresh scones, and delicious sweet and savory desserts.  The hotel had a great ambiance and wasn't too loud, so we were able to enjoy great conversation over our wonderful treats.  Going to tea was a perfect girls' trip activity and it was my favorite part of the weekend! (Thanks to Tanya for booking it!)  We stayed for two hours before we headed over to the Savoy Theater to see the musical, Legally Blonde.

Our spread complete with pretty china

Enjoying the great British tradition of tea time

A group picture of us all dressed up at the Haymarket Hotel

Heading into the theater to see our show

Thanks to Megan, who booked our tickets for the show, we had fantastic seats at a great price.  The musical was fun, with a better second than first half, and was a good choice for our trip.  After the show, we took the very busy Tube back to the apartment.  The next day, Saturday, we did some more shopping in the morning.  No trip to London is complete without a stop at Harrod's, so we headed over there first thing.  We spent the most time in the Christmas section, which was already on display, buying up some Christmas things. We all were hungry after that, so we tried to go to a place I had suggested, but found it was completely full.  Luckily, just around the corner was a great Thai place that ended up being a good, if not better, alternative to our original choice!

Us outside of busy Harrod's

We took the subway over to Covent Garden after that to go to some others stores.  We only spent a short time there because we had to rush over to our next great activity of the trip.  We had decided to "go to a show" that was actually more like a treasure hunt.  We met a man at the Tate Modern who said he needed our help locating where a group of thieves had hidden some money.  We used clues to get to the next location where someone had the next clue for us.  Sometimes the clues were hard, but sometimes we figured it out right away, so it was all fun in the end.  It was different than what you would normally do on a trip, but it ended up being a great time since we had the right group of people.

Figuring out one of the clues!

This was me most of the trip, the trusty (or as my mom would say, bossy) navigator

After running all over the South Bank, we were ready for dinner.  We made our way back over to Covent Garden for a great tapas-style meal at Kopapa, which was voted Best New Restaurant by Time Out Magazine.  Our favorites dishes were the sea scallops, the pork belly, and the plantains, among others.  As tapas dishes are usually small, we had to order many for all the people we had, but we still felt like the place was reasonably priced.  I think we are all used to the sticker shock of food costs in Zurich, so everything in London just seemed so cheap.  I'm sure my perspective will change, though, after I move back to the land of cheap and plenty in a few months.

A great picture by Michelle at the restaurant

The wonderfully-decorated street our restaurant was on

We stopped for ice cream in Covent Garden and then went back to the apartment to get ready to go dancing!  We all went to an 80s club and it was so much fun.  I love dancing and thankfully, so do my friends.  We woke up a bit later on Sunday morning after our fun night out, but we still made it to our Sunday brunch reservation, even with my mix up of the London bus system.  Again, we had another great meal because the English know how to do breakfast right.

Our group at Sunday brunch at The Modern Pantry

After brunch, the group split up where some went to do more shopping, and some went to the British Museum.  I went with the group to the British Museum and we took the quick ninety-minute tour of the highlights there.  

Being silly at the British Museum

We sadly had to go back to the apartment to grab our suitcases and take our shuttle to the airport to head home.  It was a fantastic trip.  Oh London, how I love you.  I loved how we did such a variety of fun things, especially things that you don't do when it's just you and your husband traveling.  Everyone was very accommodating and flexible so that we didn't have any major problems and mishaps the whole trip.  They even let me be my bossy self and navigate for the group most of the time.  It was so so fun and I'm going to start saving my pennies now to join them next year wherever they go. :)