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I could write a book about London, it’s food and what it has to offer. I could keep you here for a pretty legit amount of time talking to you about my love of the city, my desire to see the rest of the country and breaking down every second of my time there. I’ve learned so much and have fallen in love with all of it. We are going to do a few different entries into England over the next few months but to go with our theme of England Classics this week, I’m going to dive a bit into two of the biggest experiences that I had on day 1 of arriving there.
My biggest fear of going to London was that it wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. A year prior, we had gone to Miami, South Beach specifically. Granted, I hadn’t thought about Miami the way I did London but it turned out to be a letdown. Between my thoughts of London, what I had seen on a multitude of movies and tv shows, there was so much I wanted to see. We had planned out a year in advance that we were going to head to England so that build up didn’t help either. When the day finally came, my excitement level was off the charts. It wasn’t until they handed me my boarding pass that said JFK to Heathrow that it really sunk in that we were finally heading to England.
We boarded, we took off and 8 long hours later (even longer for Randy, 6’3″ in a coach seat will lock your back up something awful), we were there. After landing and hearing my first authentic British accent after purchasing a bottle of water, a complete blissful state settled upon me.
A short train and then cab ride, we arrived at our hotel. To make a long story short, it takes quite a bit for us to choose a hotel. We take many things into account. Price, safety, location, extra costs, and décor are just a few. When I say decor, I mean that when I go to another country, I want to feel like I’m in that country. Randy traditionally likes more modern, upscale style. Whereas with this trip especially, I wanted to be surrounded in English style. He even agreed though that traditional was the way to go with this trip. We also wanted something close to attractions we wanted to see. Beings that this was a first time venture for both of us, we knew we’d be hitting a lot of the famous tourist spots such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Hyde Park, just to name a few. After much discussion and research, we landed on The Chesterfield Mayfair in the Mayfair District of London.
I knew we picked the right spot the second we pulled up. The street was quiet, clean, safe and oozing with British charm. With bright red awnings and surrounded by flowers, a doorman named Antonio was awaiting our arrival out at the curb, sporting a top hat and tails. He helped us inside and we started exploring. The Chesterfield was flawless. So many nuances throughout it engulfed us in the quintessential London feel. The lobby was classy and decorated in old school London style.
Off of the lobby was the Terrace Bar. With a country club meets upscale English Home style, it seemed an easy place to settle in and have a cocktail. Classy yet cozy, this was a place that clearly knew it’s drinks. Do you like gin? How about a Gin tasting EXPERIENCE.
A premiere Gin & Tonic tasting? Sure. A whiskey nosing? Ok. Macallan and Chocolate tasting? Hell yes! The hotel has resident mixologists and it truly shows with the level they are on. We settled in here one night for a end of day cocktail and some Sticky Toffee pudding. Both were to die for.
The Chesterfield is also home to a Sweetshop Afternoon Tea, one of the most fun looking ones we saw in research. Complete with jars of candy options and of course, plenty of other sweet treats, it looked perfect for folks of all ages who want to have a little fun along with a traditional English Tea.
The hotel was also home to 94 rooms and most of them are totally different from each other. We were quite happy with ours, albeit a bit small, but welcome to Europe. The style, the cleanliness and the level of comfort was perfect. Again, the Chesterfield were professionals at littering the room with little perks to make the stay better. Closets to store your luggage in that lit up when you opened the doors, towel warmers, a complete china tea set to enjoy a spot of tea in our room. It was everything I could have wanted.
One thing to keep in mind when booking a room is that most of the hotels over there refer to Queen sized beds as Doubles. We struggled to find a hotel that could guarantee that we would actually have a queen instead of a full. As mentioned before, my better half is a bit tall so having that extra bit of room makes a big difference. Thankfully the Chesterfield did have queen sized beds which was extremely helpful. Honestly, I could do without the mirrored headboards, as I don’t need to open my eyes and see this hot mess looking back at me. But other then that, it was perfect. Would I stay here again? A hundred times over. Mayfair was quiet, safe, clean and actually quite upscale, something I didn’t know ahead of time. The Chesterfield Mayfair was all of those things too.
Our first day also involved us wandering through Selfridges, which has some of the most amazing food counters we saw during our stay. We also took in a show on the West End, a must do for a trip to London. To get there, we had to walk down through Piccadilly Circus, which is the Times Square of London. Touristy? You betcha! Anything and everything that you could want a Union Jack or the Queen’s face on is available in a multitude of locations. Street performers, people watching and lots of shops surround you. One major stop along the way to look out for, Fortnum & Mason department store.
A staple in the area, Fortnum & Mason is infamous for it’s hampers, baked goods, jams, jellies and their Afternoon Tea. Their shortbread… my God. There are actually no words. If you can’t get there or get your hands on these, just eat two sticks of butter. It tastes like that but a little better.
London and England as a whole seems very aware that the world has fallen in love with the Great British Bake Off. That was very apparent as beautiful bakes seemed to be every where with loads of choices, all of them stunning and all of them now familiar thanks to the show.
That night, we headed down to another stop that I had been looking forward to from the moment we decided we were going: Harrod’s. If you aren’t familiar, Harrod’s is the leading luxury store Department Store. This isn’t your local Macy’s. This is like Macy’s that hit the Powerball and took over your entire local mall…and then some. Harrods is on a 5 acre land, with 330 departments featuring many luxury items. Not only is it a massive department store, but it has it’s own food halls and 20 options for you to sit down and eat at. Ranging from pizza and tapas to pub food and high end dining, you can literally find something for everyone here.
While we wandered around a bit of the actual department store itself, the food halls were what we came to see and heard so much about. It’s the most high end grocery store you could see.
Ranging from counters just for chocolates and produce, to areas for exotic teas and coffees, we were intoxicated by everything Harrod’s had to offer.
Baked goods surrounded us too. Randy picked up a Ruby Chocolate Croissant for breakfast the next morning and I drooled over the choices of scones and high end desserts. Gourmet sandwiches and cheeses were also available, making our stomachs growl with the overwhelming choices.
We decided though to take a load off and enjoy dinner at one of their sit down restaurants. Although it was dinner time, the Tea Room had a nice option of choices and the room was gorgeous. With some many choices for food types, this one seemed like a wonderful English choice.
Were we right! Randy opted for a traditional Shepard’s Pie and I enjoyed the Roasted Chicken.
I know what you are thinking…Karen of all the things you could have eaten, you got plain old roasted chicken? Yeah I did. Cause this wasn’t plain old roasted chicken, this was Harrod’s Roasted Chicken. And you know what? I still think about it.
And that little pot of potatoes in front of it? I could move into those, stay warm during the winter and sleep comfortably in the layers of potatoes and butter that existed in that pot. The entire meal was rustic, wholesome, high-end goodness.
At this point, we had been awake for well over 30 hours and now with full stomachs, we grabbed a cabby and headed back to the Chesterfield. When we got settled in the cab, I turned around and saw Harrods, lit up like a Christmas tree.
Tears filled my eyes as it hit me finally that we were actually really in London. It wasn’t another photo I saw online, it was really in front of me. Throughout the whole day, I took in as much as I could, grasping to really lock in that I was really there. Happy tears would flow several more times during that trip like seeing Big Ben for the first time and walking out of Westminster Abbey. My first 12 hours in London were more then I could have wished for. It was classic, and I wanted so much more.