London Calling

I arrived in London yesterday afternoon for a very quick 2 day stay before heading to Dublin, accompanying a girlfriend on her business trip. It's been about a year since I was last here and we've lucked into some fabulous weekend weather. Of course, I packed for a typical cold London fall so now I'm overheating in the warm temperatures!

We checked in to my regular London hotel, the Hyatt Regency Churchill, which is well-located near Marble Arch for walking around, shopping and lots of public transport options. So after a short stop to freshen up, we walked down the extremely crowded Oxford Street - what recession?! There was still plenty of conspicuous consumption to behold and a line to be served at Chanel and Louis Vuitton in Selfridges!

We headed to Liberty to have tea in their Tea Room again - I had been obsessing over the Burleigh Black Willow tea set that I refrained from buying last year. After multiple eBay searches, I figured out it was very hard to get in the US, so I came back and purchased a tea pot and one tea cup this time. Yes I forgot to take my own photos! Anyway, the tea service was quite nice - 4 finger sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, ham and egg salad) on the bottom tier, 2 plain scones (served with the requisite clotted cream and strawberry jam) on the middle tier, plus a chocolate cupcake, carrot cake and fruit bread on the top tier. Alas, the cupcake was far inferior to Kara's and Sprinkles :( They also have an impressive tea selection - multiple pages on the menu. Of course, I stuck to the ever boring Earl Grey.

After stopping at many other shops (Jigsaw, Monsoon, Accessorize, Next to name a few of the familiar high street names) we called it a day and had a late dinner here in the hotel restaurant, The Montagu.