London

Aug 5th - Aug 9th 2026

Wednesday August 5th 2026

Home to London

Got up and sat outside to open my presents. Very windy but dry with some sunny spells. Lots of lovely presents! 

Did some packing and left for London around 10:50. Drive down was pretty easy. Came the M25 and M11 way. Decided to drop Nikki off out the front of the hotel so also dropped off the case and suit carrier containing shirts with the porter. I went and parked the car and then came back and off we went to reception. 

Amazingly our room was ready. I was expecting to check in and then go for lunch before getting the room key. We were in 708 and within minutes our case arrived. Did some unpacking and then went to Browns for our 13:30 reservation. Sat outside despite it being quite windy. I’d been looking forward to this. Very nice meal but the service was, as usual, very slow!! 

Went back up to the room and had a doze for a while. It was freezing. Worked out that the AC was on full blast regardless of the setting. Left around 17:45 for our theatre trip. Went over to the Elizabeth Line and everything was at a standstill. Stood there for a good 20 minutes before the stationary packed train moved off. Broken down train at Paddington apparently. Managed to get on the next train and limped our way to Tottenham Court Road with lots of tunnel stops on the way. 

Walked down Charing Cross Road and found the London Coliseum. Very helpful staff to meet us and take us to the wheelchair space. We were in K56 & 57 in the Dress Circle. I went and got us some drinks. We had an entire row to ourselves. Excellent show. Lots of mind-boggling magic. Had an excellent ice cream in the interval. 

At the end we walked back up towards the station and stopped off at a Pret A Manger where we shared an egg sandwich and some mini-roast potatoes. Trip back to the hotel was very swift and we were in bed by 23:00. 

Thursday August 6th 2026

London

Good night’s sleep. Woke up just after 06:00 and had some coffee. Went for breakfast around 07:15. Superb breakfast. Had fruit and then Nikki had a poached egg and I had fried eggs with lovely potato croquettes. Back up to the room for showers etc and then headed for the Thames Clipper. 

The lift down to the dockside was buggered but a helpful woman came over and told us about another one. Bit of a faff but we found our way. Caught the boat around 10:00 and went down to Battersea. Great boat. We were at the back in a wheelchair space which had USB chargers. Very empty and a nice journey up the river. 

Got off at Battersea and had an explore. Very impressive area. Got checked in The Chimney Lift. All very new and spangly. Did our ascent. Fabulous capsule and amazing when it comes out of the top of the chimney. Views were incredible. Only downside was we weren’t up there for long. Maybe 15 minutes at most and the staff member kept saying “2 minutes left”. 

After that we went for a coffee and a cake while watching planes on the Heathrow flight path. Got the boat back down. Very busy and not as nice a boat as the way up. Stopped at Pret A Manger for some lunch and brought it back to the Club Lounge. I’d told reception about the freezing ac before we went out and they’d fixed it! 

Nice afternoon napping on the bed and watching some TV. Most enjoyable. Went over to the Elizabeth Line around 18:00 and went to Farringdon to meet Matthew. Nipped to Boots first and then headed to Camino. It’s a Spanish tapas place. Matthew arrived and we had an excellent meal while talking about travel. Caught the Lizzie back and hit the hay. 

Friday August 7th 2026

London

Another good night’s sleep with an early breakfast. Plan had been to head down to Borough Market after a relaxed morning. Things changed when Nikki replied to an email from her nurse about booking an appointment. Turns out we’d need to go to The Shard over the next few weeks so we said, well we’re heading there now! So they said well come in now then! Saves us a trip back into London so why not! 

Walked over to the boat but we were told wheelchairs weren’t allowed on the ramp at London Bridge pier because it was so steep - so we got an Uber. Went to the appointment and then walked over to Borough Market afterwards. 

Had a good explore. Very busy. We’d planned to meet Stuart for lunch at Midday outside his work but we happened upon Maria’s where we’d planned to go for lunch and, as it was so busy, I messaged him to say we’d nab a table and to meet us there. Good decision. 

He joined us and I had veggie sausage, egg and chips. Nikki had a panini and Stuart had ham, egg and chips. Very nice. After lunch Stuart went back to work for a bit and we went up The Shard. It was so good. 

First we went to the 68th floor where there’s a bar and amazing views. The weather helped! Had a drink and some ice cream and watched London through the windows. After that we went up to 72 where it’s more outside. Watched planes joining the queue to land at Heathrow. Great views of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Could see Wembley Stadium in the distance and out towards the Thames Barrier. Came down around 14:30 and met Stuart outside his work. 

Original plan had been to get the boat up to Canary Wharf but after being told about the steep pier earlier we went down on the Jubilee Line - very hot!! Had some downtime and then met Matthew and Stuart in the Club Lounge for 16:30. Lots of drinks and nibbles. This was going to be our tea so lots of cheese was involved. 

Around 18:30 we went over to the Lizzie and caught the train to Tottenham Court Road. Nice walk down to The Strand through the back streets. Very helpful staff at the theatre and they got us sorted. Nikki transferred out to her seat and they took the chair away to store it. This was The Comedy About Spies by the people who did The Play That Went Wrong. Sadly it was more of a farce. Nikki enjoyed it but I was a bit disappointed. 

At half-time me and Stuart decided to leg it so we left Matthew and Nikki for the second half. We went up to McDonalds for a Cornetto McFlurry and a mooch along The Strand. After the show we walked down to the Thames Clipper and made our return boat trip up to Canary Wharf. Had a drink in the lounge before going to bed just before Midnight. 

Saturday August 8th 2026

London

Woke up very early - obviously too excited about breakfast! Had a lie in bed before I was seized with a mad idea - Starbucks! Sadly none were open so I resorted to Deliveroo and within 30 mins I was enjoying a latte while Nikki had a hazelnut cappuccino! Nice start to the day. 

Met Stuart and Matthew at 08:45 for breakfast. It is one of the best hotel breakfasts without doubt. After that we retired to the Club Lounge for a relaxing morning discussing holiday plans. I hunted for flights from Madrid to San Juan using Avios and found a surprisingly good deal thanks to Matthew’s help. 

Around 11:30 we made our way over to the Lizzie and caught it down to Tottenham Court Road. I fancied a general wander before thinking about lunch. We walked down to Chinatown where we bumped in to one of Stuart’s colleagues. After that we went down to Leicester Square before walking to Covent Garden where we bumped in to someone we’d all worked with but hadn’t seen for years!! First time I’ve seen Covent Garden so that’s another one ticked off my list. 

Ended up in Bella Italia on The Strand. I’d had a voucher for my birthday so we put that to good use. We were down in the basement but luckily they had both air conditioning and a disabled lift. Service was a bit rubbish but I enjoyed the food. We then planned to go back to the Marriott via the Thames Clipper but when we got there, there was a good hour wait because all the boats were arriving full. Sod that - we got a taxi. 

Enjoyed a few air-conditioned hours of relaxing in the room before getting ready for Charlotte’s 40th party in Brentwood. We left the hotel at 18:30 and drove out of London on the A13 before joining the M25. Took about 40 minutes and parked behind the venue. Excellent time catching up people we hadn’t seen for many a long year! We left after about an hour and went to the Toby Carvery for a late dinner. Most enjoyable. 

Drove back and we were in the Club Lounge just before 22:00. Utterly exhausted!

Sunday August 9th 2026

London to Home

Dreadful night’s sleep - too much Pepsi Max obviously! Eventually surfaced just after 07:00. Met the chaps for breakfast at 08:45. Had the big round table by the window. The waiter turned up with a plate of doughnuts the minute he saw Stuart. 

After a good grazing session we went to the Club Lounge before heading to Stuart’s room to look at a video about our upcoming cruise in the Med. Decided to call it a day just after 13:00 and drove back home. Stopped in Aylesbury for a Subway and consumed that when we got home around 15:30 before dozing on the sofa. Most enjoyable weekend.