8th November: Two wins today. A pair of tickets to see Bonnie Raitt in Liverpool, courtesy of Jazz FM.
Secondly and even better I received an e-mail from Stylist Magazine to say I'd won a weekend in London to visit the Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition at Tate Britain. The weekend included bed and breakfast at the Charing Cross Hotel and a guided tour of the exhibition.
Pre-Raphaelite weekend
The morning of Saturday 15th December involved an early start enabling us to
catch the train to Euston via Preston. Luckily we had no delays and arrived in
London late morning. We went straight to
our hotel where our room was ready for us.
We were booked into an Executive Double room at the Charing
Cross Hotel. The hotel was quite
impressive and the room was very modern and tastefully decorated. Unfortunately the view from the room was of
the building across, but you can’t have everything.
We freshened up and set off on our planned walk. We started our afternoon with a quick Italian
meal near the hotel.
We walked along the area which runs parallel to the Strand an area which used to be the bank of the Thames before the embankment was built. The walk then took in areas such as Covent Garden and Seven Dials, it was very busy but being Christmas it was also very atmospheric. The area was seasonally decorated with a very large topiary Rudolph, a large Christmas tree made out of Jack Daniels barrels, a large advent calendar made out of Lego and giant baubles hanging from the roof.
We completed our walk at Trafalgar Square and were surprised
to be confronted with a mass rally of Santa Claus’s. The Santas were a little rowdy but on the
whole well behaved, but I expect there were a lot of Santas with sore heads the
following morning.
We then returned to the hotel for a quick nap and to get ready
for our evening out.
Our evening was spent at the Cuban bar and restaurant
Floridita on Wardour Street. We had
booked the Weekend Mojito menu, which basically meant a three course meal and a
glass of Mojito. Very unusually both my
wife and I ordered the same things for all three courses. First course was red snapper and salmon
croquettes which was very nice but could have been warmer. This was followed by a pleasant chicken dish
and bourbon cheesecake which was really nice.
The meal was accompanied by an energetic Cuban band which added to the
lively atmosphere.
We had a pleasant stroll back to the hotel and by the time
we reached it were ready for bed.
The next day started with a very pleasant breakfast in the
hotel’s bistro restaurant, which must have one of the best views in London with
its outlook encompassing Nelsons column and the National Gallery building.
We walk down Pall Mall, Whitehall and Milbank and arrived at
Tate Britain in time for our appointment.
Unfortunately the lady who was to give us our tour of the
Pre-Raphaelites exhibition did not arrive.
We carried on regardless and toured the exhibition ourselves. Whilst appreciating many of the artists were
technically very talented most of the works were a bit uninspiring. There were however a few standout pictures. I
particularly liked the one showing the holy family in the carpentry workshop.
After quick refreshment in the gallery café we set-off to
catch the tube to Goodge Street to start our next walk. This walk took in some areas of London which I
was not familiar with before taking in areas such as Soho, Carnaby Street and
Chinatown.
We completed the afternoon with an agreeable Italian meal at
the Spaghetti House. When we came out it
was raining heavily, which meant sheltering in doorways a number of times on
our way back to the hotel.
After picking up our cases from the hotel we caught the
train home, ready for work the following day (yeh right).
