Europe

We didn’t have to set an alarm today and we were in no real hurry to get going. We got down to breakfast at around 10:00 am.

Breakfast at Claridge’s notionally ends at 10:30 am but, being Claridge’s, you can have breakfast at any time that suits! This is just one of the many reasons we love this hotel. The menu choices for breakfast are extensive but the menu is just a starting point: you can ask for whatever you like and they will make it. But it’s quite a challenge to come up with something for breakfast that’s not already on the menu! In what won’t be a surprise to anyone who reads our daily travel newsletter, we over-ordered in a big way again. But we paced ourselves for over two hours, chatting with the wonderful staff and enjoying an incredible breakfast.

It was about 12:15pm when we finished breakfast so we decided we’d better get ourselves organised and head out to enjoy London. Our first stop was the Churchill War Rooms, an amazing underground complex located under the Treasury building in Whitehall, from which Churchill conducted Cabinet meetings and which acted as the British command centre during WWII. The facility became operational just one week before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. The associated museum dedicated to Winston Churchill was also fascinating and we spent a couple of hours exploring the war rooms and the museum.

By the time we resurfaced, it was about 3:15pm. We walked across the road to St. James’s Park and enjoyed a lovely walk through the park.

We then wandered down to Oxford Street where we did a bit of shopping. We then walked back to the hotel to get organised to go to the theatre to see the Agatha Christie courtroom play, “Witness for the Prosecution”. The play is presented “in the round” in the incredibly beautiful Council Chamber in London’s County Hall and we were really looking forward to seeing it.

At about 6:30 pm we stepped out of the hotel to get a taxi and, as he had done for us the night before, Craig (the wonderful doorman here at Claridge’s), just showed us straight to the hotel’s limousine and asked the driver to look after us. (This really is a top notch hotel!) The drive to the County Hall took about 20 minutes and we got there with enough time to have a snack to supplement what we’d eaten before we left: two bags of chips from the hotel minibar and chocolate-covered Madeleines provided by the hotel. Following the chips and Madeleines with popcorn, Maltesers, and ice-cream probably wasn’t the smartest idea but that was what was on offer at the theatre, so that was what we ate!

We had VIP seats in the theatre which, it turned out, meant that we were seated in the “jury box” seats. Not long after we were seated, we were approached by a “court officer” who “swore us in” and advised us of our “responsibilities” during the “trial”. Is there any concept more terrifying than audience participation? As it turned out, it was quite a bit of fun to be in the jury and play along. We even received applause from the rest of the audience at the end of the play so we have agreed that this now qualifies as our official stage debut! The play was brilliant and we are sworn to secrecy so we cannot reveal what happened. But we would certainly recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

After the play we hailed a taxi and headed back to the hotel, where we are now getting ready to call it a day. Tomorrow we’ll probably just take it easy and see what the day brings.