New Years 2020 in London Finally slowing down w/ good food, wonderful pubs, &visiting great friends!

We arrived early (and I mean early) the morning of December 27th into Gatwick airport. Our wonderful friend, Amanda, was gracious enough to let us use her flat while she was away visiting family in the US. After landing, we waited several hours to head to her place because a neighbor had the key and we didn’t want to wake her up at 5am! So, we sipped some coffee for a few hours and caught up on emails after our 11hr flight from Buenos Aires. BTW, we flew on Norwegian Air, generally know as a budget long haul carrier, but it was anything but budget. Nice seats, pretty decent food, good entertainment, and great service. We settled into our friend’s flat quickly, picked up some groceries, and caught up on sleep. This was going to be our longest stay in one place since May 2019! Eight glorious days to unpack, do laundry, visit friends, and catch up on life.  Thank you Amanda!!!

In addition to letting us stay in her flat, she was nice enough to accept a bag that another friend Karyn shipped us from San Francisco. We had prepacked the bag before we left SF in September. It had our cold weather gear, since we’d be landing in Europe during the middle of Winter, while we had traveled primarily with warmer weather clothing for our trip through the Southern Hemisphere. 

Thanks again to our friends Amanda and Karyn!!! Speaking of cold weather gear, the thing that hit us straight away was the cold and, worse, the very short days. If you remember our post on Ushuaia, the sun only went below the horizon for a few hours so we had 20 hours of sunlight, and even though it was cold we had nice, long days. Not true in the UK where the sun came up at 8 and set at 3:30. It immediately had an effect on us….we slept more and were not going outside that much.

As many of you know, Jos and I can drink and party with the best of them, but not so on this New Year’s Eve. We were both still exhausted from our travels, so we correctly chose to take it easy. We ate at a great pizza place, Theos, then went back to Amanda’s where Jos fell asleep and had to be woken up at midnight. We are wild and crazy party animals!!!! Per Jos, she was already tired thinking about 2020. ;-)

One of the main reasons we chose London to ring in the new year and catch up on life was that Jos has so many great friends in and around the City. I got to meet so many wonderful people, and catch up with Amanda and others I had met in the past. Thanks to everyone for your hospitality, for hanging out, and toasting with good beer and spirits.

After our stay at Amanda’s, we moved over to Paul and Bethany’s place in Highbury, not far from the Arsenal stadium. It was our first experience staying in a ‘smart’ home and that was a funny learning experience. Well, now we know that Jim likes controlling lights, etc with verbal commands and Jos does not. 😄 Thank you both so much for letting us stay at your apartment!!

We had quite a few nights out with friends.  We met Bohdan and Harriet, Kosta and Amy in Soho for great Korean food. We also met up again with Bohdan and Harriet in Highbury, drinking many pints and sharing some wonderful & funny travel stories.

One night we went out to a very old pub in London: The Palm Tree, in Bow. We met up with Leon, Kiara, and their friend Alice (Alice just got a new puppy….hopefully she was able to get it potty-trained 😊). It was a Sunday night, which is their jazz open mic night. There was an older gentleman wearing an old school suit and tie, who belted out some classy standards. He was such a nice guy and chatted with Jos for a few minutes. I hope he can continue signing in that old pub once the pandemic is under control. Another day, we took a trip out to see Jos’ friend Matt in Brighton (South of London on the coast). We walked through the beautiful town and along its boardwalk, and ended the evening eating and listening to music in a cool, old pub. Matt’s wife, Serena joined us for dinner and drinks. Had a great afternoon and evening.

We were suppose to be relaxing a bit, but there was so much to do and see. Now, Jos and I have both been to London many times (separately), so we wanted to catch a few sights and a play. One evening we went over to see Big Ben (covered in scaffolding for a face lift) and to Buckingham palace. We were going to have a drink at one of the top 50 bars in the world before we met up with some friends for dinner, but the bar would not let us in due to my shoes... I took a pair of Allbirds on my trip, which are nice New Zealand wool shoes, but I guess because they had laces and a rubber bottom, they called them kicks (sneakers), and wouldn’t let us in to their posh bar. So, Jos found a tiki bar across the street. This place was so cool….the place was tricked out in Hawaiian style and the tiki drinks were wonderful. We met a great bartender, and once he found out I was a rum guy, he poured about a dozen samples of different rums from around the world. Had a great time, and so glad Jos found the place.

When Amanda and her daughter, Florence, returned from the States they had a huge birthday party for her. It was primarily a kids party, but Florence and Amanda were nice enough to invite us. It was nice to see the kids having so much fun. I also got to meet Florence’s dad, Joe, and Jos’ friend, Tim. After the kids party, the adults - along with Florence and Florence’s friend Winnie - went out to a local pub/restaurant.

We also had a really nice evening out with Jos’ friends, Su and Dave. We ate at a terrific Chinese restaurant, Silk Road, then had a few pints at a local bar. Su and Dave also later had us over to their lovely flat another evening with other friends, Katherine and Alex. Dave mixed up great drinks (including some nice rum cocktails). We had a wonderful evening talking about travels and life. Thanks for the great hospitality Su and Dave! We got up early one morning to stand in line at the National Theatre to score last-minute tickets to whatever they had available. We ended up attending a matinee on New Year’s Eve afternoon of an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane.’ It was well-done, but honestly geared more at a younger crowd/teens (& big Gaiman fans) than we had anticipated. Oh well! At least we caught some theater One errand we had to run while in London was to visit an Apple store to replace Jos’ IPhone. She broke it in a freak accident in El Calafate, Argentina….it slipped off her lap and onto a tile floor and the screen broke. The fall could not have been more than 2 feet….they don’t build them like they used to…😊 The good news: because of the exchange rate, and one other defect with her current phone, Jos got a new IPhone for free.

I also spent some time starting my job search, including a meeting with a recruiter and an interview in the city. Glad I had a suit in with my cold weather gear.

The weather continued to worsen during our stay, getting colder and wetter, and the lack of sun (after comibg from Summer) was weighing on us, so we decided to leave London a bit early and head down to Portugal for a few days before meeting my Mom in Spain.

Our last night, we had a jolly & raucous night out with as many friends as could make it by, and I got to meet even more of Jos’s friends and see those I’d met before another time. 

What a great stay in London. We were able to visit some cool places, and met up with many good friends….it was great spending time with all of you and hope we are back in London someday soon.

Now, off to Lisbon for more sun and warmth!!!