Our weekend in London ran very smooth. We had contacted the Ramada Kensington, and booked our room for Friday Evening, and Saturday Evening 15th and 16th February. Our flight left Belfast at 4:40pm, on time, and we were in our room at 7:00 pm.
We found a small Italian restaurant, just around the corner from Gloucester Road tube station, the "La Sala Romana". For a place pretty central, it seemed like someone’s "best kept secret", we had discovered. The tables were properly laid with linen tablecloths and ‘real’ napkins. Even red roses from Valentine's Day...
After a full English breakfast in the Ramada hotel on Saturday morning, we enjoyed a brisk walk from Kensington, through Hyde Park to Oxford Street and Regent Street for a browse in the shops.
Saturday evening we enjoyed an Indian meal in the 'Light of India' restaurant, near to Gloucester Road tube station, before heading to Leicester Square to the theatre...
'The Play What I Wrote' at The Wyndhams Theatre
Two out of work actors have hired Wyndham's Theatre for the night in the West End. They have been asked to perform a Morecambe and Wise tribute, but actually they are reluctant to and instead want to perform the 'Play what they wrote'.
Cast:
Sean Foley, Hamish McColl and Toby Jones plus a surprise star guest. 'The surprise guest will NOT be announced in advance'. Our surprise guest was David Suchet, who thoroughly enjoyed himself! A good time was had by all!
Sunday morning we enjoyed another excellent breakfast in the Ramada, before embarking on our journey home.
All in all an excellent weekend break, very much appreciated by my wife and myself. Thank you again for this opportunity.
Valentine's Competition
Andrea Greig was the lucky winner of our fantastic Valentine's weekend competition. She won a night at the fantastic Chamberlain Hotel in London and dinner for two at La Cantina by the river.
Alex Bowen won a Thames river cruise and tickets to Greenwich attractions in our competition last September. This is what he had to say about his great prize experience:
My wife and I went on Friday, 12th October and how right you were about the pleasures of a trip down the river at this time of year. The weather was absolutely marvellous, just like a summers day, and the boat and attractions were far from crowded. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat trip both there and back.
The Greenwich attractions were excellent .....the National Maritime Museum, the Observatory and the Old Naval College. We particularly enjoyed the Old Naval College.
The boat trip, the attractions, a very nice lunch ( in a Vietnamese Restaurant) and dinner afterwards made for a memorable day. Thank you very much indeed.
Sjoerd Grimmel tells us about his fantastic prize experience too:
Had a great time in London, unlike some of the people living in the capital in years gone by. The London Dungeon offered us a taste of horror through the ages, with examples from Henry the XII to Anne Robinson (!). Some freaky surprises too... Not for the faint hearted...
The trip down the Thames to Greenwich was an absolute treat with commentary from an old codger who seemed to have seen more of the Thames than most. Even at this time of year it is great to see all the sites from the river and the weather was good enough for a brisk walk to the Greenwich observatory.
On the way up the river refreshments below deck warmed us up quick enough and being on the last boat we saw the capital slowly being illuminated from the river.
A hearty medieval meal near St. Katherine Docks was also an experience not to be missed. A royal welcome and appropriate entertainment made it all extra worthwhile.
The night at the Richmond Hill hotel was most enjoyable too. A lovely hotel just about far enough from the hustle and bustle from London, but close enough to make it into town in a reasonable time. The parks nearby where worth a visit as where the sporting facilities.
All in all an excellent weekend which was thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely to be repeated in the future too!
Chris Noton was the lucky winner of our National Express competition in October. He tells us about his great weekend experience:
Excellent weekend which we had in Oxford on the 6th and 7th October as the prize in the recent National Express competition. Having lived in the chaos of building work around the house since moving home this summer, the break was especially welcome. We arranged with the Four Pillars Hotel to upgrade to a family suite so that our children could accompany us, and were made most welcome there. All four of us had a wonderful stay, making extensive use of the hotel’s leisure pool and taking a rare chance to relax and enjoy the 'life of luxury' for an all too short weekend.
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We have had many excellent competition prizes in the past including stays in top hotels, river cruises, chauffeur-driven tours of the Thames valley, visits to London Dungeon, helicopter flights over London and much more!