greent's mfw journey

muddywhitechicken

oo a surprise trip - lucky you - enjoy!

Karmacat

Thanks for the detailed updates - wonderful ideas in there!

Looking forward to hearing about your mystery weekend when you get back

greent

Soooo..... I was asked if I wanted to know anything beforehand or as we arrived at places - I said the latter.

Friday started with a car journey - as you'd expect - but to the train station in the next town (OH drives everywhere, so that was unusual) I did guess that we were going to the station about half way there - when it dawned on me that we weren't going on the motorway - that and the fact OH had stated that there was a very definite time we had to leave the house by... Caught the little sprinter train to Swindon - where we changed with just a few minutes in between to a first class carriage on the next train Had the complimentary tea, cake & croissants on the train, of course! Destination was guessed at this point as London - once we got to Paddington we went to the first class lounge to use the facilities - and grab some complimentary water & an apple each (I also had a yummy mini chocolate pastry twist thing, as it was approaching lunchtime)

Tube trips later and (after a wander taking pics of some areas) we had afternoon tea (for lunch ) at The Tower hotel, looking out at Tower Bridge. It also happened to be where a couple of countries had athletes staying and more were meeting there - so we were athlete/ coach/ support team people watching A wander around doing touristy snaps of some statues, the Tower of London from the outside, the shard, the bridge etc and we caught the tube to Holborn to a lovely 4* hotel (last stayed there 12 years ago) - where we had a suite booked Short rest, with restorative tea (I highly enjoyed the fact the suite had a doorbell for room service to use - am easily pleased!) and we were off out again - complete with swimwear..... It ended up that we were booked in to a Floatation tank experience for an hour - weird, but not unpleasant (OH enjoyed it more than me and said he fell asleep in his pod ) After a really good shower we went back to the hotel, got changed - and headed out again. We wandered around some area where there were lots of outdoor food stalls and grabbed a gorgeous chicken shawarma wrap each - very tasty, but not really enough for dinner - we didn't really have enough time to go for full on dinner, as we were heading to the Underbelly Festival for a show. OH had beer from one of the bars at the festival - and I had lots of free Baileys from a promotional stand! Show was good fun (overall) and once we were out we decided we were still hungry (although not for massive food) and went for a wander. It was just gone 11pm, so a lot of places had just closed - so we ended up at a McDs!! I have to say, it was a fab McDs (snack menu items) - really hot, as opposed to the lukewarm efforts I've usually had. We were super classy and ate it walking back to the hotel

Saturday saw us not waking up until gone 8.30 - unheard of!!! (poor DD had DS3 get her up at 6am!) Leisurely shower and ambled down t breakfast around 10 - yummy pastries, full English etc Checked out after nabbing the M0lton Br0wn toiletries from the room (along with any unused tea and coffee) and a newspaper each (different ones) from the lobby and made our way to the next 'thing' - a trip up the Shard - fab views and we got some great pics. A storm started whilst we were up there and I got pics of the weather moving in - some really dramatic changes in light and the clouds changing.

After that we wandered down to Borough Market where we had a good amble around and I chose a noodle dish for lunch - and threw it away after a few mouthfuls - tasted funny and I was convinced it was contaminated from the prawns on the stall and possibly even had fish oil on. I ended up feeling rough and managed to make it to a department store, sweating heavily - and was promptly sick in the loos

We took a slow meander back to Paddington after that - and headed back to the FC lounge for juice, tea, water - and sandwiches. Grabbed some water and biscuits to take with us - but had first class seats straight back through to home (no trolley service ono way home, sadly - but did get complimentary tea, water and fruit cake (I love packaged fruit cake!) from the buffet

greent

Have made an OP today of £155 to BTL. Will make another £400 OP after the rent has come in (they've paid late a couple of times recently, so am making sure there's still a float in there until it comes in)

Spent day out shopping with bestie today. Bought a gorgeous top from Superdriiii in the sale for £5 (Not for me, though), some school uniform - and that was it (other than lunch) Nice catch up, though

shangaijimmy

Sounds like a lovely time was had by all!

apple_muncher

What a wonderful suprise trip! (Except the throwing up part, of course)

Karmacat

Fantastic! Thank heavens you followed your instincts about the iffy food - could have laid you **really** low, for days, if not. Though throwing up still isn't nice!!!

Watty1

apart from the throwing up that sounded a lovely trip. Especially loved the doorbell for the suite

museumworker

What a lovely surprise weekend, well done OH! Sounds like you've to see and do loads, whilst getting spoilt too. Sorry yo hear you were sick, although glad it passed quickly and you still had a first class train journey to enjoy!

newgirly

What a lovely surprise