London again (Matt's birthday!)

Wet shave.  Cocktails.  Birthday.

Picking a location to celebrate Matt's cake day was easy and London was calling!  Coincidentally Molly and Shaun were visiting his parents and could come to the city for the weekend to play with us.  We arrived bright and early and were pleasantly surprised yet again that we could check in and get our room in our "go to" London hotel (Sherlock Holmes) at 8:00 in the morning!

After getting some much needed caffeine we headed to the Oxford high street to peruse all the great shops.  We then made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral but only poked our heads in as we were shocked by the £16 entrance fee!  By this time the rain and wind had also picked up, yuck.  At least it wasn't flooding, like many parts of the country.

The Birthday Boy!

 

  

  
We walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern and escaped the nasty weather while enjoying the free exhibits.  Afterwards, we sought out lunch near the Smithfield Market at a cool bakery come pub with modern English delights housed in an old smokehouse.

 

Molly and Shaun had arrived so the plan was to meet at J Crew in the West End (which Kate was really excited about as it just opened and is the first J Crew outside of the U.S., woo hoo!)  Ok, the prices were really inflated so we just looked around and then Kate did some damage at Anthropologie before we headed to the iconic Liberty department store.  We found a cute cafe inside and had proper afternoon tea (well, Molly and Shaun did, but we had some decadent cakes as we were still full from lunch).

We had some pre-dinner cocktails at a trendy diner type restaurant, which ended up being a great find as the wine bar we initially went to was full.  Now it was time for dinner at Moro, which was very tasty!

On Saturday the boys went to Ted's Grooming Room for the gentlemanly experience of a hot towel shave, short massage and hair cut.  Both boys were quite impressed and came back looking smooth and cleaned up!  Meanwhile, the girls went to Selfridges and Kate treated herself to a manicure while Molly opted for a massage.  The girls were taking longer so the boys headed downstairs for cocktails at Harry Gordon's (enchanting cocktails were a large part our weekend).

Now we were all quite hungry and an intriguing restaurant Kate found in Fitzrovia sounded good to everyone.  It's "Bubbledogs" which couples gourmet hot dogs with champagne, with sides of tater tots, cole slaw or sweet potato fries.  I know, doesn't that sound amazing?  Unfortunately, it's a very popular place so it was packed and we had to wait a bit.  Quite fun and trendy and worth it in my book.

Afterwards we made the requisite trip to Harrods and hit a few more stores in Knightsbridge before making our way back to the hotel to gussy up for our big Saturday night out on the town. We were looking forward to Milk and Honey, a "members only" drinking establishment that will take non-members via reservations.  We had a bit of trouble getting in as we thought you had to ring the bell, but nothing happened when we pressed the buzzer.  Matt could see someone inside through the glass slit in the door and finally decided to try pushing the door.  Voila, the key is to just open the door people, as it wasn't locked or anything!  Ah well, it was quite a funny start to the evening.  The cocktails list was extensive and they did not disappoint, although our table was in the basement and the lighting everywhere (even in the bathroom) was via candles only, thus it was very very dark!  Unfortunately no pics as the place was upscale and we didn't want to offend anyone with our flash.

Our dinner reservation was at The Social Eating House, which was conveniently located right next door.  Our table wasn't ready so we waited in the lively upstairs bar.  This place is really cool and it was just buzzing with energy and people.  We were seated late but the maître d apologized and they gave us a few free "jars" to share as starters (salted cod, confit duck, spiced aubergine, and mackeral).  The jars are served on a little board with small crackers or bread, which was a fun concept.  Everything was really delicious so we were looking forward to the main courses.  Matt went for the bavette steak, Kate had hake and Molly and Shaun both got venison.  It was hilarious when Matt's entree came out as it was just an empty white plate!  We were confused for a second and then caught on as his meat, salad and triple fried (in duck fat) chips (aka french fries) all arrived on separate dishes. All the food was exceedingly delightful and definitely one of our better meals.

Sunday we awoke to glorious sunshine, finally!  We walked through Kensington and Hyde Parks over to the Mayfair area and stopped in the Dover Street Market, a gutted multi-level Georgian townhouse displaying seriously high-end designers in an artsy space.  We then tried to get afternoon tea at the swanky Connaught Hotel (full) and then again at luxurious Claridge's (also full).  Today was the BAFTA Awards (Britain's equivalent of the Oscars) so there were some looky-lou's and paparazzi waiting outside of Claridge's.  I wonder who was staying here?!  Brangelina perhaps?

  

We enjoyed the shops in Mayfair and stumbled across a Dale Chihuly showroom in one of the art galleries, which was gorgeous.  One of the pieces really caught our eye and were going to go halvesies (for a mere 6 figure price) but decided against it as we thought it would be too much trouble to get on the airplane.  Ha ha ha ha.  A late lunch rounded out our Sunday and then it was time to hop on the tube and go our separate ways (Molly and Shaun to Dublin and Kate and Matt back to Basel).  It was a very enjoyable weekend, even with the bad weather Friday/Saturday.  Cheers to Matt's birthday!