The Final Chapter: 2 Days in London
A West End musical, rooftop cocktails, and one last whisky tasting before heading home
It was the end of our first slow travel adventure. After two months away from home, we had reached our final destination: London.
We checked into The Londoner in Leicester Square. The hotel is gorgeous. The suite was cozy and beautiful, with a very comfy bed and spa-like bathroom.
After settling in, we walked two short blocks to Noodle & Beer restaurant in Chinatown for an early dinner.
We closed out our night with a musical in the West End, The Book of Mormon. After two months of traveling, we apparently still had enough energy left for an evening of irreverent humor, catchy songs, and laughing until our faces hurt. We are still singing some of the songs a week later. Hello!
We had great seats in the front row of the balcony, and I loved hearing the musicians warming up in the pit.
After the short walk back to our hotel, we ended the night at The Londoner's rooftop bar, looking out over the city with Big Ben and the London Eye glowing in the distance. It was a spectacular way to end our first day in the city. And then there was my cocktail. Easily the best of the entire trip: a sour passionfruit creation that came with a tiny passionfruit panna cotta served in a passionfruit rind, with passionfruit puree on top.
The next morning we went for a walk through the city with no particular agenda, other than stopping into the Aer luggage store to check out some of their travel gear. The weather was beautiful and lots of people were out enjoying the sun.
For our last lunch in London, we visited The Lamb and Flag pub. Shawn had to duck to get through the narrow alley to the side door.
Because we were maxing out our Amex benefits, we got a very late checkout so that we could wrap up our time at The Londoner with a private visit to their Whisky Room. After all the adult beverages we’d enjoyed throughout this trip, it seemed only appropriate to give the journey one last tasting. We felt very fancy in here.
Sadly, we had to check out of The Londoner for our last night. We wanted to be much closer to the airport for our very early flight the next day. We took the subway to the airport and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn onsite. After back to back 5 star hotels for the last week, this was a bit of a letdown, even though it was logistically the smart thing to do.
Up early the next day, we zipped up our suitcases one last time and walked out the hotel doors and into Heathrow. We had some time before our flight, so we settled into the Cathay Pacific Lounge and enjoyed breakfast ramen and dim sum. This lounge is probably the nicest we have used in our travels.
And just like that, our two-month adventure was over.
We saw beautiful cities, drank so much excellent wine and whisky, ate our way through Portugal and Scotland, met wonderful people, walked approximately one million miles, packed and unpacked about 10 times, and never once got tired of each other.
Now that we’re home, we’re already filling up the calendar with travel plans into 2028. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the best part about coming home from a trip is having the next one to look forward to.
We have a month and a half to catch up here at home, and then we’re off to spend 6 weeks in Puerto Vallarta!
Cheers!