Day 1 - The Cupboard Under The Stairs

Thanks to favourable winds My Mum and I arrived at Gatwick Airport an hour ahead of schedule at 6:30am! We checked into Yotel Capsule Hotel to sleep for a few hours and have a shower. The rooms are indeed tiny and compact, but have just enough room for a short stay. 

Cozy bunk complete with TV.

The entire bathroom is in one long area cordoned off with glass.

Mummy Varenyky checking out from Yotel

After our nap we grabbed tickets for the Gatwick Express train into London. We love train travel. It's so quick and convenient here. Since we had a few minutes to spare we grabbed a quick breakfast. My Mum had a bacon roll while I had a cheese and bacon pasty. They were delicious and just what we needed to wake us up for the day.

Om nom nom bacon!

Bacon and Cheese Pasty hmmmmm tasty.

Our train ride was quick and our cab ride even quicker. Last year we arrived to a downpour in London. This time it was all bright sunshine and hot hot hot. With humidity the temperature read 32 degrees Celsius. Needless to say we changed out of our jeans right away. Our hotel is the same as last year; the Best Western Mornington Hotel. The Hotel's ideally situated across from Hyde Park on Lancaster Gate. It's a stones throw from a tube station and the house Sir James Barrie (author of Peter Pan) once lived in. We have a great room in the corner separate from everyone else on our floor as we're literally under the stairs. We've dubbed it the cupboard under the stairs like the one Harry Potter sleeps in. That being said it's way roomier and luxurious than poor Harry's.

Cupboard under the stairs.

Chris here - I get to continue with the blog.  After checking in, Chelsea and I took a leisurely stroll through our favourite park in London, Hyde Park.  It's an incredible parcel of land dedicated to green space with huge oak trees, beautiful gardens, and magnificent artwork. There were so many families out and about with kids laughing and people just strolling along the multitude of pathways.  We stopped for an ice cream at the Serpentine, then off to Exhibition Road and the Victoria and Alberta Museum.  

On the way through Hyde Park we stopped at the Peter Pan statue. It's a lovely whimsical bronze piece with Peter surrounded by pixies and animals. It made both of us smile to see little kids clambering over it.

"Oh there you are Peter" quote from the movie Hook

The V&A Museum is a huge museum of art, sculpture ranging from  Rodin to Bernini, furniture, clothing, historical day to day objects, plaster casts of famous monuments, medieval edifices, a brilliant jewellery collection with every gemstone imaginable, ironwork, silver, stained glass, and portraits.  We didn't cover it all last year, and I don't think we saw it all this year either. There's simply too much! 

One could spend days in a museum such as the V&A.  My favourite is still Trajan's column that is a copy from the original in Rome. The original was built in 113 AD and its original carvings have since faded with time. Luckily enough the copy in the V&A preserved the carvings, so we can still see the full splendour of the column despite the ravages of time to the original. The cast is so big that they have to display it in two pieces, and each one of these is several stories high!  Also the jewellery collection must be worth millions as I've never seen so many diamonds and gemstones in one place. Chelsea's favourite  was the Katana and Wakizashi made for the Tokugawa family on display in the Japan Gallery. A very nice gentleman even had time to give us a bit of info on Japanese sword making while we drooled over the fine workmanship. Chelsea's other favourite part was the fashion gallery showing clothes and their accessories from 1600 to the present.

Trajan's Column

Medieval Church plaque of St. George slaying the dragon.

Heraldic Beasts from one of King Henry VIII's palaces.

Heraldic Beasts from one of King Henry VIII's palaces.

We were going to go for supper, but the jet lag set in and we decided on a light supper back at the hotel and early to bed.  I think we did pretty well for only a couple hours sleep!  Tomorrow we're off on a canal trip to Camden \Market and then to the British \Museum.