London Calling

So I'm off to London the week of Thanksgiving. Since I didn't go to National this year, I'm using the money I would have spent and treating myself to a week in my favorite place on earth.

Unfortunately, my good friend Chip can't put me up this time, so I'm staying at a lovely little hotel near Knightsbridge called the Claverley. Just around the corner from Harrods where they have a Laduree tea room and near Harvey Nichols and the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

The good news is that Continental has this deal where you don't get charged for 90 days, which is sweet. And I'll be racking up the miles which will hopefully pay for my trip to San Fran for Nationals next year.

I'm having Thanksgiving on Saturday instead of Thursday, which is okay by me, because I don't really celebrate the holiday, what with the Pilgrims giving the Indians small pox blankets and everything. Plus the Pilgrims were notoriously religiously intolerant. So I'll be drinking wine and breaking bread with my English and American friends who live in London.

Plan on seeing some theater. I always make a list before I leave of the shows I definitely want to see, and then some alternatives just in case I can't get tickets. Which never happens, but I like to be prepared. I don't do much shopping in London primarily because it's so expensive to buy anything, especially clothes in London. And the pound is worth almost $2.00! Last year, when I went, I did buy this gorgeous red dress, but that was an aberration. Not going to be doing that this time.

Books, on the other hand, going to be hard to leave those behind. Waterstones is one of my favorite bookstores and now they have several Borders in London as well now. Lots of research books to buy for my other blog Scandalous Women. And Charing Cross road is littered with second hand bookstores.

The other thing I hope to do, besides visit the Tower of London which I also haven't done in years, is take the Jack the Ripper walking tour. I've taken it before but it's always a blast. Paticularly if Donald Rumbelow leads it since he's considered to be one of the leading authorities on the Ripper. I would love to know what he thinks of Patricia Cornwell's theories.

I'm hoping to get a day in Bath, keep your fingers crossed. I haven't been back in ten years, and I'm looking forward to going and heading to the Jane Austen Centre. Hopefully, I'll have a camera this time so that I can take pictures to post on the blog.

I'm so excited!

Thanks for reading,

EKM