Day 2: High Tea & Murder
After a full night of sleep in London, and with no hurry to rush out the door today, we enjoyed a relaxing Sunday morning before heading downtown to Piccadilly Circus.
Instant Coffee Barista
Our first stop was high tea at The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum & Mason. Because this February marked the 70th year Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne, the restaurant celebrated by adjusting their high tea menu with clever details to honor the queen such as purple cakes (her favorite color), corgis (pictures only, not for eating), and whiskey-infused pastries (yum).
Piano Man
No, you can’t take the Queen’s menus with you
Just a spot of tea
When you’ve had enough at high tea
After lunch, Jenn realized her shoes were sabotaging her, so she ventured back to the flat to fix her footwear. Meanwhile, we headed north on Regent Street. Built in 1819, Regent Street was designed to be the main shopping street in London. It’s basically London’s version of 5th Ave.
200 years of shopping!
All Soul’s Church. Very pointy.
London’s architecture styles: Classic, Modern, and Pigeon
How old are these traffic cameras?
After Regents street, we entered The Regent’s Park (what is this, THE Ohio State?) and strolled through the grounds “€ including the “very exclusive” inner circle (no dogs allowed, rude). We also found a gazebo and a struggling park deckchairs business in case you were looking to pay to sit when there are free benches all around. It was a bit early in the season, so few flowers were in bloom, but we still enjoyed the greenery and the peaceful park in the busy city.
We found our way out of the park and met back up with Jenn at 221B Baker Street, the fabled home of detective Sherlock Holmes. He was fictional, but the museum and gift shop are real “€ as is the blue plaque (they give fictional characters blue plaques too??). The line to get into the Sherlock Holmes museum was too long for us to wait, so the logical deduction was to snap some pictures and walk back to the West End.
The curious incident of not gonna wait in that line
Cryptic street art campaign that caught our attention
Keeping with the detective theme, our evening plan was a production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at St. Martin’s theater. According to their website, the Mousetrap is the world’s longest running play, which seems about right given the fact that we saw the 28,621st showing. Despite our best efforts to correctly crack the case, we were all surprised by the ending (even Jo!). Alas, we’ve been sworn to secrecy, so no spoilers. Fun fact: The Mousetrap has been running for the same amount of time Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne – 70 years.
Who dunnit?
No clues from above
After the play, we walked back towards the tube through the bustling Piccadilly Circus area, which had a similar feel as Times Square. We returned to Ellen’s flat for the final mystery of the evening – how to boil water for pasta on the HOB. Good news, we successfully cracked the case.
The end.
What a circus!
Plot twist! Killer still on the loose
