We had a great time in London and packed a lot into our few days and nights there. We visited markets, museums, historic sites and saw some shows.

On Friday afternoon, we walked a couple of miles over to Borough Market and had lunch. Thanks to the many Instagrammers that have highlighted the market, it was packed, even at 2pm on a Friday. We each grabbed something to eat (I got a pie, she got some oysters) and left the crowds. We took the tube back to the hotel and my wife needed a nap. I took the opportunity to visit the Imperial War Museum. It’s a huge museum in Lambeth, south of the river.

The ground floor has some tanks, planes and other large exhibits. The rest of the museum is organized as a walk-through on each floor with the first floor having WWI, second floor WW2 and third floor, a permanent Holocaust exhibit.

I was pretty tired after the museum so I went back to catch a nap before we went to dinner at Frog, which I reviewed in the previous installment of this report.

On Saturday, when I went to Liverpool for the match against Brighton, my wife spent a big chunk of the day at Portobello Road Market before visiting a few stores nearer the hotel and buying the last available discounted ticket (according to her) for Les Miserables, which has been playing continuously in the West End for over 25 years and she has seen before with our kids back in 2013. She loves it so much she had to see it again. London has a 1/2 Price Ticket stall in Leicester Square sort of like TKTS in New York where the leftover tickets for that day’s shows get sold at a discount.

On Sunday, we were back together and we had early evening show plans so I told my wife we could do whatever she wanted for the day. We started by taking the tube over to Spitalfields Market in the East End. There was a once a month art market that my wife wanted to check out.

From there, we took the tube and Docklands Light Rail (DLR) to Greenwich where there was an interesting antique market. It was fairly close to the Greenwich Observatory so we also walked over there. I wanted to visit the museum, but it was £20 and the only thing I really wanted to see was the prime meridian line. I wasn’t all that interested in the history. So, I took a few pictures.

What was really cool were the views of London from the top of the hill. I grabbed a panoramic shot.

I also took some more pictures where you can see the palace in the foreground and other well-known sites like the O2 Arena.

From Greenwich, we actually went all the way back to Portobello Road on the other side of London. The reason was that my wife had arranged to pick up some broken china from one of the vendors. She uses it to make mosaics and normally the antique china is way too expensive for her to break, but this vendor was offering it to her for nothing. She of course spent some more time at other vendors as it wasn’t as busy as it had been the day before.

After finishing our antique shopping (mostly her shopping while I complained that I was hungry), we went to Poppies Fish and Chips for lunch which was a solid choice for haddock and chips with a pint of local beer. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our night out.

That evening, we went to see the 6pm show of ABBA Voyage, which was ironically back in East London not far from Spitalfields where we went that morning. The show is in a purpose built arena fairly close to the 2012 Olympic Stadium (now the London Stadium and home of West Ham United).

It’s hard to explain the show. It’s essentially an ABBA concert with digital avatars from the 1979 version of ABBA plus some multimedia stuff all accompanied by a live band. Actually, I guess it’s not that hard to explain after all. It’s very unique and only available in London. No pictures or video are allowed. We had “dancefloor” tickets which were essentially standing room tickets at the front of the arena. We enjoyed the show, but kind of wished we had opted for seats instead.

After the show, my wife did not fancy the long ride back on the crowded DLR and tube so we opted for a cab as there was a line of them outside the arena. £60 and one hour later, we got back to the hotel, but her throbbing ankle deemed it worth the price. As we were both pretty wiped out, we ordered sushi from Uber Eats and watched the late NFL games thanks to VPN.

On Monday morning, my wife went to an early opening antique market in Covent Garden while I slept in a bit. She left for the airport around noon and I headed to the northern suburbs to visit with my 95 year old cousin, one of the last surviving relatives from my grandparents’ generation. An old friend who lives near my cousin picked me up there and brought me back to his house for tea before I headed back to Central London for the evening.

That night, I had dinner at Dishoom (review to follow in the next installment) and then saw the stage adaptation of Dr. Strangelove starring Steve Coogan in the roles made famous by Peter Sellers. It’s only running for 10 weeks so my timing was fortunate. It’s one of my favorite classic movies.

My seat was OK, if a little tight as all seats in London theaters seem to be designed for smaller people from the 1920s not us larger 2020s humans. After the show, I met a fellow points and miles enthusiast at a pub near the hotel for a couple of pints.

The next morning, I headed to Liverpool. I’ll have a bit more about the train journeys I took in a future installment of this trip report.

Up Next: Dishoom Review

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