I’ll admit that I didn’t look up how far Gatwick was from the city center when booking our nonstop flights from LAX to London. I just saw the fare was much cheaper going into Gatwick on a Wednesday AND it was non-stop through Norwegian. Good thing is, though, there’s an express train from Gatwick to Victoria Station that takes less than 40 minutes and is fairly affordable. We bought our Oyster Visiter cards at a kiosk near the baggage claim in the airport, preloaded with £40. The Gatwish Express cost us £20 pounds one way, and so far we’ve only spend about £15-18 pounds catching subways throughout the city. We might have to reload a little to get us to the station tomorrow before jumping on the high speed train to Paris.
Next to the kiosk where we bought our Oyster cards was a vending machine for Sim cards. However, we quickly found that the SIM cards don’t and won’t work on our phones, as they’re locked by our carrier. Phil has Verizon and I have AT&T. For me at least, I’ve got a brand new phone and on a payment plan, which I would have to pay off in full to ask AT&T to unlock my phone. AT&T does offer international day passes for $10 a day, but it adds up quickly since we’ll be in Europe for the next 19 days. So when buying SIM cards in Europe for your USA phone, make sure your phone is unlocked already before purchasing, or make sure your phone is eligible to be unlocked by your carrier.
We checked into our hotel, the Arbor City Hotel, near the Whitechapel Gallery and the Aldgate East Station. We were pleasantly surprised by how nice the hotel was and how clean and pleasant the city is around it. We’re within walking distance to several cute bakeries and cafes, and in a longer walk, to the Tower of London, where we made our way shortly after checking into the hotel. We saw the old Roman Wall of London, the outside moat of the Tower, and hiked it back to the hotel to get to dinner.
We had dinner reservations for the Savoy Grill, which is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. Taking the subway, we were well on time to make it to dinner by 7:30, despite the fact I put on heels, until the train got stopped at due to “someone taking ill.” I was out of breath by the time we made it, only to find that our reservations were for 7:00, not 7:30. They say us anyways, much to our delight, and we enjoyed one of the best dinners we’ve ever had. The staff definitely gave us some preferential treatment. We ordered the Beef Wellington, which they put in writing on the menu and our waiter reiterated would take a 45 minutes to be brought out. Settling down for a wait, we got a bottle of wine. Soon, however, they brought out breaded rice balls with a black garlic sauce, which were amazingly delicious for three small bites. Then, our entrees came out in just 20 mins, and we savored every bite. The beef was so tender, the mashed potatoes so creamy, and the roasted mushrooms so flavorful.
While we were enjoying our dinner, we got to see several other tables order some sort of dessert prepared tableside with a flambé. After we were through with our dinner, we asked about the dessert, which was described as a “baba” – a brioche type bread soaked in rum, then cooked in a caramel type sauce with crushed pineapples and served with a type of handmade whipped cream.
As if we hadn’t had enough to eat already, our waiter brought us a special treat – some form of cake with whipped cream and a chocolate sauce writing which said “Happy Anniversary.” We had told them we were on our honeymoon…but who can argue with a free treat?
Finally, as we were wrapping up the check, they brought out one more treat for us, a type of passion fruit flavored Turkish delight. We definitely left the restaurant happy and stuffed!
On our way out, we wandered around the hotel lobby and bar a little, reveling in the Art Deco styling.
We returned to our hotel stuffed, happy, and exhausted, with every intent to get a normal night’s sleep local time, ready to take on London properly the next day.