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SURPRISE ANNIVERSARY TRIP TO LONDON
Our 22nd anniversary was approaching and I wanted to do something truly spectacular for my lovely wife. After hours of thought, I decided to spring a weekend trip to London on her. I checked with my bosses at the radio station and due to the fact that we were in a critical ratings period, I could not get an adjoining day off that weekend so this truly had to be a weekend trip without taking a Friday or Monday off. The wheels started turning. I lined up a personal London tour guide to be with us for just about our entire trip. His name was Nick Wilson and he was tremendous. We used him a second time in London and I can't recommend him highly enough. Before leaving the U.S. I told Nick that I
wanted to do and see the following things: I arranged to get some U.S. dollars converted into Pounds before we even left the States, so I had that angle covered. I made reservations at the fashionable Dorchester Hotel in the Mayfair district of London. It's always listed as one of the finest hotels in the city. And I made reservations by phone from the U.S. at Simpsons in the Strand for a traditional British dinner and then started teasing the hell out of my wife about the trip. My wife kept angling to find out where we might be going. I kept telling her that we were going to an "island". She then would reply: "Great, I'll get the snorkel gear ready." I assured her that it wasn't "that" kind of an island. She then started thinking that we might be heading to Vancouver or somewhere like that. I told her to wear loose fitting clothes since it was going to be a long night. I didn't tell her the flight was going to be long but kind of hinted that between the flight and ground transfers, it was going to be a lengthy journey. With everything in place, we prepared for the trip. My wife had no Earthly idea of where we were heading. Back then, in 1993, Delta had a non-stop flight from Detroit Metro to London Gatwick and that's the flight I booked us on, business class. Our son drove us to the airport Friday afternoon. Once at the airport we got a Delta ticket agent who more or less knew us. So I explained that I was taking my wife on a surprise trip. I showed the Delta agent our passports and tickets and then instructed my wife to head up to the Delta Crown Room lounge and that I would join her as soon as the tickets were taken care of with the surprise destination. We spent about an hour and a half in the Crown Room and then I told her it was time to head down to the gate. I wanted to keep the drama going until the last minute so I took her to a gate where a Delta flight was going to Atlanta. We nearly always fly first class thanks to mileage upgrades and we're usually the first ones to board the plane. When they called boarding for the Atlanta flight Cindy jumped up and said: "Ready to get on?" To her surprise, I said: "Honey, this is a special trip, let's take our time for a change." She looked extremely puzzled. After everyone at the gate had boarded the MD-88 she said we had better get on. I then shocked her by saying: "You know what, let's go down to the next gate and try that flight." It was the Delta TriStar 500 jet to London! She was blown away! We boarded the Delta jet and got settled in for the 7 hour flight. We left around 6:30pm and got into London Gatwick at about 6:30am. Because this was such a special trip and our first visit to Europe, I bought special slippers for us to wear on the jet. And mid-way across the Atlantic I presented Cindy with a special diamond ring. That part of the trip was a little disappointing. She was sleeping and seemed ticked off that I awakened her even if it was to slip a diamond on her finger. Oh well... Clearing customs and immigration was a breeze at Gatwick's North Terminal and we were dead tired and ready to hit the hay. I had a room reserved at the Gatwick Hilton Hotel and we wheeled our bags over there and got a little shut-eye. By the way, if you want to check in immediately upon arrival in Europe and it's before 2 or 3pm, you'll have to book your room the night before to be sure a room is ready. So in this case I booked the Gatwick Hilton for Friday night and had them make a note that we wouldn't be checking in until early Saturday morning. Right on schedule, our tour guide, Nick, banged on our door promptly at 12noon and off we went. Nick is extremely knowledgeable about London and he was a joy to be with. First we toured the parks of London and then he suggested that we head to Richmond Hill for our requested fish and chips lunch. It was a great little place called the Quality Fish Bar. Next we headed to Heathrow Airport and took a spin around the perimeter so I could check it out. Then we motored downtown to check out the parks, Tower of London, and Trafalgar Square where we fed the pigeons. We didn't even have enough time to go inside the London Tower. We stopped in at one of Nick's favorite pubs for a pint and it was great. Then it was a brief stop at Westminster Abbey and by that point we were exhausted. Nick, however, insisted that he drop us off for a half hour at the world famous Harrods Department Store and I'm glad he insisted. It was great. They already had the Christmas decorations up and everything was beautiful. We go back now every time we're in London. Earlier in the day, too, Nick made sure we did the other things on the list -- driving by Buckingham Palace, driving by Number Ten Downing Street, and crossing the Tower Bridge. And the whole time Nick was belting out very interesting historical facts about his favorite city in the world. It was now time to head to the world famous Dorchester Hotel where we checked in. Actually we sat at a bar sipping a complimentary cocktail while our butler prepared our room and escorted us upstairs. It was a nice mini-suite. We changed clothes and got ready for our one, big night out on the town. We love Trader Vic's and have dined and imbibed at many of them around the world. The London outlet is located in the basement of the Park Lane Hilton Hotel and Nick waited in the parking lot while we dashed downstairs and enjoyed a Mai Tai cocktail and an order of our favorite appetizer there -- Crab Rangoon. Then Nick whisked us off to Simpsons in the Strand for a good, old fashioned British roast beef dinner. He begged us to change our plans and try his favorite British place instead, Rules. Nick was right. In subsequent trips we have dined at Rules and it's now our favorite restaurant in London. Rules web site here. Our review here. Nick dropped us off at Simpsons and went home for the night but not before giving us directions on where to hail a famous London Black Cab for the trip back to the Dorchester. Also, we made arrangements for Nick to meet us in the Lobby of the hotel the following morning, Sunday, at 6:30am. We enjoyed our first London Black Taxi on the way back to the Dorchester and the driver was a real character. Great guy as most of the hack drivers are in London. We fell asleep almost before our heads hit the pillow at the Dorchester. Not exactly good for a romantic anniversary trip but hey, it had been one heck of a long day. And I had worked at the radio station the previous day from 3am until 11am. We arranged for a wake-up call the following morning at 5:30. We headed down to the lobby to check out around 6:10am and boy were we in for a surprise. Nick was there waiting for us with a big grin on his face and pointed outside. It had snowed a little more than 5 inches, something very rare for London in November! We checked out and Nick said getting around might be a little tricky. He said we might have to cut out sightseeing short in order to get to the airport on time due to the snow. In London, they don't have fancy snow removal gear. Some poor schlubb gets into the back of a dump truck and manually shovels sand onto the road. They call it "gritting." It helps but not a whole lot. I have heard that they now have some mechanized sanding devices in England now. Luck was with us and the snow started to melt making for fairly decent roads. Cindy wanted to see a little more of the parks (Kensington, Hyde, etc.) so we drove around for a few minutes. The trees were puffy with freshly fallen snow and it was lovely. I was amazed when we spotted a big, ole, pelican in one of the parks. I usually equate pelicans with warm climates. For our last stop before heading to Gatwick Airport, we paused at St. Paul's Cathedral. Cindy went inside to snap some pictures and I just stayed in the car with Nick. I think it was at this point I realized fully that we were in London. The rest had been a blur! Nick dropped us off at Gatwick Airport around 9:15am and we were up and heading over the Atlantic by 11am. Arrival came back at Detroit Metro Airport around 1:30 in the afternoon and got back to the house around 4:30pm. This was a weekend to remember. We had flown 7,400 miles in a single weekend and visited some of the most famous sites in the world. Call me crazy but I really enjoyed this little jaunt. In subsequent years we would spend extended weekends (either a three or four day weekend) in London (again), Brussels, Munich, Budapest and Dublin. And even on those weekend jaunts we didn't just stay put. While in London for the next weekend trip we visited Bath. Our weekend trip to Munich included a side trip to Saltzburg, Austria. While in Dublin we also took a train up to Belfast. We tacked on a brief visit to Luxembourg on top of our Brussels trip. And during our weekend blitz to Budapest we took a train down the Danube to Bratislava, Slovakia. If you ever have a chance to take a romantic weekend trip to Europe, why not? Just do plenty of planning in advance and you should have a great time. We always do! |
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