Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Trip to London, UK - Day 1 (1)

サンクスギビングの休暇を利用して、11月22日から5日間、ロンドンへ行って来ました! ロンドンへ行くのは約20年ぶり (!) なので楽しみ。デルタ航空のラウンジで出発まで時間をつぶします。

We traveled to London from Nov. 22 to 27, taking advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday.  It's been almost 20 years since I visited there last time, and I was very looking forward to this trip.  While waiting for our flight we stayed in the Delta lounge.
日本や台湾とは違って、ラウンジにある食べ物はかなりしょぼいです。

But the food served in the lounge (in Boston) was much poorer than that in Japan or Taiwan....
飛行機は定刻どおりに離陸。機内食はパスタかチキン。私はパスタにしましたがいつも通りまずい!

Our plane took off on time.  The meal I chose during the flight was the pasta - as always, it tasted very bad...
夫はチキンを選びました。チキンの付け合せはこの季節らしくバターナットスクワッシュとさやいんげん。でもやっぱりまずい。

My husband chose the chicken meal which came with the green beans and butternut squash.  These were appropriate for the season, but sadly, tasted bad as well!   
6時間弱で眼下にロンドンの街が見えてきました。なんかあっという間に着いた感じ。日本に帰るよりもとっても楽です。

In less than 6 hours, the city of London appeared under our eyes.  I felt it was very quick - much easier than traveling to Japan!
空港からは地下鉄ピカデリー線に乗ってホテルまで行きます。ホテル最寄の駅にはピカデリー線が通っているので乗り換えなしで一直線でホテルまでいけます。

From the airport we took the Tube (Piccadilly line), which stopped at the nearest Tube station to our hotel .
ホテルはサウスケンジントンの閑静な住宅街にあり、地下鉄駅から近い割りに夜もとても静かでした。ホテルに着いたのは朝8時過ぎだったのですが、先客がもう既にチェックアウトしたので1時間ほどで部屋を用意できるとのことで、とりあえず朝ご飯を食べに行くことにしました。

Our hotel is in Kensington which is the residential area and very quiet although it is located to very close to the station.  We arrived at the hotel at  ~8:00 am, but the room we were supposed to stay in was already checked out, and we were told that in 1 hour our room was ready.  So we went to have the breakfast nearby.
地下鉄駅前に、フランスのパン屋さん、Paul を見つけたのでとりあえずここに入ることにしました。

We found Paul, a French bakery chain, across the Tube station and decided to sit down here.
クロワッサンはやっぱりおいしい!

Their croissant was good (as good as Paul in France).
リーク入りのキッシュもなかなかいけます。

I liked the quiche with leek as well.
ショーウィンドーにカヌレ発見!カレヌ好きの私としては注文せずに入られません。もっちりしていてやっぱりおいしい! この後ホテルに帰ると部屋の準備も終わっていてすぐ部屋に入ることができました。こんなに早い時間にチェックインできるとは思っていなかったので、ラッキー。お風呂に入ってさっぱりしてから街へ繰り出します!

I found canelé in the showcase.  I love this cake (?)  very much and couldn't help ordering it.  It was chewy and yummy~.  After ~1h, we went back to the hotel, and our room was already ready and we could check in.  We didn't expect we could check in so early and felt very lucky.  We settled in, took a shower and went out to explore the city!

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