2020 UK Trip Pt 6 - London

April 13, 2020 by Jonathan Chow in London, Trips, UK

Final post of the trip. The whole day was dedicated to stomping around old favorites as well as exploring some areas that we haven’t really seen. We started off going straight to our old neighborhood and favorite area, Shoreditch.

If the previous day seemed quiet, this was even quieter. No surprise that many businesses ended up closing down after the week had ended.

A great spot that I never managed to visit before was Bike Shed. They now have a location in SoCal as well, but I couldn’t imagine it looks as great as this under-bridge lair.

Since we were so close, we decided to swing by the old building that we stayed at several years ago. It’s since been renovated to a much nicer apartment complex, but the streets still look and feel the same as they did back in the day.

Finally saw the infamous “MI6” building.

And so we end the night and trip grabbing one last order of boba (of course) and head back to the hotel for an early flight the following day. We were VERY fortunate that not only had the flight back been mostly empty and without any issues, but that we didn’t experience any symptoms the following weeks when we were home. \

As I mentioned in the beginning, it was a very strange trip. With our previous Asian trip we made a relatively-last minute pivot from Hong Kong to Tokyo due to the protests and looking back that was clearly the right call at the time. This time wasn’t quite as clear, but a lot of it had to do with pure luck in timing. The experience was incredibly smooth and easy, but the stress of the world shutting down around us ensured that this was something we didn’t want to experience again.

2020 UK Trip Pt 5 - London

April 07, 2020 by Jonathan Chow in Trips, UK, London

One last day of driving. Waking up in Lake District and grabbing a quick breakfast, we eagerly got back on the road.

Finally in London, the last stop (and close to the airport). With two nights to spend here, we mainly focused on dinner for the first night and taking it easy, especially after the string of days on constantly traveling. We also tried to stay mindful of the number of times we would take public transportation, so we tried to stick with one area, and this round we chose to hang around Covent Gardens.

One thing for sure, it was really REALLY quiet during the whole stay here. With exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I don’t think we had ever seen the city so empty.

2019 UK / Ireland 1

February 12, 2019 by Jonathan Chow in UK, Trips

As we wrap up our time in London, we traveled over to Dublin, Ireland for the last leg of our trip. While one of the less eventful days with the flight occurring in the middle of the day, we were at least able to end it on a high note with a dinner at O’Neills Pub. A very interesting building that felt like a cluster of rooms tied together, the buffet style Irish food was exactly what we needed that night.

2019 UK / London 2

February 07, 2019 by Jonathan Chow in London, UK, Trips

Our second and only full day in London, we first traveled to our old stomping grounds around Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Later we went to Mercato Metropolitano to meet with Marcel and one of his owners while wrapping up the day at the nearby Tate Modern museum. Gonna try to cram everything in one post, so early apologies for the length of this one.

One thing I really appreciated about London was the popularity of traditional neon signage. I do wish they were more common here in the States, though some of the language that was used should probably stay in UK…