Friday, 23 September 2016
Related posts: Berlin Day 1, Day 2 and 3, London : Weekend, Day 3, 4 and 5
On Friday we left Berlin (blogpost here) for London. We have a full agenda for the following week in London. We departed from Berlin Airport and arrived in London that afternoon. Boss took all of us for a nice lunch at The Brass Rail, at Selfridges.
Apparently the salt beef sandwich is one of the best in London. I’m not really a beef person, but I have to admit, it was quite tasty!
After lunch, we headed to our hotel. We stayed at Le Meridien on Piccadilly. I got a Deluxe King room.
Despite the Deluxe King name, the room is rather small. I guess this is true for most hotels in central London. In the evening, we had a company dinner at Tuk Din. Nothing beats tasty Malaysian food while being away from home.
Saturday, 24 September 2016
We’ll be having a working visit to Northampton next week. I spent the morning booking our train tickets, and went to Paddington to get them printed. After that, we went to see the bus operations at Victoria Coach Station. We saw their operations, how tickets are bought, passenger management, and first and last mile connectivity (to taxis, stage buses, or tube). During my student years in the UK I find Victoria Coach Station to be rather efficient (compared to taking buses at Pudu during my high school years). But now with the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), opened in 2011, it has really put out terminal at par (actually, better) than these terminals in the UK.
Later in the evening, we went to visit the London Malaysia Fest 2016, held at Trafalgar Square. There were booths promoting Malaysian food and tourism, and a separate avenue for investors (which we attended on 26 September). Most visitors came for the Malaysian food.
On my way back to the hotel, I spotted a familiar face at Piccadilly Circus. I was about to take a photo of the area when my friend Fazril walked into the frame. The most random thing ever! I didn’t even know he was here!
Sunday, 25 September 2016
I spent the Sunday running some personal errands and some sightseeing. It’s not really fun being in London on a weekend without the family.
For lunch, I went to Leon, my favourite “fast food” eatery in London. There is a branch on Regent’s Street (near Oxford Street). They serve excellent healthy meals by mixing salads, meat and sauces.
In the afternoon, I went to Stanfords, a famous map shop in Covent Garden. Ever since I started travelling in 2009, I took up the hobby of collecting maps of the places I visit. These maps are either current or archaic maps. I have a preference for the latter.
The shop has 2 floors, with the wider collection being stored upstairs. I spent nearly 2 hours going through everything. The vast collection of maps were just amazing. I finally settled on a 16th century map (copy) of London.
Later in the evening, I had dinner at Byron, the branch in Soho. I read online on how these guys are one of the best in London, and they didn’t disappoint. Food was really good, and the service was excellent.
Imran Jaafar 