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2022 was a year of joyful post Covid revenge travel for me – – 37,784 miles flow, 4 cruises taken, 9 countries visited!! So grateful, and never happier than with rollaboard in tow. Heading out on some more great itineraries in 2023 as work allows. Here’s a short recap of one of my favorite trips of 2022. Happy New Year everyone, wishing you much success and joy in 2023 and beyond!

London ~ Why London you might ask? When I was also in Morocco, Alaska, the Caribbean…?! London is a touch stone for me, a source of joy and home-away-from-home. My family heritage is 100% German – my parents emigrated from there to the US in the late 1950’s. But my professional heritage, working in travel prior to real estate, had me visiting London yearly for 20 years. I fell in love with England and am an unabashed Anglophile. The Keep Calm and Carry On motto fits me like a glove, as well as PG tips tea with milk (no sugar), winter coats, summer in Hyde Park when it’s light at 9pm, and British period and contemporary dramas. Masterpiece Theater and BritBox are favorite streaming channels at my home!

Some people find London hectic busy, dirty, traffic-y, touristy…. but I am an urban girl (love country too and I ride horses!) and the pulse and scenery, history and character, things to do and and see (museums, palaces, neighborhoods) and British people at large delight me. When I touch down at LHR or LGW airports my joy is complete and the routine begins. Revisiting favorite places such as The V&A museum for lunch, neighborhoods such as Kensington, Chelsea, Greenwich, Battersea Power Station, Sloan Square, Knightsbridge, Portobello Road, Spitalfields Market, Islington, Richmond Pimlico… and finding new spots to explore as well. Like any urban city that one explores for over 20 years, some older areas are rejuvenated and find new life and the fun of exploring that really suits me. I never rent a car in England. I love the underground and taxis and trains. I have left countless umbrellas in taxis. When I first stated coming over the underground cars on the Bakerloo and Northern lines were still the old ones – must have been from the 1940s – with raised wooden slats on the floors that were murder to my high heels…

At any rate, I’m blessed to be able to keep up the pace of visiting London every year, sometimes as a destination or just a couple of days before/after I’ve been elsewhere in Europe. My current favorite place to stay is the The Resident Hotels (Kensington, Victoria, Soho, Covent Garden). Eat: any museum restaurant especially the V&A (Victoria and Albert).  The scones at Le Pain Quotidien are better than here in the States and they serve them with the clotted cream and jam of course. Portuguese custard tarts in Kensington, Indian food everywhere and anywhere. A decent pub lunch is a must too! And a visit to Emma Hope Shoes in the Westbourne Grove, Bayswater/Notting Hill neighborhood…  And yes, I have seen other parts of Great Britain too – – other favorite spots  – – country Devon (my daughter Devon is named after this beautiful part of England where her paternal grandmother lived), Edinburgh and Inverness.

Much left yet to explore!