I arrived by train in London Friday afternoon. It was nearly a 5 hour journey, but the countryside and Eastern coast of the UK is beautiful. Friday afternoon Caroline and I had meetings with the Ritz London hotel which is where we are staying and having the majority of our meetings while in London.
We started Friday evening by toasting our trip in the Rivoli Bar at the Ritz with Natalie, our sales contact. I had what is apparently a Ritz signature drink - champagne with a lemon twist and gold flakes....very tasty! Caroline and I then headed to dinner at Nobu, a trendy sushi restaurant which was delicious! Afterwards we had drinks in SOHO, apparently the happening part of town. We had a difficult time catching a cab back to the hotel, so we decided to jump in a rickshaw, pictured above.
Saturday our we had several more delegates arrive on early flights. I did some work that morning, then went sightseeing with Michael Burcham and Lisa Nix. We walked by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, etc. It was a beautiful sunny day...just a little chilly.
Saturday night Michael treated Lisa, Caroline and I to dinner at the Palm...fabulous! Then the 4 of us checked out the London club seen. The people watching was fantastic! We ended up going to Cafe de Paris....quite entertaining! When we arrived home at the Ritz, they didn't seem to appreciate our staying out late - the doors were all locked and they questioned us after letting us in....I guess they are more accustomed to their guests being in early. Fun night!
Caroline and I started Sunday with breakfast then went to scout out our locations for tours, dinner and meetings that are off site this week. Again, we have been so lucky with the weather - it was a beautiful sunny day.
This afternoon we had a scheduled tour for the group. It was a private tour of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms by the director. HCA is a supporter of the museum and Jack Boverder is a huge fan of Churchill as well as a friend of the director, Phil Reed. Mr. Reed gave us the up close, behind the glass tour with lots of tidbits he has learned and heard from people who were there years ago. We were able to go into the Cabinet Room as well as the Map Room and Churchill's bedroom/office while the other tourists were on the other side of the glass. The VIP treatment was very nice! He even let us try out Churchill's personal chair. There are pictures above. One is where he gave his radio speeches to the US and the other is his seat at the Cabinet table. The chair actually has an indention on either side - the one of the right is from a large ring that he wore and the one on the left was from him scratching - apparently there were other chairs of his with these marks as well, so his daughter told Mr. Reed. The museum is so well done. I hate that we didn't have more time to spend, but I received an email when I returned to the hotel from Mr. Reed offering to show me and anyone with me around the next time I visit London....I will definitely have to take him up on that! Very nice and interesting man! What a fabulous job as well!
Tonight we had our official opening reception and dinner at the Ritz with a special guest speaker Ken Anderson. Mr. Anderson was the former Commercial Director General at the Department of Health during Tony Blair's administration. He really had an eye opening speech on the UK Health Care system.
So that is it for the weekend in London. We covered a lot of area considering, but I know that I will need to come back in the near future to really explore this great city. There is just so much to see and do! And I love all of the British accents! I will say that I was given a compliment today on my accent...apparently they like southern accents too.
We started Friday evening by toasting our trip in the Rivoli Bar at the Ritz with Natalie, our sales contact. I had what is apparently a Ritz signature drink - champagne with a lemon twist and gold flakes....very tasty! Caroline and I then headed to dinner at Nobu, a trendy sushi restaurant which was delicious! Afterwards we had drinks in SOHO, apparently the happening part of town. We had a difficult time catching a cab back to the hotel, so we decided to jump in a rickshaw, pictured above.
Saturday our we had several more delegates arrive on early flights. I did some work that morning, then went sightseeing with Michael Burcham and Lisa Nix. We walked by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, etc. It was a beautiful sunny day...just a little chilly.
Saturday night Michael treated Lisa, Caroline and I to dinner at the Palm...fabulous! Then the 4 of us checked out the London club seen. The people watching was fantastic! We ended up going to Cafe de Paris....quite entertaining! When we arrived home at the Ritz, they didn't seem to appreciate our staying out late - the doors were all locked and they questioned us after letting us in....I guess they are more accustomed to their guests being in early. Fun night!
Caroline and I started Sunday with breakfast then went to scout out our locations for tours, dinner and meetings that are off site this week. Again, we have been so lucky with the weather - it was a beautiful sunny day.
This afternoon we had a scheduled tour for the group. It was a private tour of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms by the director. HCA is a supporter of the museum and Jack Boverder is a huge fan of Churchill as well as a friend of the director, Phil Reed. Mr. Reed gave us the up close, behind the glass tour with lots of tidbits he has learned and heard from people who were there years ago. We were able to go into the Cabinet Room as well as the Map Room and Churchill's bedroom/office while the other tourists were on the other side of the glass. The VIP treatment was very nice! He even let us try out Churchill's personal chair. There are pictures above. One is where he gave his radio speeches to the US and the other is his seat at the Cabinet table. The chair actually has an indention on either side - the one of the right is from a large ring that he wore and the one on the left was from him scratching - apparently there were other chairs of his with these marks as well, so his daughter told Mr. Reed. The museum is so well done. I hate that we didn't have more time to spend, but I received an email when I returned to the hotel from Mr. Reed offering to show me and anyone with me around the next time I visit London....I will definitely have to take him up on that! Very nice and interesting man! What a fabulous job as well!
Tonight we had our official opening reception and dinner at the Ritz with a special guest speaker Ken Anderson. Mr. Anderson was the former Commercial Director General at the Department of Health during Tony Blair's administration. He really had an eye opening speech on the UK Health Care system.
So that is it for the weekend in London. We covered a lot of area considering, but I know that I will need to come back in the near future to really explore this great city. There is just so much to see and do! And I love all of the British accents! I will say that I was given a compliment today on my accent...apparently they like southern accents too.
1 comment:
blewett you need to update your blog bc you do have one reader
Kim
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