London in January

We recently completed a four-night stay at the Metropole. This is a business-class hotel with a great deal of conference room space. The hotel is conveniently located near Paddington Train Station where you are just 15 minutes from Heathrow via the Heathrow Express. I understand it is about a five-minute walk to the hotel from the train station, although we took a cab which ran about £4.

The lobby of the hotel is very nice with lots of marble and a lobby bar that was packed every evening of our stay. As a Hilton Gold member, we had access to the executive lounge, which was very nice. We had breakfast there each day of our stay. For breakfast, they had a good selection of cereals, breads, fresh fruit, meat, and cheese as well as drinks. We also used the Executive lounge in the evenings for a cocktail and appetizers. They had a wide assortment of hard alcohol and beer and a different red and white wine each night. There was an assortment of appetizers available each evening.

The rooms were fairly small but clean and well-appointed. We had an executive room which had a small desk, TV with internet service, and a chair along with the bed. The room was equipped with a hair dryer, teapot, safe, and ironing board. You will need to bring a converter for the outlets if you want to use a curling iron or other electrical appliance. The service was prompt. Our bags were brought up quickly and we requested some additional pillows, which were delivered within 10 minutes.

The hotel is conveniently located near two underground stations that make it an easy point for exploring the city and surrounding areas. The Edgeware Road station for the Bakerloo line is just a block behind the hotel and the Edgeware Road station for the Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines is just a block away to the East of the hotel. From these underground stations you can easily get to all of the main sights of London. We usually took the Bakerloo line to go places.

Across the street from the hotel was a small Marks & Spencer store that with not only the standard assortment of clothes had a wide selection of fresh food (sandwiches & salads). There is a Starbucks within two blocks of the hotel and a McDonald's just past that for those that have a Big Mac attack.

The Cabinet War Rooms are very interesting even to the non-history buff. These rooms were used by Churchill, his cabinet, and military commanders during the Battle of Britain and most of WWII.

You tour the facilities with the help of a guided audio tour, which helps transport you back 60 years ago. Many of the rooms are preserved just as they were left at the end of the war. The map room was especially interesting. This room has the original maps that British war planners used to plot the positions of Allied and enemy ships. You could easily see the key trans-Atlantic shipping routes by all of the pinholes in the map.

The Cabinet War Rooms are conveniently located near Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We took the underground to the Westminster stop and walked the few blocks to the exhibit.

We were able to get a 50% discount with an offer from the London Underground system. There are brochures available in most station lobby areas that have a number of coupons for London sights and shows. You can use these coupons in conjunction with an all-day pass from the Underground to get this discount.

This was one of the most entertaining musicals that I have seen. Even if you are just a casual fan of the great 70's and 80's band Queen, you'll love this show that features many of the band's best known tunes. By the end of the show everybody in the audience is standing and cheering. The entertaining plot is a warning on how much of today's music is manufactured by image consultants and not the heart felt rock and roll of the past and how a group of "Bohemians" is trying to revive rock and roll even though it is against the law. You'll love the Bohemian's names if you're a pop music fan.