When in London Do as the Romans

Hello and welcome to a wet Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 20th.

While the Oldest was recuperating from her wisdom teeth removal, my husband and I set off for a short trip to London to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I can count on half a hand how many times we have taken a trip together without kids since we got married. And if you're definition of a honeymoon is going on a post-wedding vacation to bask in the bliss of togetherness before married life starts, well, we didn't have one of those either. Go big or go home, I thought to myself when I started planning this London trip. We've been home plenty, so might as well go big.

The impetus for this London trip was my husband's love for ABBA. Ever since they launched ABBA Voyage in May 2022, this has been a bucket list item. Each passing year, our family has discussed how to make this trip happen. After the Eighth Grader and I spent a day in London on a whirlwind bus trip seeing all the highlights, I knew I had to make a hubby/honeymoon/anniversary trip happen this year before the show stops running.

This BBC article says it best:

"The concert has been in the works since 2016 and features ground-breaking new technology that recreates the sight of Abba in their 1970s prime, playing hits like SOS, Voulez-Vous and Lay All Your Love On Me. To create the spectacle, the band performed in motion capture suits for five weeks, with 160 cameras scanning their body movements and facial expressions. Those became reference points for hundreds of animators and visual effects artists to create avatars of the band in their heyday.

Affectionately known as "Abba-tars", the characters are not 3D holograms - as everyone involved in the production is at pains to point out...The images might be 2D, but impressive lighting effects and back projections provide a crucial depth of field - creating the illusion that the band are really in the room with you."

I cannot overstate how real the Abba-tars look and sound. It was absolutely incredible and felt SO real. As we danced and sang along with the crowd, my husband had tears in his eyes. (If you click on the link to the article I provided above, you can see a short clip of the show.) 

We were absolutely blown away by the show and intoxicated with nostalgia and genuine feel-good love vibes from the entire venue and audience. We bought loads of merch: a sweatshirt, t-shirt, baseball cap, poster, stickers, keychains. Even after the show, my husband raced to the gift shop to buy an ABBA Voyage stocking cap. "I have to have it," he declared, his usual frugality dropped like a forgotten cloak on the dance floor. 

Making our way back to Tottenham Court Road in central London, we enjoyed a fish & chips with a Camden Hells beer before flopping happily into our Airbnb student housing steal-of-a-find right in the heart of the theatre district, one block from the River Thames.

Friday, we did a Westminster Guided Walking Tour with Abbey Entry that started at the Ritz hotel at the top of Green Park, down to Buckingham Palace, where we saw the marching band and guards coming in for duty, and ended at Westminster Abbey with a self-guided tour. Again, my husband nearly wept with joy as he ate up all the history about British politics, government, and religion. Our tour guide, Ash, summed up Westminster Abbey well as a "Who's who" list of folks buried and/or commemorated in the church. The architectural splendor goes without saying.

That night, we did the 3 Locks Brewing Company Tour and Tasting Experience in Camden. It was fun to get a bit farther out of the city and experience a new neighborhood. It was another homerun with my husband. Here's the review I wrote on Tripadvisor:

"We have been on lots of brewery tours and my husband is an experienced homebrewer. This was hands down THE BEST brewery tour we have ever had in the world. Michael has incredible in-depth beer and brewery knowledge that took this experience to a whole new level. I came away believing Michael is an artist and beer is his canvas. Our small group was lovely and we all sat together afterward and chatted for a bit. Also, the pre-tour beer, in-tour flight, and post-tour beer were generous in size. We ordered Honest Burgers right from our seats, the meal arrived within minutes, and were absolutely delicious. HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you genuinely love beer."

Saturday, our last day, we explored London's History with an archaeologist. I found this experience on the AirBnB website and it's worthy mentioning that I've had good experience with AirBnB-advertised experiences, such as Hike to Van Gogh’s Auvers-sur-Oise that I absolutely loved, loved, loved.

Here's the review I wrote for our London archeology tour:

"We were thrilled to get a behind-the-scenes walking tour of London that informed and revealed the Roman presence in London. Because of this tour, when I was in the airport, I bought the book A History of Britain in Ten Enemies by Terry Deary, which was a great recap of all the learning we did on Khalid's walk. (And I'm not even a history buff! The book is great, too, btw. Very funny and does a good job making the history stick.) Khalid was an exceptional host, and the archeology angle was exactly what we were looking for during our short 3-day stay in London. After the tour, we went on to the Guildhall Art Gallery to see the partial ruins of a Roman amphitheater."

After a gorgeous pizza and tiramisu at Vasiniko's and a quick mass two blocks away at Corpus Christi Catholic Church (across from the Maple Leaf on Maiden Lane where Canadians stood outside to take their picture) we crossed Trafalgar Square (said hello to George Washington standing on his Virginia soil so as to "not" be in England), and made our way to Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty's Theatre before taking a bus back out to the airport hotel.

At midnight, happy with our whirlwind of adventures, but also sort of hungry, we headed over to a restaurant called Myst because of its great reviews and nearby location. When we walked in, we were greeted with a hazy smoke and a restaurant-bar filled with mostly men smoking shisha. We wavered for a second, wondering if we would be welcomed into this crowd, but the alternative - McDonald's - was a hardcore no-go, so we took a seat. We had the best lamb kebab and naan we had ever tasted.