St. Ives and London, Sunday, June 8, 2025
The little train station in Saint Ives was about a three minute walk from our hotel. Breakfast was a little nervous making because it only started at 8 AM and we need to leave for our train at 20 till nine. Our table, with Rory and Pravan, was served last, but we managed to get at least some of our poached eggs and toast down.
St. Ives is on a small branch line that runs to Saint Erth and we were soon changing platforms for the train to London.
Six of us, minus David and Patti, sat around a couple of tables for a very comfortable ride to London. We course talked about every stage every hotel and every meal.
We parted company at Paddington. Gary and Cindy had an early flight to LAX and were staying at the airport; Rory and Pravan were meeting friends for a trip to Scotland; and David and Patti were staying in Marylebone and meeting us for dinner.
We were greeted at the Londoner with a very nice surprise: an upgrade to a corner suite! We only glanced at it, though, because Andrew D. was waiting for us downstairs.
Sue and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we had a (superb) wild mushroom risotto and a cheese board along with some Nyetimber sparkling wine.
We hadn’t seen Andrew since October and we had a lot to catch up on! The time flew by, and before we knew it we had talked for three hours!
Islington isn’t far from central London but it takes a while on the tube. The hard part , though, is getting from the Islington and Highgate station to Trullo, another nephew and niece recommendation. The busy intersection was barely navigable but we finally negotiated the 300 feet.
We had a great evening and a good meal with David and Patti and then introduced them to the joys of riding home late at night on the upper deck of a red bus!