Friday 30 August 2019 – Bucharest to London

Anniversary day! Today Ros and I have been married for 8 years. We have come a long way, literally, in that time! What better way to start our anniversary than with a 4:30am wake up 🙂

After getting ready we headed downstairs with our bags. As we were heading out of the room one of the guys said he would take our bags – it was like he was waiting nearby! Well, he was – we found that out when we went downstairs. They had a notice on the board downstairs (that wasn’t on there the previous afternoon) saying to leave bags out of the front of the room and they would pick them up. They also said there was a breakfast box at reception. It was enough to eat and drink at that time of day.

The bus only took about 20 minutes to get to the airport at that time of day. We did wait in line for approximately 30 minutes waiting to check our bags in. But we finally got everything sorted and made it to the lounge. We didn’t have much time there given how long it had taken to get through security, customs etc. We were then on our way to the plane, on a bus.

Boarding was relatively easy – half the plane going through the front and other half through the back. A couple of other people from the cruise were on our flight, so there was a few familiar faces. The flight from London to Bucharest was 3.5 hours long, with clocks going back 2 hours. We landed at 9:30am local time, which was really 11:30am in Bucharest. Our driver wasn’t there on arrival and was about 20 minutes late. Getting out of the airport was the easy bit. As we got closer to our accommodation in London it became hectic.

Streets were partially blocked off and there was lots of traffic everywhere. We managed to get to our hotel, which was located right next to Chinatown and in the middle of everything in Leicester Square. Our room was not quite ready, but that was ok as they stored our bags and we went for a wander. We found the M&M World, directly below the hotel, Legoland – opposite the hotel, Fortnum & Mason – just up the road, where we had a snack.

The rooms in W Hotels are all a bit quirky. This one was no different. They had the toilet and shower off to one side with a large bench in the middle of the entry with the sink etc. The bed and tv were further on. The bed was large and very comfy – easy to fall asleep on!

Following a bit of a rest in the room, we got ready for dinner and a show. Dinner was at a restaurant recommended by the W Insider, Farzi Cafe. It was Indian food with a bit of a twist. The food was fantastic – a little bit spicy on one or two for me, but still very tasty. Ros didn’t know what show we were going to see, only that we were going to Her Majesty’s Theatre. The theatre was directly across the road from the restaurant, not far to go at all.

We were able to go in and upstairs to the bar in preparation to see ‘Phantom of the Opera’. The show was excellent, as were the seats. It finished about 10:30pm and we wandered the 10 minutes back to the hotel.

Upon getting into the room we were given a surprise – the hotel had given us a lovely red velvet cake and Champagne to celebrate our anniversary. Lovely touch!