Discovering London & Oxford
Landing at Heathrow on a fine spring morning and looking west over spectacular rolling hills towards Oxford is a pleasure to any weary traveller but to a first time visitor from Brazil, the experience is doubly breathtaking. Such was the great fortune of my colleague Guilherme, on a "flying" inspection to assess plans for a VIP trip for some local distributors.
Out of arrivals, into a car and despite the early morning rush hour, we were soon free of London, on our way to Oxford and our first stop a traditional English pub but not before a "quick" visit to HQ in Slough. Far From The Madding Crowd, a truly wonderful oasis in the heart of this great city, serves fine ale and some hearty and very tasty food, my friend was definitely persuaded that this venue should be on the shortlist.
Refreshed and refuelled off to the city centre for a few store
visits; this trip can't be just all fun, fun, fun. Product
volumes and placement scrutinised, this element of our visit came
to a swift and satisfactory conclusion, allowing us to move on to
the delights of our overni
ght hotel Malmaison, a converted prison
where the bedrooms used to be prisoner's cells.
After checking in and a breather we were soon back on our hind legs and off to look at local restaurants; the job was becoming more difficult as Guilherme unsurprisingly was inspired by the beauty of the local architecture; photo stops at every turn but a guaranteed repeat visitor to Oxford too.
Happy that we had found an ideal venue for dinner, we retired to perhaps the most amazing pub in Oxford the Turf Tavern, something straight out of Alice in Wonderland, where we dined in a raucous but friendly atmosphere and tested some further fine offerings of liquid charm. "Good stuff this how you call it... real ale?"
Then to the strains of students having fun, we ambled back to our beds for well earned rest.
A bright dawn gave way to clouds and mizzle, undaunted east we go to London to meet a bilingual guide at the V&A Museum; more gasps and a determined "I will visit again", then to business. "Perfect just perfect, she speaks the language like a local", another box ticked and off to the centre of town, for some more inspections and my best efforts to be a tour guide too!
Despite the weather my compatriot found everything "amazing and ideal" thus leaving us a little time for leisure before dinner at Min Jiang a fabulous Chinese restaurant atop the Royal Gardens hotel, where over a lovely meal, with two other clients, it was agreed that the plan for the trip was almost perfect.
A nightcap in Covent Garden and I waved my new found friends off into the night, to sample the late night aspects of our fine capital and a busy couple of days of tourism.