{"id":273,"date":"2012-04-28T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T00:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/?p=273"},"modified":"2013-04-28T19:49:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T03:49:46","slug":"an-evening-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/?p=273","title":{"rendered":"An Evening in London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m trapped in London, England for the night, which isn&#8217;t bad at all. What happened is that my flight from Vancouver, BC got delayed, so I missed my connecting flight in London. Needing to spend the night here, I opted for a hotel at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heathrowairport.com\/\">London Heathrow Airport<\/a>, considering that my flight is tomorrow; early afternoon. I figured I should avoid spending the night in London, and then having to make my way back to Heathrow, during the day. This way I&#8217;d sleep in, check-out, check-in, then go grab some lunch. I looked around, and since my flight departs from Terminal 4, I choose a hotel there. I ended up picking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yotel.com\/Hotels\/London-Heathrow\">Yote<\/a>l, which has capsule style rooms. And, that&#8217;s the only reason I picked this hotel. I was curious to try it out, considering that I&#8217;m only spending one night. Well, actually it&#8217;s not quite a capsule type room. It&#8217;s much bigger than just a bed. They also have slightly bigger rooms; for two. Nevertheless, it was enough for me, and for what I needed. Coming to think of it, I&#8217;m not sure what is the ongoing rate for regular-sized hotel rooms at Heathrow airport, compared to rooms\/capsules at Yotel (I was charged $125 for the night), and whether it&#8217;s worth it, other than the fun factor.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, the room has a bunker style bed, with a flat LCD TV, a table, and a full washroom. And by full (though small) I mean a standing shower, sink and a toilet.<\/p>\n<!-- index.php -->\n<div\n\tclass=\"ngg-galleryoverview\"\n\tid=\"ngg-gallery-804e6e517e801cc5c2e5d8a33e308ab2-1\">\n\n    \t\t<!-- Thumbnails -->\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"ngg-image-0\" class=\"ngg-gallery-thumbnail-box\" >\n\t\t\t\t        <div class=\"ngg-gallery-thumbnail\">\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/dsc01749.jpg\"\n               title=\"London Heathrow Airpoort: Yotel\"\n               data-src=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/dsc01749.jpg\"\n               data-thumbnail=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/thumbs\/thumbs_dsc01749.jpg\"\n               data-image-id=\"310\"\n               data-title=\"dsc01749\"\n               data-description=\"London Heathrow Airpoort: Yotel\"\n               data-image-slug=\"dsc01749\"\n               class=\"ngg-fancybox\" rel=\"804e6e517e801cc5c2e5d8a33e308ab2\">\n                <img\n                    title=\"dsc01749\"\n                    alt=\"dsc01749\"\n                    src=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/thumbs\/thumbs_dsc01749.jpg\"\n                    width=\"250\"\n                    height=\"150\"\n                    style=\"max-width:100%;\"\n                \/>\n            <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"ngg-image-1\" class=\"ngg-gallery-thumbnail-box\" >\n\t\t\t\t        <div class=\"ngg-gallery-thumbnail\">\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/dsc01751.jpg\"\n               title=\"London Heathrow Airpoort: Yotel\"\n               data-src=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/dsc01751.jpg\"\n               data-thumbnail=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/thumbs\/thumbs_dsc01751.jpg\"\n               data-image-id=\"311\"\n               data-title=\"dsc01751\"\n               data-description=\"London Heathrow Airpoort: Yotel\"\n               data-image-slug=\"dsc01751\"\n               class=\"ngg-fancybox\" rel=\"804e6e517e801cc5c2e5d8a33e308ab2\">\n                <img\n                    title=\"dsc01751\"\n                    alt=\"dsc01751\"\n                    src=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/gallery\/london_2012-p1\/thumbs\/thumbs_dsc01751.jpg\"\n                    width=\"250\"\n                    height=\"150\"\n                    style=\"max-width:100%;\"\n                \/>\n            <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n        \n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"ngg-clear\"><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<p>It&#8217;s funny that my delayed flight has caused me to spend the night in London, as while planning for my trip, I had considered spending the weekend in London, but then decided against it, as I have other commitments, and I didn&#8217;t want to waste time upfront. But, here am I, in London, malgr\u00c3\u00a9 moi! So, I dropped my luggage in my Yotel room, hopped on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tfl.gov.uk\/modalpages\/2625.aspx\">Tube<\/a>, and headed towards London. This would be my second time in London. The first time was during the Summer of 2007, where I had spent the weekend there with a couple of friends. Anyways, I couldn&#8217;t remember were the cool stuff was, as I wasn&#8217;t planning to spend an evening in London. So, I decided to get off at what seemed to be a &#8220;city center&#8221; station and were it seemed that the station was busy: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/King%27s_Cross_St._Pancras_tube_station\">King&#8217;s Cross<\/a>. I walked around, got me some dinner. I thought about getting into some comedy club; for a show, but didn&#8217;t have enough motivation to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, on my way back to an <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/London_Underground\">underground station<\/a>, I passed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pret.com\/\">Pret A Manger<\/a>. This is a pre-made sandwiches &amp; deserts &#8220;fast food&#8221; chain from the UK. I&#8217;m guessing their name is a word play from <em>pr\u00c3\u00aat-\u00c3\u00a0-porter. <\/em>Note that fast food doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean hamburgers &amp; fries! Anyways, I know this chain as I often fly through London Heathrow (to connect to the rest of the world), and they happen to have a store in terminal 5. I love their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pret.com\/menu\/pret_pots_desserts\/lemon_cheesecake_pot_4202.shtm\">lemon cheesecake desert<\/a>. Every time I\u00c2\u00a0 fly through Heathrow, I make the effort to fill my belly with their lemon cheesecake pot! So, I walk into their store in London, I buy myself a couple sandwiches and a few of their lemon cheesecake pots, then back to the hotel I head.<\/p>\n<p>Back in my room, I savor the delicious lemon cheesecake desert! It&#8217;s really too bad that Pret A Manger&#8217;s only branches in the US, are on the East Coast. If they had one in Seattle, WA, I&#8217;d be making frequent trips to their store. Or, perhaps I should find a local store that has equally good lemon cheesecakes. Maybe I just don&#8217;t eat enough lemon cheesecake, so I got easily swept away by a fast food&#8217;s good but perhaps bland to others lemon cheesecake. Note to self: Find good lemon cheesecake in Vancouver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m trapped in London, England for the night, which isn&#8217;t bad at all. What happened is that my flight from Vancouver, BC got delayed, so I missed my connecting flight in London. Needing to spend the night here, I opted &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/moundji.com\/?p=273\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/DSCF0884.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1hS6L-4p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moundji.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}