London, Travel, Where to stay

The Exhibitionist Hotel, London – Quirky & Affordable

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A few weeks ago, Ellie & I decided that as London travel bloggers, we should probably make more of an effort to check out London hotels. Neither of us had stayed at one for the past 25 years or so. When we saw an offer for The Exhibitionist Hotel, an upmarket boutique hotel in South Kensington, for £135, we booked ourselves in for one night in a standard double. That night was last night. ROOMS AT THE EXHIBITIONIST HOTEL START FROM £125, SUITES FROM £275 During the season, the price goes up to well over £400. Larger-size (but still very small) doubles with balcony have a price range from £170 to well over £500. The suites range from £275 to well over £800. While the hotel is listed as five-star on booking websites and called five-star in previous independent reviews, in fairness, they do not mention five stars on their […]

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Art and Culture, London, Plays

1927’s Play Please Right Back at the Southbank Centre, London

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In hindsight, it’s hard to see how Ellie & I could have missed until tonight the sterling work theatre production company 1927 has been doing for almost 20 years here in London. We just watched their latest play ‘Please Right Back’, at the Southbank Centre. The play premiered in German language as “Mehr als alles auf der Welt” (More than anything in the world) a little over two years ago in Vienna (it is a co-production with Burgtheater Wien). After a complete redesign the English language version premiered in July 2024 under the current title in Canterbury, which is lovely, because we have visited both cities during the past 3 weeks. Ever since July 2024, the play has been touring the UK (incl. a stint at the Edinburgh International Festival in August) and it’s only in London for two weeks until Sunday, 5 January. Tickets are still available and cost […]

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London, London restaurants

Barshu Restaurant – Delicious Sichuan Cuisine in Soho

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When it comes to Chinese food, Sichuan cuisine is probably my second favourite out of the eight main cuisines of China, right after Cantonese, and it is certainly one of Ellie’s top three. Recently, the good people of Barshu restaurant in Soho, a stone’s throw away from London’s Chinatown, invited us to check out their Sichuan cuisine. So we did. SICHUAN – A FASCINATING PROVINCE Sichuan is one of the more interesting provinces in terms of its history, geography, and nature, not just its cuisine. The Western part of the region sits on the Tibetan Plateau and used to form part of Tibet over many centuries. Today, less than 2% of the population of Sichuan are ethnic Tibetans. The tallest mountain is Mount Gongga. With its 7,556m of elevation, it is the third highest mountain outside the Himalaya/Karakoram range. The forests are teeming with giant panda bears. Well, there are […]

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Fun, London, Travel

We did it! We won the RGS Christmas Quiz! YAYY!!

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It’s only about three months now, since Ellie & I started attending events at the Royal Geographical Society, most of which are open to non-members. So far we loved all of them: lectures, such as a recent one about the Northwest Passage, various whole event series about expeditions like the Everest expedition of Mallory and Irvine or Ranulph Fiennes’ Transglobe Expedition, a two-day expedition workshop called Explore Symposium. Last night three buddies of ours and the two of us took part in the RGS Christmas Quiz. And we won!! The tickets had cost £25 per person and included plenty of snacks and either one glass of wine, a bottle of beer, or a soft drink. You could buy more drinks and snacks from the bar.   Pictures clearly taken during the quiz, incl. pics above, feature photo, Royal Albert Hall (c) BerkeleySqB. Rest (c) Pexels free stock photography, except where […]

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Art and Culture, London, NWP Expedition

The Northwest Passage and the Quest for the North Pole, an RGS Lecture

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Two days ago, I attended a lecture by Eugene Rae, the Principal Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, entitled “The Northwest Passage and the Quest for the North Pole” at the Society’s headquarters in South Kensington. It was an absolutely fascinating event, which involved Mr Rae walking us through roughly 150 exhibits relating to the subject matter, mainly books and maps, but also photographs and original items from the various expeditions, such as scientific instruments, tin boxes, and so on.     Pic #1 Map from time of Franklin Expedition showing “King Williams Land” as peninsula and not as the island that it actually is, which could explain strange and dangerous route Franklin’s expedition took towards end of their expedition’s journey. Pic #2 shows expeditions of Amundsen.   THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE HAS ONLY RECENTLY BECOME A HOT TOPIC FOR ME Mr Rae has held his current position for almost a […]

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