On The Road … to London … Vicariously

It's a different 'on the road' story than usual.  I'm in downtown Alexandria, LA visiting with the team at Freedom Tours LLC this week, catching up on all the latest happenings.  While I've not been jet-setting around as usual this fall, they have been winging off to some of my favorite places and so I'm living vicariously through them as a way to connect my travel stories with their current experiences.

Today, we're going to London to enjoy some incredible food. Incredible food? In London? But, of course. Most folks think pub food - but think continental, think cutting edge, think nouveau cuisine - think back to the early to mid-90s and that's when you'll find the food scene changing in London.

Now, when people go to London, they find every imaginable world cuisine there is and Michelin stars abound. You've seen Gordon Ramsay's various TV shows and probably know his many restaurants so you know how much the London food scene has changed. It all began back in the early 90s, when chefs from the Continent began to invade London - many because they couldn't find places to cook, to dream, to experiment - France and Italy had long been the places turning out haute cuisine and young cutting-edge chefs. Market saturation drove many young chefs across the English Channel to London and beyond. Those of us who love London, and those who live in England and across Great Britain, have benefitted greatly as a result.

Scottish Lobster at
The Greenhouse
Photo Courtesy of
The Greenhouse Website

I remember my very first meal in London.  Having heard the stories of British food being bland and awful, I was not looking forward to this first meal. Growing up in a food family in New Orleans ensured that I would be highly critical. I lowered my expectation and proceeded to The Greenhouse in Mayfair for a late lunch with friends. OMG! What a treat - a beautiful vegetable tart, savory with a lovely custardy texture, followed by the most tender, melt in your mouth - and tasty - beef in a puff pastry and a dark chocolate mousse to die for … it was as good as anything I'd eaten in New Orleans's finest restaurants. A pleasant surprise and I raised my expectations for food options in London.

This new tradition of modern, contemporary cuisine continues today throughout London, and I'm happy to report that after 20 years of eating around the city, my expectations have always been met!! I've enjoyed wonderful meals in some of the best food in places you would never expect - like the Cellarium Cafe in Westminster Abbey or St. Martin in the Fields' Cafe in the Crypt, where I've enjoyed many a dinner before an evening of Jazz or a classical concert. I've stumbled into restaurants by simply following the aromas while passing by - Kazan on Wilton Road not far from Victoria Station - is one of those that I've gone back to a number of times because the food is fresh and amazing and the service is top-notch. For chocoholics - their Chocolate Pyramids are a trip to heaven!

Dim Sum at the Mango Tree
Photo Courtesy of Harrods Website

What makes the London food scene so fabulous is that you can find good food anywhere in the city these days and much of it is in places like Harrods, the Whole Foods on Kensington High Street and places that are easily accessible as you move through the city. I love the fact that most of the food is simple, yet layered with flavor to entice and surprise at every turn.

My travel colleague, Brenda White from Freedom Tours LLC has a completely different perspective. She recently returned from 10 days in London, walking the city from top to bottom, while enjoying a variety of foods - both traditional and modern. Enjoy her blogpost, 'On Holiday, As They Say!' and experience another side of 'foodie London' for yourself!

Wouldn't It Be Loverly ...

It seems that I write about Paris most of the time when I post. But, it was London that first won my traveler's heart. Just before I turned eight, I was treated to my first trip to Chicago with my Aunt Rose, my godmother and a kindergarden teacher, with whom I always traveled during my childhood. She above all is most responsible for my love of and passion for travel.

Photo Courtesy Paramount/CBS

It was on this trip that London became alive for me as I sat in a darkened theater in Chicago's Loop and watched, 'My Fair Lady' - a wide-eyed child on her first travel adventure. A year later, my idol, Audrey Hepburn, created Eliza Doolittle on the screen, and I would fall in love once again with the glamour, pomp and circumstance of London. 

It would be more than 30 years later that my own feet would walk the lanes and boroughs brought to life for me by Eliza Doolittle. Now, there is never a time that I visit London that doesn't include what is my personal 'My Fair Lady' stroll through London Town. During my 2001 London trip, I was fortunate enough to catch an exquisite revival of 'My Fair Lady' with Jonathan Pryce as Higgins and Martine McCutcheon as Eliza, and it once again cemented my love for this most enchanting city.

We forget how often movies and television inspire our deepest feelings and evoke a spirit of adventure in all of us. How many times have we seen a film or program and wondered what it might be like to live in another time period, a foreign city or a completely different life? 

Travel, like movies, gives us a glimpse into another world, and often, let's us have a taste of the past, the present and the future all at the same time.

Traveling to the Movies ...

So are you ready to take a trip of a lifetime to the movies? 

Are you ready to walk in the footsteps of 'Downton Abbey's' Lady Mary Crawley or Lord Grantham at

Highclere Castle, Newbury

Highclere Castle in Newbury? Or stroll though the Versailles-like gardens of Boughton House, Northamptonshire, which represented its French counterpart in Les Miserables? Perhaps you'd prefer to follow 'Alice In Wonderland's' White Rabbit or revel in the wizardry of 'Harry Potter' at Christ Church, Oxford? 

Does the sleuth in you cry out for the clues so craftily laid out by Agatha Christie or deduced by Sherlock Holmes at Hatfield House, Hatfield? Or shall you look through Hatfield House in search of Colin Firth ready to make 'The King's Speech'? 

And if these are not enough to remind you how film and video help to create our world, step back in time to watch the investitures of kings and queens at Buckingham Palace - think 'Young Victoria', the first British monarch to reign from this magnificent palace. Watch the British monarchy break with Rome at Westminster Abbey - think 'Anne of A Thousand Days' or 'A

Boughton House, Northamptonshire

Man for All Seasons'. And finally, these same historical characters and many others were imprisoned and executed in various ways at the Tower of London.

Yes, London and the countryside that surrounds this magnificent city has long been the 'set' for some of the greatest films and television series of the past century. And, while you can enjoy some of these places on your own, there's nothing like having a knowledgeable British guide to lead you on a behind the scenes tour of all these real life movie 'sets' on England: A Tour of British Movie Production Sites, hosted by Freedom Tours LLC.

As many of you know, in addition to my consulting and coaching business, I work as a travel architect with my 'travel partner in crime' - Annie Collins at Freedom Tours now based in Alexandria, Louisiana.    By doing this, I am able to indulge my own passion for travel, while sharing my travel experience with others to help fan the flame of their wanderlust. 

I am thrilled to see this new travel adventure that has been added to the roster of hand-tailored travel adventures FT is offering. I've been lucky enough to spend so much time in the last almost 20 years in and around London and Scotland. 

Cairngorms, near Aviemore Scotland

There's nothing like the English countryside in the summer and Scotland is breathtaking anytime of the year. Scotland had never been on my radar until I became a big fan of the BBC series, 'Monarch of the Glen'. On one of my trips to London, I took four days and visited 'Monarch country' in the heart of the Cairngorms mountain range. Those four days are among my most memorable in all my years of travel - but that's another post. 

I love movies because they have taken me places that I'm not always able to go. But, even more important, they have encouraged me to explore my independent travel spirit in ways that I might not have imagined on my own. 

I hope that some of you will think about joining FT on what promises to be a delightful jaunt through the English countryside with some of your favorite movie characters, and maybe, even me as your FT guide. Wouldn't it be loverly??