Piccadilly Circus—the Times Square of London—was only a short distance from our hotel. Needless to say, we had passed through there a few times throughout the week. It never dawned on me that this junction would be pretty impressive at night—though it should have. Given it’s design of “Piccadilly lights,” it only makes sense that this place would be fascinating to see at night, all lit up. Now, at the end of our week in London, I would accidentally discover that … all because I was hungry.
We were beyond 9pm, and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It had been a long day!
- The day started with breakfast at the hotel
- Spent the late morning/early afternoon at Covent Garden
- Walked around the West End of London for a bit
- Paid a visit to the Churchill War Rooms
- Spent the remainder of the night at The Admiralty, where the Philadelphia Eagles held a pep rally for their upcoming game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium
You would think we would have eaten at some point, right? I think we got messed up at the Churchill War Rooms. You see … we became adjusted to roughly two meals a day during our trip—breakfast at the hotel, then a late lunch/early dinner. We generally skipped an otherwise typical lunch because we were out doing some touristy stuff. That would usually conclude around 4-5pm, at which point we would eat, which would get us through the rest of the night.
Today was different. When I got to the War Rooms, I wasn’t really hungry. But … then I was in line for two hours, and spent probably another few hours inside. By the way, no food at the museum! At least I don’t remember seeing any. It didn’t matter; Kathie abandoned me in the line to get in, so she wasn’t with me anyway. But surely I would leave the War Rooms and we’d get something to eat … or so I thought.
The Admiralty
I met Kathie at The Admiralty, a pub and restaurant at Trafalgar Square, to be a part of the Philadelphia Eagles pep rally was being held—which I might add, was frigging awesome! Obviously it would make sense to eat there. So here we sat in this overly packed restaurant—no food in sight. Guess it was too busy for that. Well, I wasn’t leaving. Offering full support, we didn’t leave until the pep rally concluded—sometime after 9pm. Now we could find something to eat!
A Walk Through London
Typically, we would hop the tube from that part of town to get back to the hotel. In fact, our intention was to find a place to eat, then make our way to the Underground.
Have you ever turned on the TV, scrolled through three hundred channels, and still couldn’t find anything to watch? Well, that was us trying to find dinner. In one of the largest cities in the world—a Friday night mind you—the options were endless. Somehow, we just couldn’t seem to find anything that jumped out at us. We kept thinking something better awaited us around the corner.
One excuse after another: If it was a steakhouse, we didn’t really want a full dinner. Pizza joints, we wanted something more than that. Those in between, I just wasn’t sure of it. We did approach one place we knew we could count on, but I though, I didn’t come to London to eat McDonalds! I almost did it, though.
In reality, the root of our problem was we couldn’t find a regular old pub. That was all we were really searching for. All week, there was a pub on every corner, everywhere. Tonight, nowhere to be found! How was that possible?
We made our way through Leicester Square, which led us to Piccadilly Circus. I felt like I was in Times Square. Well, mini Times Square. Lights, lights, and lights! The same lights and signs we had seen while passing through during the day, but against the night backdrop, it made for great pictures.
Continuing down Piccadilly, we found a place that looked like it might work. Some Eagles fans came out and we knew they wouldn’t steer us wrong. They gave the place their seal of approval, which worked for me. Of course, we were greeted by a hostess with news that they were no longer seating. Places really do close early over here!
By this point, we were only a few blocks away from our hotel, and it was clear we wouldn’t find anything. Defeated, we returned to our hotel, where we enjoyed a bite to eat—and of course some drinks—at the hotel bar.