London 02: City Sightseeing with Dad

Monday, July 07, 2025

My dad was arriving from the States today and I thus had no other plans than meeting with him once he arrived. I hung out at the hotel most of the morning and then went over to Canary Warf to do some reading at Starbucks. My dad’s flight landed slightly later than scheduled, but he soon messaged me that he was getting on the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow, which would take him directly to Canary Warf. I was impressed that he was able to find his way all by himself! Around 13:30 he arrived at the Canary Warf stop and I met him at the exit to the Tube station. We then walked over to the hotel to drop off his bags – and he was able to see the reality of the tiny room. Dad and I then returned to the Canary Warf mall area to get a late lunch.

Dad was heading out on a Second Word War themed tour through London, France and the low countries. My uncle was joining him on the tour, but he wouldn’t be arriving until I left London, so I wouldn’t be able to see him this time. My flight out of London is on Friday morning, and Dad was supposed to head over to the hotel where the group tour would be meeting. Since he would have to navigate the Tube on his own to get there from Canary Warf, I suggested that we head out on a “dry run” this afternoon so he could be somewhat familiar with the route.

His new hotel was near the Victoria & Albert Museum, which thankfully only required him to change Tube lines at Paddington Station. I walked him through the entire process, making sure to point out the exact route he would need to take on Friday. He wrote down the directions so he wouldn’t forget and I quizzed him as well to make sure he remembered. It was one thing to do this with me, it would be another thing entirely to do it by himself while also carrying his luggage.

For dinner tonight we decided to get Chinese food. Once I had shown him his hotel, we took the Tube over to Leicester Square and then walked to the Chinatown area of town. It was busy, as usual, but we found several restaurants that looked promising. We eventually settled on one that had good reviews online and sat down for dinner. Dad had sweet and sour pork, while I had lemon chicken. The food was good and filling!

We then took the Tube back over to the hotel for the evening. We managed to get an extra comforter from the hotel for this evening so I could use it to sleep on the floor. Over dinner, we had decided to book a second hotel room for the remainder of the trip so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor the entire time. I felt bad that we had to incur this extra cost. I managed to get a room at the same hotel where we’d stayed back in January, when my parents, Thinh and I were in London following the wedding. Originally I’d hoped to book that hotel for dad and me when we planned this trip, but they didn’t have any rooms with two beds available.

Neither of us stayed up too late this evening. Dad was tired from the long flight over from the States, but he’d done pretty well staying awake throughout the day. The next three days would be much busier for us though as I had planned quite a bit for us to do!

 
Tuesday, July 08, 2025

This morning dad and I woke up by 06:30 and got ready to head out for a full day in London. Our primary plan was to visit the British Museum, where he wanted to see the Ancient Egyptian exhibits. First, though, we needed to get breakfast. Dad suggested getting doughnuts somewhere and I found a local shop relatively close to the museum. It was empty when we arrived and we each had two doughnuts that were very yummy! Sadly, the coffee was mediocre, but one never expects to find truly good coffee in England…

After breakfast, we walked over to the Fitzrovia Chapel. Built in the late 1800s, the Gothic-style cathedral is quite small, but nevertheless very beautiful. I had wanted to visit the chapel for a few years, but never made the time to actually visit before now. Everything inside was perfectly restored and maintained. The ceiling of the cathedral was golden with stars added throughout, with stained glass windows lining the entire room. One niche next to the entrance was covered with vibrant blue tiles, which was my favorite part of the chapel. We spent only a few minutes visiting as there was not much to the chapel, but we were both glad to have visited.

Our entrance tickets for the British Museum were scheduled for 12:10, but we were able to enter nearly an hour early! The museum was packed with visitors, including numerous school groups. I grabbed a map and we set off to explore the various exhibits. I told dad that we would go anywhere that he wanted to visit – I had been to the museum before, so this was all about what he wanted to see. We walked through some rooms containing ancient Greek and Roman artifacts as we made our way to the Egyptian wing.

Dad was very excited to see everything in these rooms – he’s had a long-term fascination with ancient Egypt. The rooms were small and very crowded, but we managed to navigate our way around to see everything on display. The museum had several sarcophaguses, and a few mummies, as well and countless other artifacts brought back from Egypt. I started showing dad how to use his phone to take good photos – something he would need to do during his upcoming trip since no one else would be there to take them for him. He ended up taking over 100 pictures during out time at the museum!

Part of the Egyptian wing was closed, so we made our way back downstairs and over to see the Rosetta Stone. The crowd around the stone wasn’t too big and we were able to quickly make our way to the front. I took photos of it so dad could spend the time actually admiring and marveling at the writings carved into the giant stone slab. Dad and I wandered around the large display rooms nearby, which contained more Egyptian statues. He was thoroughly enjoying our time at the museum.

We then walked through the nearby antiquities wing, seeing exhibits from modern-day Iraq, before heading to the ancient Greek rooms. The ancient Greek exhibit contained numerous statues and sculptures from Greece. I navigated our way over to see the top attraction in the section: the Elgin Marbles. These are a collection of sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. In the early 1800s, around half of the surviving statues were taken by Earl of Elgin (hence the name) and brought to London.

When we finished at the museum, we took the Tube back over to the hotel so we could grab my bags and get me checked in to the other hotel. It was relatively easy, just time consuming. Once I had dropped my bags at the new hotel, we took the train back over to central London for the evening. We were seeing a play this evening, but we first needed to get something to eat for dinner. We’d hoped to get pizza, but the wait time was too long. I suggested we try a Japanese fast-food place nearby and, surprisingly, dad agreed (he doesn’t usually go for foods that are unknown to him). Dinner was tasty and filling – and quick, thankfully.

Our play for the evening was called “My Master Builder”, starring Ewan McGregor and Elizabeth Debicki. I had no clue what the play was about – I had suggested that we see it simply because of the stars who were performing. When we arrived at the theatre, we were both shocked by how close our seats were – second row! I remarked that the seats had not been expensive whatsoever – our were at the side of the stage, but we had a completely unobstructed view. The play itself was very good and all of the actors did a very good job. I felt that the two female leads were the true standouts from the show, almost sidelining Ewan McGregor entirely.

When the show ended, we made our way back to the Tube so we could return to our hotels. I left dad at the Canary Warf stop, where he walked back to the hotel and I took the DLR over to Greenwich. My hotel room for the night was spacious, but ridiculously hot inside! Despite advertising that the rooms had air-con, they only had some “cooling system” that guests could turn on or off, but not control the temperature. It was basically a glorified fan that had zero cooling effect in the room. I ended up sleeping with the window open in order to get some cool air into the room.