Day 2 - OAM - Sunday, 7 June 2015 – London

Breakfast was at 7 and the choir had to be ready to go because they were singing at a church service. Breakfast was buffet style and offered cereal, prunes, ham, cheese, and pastries along with tea and coffee. At breakfast, we heard that some of the girls' phones got “fried” by the outlets even though they were using a voltage converter and a power strip. The bands also had to be dressed and ready to go because we were departing directly from the church to the park where they were performing. The choir left by bus early for a rehearsal at Wesley's Chapel. The rest of us took the remaining buses to the chapel later which wasn't too far from the hotel after a delay waiting for 2 sleepy headed teens who missed their wake up alarm. The Sunday morning service was at 11 am.

The Methodist religion had been founded by John Wesley and this was the location of his house. They seated us all upstairs in the chapel. The minister was quite funny and welcomed all the visitors from Oklahoma (and Alabama – they apparently didn't have enough students to form their own tour so they joined ours). The choir singing in the chapel brought tears to my eyes – it was so beautiful. I had remarked to Seth after the concert in Ada that the choir really did well with balance - no overpowering sopranos, hidden altos, or timid tenors and basses. The solos weren't always quite on but the entire chorus sounded great. The choir directors who weren't conducting also joined in singing in most of the pieces except a couple of the show tunes (from Wicked and Frozen).

Unfortunately, I think jet lag overcame quite a few students and parents during the sermon. The choir sang 2 pieces and during Communion. The service lasted about 1.5 hours after which we made our way to the buses (parked a few blocks away) and left immediately for Victoria Embankment Gardens. Our schedule was pretty tight for the next few days. I'm still thankful for the awesome weather we had in London. 

Once all the buses arrived, the band students were given lunch bags first – they only had about 15 minutes to eat before their concert. The rest of us were given sack lunches that included water, a ham sandwich, chips, cookies, and an apple. We enjoyed our lunch sitting in the grass.

I went to the bathroom following lunch and before the band concert. The cost of entry was 50 pence that you put the turnstile machine to get in. It was a pretty standard bathroom in my opinion – not sure what it won awards for.

They had been asking everyone what their plans were for the free evening and pointed out that for those attending theater shows the next evening, this was the only time they had to ride the London Eye. Since we had dinner reservations this evening, we opted to skip the band concert and go, instead, to ride the Eye which was easily within walking distance. We bought expedited passes to get on the Eye which was not something I was super interested in doing but it was kinda neat – the capsule rotated slowly as the wheel rotated and we did have some spectacular views of London. The inside of the capsule was also nicely air conditioned.

We walked back to Victoria Embankment Gardens just as the band was finishing up. More instructions were given. Adults were allowed to go off and do whatever they wanted but they made sure that all students traveling alone stayed with one of the groups – the one visiting the Eye, or the one going to the museum, etc. All of the students disbanded to their respective groups but we rode the red bus back to the hotel to change for our dinner reservation. We were joined by a couple of other people who returned to the hotel as well.

We had a bit of time before our reservation so I went downstairs to the fitness center. The city coordinators had told us that the fitness center was for members only but I suspected that wasn't really the case and was right when I went downstairs and was told that hotel patrons could use the fitness center for free. I ran on the treadmill for 4 miles and went back upstairs to shower and change for dinner. We planned to take a taxi to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon which was only a couple of miles away but Amina had taken a nap and overslept. She didn't answer her cell phone, the room phone or a knock on her door. When I finally called her for the umpteenth time, she woke up and threw on some clothes and met us downstairs. It was well past 6:15 pm for our 6:30 reservation. There was about 2 minutes of panic for me when I thought that we couldn't find her. I had called ahead to the restaurant to let them know that we would be late.

We waited a bit for the hotel car service to arrive to take us to the hotel. In restrospect, we really should have used Uber. We arrived at the restaurant about 15 minutes late. The restaurant was very small and looked like it had been a sushi restaurant in a past life. We were seated at what looked like a sushi bar which surrounded the open kitchen. We opted for the 8 course tasting menu with french wine pairing. The meal was quite good but did not compare to the one we had at the Joel Robuchon restaurant in Las Vegas. We noticed the wine glasses weren't really appropriate and neither was the silverware. We were used to having nice wine determined glasses as well as silverware according to the course. I wondered if maybe because of their location and restaurant size that there just wasn't room to store a zillion wine glasses and different types of silverware. The wine pours were not very forthcoming for the charge but the wine was good and paired well.

Amuse Bouche - Royale of foie gras, aged port reduction, parmesan foam

Sologne Imperial Caviar on salmon tartar

Marinated scallop with girolle mushrooms and cider vinegar

soft boiled egg with mushroom foam

roasted scottish lobster w tarragon, gnocchi, and Chateau Chalon sauce 

black cod with pea puree and wasabi

free range quail stuffed w foie gras and mashed potatoes

queen victoria pineapple bubble, popping candy, and tonka ice cream

champagne sorbet, fresh strawberries, with tahitian vanilla light cream

Petit Fours

We chatted for a bit with the single guy sitting next to me who turned out to be an American ED trained physician who was working for Roche Labs in the safety department. We took an Uber back to the hotel which was much more efficient and better priced.  One of our favorite evenings of the trip!

Next Post (Day 3)