Hotel Mercure Kensington

The breakfast was totally chaotic. On arrival there was no juice, fruit bowls or cereal bowls. I pointed out there were no bowls and the waitress said she would get some.  I waited five minutes and nothing happened… I gave up and went to fetch my side plate and put the fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blackberries) on there. The plates ran out twice and people were stood queuing for a cooked breakfast. On the plus side the toast arrived for a change, however it was white and not the brown we had asked for.

After the manic experience we fetched our bags, checked out and sat in the relative peace of the hotel reception area to wait for our car to arrive back from where it had been parked by the valet service.

Kenilworth Castle

On our journey back we had a brief stop at the motorway services to stretch our legs and drink a refreshing cup of tea.  This was followed by a longer stop at Kenilworth Castle for lunch. I enjoyed the garden which I had not seen before. Unfortunately the viewing platforms were closed as restoration work was being done on the tower, so Mr C didn’t get to see the view from the dizzy heights. We then resumed our journey home for a well earned rest.

Elizabethan Garden

6 Comments CherryPie on Aug 22nd 2014

6 Responses to “London – Day Four”

  1. Oh, dear, the breakfast does sound chaotic! Glad you had the peace of the Kenilworth Garden later.

  2. J_on_tour says:

    You seem to remain positive through a great deal of issues today.

    “a brief stop at the motorway services to … drink a refreshing cup of tea.” love that phrase, how things have improved over the years.
    I’ve always got stories about Hotels that I didn’t personally book being with others in a party. I once stayed in a Holiday Inn in Yorkshire for a conference that filled the hotel. The breakfast consisted of only three hot items (think it’s a holiday Inn thing) and everybody only got a combination of only two items as the hotel couldn’t cope with the demand. I remember another function I attended in a hotel in Scarborough living on past glories … it also couldn’t cope with a large booking in the 21st century.

    • CherryPie says:

      The breakfast experience is one I find typical for London. This was actually better than the other London hotels I have stayed in.

      We often stay in Mercure hotels in France and in England they have a distinctive style and standard which is quite acceptable to us. The breakfasts normally run quite smoothly even when I have traveled with a large party (on more than one occasion) that all descended to breakfast at the same time.

  3. That bear reminded me of Berlin!
    Don’t know why….