Take a break

Do we have any Hamilton fans among you? Well, you can certainly consider my family as 4. Well, 3 - my dad is more of a willing participant than an all-out FAN. Regardless, after going to see the award-winning musical in February this year to celebrate my brothers 21st, we just knew we had to go back and see it again. And the tickets are far from cheap, but that's just how good it is. So when the winter tickets were released back in July, we were all sat on various phones and iPads (on holiday in France, I might add) waiting to join the cutthroat race when the tickets were released. Once again, we were successful and managed to get 4 stalls tickets (we'd previously been sat one level up, in the Royal Circle), so we planned a little trip to London around it.

We had booked the matinee performance, so we planned to arrive in London in time for lunch and then stay over on Saturday night. The hotel we chose was the Kensington Gardens Hotel which was very lovely (although not very soundproof, because it was an old building). And it was ideally located in Bayswater, just a few tube rides from Victoria (Hamilton is shown at the Victoria Palace Theatre).

We normally plan/book restaurants in advance when going to London but this time, we were very unlike us and decided to wing it. Which definitely paid off, because we ended up at the coolest lunch spot. Flight Club is actually a darts club, but a super instagrammy, non-old-man take on it. You walk up an indoor helter skelter to get in and the place was packed with people playing darts and bottomless brunching. It also had a super pretty roof terrace which I bet was heaving when the weather was nicer! I had a pink spritz and mac and cheese which may have painfully burnt the roof of my mouth (clearly I was too eager to eat) but was very good.

Victoria Palace Theatre is so beautiful and impressive and as we got to our seats, we were all on the edge of them as we wondered whether or not this performance could possibly live up to the one we previously saw. And yet it blew it out the water. The seats were much better (despite being typically thought of as 'worse') because you got more absorbed, you were much closer, and you couldn't see the mechanism of the rotating stage so the magic felt more real. The cast was also a different one than the previous one we'd seen and as far as I was concerned, every character was stronger (except Eliza, who kept singing very quietly). The new Alexander Hamilton is miles better, with more charisma and personality pumped into the character than the actor before him (who seemed very much like he was just reading lines). It was also better to watch the performance when you already know the plot and the songs off by heart (from listening to the soundtrack on repeat for months). If you haven't seen Hamilton yet then you need to go and see it. If you've already seen Hamilton then go and see it again. Me and my mum are already plotting a third visit...

After a quick outfit change at the hotel, we'd planned to go to Winter Wonderland for the evening. But mum and dad didn't realise it was "essentially goose fair" (rather than some kind of magical ice kingdom) and the queue was ridiculously long. Plus, I've been many times before and always think Nottingham's is just as nice. So we sacked that off and instead went for a drink at a super cute pub that was absolutely dripping in fairy lights.

From there, we went for dinner at Angus Aberdeen Steakhouse, which was very good. Although very strangely, they seemed to bring ketchup to every table as standard - NOT a steak accompaniment. But despite the faux pas, the steak was amazing and the place itself was cosy and Christmassy.

We weren't planning on hanging around for very long on Sunday because Aidan needed to get back to Leeds, but we couldn't leave without having a mega breakfast first. We had the most amazing bakery-come-cafe just round the corner from our hotel so we went there and basically got one of everything - the almond croissants were especially good! They certainly kept us going all the way back to Nottingham.