London, Day 1: Our arrival and Chinatown

Clockwise from upper left: Chancery Court from the street, our deluxe room, the facade of the building in the inner courtyard, fruit and wine amenity

Arrived on time at Gatwick's north terminal and after getting out luggage, we went straight to the M&S Simply Food to get a picnic lunch for our half-hour train ride into London. We took the Gatwick Express and spread out our impromptu packed lunch - sushi for my son, two roast chicken sandwiches for my husband and I along with an Edamame and snap bean salad for my husband and a roasted vegetable couscous salad for me. The salads were surprisingly very good and the sandwiches were filled to the brim with sliced chicken breast, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes on malted bread. All this we finished off with a container of mixed fresh fruit (melons, strawberries, seedless grapes and apples) and some fresh lemonade.

We took a taxi from Victoria station to our hotel on High Holborn, the Renaissance Chancery Court, near the theatres of the West End and Covent Garden. Our deluxe room overlooked the inner courtyard and had enough room to have a rollaway bed near the window for our son. They also left us a bottle of wine and fruits plus a Paddington bear ( a London classic with a rain slicker, red rubber boots, an umbrella and hat) plus union jack rubber ducky for J who was very impressed with his personal amenity. After unpacking, we decided to go to Waterstone's on Piccadilly to replenish my supply of English books and to buy the Monopoly that we had promised our son.

After browsing around the large store, it was almost 5:00 p.m. and we were hungry again. What with the time difference, it was already 6:00 p.m. for us, so we walked down Shaftesbury avenue, enjoying the warm weather and walked towards London's Chinatown on Gerrard street to find some dim sum for our early dinner. We ended up at the tried and tested Golden Dragon - a favorite that I had been to many times before. Unfortunately, we had just missed the last of the dim sum so we ordered from the a la carte menu instead.

Top row: scenes from Chinatown and the Golden Dragon's facade; Middle row: roast duck and pork hanging from hooks in the window, crispy beef and noodles; Bottom row: Stuffed bean curd with broccoli, roast duck and slat and pepper spareribs

We had a small portion of roast duck with plum sauce, salt and pepper spare ribs, crispy beef, prawn-stuffed bean curd with broccoli and vegetable fried noodles. The roast duck and bean curd were exceptional and the other dishes didn't disappoint as well. At first, I thought we wouldn't be able to finish all that we had ordered but I guess I didn't realize how hungry we all were. After our satisfying meal, we took a short walk up the street then hopped in a cab and went back to the hotel to rest after our long day of travelling from Malaga.