Unsurprisingly, we didn’t get round to finishing the last entry to the blog when we got home. It might be October, but I thought it was time to finally complete it!
After a good night’s sleep in a very comfy bed, we headed down for breakfast. The spread was, unsurprisingly, rather good, but we were booked for lunch at Atul Kochhar’s restuarant at 12, so resisted filling up too much!
A couple of hours later and we were spruced up and ready to go! We had lovely views of Buckingham Palace en route in the taxi.
It was funny lugging two week’s of luggage into the entrance of a Michelin Star restaurant! However, they were more than happy to store them away for us. We were then ushered upstairs, where we were initially seated in the bar, as they were still setting up for the lunch service. This was actually rather serendipitous: as we sipped on our “summer cocktails” and nibbled on the smoked and salted nuts, who else the but the man himself, Atul Kochhar, wandered past us, greeting us in a lovely friendly manner! It turned out that they were having a photo shoot for the new menu, so he was there (presumably) to cook and supervise.
Eventually we were taken to out table and the feast began! It started with mini poppadoms, which were served with a delicious range of pickles.
While waiting for our starters to arrive, we enjoyed ear-wigging on the various conversations that were going around us. Most of the other patrons seemed to be there for business lunches and one pair were discussing merging multi-million pound businesses and drilling for oil in India! What a different world they live in to ours!
Our starters arrived, along with the sommelier. We’d decided to have the “wine pairing”, rather than shelling the same amount out on a wine that might not have gone with both of our meals. Unfortunately, the wine he’d chosen to go with my starter was a Sauvignon Blanc – the one white wine that I really, really cannot stand! After I had politely explained this, the wine expert whisked another bottle from behind his back, explaining that he had brought a back up choice just in case! It turned out to be Pinot Gris from Alsace – one of my favourite wines! We tucked in, both enjoying the food and the drinks. My starter, though incredibly tasty, was also incredibly spicy, so it was followed by a trip to the bathroom to blow my nose lots!
Even the water was branded!
The mains came shortly after my return. The sommelier had quickly learned my taste in wine and produced a chilled glass of Gewürztraminer to match my aubergine tart. I think Tom was a little jealous!
We finished with desserts and sweet pudding wines. By this point, we were getting a little nervous about getting to the station in time for our train home. This was also the point that the waiters turned up with a very large complimentary glass of Champagne each and a beautiful cupcake, all to congratulate us on our marriage! It was such a lovely touch, but we had about 10 minutes to eat our pudding, drink the wine and down the bubbly!
And then they brought petit fours; we had to have these and the cupcake put in a “doggy bag” to take with us!
Completely stuffed, we paid the bill, grabbed our luggage and jumped in a taxi, arriving at Kings Cross just about comfortably on time! Settled into the first class carriage, we enjoyed a quiet journey home (with a slight delay for a poorly passenger), reminiscing on the most amazing honeymoon.
Back in Sheffield, Dad picked us up and took us back to theirs for a lovely catch up over a cup of tea, before delivering us back home.
All that is left for us to say is a massive thank you to our amazing friends and family. Thank you for making our wedding day so special and so wonderful. And thank you for your kind and generous contributions to our honeymoon. They meant that we really could make it a honeymoon to remember and we hope that this blog has given you a taste of just how special it was. We just hope that we can afford to return to the wonderful island of Sicily again at some point in the future!
Lois and Tom
xxx