A Royal Christmas

We arrived to the United Kingdom after a delayed Monday morning flight on December 13. Little did we know at the time that our planned seven day visit to Great Britain would last more than two weeks – more on that nightmare later.

Our adventure began with some rest and relaxation in the English countryside of Hertfordshire at the Hanbury Manor, a Marriott Hotel & Country Club. With its fragrant walled gardens, stately Jacobean country house and over 200 acres of Hertfordshire parkland, the historic Hanbury Manor was beautiful. Considered London’s "Original Country Retreat,” GI.JOE took full advantage of the décor and surroundings and had a full-on holiday photoshoot. You can see our authentic Christmas card below!

On Wednesday, it was off to the city of London. After checking in to the Astor Hyde Park, we made our way to the famous O2 Arena, one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe and host to hundreds of celebrity concerts annually. The venue was awe-inspiring as its massive space hosts several restaurants, nightclubs, a circus and more. GI.JOE was there for The Night Work Tour by the Scissor Sisters. The opening act was Hurts, an English synthpop duo from Manchester composed of singer Theo Hutchcraft and synth player Adam Anderson. The Scissor Sisters delivered a two-hour set of disco jams with their unique and eccentric performance style. After the concert, we made our way to Soho and danced the night away at the Shadow Lounge.

We woke up on Thursday to a typically cloudy and rainy London. However, nothing would stop us from seeing the sights. We joined up with the New Europe tours that began at Hyde Park Corner and took us around to all the main spots including

Buckingham Palace, Churchill’s War Cabinet Bunker, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, St. James’s Park, 10 Downing St., Big Ben and more. Following the tour, we paid a visit to the infamous Madame Tussauds wax museum. A London staple, the museum is a theme park in itself with rides, exhibits and 3D shows. GI.JOE took photos with all the top celebrities including the recently revealed Lady Gaga statue. The Gaga statue displays her wearing the gigantic Philip Treacy telephone hat she sported on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in March 2010. After an exhausting few hours of photos galore, we hightailed it to the West End to see the stage musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The show was incredible, especially the outlandish costumes and elaborate musical numbers. Shortly after intermission, the cast invited audience members to the stage for a short dance. One of the female dancers saw me and pulled me up on stage… of course, I stole the show! ;) The show doesn’t open until March 20, 2011 at the Palace Theatre in New York City.

On Friday, we finished our London sightseeing with stops at more of the cities’ landmarks including St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, Millennium Bridge, The Monument, The Tower of London, The Bank of England, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge and more. Our night began at G-A-Y Bar, a popular meeting point for London’s hip homos. After a few drinks we paid a visit to G-A-Y nightclub for their popular Friday night, G-A-Y CAMP ATTACK. The DJ paid classics and current Top 40 jams in each of the club’s four rooms. We were in heaven with all the UK pop songs and diva tunes.

We honored “Shopping” Saturdays by stopping by the world's most famous luxury department store, Harrods, along with the other stores along Oxford Street and more. For nourishment, we did like the locals and had an authentic Fish & Chips meal at a local English pub. Delicious! After some rest, we went to Purl London, a revolutionary cocktail bar that combines elements of Victorian Gin Palaces, prohibition Speakeasies and forward thinking cocktail technology. The underground bar was reminiscent of the cooler New York City spots and the cocktails put any and all Miami “mixologists” to shame. After cocktails at Purl, we again went to Heaven for G-A-Y Saturday, London’s (and some say Europe’s) largest gay and lesbian party. The place was packed and the energy was palpable as the UK’s season seven runner-up of The X Factor, Rebecca Ferguson, was performing at the club that night. However, something was brewing… something bad. We had already heard whispers of a big snow storm coming to London and Gino and I were already feeling under the weather. We called it an early night and went back to our hotel for some rest before our flight the next day – or so we thought.

The next day we had an early afternoon flight but we woke up to London covered in snow and it kept falling throughout the day. Needless to say, the nightmare had begun. Our flight was canceled and Heathrow airport was closed. We found out soon enough that we would not be leaving until the following Sunday – a full seven days later. The news reports all said the same thing – Heathrow was a mess and there was no easy solution. The BBC said the airport looked like a third-world country of travelers stranded for days and airlines being unresponsive and unhelpful. Thankfully, my father was able to get us a hotel for the remaining days but by then GI.JOE was deathly ill and in no mood for this travel mess. We would be spending the holidays in a hotel in London – BUMMER. We made the most of our days there by trying to get better and staying low-key.

Finally, on Sunday, December 26 we got out of London and returned to the warmth and sunshine of Barcelona.