THE FIRST TIME we went to London together was business for Mary Elizabeth and vacation for me – the inverse of this trip.  This was before we had kids, so it was just the two of us.  We stayed at the conference hotel – a modern high-rise in Knightsbridge, overlooking the Cadogan Gardens. I was on my own most of the time, so armed with a discreet guidebook and good shoes, I set out to explore London.

I started with nearby Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Chelsea and South Kensington, wandering aimlessly most of the time, taking in the architecture, streets and squares, and only pulling out the map when I needed it.  I continued to explore farther and farther away, spending a lot of time in Westminster, Mayfair, Piccadilly and the West End, again wandering around until I felt lost.  I did a few touristy things like visiting Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London, but tried more to experience what it would feel like to live in London.

In the evenings, Mary Elizabeth and I would see friends, go out to dinner or hang out at the hotel.  I loved that first trip to London because I didn’t have a schedule or any obligations really – just carefree days of wandering, limited only by how much my feet hurt.

We returned to London several more times in the following years, staying at different hotels and exploring different parts of the city.  These trips usually also involved renting a car and driving up to the Cotswolds and the expensive but charming Buckland Manor, in a 14th century manor house several miles outside of Broadway.  We loved the freedom of having a car and spent long days exploring the many picturesque villages in the area.

We both fell in love with England and added London to the short list of cities in which we would live – other than New York.  I found the way modern life was built upon and in some cases intertwined with centuries of tradition to be extremely compelling and resonant.  I don’t think I was being particularly naive about the UK, and certainly didn’t feel like I was being hoodwinked by the idea of “merry olde england” but more a sensibility with which I was already familiar through literature, film and television.

When I started traveling regularly to London for business, we immediately began looking for opportunities to combine business and pleasure as we had on our first trip. Since I was going to be there in early December for meetings, we decided it would be fun for Mary Elizabeth to take a week off and come over with oldest daughter Charlotte who would be turning 11 while we were there.

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