[London, UK, Jan 20, 2024]

On our last day in London, we took things pretty easy.

We had booked a James Bond movie tour with our London City Card. It was a hack we discovered to help “extend” the card’s validity. Although our cards were only valid for 3 days, we booked this tour for after the card’s expiration. Besides, even though we aren’t huge Bond fans, we thought the tour would give us a chance to see London from a different perspective.

Our tour began at the Charring Cross tube station. It was featured in Skyfall and it was fun to see the changes that were made for the movie. For example, a tunnel was made to look as if it had a bunch of shops in it, even though it doesn’t. And a cleaning closet door was made to look as if it lead somewhere else. The station was renamed in the movie but those in the know recognized it by the color of the tiles on the walls.

Rules restaurant, the oldest in London, was featured in Spectre. M, Q and Moneypenny meet here and you can reserve the very table used in the movie. You can also get Bond’s favorite drink, a Vesper Martini here, but our guide said the best one is actually at Dukes Bar.

Art featured prominently in Skyfall. I wish I knew this before I visited the National Gallery yesterday, so I could see The Fighting Temeraire and other works featured in the movie.

More Bond locations were just outside the National Gallery. The Malaysia House served as MI6, and the rooftop at 55 Whitehall is at the end of Skyfall.

The Admiralty Offices (wrapped in scaffolding, unfortunately) and the Admiralty Arch were in Golden Eye.

We walked through the Horse Cavalry and Westminster again, the scene of a famous chase in Skyfall. Closing this major thoroughfare was not easy, but the Brits would do anything for Bond.

An unexpected treat was riding one of London’s famous double-decker busses to Vauxhall, where we saw the actual headquarters of MI6.

The building was designed by architect Terry Farrell and completed in 1994. Located on the the south bank of the River Thames in Vauxhall, it has become one of London’s most famous postmodern buildings. Its distinctive green-and-cream facade pays homage to Art Deco. The building is equipped with state-of-the-art security systems, including walls and windows designed to withstand bullets and bombs, and a “Faraday cage,” which prevents electronic eavesdropping from hackers.

The tour ended here and we were very close to Harrods, so we headed there to see the famous department store. I am not a huge shopper, so we just took pics from the outside.

We walked through the edge of one of London’s biggest parks, Hyde Park, on the way to the trendy neighborhood of Mayfair.

We randomly chose a Mayfair restaurant for dinner. Sparrow turned out to be quite the treat. We started with arancini and wagyu carpaccio.

For my main dish, I had the Marrow pasta with braised beef while Ash enjoyed the spaghetti puttanesca.

I also had excellent pisco-based drink – I became a pisco lover on my 2012 visit to Peru. The tiramisu for dessert was also great.

Although this was not a Michelin-star restaurant, it made us want to do a food tour of London next time we visit. What a great way to end our week in London!