Am in London this week to give the opening keynote at EPublishing Innovations 2008. Despite the 2008 in that title, it's a new conference with a limited initial budget. Despite its being held at the Marriott Regency Park Hotel, they've booked me into the Hotel Danubius. Both hotels are in St. Johns Woods and reasonably near each other (ten minute walk or a four minute taxi ride). Moreover, the Danubius is across the street from the London Central Mosque and one block from Regents Park itself (the Marriott is some ten blocks from the park) and from Winfield House, home of the U.S. Ambassador

As I suspected from its name, however, the Hotel Danubius isn’t a Anglo-Saxon hotel. Its the only hotel in the United Kingdom operated by a Hungarian hotel chain. So, what does one do when one stays in a Hungarian hotel in London?
Well, when in a Roman hotel, eat Roman. Sure enough, the restaurant in the Hotel Danubius is great at Hungarian food but only average at English dishes. So, I’ve spent several days eating great goulash in the hotel and walking outside it amid veiled Islamic women who are accompanied by Islamic men smoking water pipers at the cafe across the street from the mosque. Welcome to this block of London town!