Final day in London and back home

After a very enjoyable 3 weeks, it came time to return home. Darn. I spent a lazy morning and early afternoon doing very little. We [sister, bro-in-law and niece] went out for a late lunch at a local pub followed by a walk to get an icecream... yummmm, icecream! Mine included organic honey - yum, yum!

After this, a brisk walk "home" to be picked up for my ride to Heathrow.

I spent rather more time than planned at Heathrow. Firstly, the traffic was very light and so the driver set a world record for the quickest ride to Heathrow [without breaking any speed limits]. Next, from joining the check in queue to clearing immigration and security [including an explosives check on my bag!] was just 10 minutes! Lastly, the flight was delayed by 40 minutes.

Oh well, at least it was a relaxing wait, and a good comfy flight home [which it always seems to be on Air NZ].

Photos are:

Me, Ferne, Rochelle and Sam
Ferne being her usual smiley self
Departure board at Heathrow

Enjoy!

Second-last day in London

I've been back in NZ a week and I'm now back at work, but I'm slowly catching up on the posts!

My second-last day in London was spent wandering around central London. I started off with a visit to the London Aquarium. I seem to end up here each time I visit London, so it was good to see that it had changed a bit since last time. It also looks like they are still doing a bit work work on the place, so it could be worth another visit sometime.

After that, I wandered over to the Tower Bridge and up through the museum there. The view up and down the Thames is probably worth the visit even without the rest of the displays, videos, and access to the original hydraulic equipment to raise and lower the deck.

Looking out from the bridge then gave me the idea of visiting the HMS Belfast, a World War II warship which is now managed by the Imperial War Museum and moored permanently in the Thames. All over the warship are displays showing life on board [right down to fake peas and steaks being cooked up]. There's also a very interesting 5 minute video which is played in the main rear gun turret.

Anyhow, here are the pictures. The big tall building still under construction is The Shard is/ will be the tallest building in Europe [for how long, I wonder?], and the final picture is the Farringdon tube station entrance where I met up with my sister for an evening out at a [slightly funny] live comedy show with her and a cousin.

Sir Francis Drake and the Golden Hinde

7 September and Sam and I went walking around for a few hours. Among other things, we did the London Underground and London Dungeon experiences [sorry, they were dark and a wee bit scary/ funny at times] and visited Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hinde.

As you'll see, Sir Francis is in fine health, although somewhat demanding when sitting in his chair :-)

Enjoy!

London's Science Museum and Blackfriars station

It has been an exciting few days, so this and the next couple of posts are catch ups on the last few days...

On 6 September I went to London's Science Museum for a few hours. I was very impressed, it was well worth the visit! The museum had a wide variety of exhibits and interactive activities including steam engines, enigma machines and other IT stuff, biology and geography. The aviation stuff will be covered in my aviation blog in due course, but here are a few of the other photos. I particularly liked the old computers [they bring back a few happy memories!] and, for some reason, the "Woman's Friend" washing machine! ha ha ha

Other photos include Blackfriars Tube Station, a view of the Thames from the Blackfriars bridge and a photo of one of the local families.

DLR, London City Airport and the Emirates Air Line Cable Car

Yesterday was my first day of going out "exploring". The main reason was I wanted to be sure of the route to London City Airport for my flight on Saturday, but I also wanted to have a general look around. I started by re-familiarising myself with the areas around the Embankment and Westminster tube stations [this is where Parliament is as well as a number of other attractions]. I then headed back to the Bank tube station and found my way to the Docklands Light Rail [DLR] station, to work out how to get to London City Airport.

I'm glad i did, because it appears there are no direct routes to London City Airport from Bank [I could be wrong]! In any case, it;'s just a matter of taking one of the other routes and changing to the correct route at a later station. No drama's as it turns out. Phew!

On the way back, I did a bit of exploring via the DLR and ended up at the Royal Victoria station, which is right next to the Emirates Air Line cable car. Take a guess at who the sponsor is :-)

It is expensive, but it does give a great view over the city at up to 200 feet above the ground as you'll see from some of the following photos. I reckon it is well worth doing at least once - a bit like the London Eye [which I've taken on my previous visits to London], or a Thames River cruise.

Anyway, here are some photos. The first is of the London City Airport DLR station, followed by a number of views of the cable car. The 5th photo shows the Olympic Statium at Stratford in the distance. Enjoy! Wish you were here! :-)

On holiday and at the Paralympics!

Well, I've made it to London and am now "officially" on holiday!

I won't bore you with all the details of the flight [it's probably enough of a description to say 31.5 hours of travel, 5 or so hours of sleep], but I'm here, relaxed and happy!

I'm staying with my sister, brother in law and little niece, so that makes for fun times as well. It seems that 14 month olds can go from super cute to super grumpy and back again, in the blink of an eye. Fun times!

On Tuesday Rochelle [my awesome sister], Ferne [the niece] and I went to London Zoo... I forgot to take my camera [!], but in my jetlagged state, I did manage to put on my "animals taste good" t-shirt... Doh! This was commented on by the staff at the zoo entrance [I think they had a sense of humour about it!], and I felt somewhat self conscious for the rest of the trip... not the mention mocked by Rochelle! ha ha. More fun times!

Tuesday evening, we went to the Paralympics at the Olympic stadium. Wow! It was awesome! The place looked almost packed out, and the crowd was in a great mood. All of the athletes got cheered, and every who was able stood for the national anthems, irrespective of who won. Mind you, and unsurprisingly, when "team GB" won, the cheers did get louder.

I only heard two "boos" the entire evening. One was very good natured when a long jump competitor, who had already won the gold, but had one jump left, gave it heaps and got red flagged for overstepping the line. The poor umpire, but I guess everyone knew it was fair enough :-)

The other was when the British Home Secretary, Teresa May, was announced as presenting some medals, virtually the entire crowd started booing! Ha! Looks like politicians the world over are loved the same! Oh well.

Security was well organised, and everything flowed well. Even that great British tradition, the queue, was mercifully short to get in, get food, whatever.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the evening. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #28: Back in London

Well, actually, I'm back home in New Zealand now, but I thought I should finish with a wrap-up of the last couple of days in London.

After returning to London from Prague, I again stayed with my sister, bro-in-law and niece. It's a nice way to travel - staying with family - and it made for a relaxing 3 days before my long trip back to New Zealand. I had already done most of the touristy things I wanted to do which made it even more relaxing. I did however get out to a couple of interesting places.

The first was the Imperial War Museum - London. On my previous trip to England a couple of years ago, I had been to IWM Duxford, but I never made it to the London branch. I very interesting visit - lots of tanks, some planes and a few missiles, and lots of other interesting exhibits and information. I particularly liked the trench exhibit, where they had made up a mock trench to walk through.

Next was the Tate Modern (international modern and contemporary art). Not exactly a place I would rush to visit again, although the cafe had very good views. I know, maybe I just don't get art or something? :-)

Following the Tate Modern was a walk to see my bro-in-law's workplace on the HMS President. This is an old (1918's vintage) royal navy "Q ship", which is now permanently moored, and has conference, catering, wedding and serviced work facilities. An AWESOME place to work by the look of it, and the on-board bar is a great place to have a relaxing beer after work :-)

Lastly, there was a quick visit to London's South Bank area, in what they describe as "the cultural heart of the city" and "home to London's most iconic attractions, theatres, arts and design-led venues. The area is buzzing with things to see and do all year round; free events, music, film, exhibitions, dance, theatre, debates, festivals and all sorts of family fun." Also a great place to get a Polish sausage if you're feeling a bit peckish. Yum!

Anyway, that's about it. All in all, a really nice trip. The flights were good [OK, Air NZ and BMI were really good, Easyjet was... well... Easyjet :-)], Berlin was awesome to visit, Prague was ok, and fantastic to catch up with family in London! Having arrived home, I'm a bit tired, although pretty good considering. I am looking forward to having the rest of the week off work to recover though. Back to work next Monday!

Here's a few pictures of those last couple of days.

Europe Trip 2011 #4: Shopping and St Pauls Cathedral

After a lazy start to the day, I ended up shopping with my sister. Apparently [none of you would believe this], I don't have enough style sense to purchase jeans and shirts for myself! Good news however, we went to the local Gap store, and after trying on EVERY pair of jeans and ALMOST every shirt, I came away with some clothing that passes the "sister style test".

The good news is that it was then time for Rochelle [my sister, not the met-guru-flying-instructor] to have a look in a store, so I got to babysit for a few minutes outside with Ferne, who, as could be expected, behaved for her uncle impeccably! :-)

Following this we split up for the day and I ended up doing a bit more sight seeing, including St Pauls Cathedral. What an awesome place this is! It would be hard enough designing and building something like this today, much less several hundred years ago! the "tourist's ticket" [permitting entry to the tower and the crypt] is a tad expensive, but the views around London are great. Here's hoping it doesn't get crowded out by skyscrapers!

Anyway, here are a few photos. Two from the outside and two from the very top of the tower/ dome looking down on the river. BTW - the red arrow in the second picture was where I took the last two pictures from. Nothing but an old iron fence and a thin walkway to stop you from falling! Awesome!