Walking around Glasgow #1

In my first full day spent in Glasgow, I did my usual trick of going for a wee walk.

Glasgow is an interesting city. A mixture of very old and very new buildings, and lots of little hills :-) apart from when walking beside the River Clyde, it often seemed as though I was going up or down a bit. Don't tell anyway, but I think I got a bit of exercise... ha ha ha!

I spent a fair amount of time by the river. Most of the time it was possible to walk right beside the river, and there were a large number of bridges (at least 5 or 6 suitable for walking over, plus a dedicated rail bridge) just in the areas I wandered along.

The photos show some of the sights along the river and in town. Take a look at the last three; the first of these looks a wee bit like part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the second looks like a round stadium, a wee bit like the Caketin... ok, maybe just a little! The inscription on the final image says "All Greatness Stands Firm in the Storm".

Enjoy!

In to Edinburgh

After leaving London, I arrived in Edinburgh for the first of 2 nights there, to be followed by 4 nights in Glasgow.

Arriving in Edinburgh, I was met by the ever-pleasant Moira [and later Ken], and after dropping off  the bags, headed off into town and a visit to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle was on my must do list, and it was good to spend some hours there.

What follows are a number of photos from this visit, and of Edinburgh itself.

Enjoy!

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!