Blogs from Kensington, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

We travelled to central London a couple of time last year to visit Wakehurst Place and Ashridge Estate, but have not gone into the West End since the pandemic began. We visited Holland Park near Kensington High Street several years ago and decided to visit there on 12th May. Firstly, we strolled around formal gardens next to Holland House. In Dutch Garden there were collections of two coloured, Pink/purple and white tulips and bed flowers and they were blooming beautifully in knotted gardens. Secondly, we went to Kyoto Garden, traditional Japanese zen garden. There were signs shown on the footpath – visitors are asked to walk around in the clockwise direction and not to stop especially on the stone bridge near the waterfall. Some people seemed to be ignoring signs – the annoyed visitor asked them ... read more

Friday 7th December. The Holiday Inn Kensington Forum - where we are staying - has 906 rooms so is always busy and none more so than at breakfast time. But it wasn't long after breakfast on Friday that we headed off to 48 Doughty Street to once again visit the Charles Dickens Museum. We hadn't even got in the door when fellow Dickensian Paul Graham from Central branch turned up. Having last seen Paul in Sydney, when he attended our NSW Dickens Society conference, it was a pleasant surprise to run into him again! After a short chat to Paul, Kev and I enjoyed another visit to the first house which newlyweds Catherine and Charles Dickens moved into in 1837 which is now the Charles Dickens Museum. Literary London was abuzz with accounts of dinner with ... read more

To finish travel day stuff... The flight from Raleigh-Durham was long but uneventful. Sat next to an AI engineer from Lenovo, and we discussed how AI can be a miracle and a curse for humanity - ultimately we agreed that we will be okay as long as we keep in person connections. We also agreed that these are becoming less and less common already and that the outlook is not good. Before long, Ambien overcame the stimulating conversation, and I slept off and on til landing at 0630 local time. The line at customs took 40 minutes for a 1 minute conversation with border patrol. A very kind Heathrow engineer (in charge of managing winter weather) showed me a quicker path to the underground. Would probably still be walking to it right now without his help. ... read more

Today began with a trip down Gloucester road to get some breakfast supplies. A Waitrose supermarket provided milk, muesli, and some bread. Consulting the underground map, we realised it was very easy to get to the London eye, as Gloucester Road station is on the Piccadilly line and so is Embankment, where we need to get off. We changed our voucher into tickets and headed for the fast entry line. There were about 10 people in our pod and it took about 30minutes to get all the way around. The weather came and went, without too much rain, but mostly grey. It was a great view over the Thames and Westminster. From the Eye we walked into the Covent garden area, past trafalgar square and into the strand. We stopped for a cup of coffee before ... read more

I awoke early reluctantly so I could be at the train on time. Found out that the ticket I booked was good for all day so I got on the first train out of Liverpool. There was no change of trains so we made it to London in 2 1/2 hours. I got to Euston Station and took the Tube to Paddington Station. No I didn't see a bear anywhere. From there I took a cab to the Elysee Hotel. Check in wasn't until 2 so after leaving the suitcase with the hotel, I walked to Argos. Argos is a department store that uses computers tablets for people to place orders. If they have it in stock at that location, the clerks go in the back warehouse section and bring it to you at the check ... read more