Blogs from Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Our train trundled on slowly into London . The information board and the on board system gave out messages from time to time about which station was coming up next ; which station we were stopped out: the end of the line. We arrived at Wembley stadium station and disembarked together with a large group of town supporters all resplendent in red and white . Different shirt tops marked each era for the club . Some new . Some much older and more valuable . We walked out to the stadium . You couldn't miss it in the Spring sunshine with its massive white arch that could be seen all over the skyline of certain areas of London . We wandered along slowly . Kick off was not until 4.15 so we had a lot of ... read more

Our primary targets for today's assault on London were Westminster Abbey, the Churchill War Rooms, and the London Eye. Westminster Abbey is a huge edifice nearby Parliament and Big Ben. The church is officially the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster. Its founding at that site is said to have originated when a fisherman boy saw a vision of St. Peter at the site. Thus began a tradition of the Fishmongers Company presenting the church a salmon every year, a practice that extends back for centuries.In 1080 Sulcard reported that a church had been built on the site in the 7th century CE, but there is little evidence to positively support that. What is known from recorded history is that an order of Benedictine monks was established there by St. Dunstan and King Edgar in ... read more

On our second day in London our main target was The British Museum. This fabled collection has long haunted my imagination. From my two visits to the Parthenon, I well understood that I could not really envision the reality of the original Parthenon without seeing the marbles that formed the friezes and under the gables and pediments of that ancient shrine. The collection in London also includes one of the caryatids from the Erechtheum as well as pieces from the Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike. Better known, perhaps, is the Rosetta Stone that allowed translation of hieroglyphics. The museum collection is more comprehensive than comprehensible. It seems to be arranged more by date than by geography, which to me seemed somewhat startling. There is a large room filled with Egyptian sculpture near the bespoke ... read more

A mix of the old and the new over the last few days - the traditional and the modern. Kicked off with a visit to Queenie and the changing of the guards. Bit of pomp and ceremony framed by lovely flowers…and decorated by the arrival of Charlotte to meet us. Beautiful stroll through St James Park before we split up - Mel, Eloise and Charlotte to the Harry Potter walking tour and us to the Tower of London. I’m not sure who was more educated - the Harry Potter tour guide or the Tower visitors. By all reports, a good time was had by all on the tour, even if no one else could get a word in. The Tower visit was great - we’ll set up audio guides tailored to kids and adults but following ... read more

Today’s objective was to not repeat our visit to Chessington of 15 years ago. Charlotte’s enthusiasm for the Dragon’s Fury roller coaster was dampened significantly on the way up, with the chant of ‘I want to get off, I want to get off!’ echoing around the park. No such issue for Eloise who spent a large portion of the time in the hour plus long queue wanting to get on. Lucky it was worth the wait! Beeb had a lovely time feeding the bevy of Humboldt Penguins - a whole bucket of fish to get through and her assumed pace of eating made for a long VIP experience but she loved every minute! All of them had sweet individual personalities and it was fun getting to know them a little bit. The day was rounded out ... read more

Almost two years of border closures, twice rescheduled and once rebooked and we were almost ready to leave. Not before two weeks of dramas preceding our departure - a possessed beeping fridge, ear leech, misspelt international vax certificate, three house sitter cancelations, an international covid iso curve-ball and a crazy anti-cat lady cleaner…and breathe…we were FINALLY on that bloody plane! Genevieve couldn’t handle 13 hours without drama of some sort, so filled the trip from Singapore with a fun game called ‘catch the spew’. My skills were honed significantly after the first round when I learned that a bag was much more effective than bare hands. So we were pretty happy to get off the plane and back onto solid ground…particularly since it wasn’t ground within a 10km radius of our house. It’s amazing how things ... read more