Blogs from Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

From my trip to Wimbledon in 2009. Today is day one of the tournament. It might be a little too warm for me there, right now! I had a very refreshing and intoxicating drink at Wimbledon last week, and again today. Here is more about it. I may start drinking it when I get back home. With Wimbledon kicking off this week it seems like the whole world has tennis fever. Even if you don't know your backhands from your forehands, the tournament is a good reason to sample one of Britain's tastiest exports: the Pimm's Cup. Traditionally made from Pimm's Cup No. 1, lemon juice, a soda like ginger ale or 7-Up (or sometimes lemonade and soda) and garnished with a cucumber, the cocktail first made its mark in the mid-19th century as a British ... read more

Leaving Melbourne on Sunday afternoon we finally arrived in Heathrow 48 hours later eager to see Glenn, Josie and our newest little grandson Archer. Only six nights in the UK but we managed to catch-up with family as well as enjoying lots of baby cuddles. Now waiting at Heathrow for our flight to Africa, sad to leave but we will be back. ... read more

British Tour – Highlights - Blog I Sixteen days ago, we landed in England with our long-time travelling companions for an adventure to first honour the medical achievements of our friend’s uncle, intermixed with social get-togethers with various family members all combined with a certain degree of tourism. One of our first adventures was a trip down the Thames from Westminster Pier to Greenwich where finally after six attempts over the last 15 years we finally got the opportunity to visit and step aboard the Cutty Sark, one of the last remaining tea clippers. On previous visits the ship, which is in a dry dock in Greenwich, was closed for special events, restoration, including being shrink-wrapped following a fire. Now the ship is open for inspection from below her keel to the main deck and everything ... read more

Tuesday was our first formal day on tour. We had an early start to the day about 6:45 in the morning. I jumped out of bed and headed to the window to get a view of the weather conditions to be very pleasantly surprised to see a cloudy but dry day. I checked the weather and was pleasantly surprised again to see a forecast of 64 degrees and a slight chance of rain. We got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Now tour breakfasts are a feast for sure. We were treated to a full English breakfast served buffet style. There was baked beans, cooked tomatoes, sausage, eggs (powdered for sure) potato fritters, a feast of salami and hams and cheese and finally watermelon. They also had a continental breakfast area filled with many bread choices, ... read more