Backdated. Posted 7/11/2017 We’d booked with Singapore Airlines, so unsurprisingly our stop-off back from Europe was in Singapore, where we landed at 6pm local time. Our connecting flight wouldn’t leave until 2am, so I decided to see if we could leave the airport for a few hours and have a quick look around the city. ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 29/10/2017. Before we headed back to Australia, one more day in London to explore… at least for most of us. Three of us were catching an evening flight, but M had to head back 12 hours earlier, departing on a morning flight. I walked her to the station and helped her (and her ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 21/10/2017) Our second last day in London. While the others had breakfast, I ducked out of the flat to try and find a post office, as I’d neglected to give one of my relatives a souvineer from Australia, and thought it best to mail it while we were still in England. The nearest ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 1/10/2017) Our mission today was to get locked up in the Tower Of London. Oh, sorry, I mean to see the Tower Of London. We headed on the Tube to the Tower. Tickets booked in advance the night before meant we could bypass at least one of the queues, but it was still ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 29/9/2017) Good morning! It was garbage day in our street in Chiswick. As usual, you notice the little things that are different from home. In the London Borough of Hounslow, the garbos (what’s the local term? Not sure) don’t have an arm on the truck that grabs the bins; they have to manually ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 21/9/2017 Time to head back to London for the last few days of our holiday. We packed up our stuff and left the Air BNB flat. A word about the flat. It had been chosen for its location (walking distance to Brussels Midi/Zuid station), which along with the price, which were its best ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 18/9/2017) Monday! Our last full day in Brussels, and also a day when, generally, most museums in Belgium are closed. It was raining in the morning for the first time on the holiday, apart from some drizzle in Penzance. We got a little wet walking down to the Metro, and decided to use ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 15/9/2017. We headed back to our Brussels Zuid/Midi Station, wary again of infestations of pickpockets, but again seeing none. Seriously, I was doubting the numerous reports of this — either they’re invisible to me or they simply aren’t there since the military and police have moved in following recent terrorist attacks. I bought ... [More]
Backdated. Posted 7/9/2017 I was starting to get more comfortable in Belgium. It was getting easier as we realised how many people spoke English (most of them) and as I picked up a few words of French. We had worked out a few more things to do while in Brussels – and on this Saturday ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 2/9/2017) What with sleeping in after a big day, and clearing the laundry backlog that had built up since Cardiff a week before, we didn’t leave the house until after midday. So if we only did one thing today, make it something good. Given we were in Belgium, and I’m a lifelong Tintin ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 26/8/2017) Good morning! It’s 5:30am! Here’s your breakfast tray! Actually the sleeper train wake-up call was not as perky as that. And it was fine getting up, despite being early, because I’d set my phone to beep 10 minutes beforehand. I pulled up the blind and looked out the window. We were sitting ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 22/8/2017.) Unlike the budget hotel in Bath, this hotel in Penzance included a full English breakfast, of which we availed ourselves. Very tasty. We’d be spending the day in and around Penzance, but leaving in the evening, so we had to check-out. The hotel initially seemed a bit iffy about having the space ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 16/8/2017) We bade our farewells to the family and my uncle K gave us a lift to Taunton station. First step to our next destination was a train to Exeter, or to be precise, Exeter St Davids. As with Bath a few days earlier, Exeter is served by multiple railway stations, originally built ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 15/8/2017) Sunday, and today was the day we were scheduled to meet all the English relatives – aged from 2 to 92 – this was one of the primary reasons for the trip. But first – breakfast! We hit the streets of Bath in search of food, discovering yet again that before 8am, ... [More]
(Backdated. Posted 10/8/2017.) The hotel, being a cheapie, didn’t offer breakfast, so we sprung out around 7:30 looking for food… and discovered that almost nowhere in Bath is open before 8am, at least not on a Saturday. Eventually (eg at 8am, or just before) we found a great cafe near Bath Abbey just opening up, ... [More]
Friday morning in Cardiff, yet another warm sunny day — I was in danger of getting sunburnt. The locals all swore it was highly unusual to have this much sun — apparently “sunburn” and “Wales” are words not often found in one sentence. Time to head elsewhere, but first, one more walk to Cardiff Bay ... [More]