Cheerio London Town

Hi Folks

We were up early for our departure to London’s Heathrow Airport. After doing the math (costs of trains, tube & Express service) Annabel suggested that we just hire a private car right from the door to the airport. She rang up and made arrangements for a 6:30 am pickup which would give us lots of time for our 10:05 departure. Having never been through the security process here we wanted to make sure not to be late!

The car arrived promptly at 6:30 and we were on our way. As it was Saturday, and no traffic to speak of, we arrived at the airport terminal within 40 minutes. Luckily for Kelly, to help “waste” time as we awaited our departure there were many, many shops to explore (Gucci, Armani, Harrods etc.) I sat and guarded the carry-on bags as she explored the far reaches of the airport shopping mega mall. (Sorry no pictures)

The plane was loaded on time but was ground delayed due to congestion at the airport. We finally got in the air at 1052 local (or 2:52 am BC time) and enjoyed the amenities of Executive class. Thanks to the generosity of one of the passengers, both Kelly and I were able to sit together for the nice flight home. A quick flight over to Victoria and we arrived home at 3 pm local (11 pm London Time).

It was a great trip and although we did miss some of the many sites around London we will be back someday. The rail system was pretty easy to use and aside from grabbing one train going the wrong way (hey it happens!) it worked very well. It’s hard to pick a favorite as all the things we took in varied so much. Duxford, the Imperial War Museum, and the GPSR’s dream spot Greenwich were the highlights.

Special thanks to Annabel and Barry Milton for letting us stay at their house in Sydenham. It became our base for the trip and it was great to be made so welcome. (Great to see Doris as well!)

Hope you all enjoyed the blog.

Our last day :-(

We slept in this morning and then enjoyed a nice coffee with Doris and our hosts Annabel & Barry. We planned our last day with a trip into the city to see experience the London Eye and then shopping for Kelly and the Belfast Royal Museum Tour for Dave. We left about 11 am and found the eye with little trouble after exiting the Waterloo station. It's quite huge and was easy to spot once we got outside.

Kelly picked up the tickets and after a short 15 minute wait we loaded up and were on our way around the huge wheel. Great views as the weather cooperated nicely. It was interesting to see all the places we had been over the last week as you had unrestricted views.

After getting off the Eye, Dave decided to join me in the Oxford Street shopping area instead of going to the Belfast. What a trooper! Hit a pub then to some shops along the ave. As we had made plans for a dinner with the gang, we headed home early and had our last train ride.

Annabel, Barry, Doris & Kelly at Crystal Palace Park

Before dinner we got our 200th geocache at a famous Dinosaur display (built in 1854) near our section of town. Very interesting place. It was our final night so all tucked in to a great meal at Dulwich House Pub.

We are up early for our departure back to Vancouver and then Victoria. If all goes well we should be there in the afternoon sometime.

Duxford

We left early under clear skies for the trip to Duxford and the Royal Air Museum located there. The return trip was 60 pounds for the two of us and we utilized several trains and a bus to get there. Sydenham-London Bridge-Kings Cross-Cambridge then a bus to Duxford. Everything went well but the bus was late due to a "driver issue" so had to kill some time waiting.


We had left Sydenham at 8 a.m. and arrived at the field at noon! A bit longer journey than planned but when I stepped off the bus..... a familiar sound filled the air. Having been to the Reno Air Races a couple times, there is no other sound than a Rolls Royce V12 Merlin screaming at top speed.... and so it was.... a Supermarine Spitfire doing a full bore, low pass down the runway at Duxford. My Nirvana!




We quickly paid the entrance fee and went into the new Air Space building. Concorde, Vulcan Bomber, DH Mosquito, Westland Lysander, DH Comet and a Harrier just to name a few. I took about 450 photos of the various planes in all the buildings. The US exhibit was probably one of the nicest you'll see outside of the States with the P-51 Mustang ,SR-71 Blackbird, B-17 Flying Fortress, B-25 Mitchell, Liberator, B-52, F-111, U-2 spy plane.... and much more.



Lot's of British WW-II fighters as well... Hurricanes, Spitfires, Typhoons.... with a B-109, V-1 Buzz Bomb, Storch and Junkers Tri-Plane representing the Germans ... simply over the top!


We left about 4 P.M. after seeing the displays and our trip was uneventful heading home. We had the pleasure of once again meeting Barry's mom, Doris Milton whom had been one of our gracious hosts when we were in Scotland in 1994. (This is Kelly's mom Thelma's cousin). We had a great Leg of Lamb dinner and enjoyed telling family stories (and some secrets) around the dinner table. A great finish to a great day.

Shopping Day

We left Sydenham in a moderate rain with good intentions to head for Duxford and the Royal Air Force Museum located there. It is located about 8 miles south of Cambridge and requires several train switches & a bus ride. With the weather so poor we decided to move the Duxford trip to Thursday and head to… yep you guessed it… the “shopping district”! We took the tube through to Knightsbridge and emerged right beside Harrods department store. Kelly had wanted me to see this at one point in our trip and I, thinking it was just another dept. store when along begrudgingly. Well I was blown away! This store was “over the top” and had the most incredible selection of the finest goods available. All the hi-end merchandise was well displayed and there was almost more staff than customers. The food section was so inviting with several walk up Sushi and Oyster bars! I split with Kelly and headed up to check out the “men’s” section…. Electronics, Outdoor gear etc…I was “forced” to go through the perfume section and the staff all looked like models out of fashion magazines.

Anyway the highlight of the visit was spotting the 70 inch Sony LCD TV that was newly available. Stunning picture and equally stunning price tag! It’s obvious that this store caters to the elite, high end shopper… of which I am not :)

We headed over to Starbucks and grabbed a coffee as we continued our trek around the district. We also returned to the area that Kelly had stayed when she was 15.

Piccadilly Circus was close by so we checked that out as well. The weather was improving considerable so we took in a nice pub lunch outside looking down Waterloo Bridge.

Off to Westminster Tube Station and the famous 10 Downing Street (Prime Minister’s Residence). Lots of guards & security in this area!

After witnessing the Palace Guards "inspection" close by we found the Cabinet War Rooms and toured the display… very interesting to see how the war had been run in such a cramped and dark area!

Next it was Westminster Abby... wow is all I can say!

As our feet were getting tired we headed back home and enjoyed an nice evening with our gracious hosts looking at family pictures. Another great day!

Greenwich Time

We awoke to nice clear skies and a warm weather forecast so it was off to Greenwich Villiage today. Both Barry and Annabel took the day off and gave us a great guided tour. We took the trains into the Charing Cross Pier and caught a high speed catamaran down the Thames River to Greenwich Villiage. The boat made several stops downriver along with some high speed runs that really showed the amazing power of these vessels!

I took several shots of the different sites along the way.

We then headed around the grounds of the Greenwich University (the site of the former residences of the Royal Naval College.) On the way we took in our first geocache at the graveyard by St. Alfege's cemetery. After our success we went into several halls including the Painted Chapel. Unbelievable!

Up the hill we went and hit several more caches along the way. The highlight of this location is seeing the GPS show all the zero's in longtitude. By moving back & forth the GPS would show E ast then West. Ah.. toys!

We did several other caches and I even had Barry down on the grass looking under park benches as we hunted a cache (waiting for the "Shopping Period" to end:-) He seemed to enjoy the hunt as we scored the prize. After meeting up with the gals, we walked under the Thames River via the Greenwich Pedestrian Tunnel. Very interesting piece of engineering.

After the walk we needed some refreshments so, after a quick train ride & short walk, we arrived at a local waterfront pub . We ended up situated just opposite & upriver from our launch point earlier in the day. A quick trip home after this then off to The Dolphin Pub in Sydenham for a pub dinner. It's tough in England:-)

War Museum

Up early and off to the bake shop for some fresh croissants to have with our coffee. We decide that the day would be spent at the Imperial War Museum. We jumped the train and after a couple changes arrived at Lambeth North station near the museum. We spent the next 6 hours going through this incredible exhibit. A Focke Wolfe 190 hung from the ceiling along with several other well known WW II aircraft.

Very impressive and an absolute must see if your in London!

Kelly stands with the Bronze Eagle from the Third Reichs Chancellery, bullet holes and all. This was just one of many peices of history that we saw.

After the museum we hit a local pub for a drink and then headed towards London Bridge Station for a look around. We went over the bridge and took some pics of the Tower Bridge down stream.

A bit hazy but you get the idea...

We headed back to Sydenham to rest our tired feet! A great day for us.

Up early

We both awoke early (0300 due to the time change/travel etc) and got an early start to the day. We hit a couple caches and had a nice walk through Regents Park.

We stopped at a local shop for our first traditional breakfast. We decided to head over to Notting Hill and see the shops on Portobello Road. The local housing is all painted in neat colors we are told..... and they were!

Now Notting Hill, one of my wife & daughters favorite chick flicks, was filmed here so we had to make special efforts to find the famous blue door that was in the movie. We did pretty good!

We toured around the area and then headed back to the hotel as we had to be out of the room by noon. We have the tube pretty much figured out now and this made the trip home uneventful and quick! We checked out and stored our bags with the staff. We wanted to see a few more spots of interest before heading to Barry & Annabel's place in South London. Our home away from home for the rest of the trip.

We also visited the Canada Gate at B.P.



Back on the tube we went to Hyde Park Corner. Had a lovely walk through Green Park to Buckingham Palace, the Queen didn't invite us for tea though.... I guess they didn't tell her we were there, oh well maybe next time. Then it was across the street to the Guards Museum, and down Bird Cage walk to Big Ben. We were there just in time to hear the chimes!

We had a good look about and then headed back to retrieve our bags and begin the next step of our trip. The tube station at Westminster was amazing and obviously newly built. It looked like

something out of the future with it's design.


We picked up our bags and headed to Sydenham Station. It's located just south of Forest Hill in southern London. It took a few minutes to find the route as we changed from the tube to the trains at London Bridge Station. We arrived at the station and made our way to Barry & Annabel's place on Bishopsthorpe Rd very near the train station. It was an easy walk and we were greeted at the door. They have a nice five bedroom house that backs onto a park. It was built in 1905 I believe, and has all modern conveniences. They run a home based publishing company out of this location that you can check out here.

We had a great dinner and enjoyed getting to know each other and caught up on some family history. (We had stayed with Barry's mom in Scotland when we were over in 1994 with the pipe band.) We made some plans for the next day and headed for bed as I was falling asleep in the chair!

London Calling....

We arrived in London this morning at 11:30 local time. As we had our bags with us we headed to the Picadilly Line train to King's Cross. We grabbed a cab and were delivered to the hotel door in a couple minutes. All very good as we checked in and headed for the room. Top floor.. no smoking etc.. all very nice but somewhat cramped. This will do fine for our one night's stay. The hotel is adjecent to Regents Park and a short walk from Baker Street Station (the Tube). This area has shops, pubs etc. Both Kelly and I Geocache and had done some research before we left Victoria on caches in the area. One that caught our "fancy" was the London - Abbey Road Web Cache. details here

This cache was a webcam that took pictures of the famous crosswalk that the Beattles had on their Abbey Road album cover Details here

We had made arrangements with Mark & Robyn to take the cam shots but due to us missing our flight and their weekend plans, we had to get our son Kris to snap the pictures later in the day. We went and check this site out and then hit several canal caches in the area.

We walked down towards Baker street and hit the Globe Pub for a pint. We then headed back towards the hotel with plans for some fish & chips for dinner. We ended up eating at the hotel (very good BTW) and then headed up to bed as we were both feeling very tired. Luckily Kris was on MSN and we arranged for for him to take our webcam shot on Abbey Road. Off we went and the pictures turned out pretty good.
Kelly on the famous x walk! (Not the bag lady!)

Webcam shot.
After this evening foray we headed back to the hotel and went to bed..... beat from the days travels and walking about.

Up early to check & book flights and get boarding passes for our flight to YYC (Calgary) and on to London. This was an easy thing to do with the laptop and the checkin kiosk downstairs in the hotel lobby.

We headed through security, found our departure gate and waited for the flight to depart. I checked e-mails and had a short note from my dad. I was keeping him in the loop on our travels and he mentioned the crappy weather in YYC... mmm. I went on to the aviation weather site and saw the actuals and forecast weather. Yikes! It was winter again in southern Alberta! 1/4 mile in moderate snow etc... no improvement... so it was action time! Changed our flights to go through Edmonton, rebooked on the YEG-LHR route and headed off to get boarding passes for us. This was very easy and in short order we departed (at the very next gate) to YEG were we would hopefully catch the London flight. Thank heavens we didn't have check bags!

We had a nice flight to YEG and I called Dad (who live's in St. Ablert) to update our progress when we arrived.

We managed to get a couple nice comfortable seats up front on the London flight and enjoyed the great service from the AC staff. We also managed to get some hints from several AC flight attendants as we were staying at one of their overnight hotels. The Danubius Regents Park was our destination. We both had limited sleep on the flight after we were served dinner. The excitment was building!

Day One

Hi Folks

Just to help keep everyone in the loop on our trip to London we decided to start this blog. We will both be popping on to this site to update so check back as time permits.

We grabbed the 13:00 flight from Victoria to Vancouver and arrived very early for our planned connection to the YVR -LHR (London Heathrow Airport). As we are travelling on a pass through Air Canada's employee services the flight is always subject to load restrictions and or oversell (the life of contingent passengers!) We took a stroll around the North finger of YVR as I have never been to this side personnally. All very nice with huge displays etc... now I know were those airport fees go!


We waited around for the flight to be loaded but, after watching everyone board, only one seat was available. This created a potential "divorce" scenario so I elected to stay with Kelly in YVR :-)

We went over to the Fairmont and checked in for the night. It was a tough situation but we made the best of it :-) Drinks & dinner downstairs rounded out the evening as we planned our strategy to get to London the next day.

We checked loads from YVR, Calgary and Edmonton and settled on Calgary as the best possible route as the direct London had seats available. Vancouver was oversold by 25 yikes.