Category Great Britain

Parting Shots

After a morning spent doing nothing much, we finally decided to check out the neighbourhood.  Which happens to be the home of the 2012 Olympic Games.  Yes, the ones where Great Britain beat us in pretty much everything. Anyway, when it’s the last day of your holiday, and you have a tower thingy with a […]

Last Days in London

With just two days left, it was time to cram in everything we hadn’t done yet. Of course, this is impossible in London, but we gave it a good bash.  We decided to divide and conquer in the morning by heading to two different museums, then meeting up in the afternoon  This warranted a flow […]

Sunday in the Park in Bloomsbury

Our final City Race was held in the streets, parks and squares of elegant Bloomsbury, on a pleasant Sunday morning.  We started from Birkbeck University at Torrington Square – coincidentally, exactly where Ian’s great grandfather and other family members lived for many years.  He could have watched the whole event from his front doorstep.  No […]

London Old and New

The City Race on Saturday was an Urban race rather than a sprint, ie longer legs in a less complex area.  Starting in Bermondsey again, we were initially moaning about the 2 km walk to the Start. That is, until we actually did it.  We followed the Thames Path along the south embankment, ducking through […]

City Racing

It was the annual London City Race which had drawn us here, along with the chance to revisit a place which has undergone massive changes in the past two decades; and to visit the East End places where Ian’s family once lived.  Besides, no-one really needs an excuse to visit London, do they? The City […]

Taking Flight

Today’s excursion was to a very different part of London – the shiny new Docklands.  Finally the sun appeared, and it was a glorious day.  Again, the development all over this area is astonishing. We got off at North Greenwich, which is right next to the O2 stadium, which resembles a rather large pincushion, or […]

East Enders

We bid farewell to Chatham, after a stay of about 24 hours.  Relieved that the long walk to the station was mostly downhill this time, we boarded a high speed train to London.  Thirty minutes later we arrived at the huge Stratford International station, built for the 2012 Olympics and adjacent to the new Olympic […]

Learning the Ropes

Five am. My alarm rings. I roll over, trying to pretend that it’s not our final morning on the cruise, and that we are not about to get evicted.  Our packed suitcases tell a different story, and reluctantly we dress, eat our last breakfast, and bid farewell.  We turn in our cruise cards (only figuratively, […]

Bussing Around Belfast

Our day in Belfast turned out to be quite eventful.  It began with a bus ride into town from the ship, which was docked some distance away.  We’d decided to take the Hop On Hop Off (or HoHo) bus, which would give us a good overview with commentary, and allow us to alight at places […]

Oban

We were up and about by 6am to take advantage of having mobile data again, which meant we could catch up on the blog and email, and get them out of the way before sightseeing.  Back when I was researching our ports, I didn’t find much of interest in Oban itself, so we hatched a […]