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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Our last port of call was Cobh (pronounced “Cove”), in southern Ireland. Sadly the weather closed in, and rain was forecast throughout the day. Both tired after the last couple of days, it took us a while to get going, and we didn’t step off the ship until late morning. No-one could say Cobh port […]
Overnight we left the UK and sailed for Ireland, so we ditched our pounds and replaced them with euros. The morning dawned fine and sunny, so it was off the ship and in to Dublin Town. We walked along the north bank of the Liffey, looking at the numerous bridges. I have never seen a […]
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 […]
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 […]
Our last port in Iceland was Reykjavik, and it was a busy day. We were booked on a small bus tour of the famous Golden Circle, which covers the most spectacular sights in the south west. With at least four cruise ships in port, it was crowded everywhere, which is one of the unavoidable downsides […]
dipidydoo 