Log Thirty One – Europe, the deep end

1 September 2017

Our good friends spent about a year and many hundreds of hours researching this trip which was to cover the UK, Eastern Europe, the Adraitic coast and for us Germany and southern UK.

We were invited to join them back in January and what a great opportunity to ride on the coat tails of the efforts of others.   And so we said yes to the offer and here we are.  Just one glitch – they’re not here.  A small accident involving a bicycle  and torn ligaments means we are now on our own.  No more riding the coat tails of others.

This trip is like the Voyager project if Voyager 1 failed to leave.  Voyager 2 is out there on its own.  It keeps sending back messages like; when we get to Saturn what were we supposed to do? Sorry Voyager 2 you’re out there now on your own.

London

First experience;

The receptionist at the hotel is from Ecuador, the woman at the mobile phone shop is from Romania and the waiter at the restaurant is from Brazil.  Where are the Brits I hear you ask; they are in central Australia working at bars and national parks.

It amazes me that London has been around for about 2,000 years and yet the skyline is full of cranes and every street has a building covered in scaffolding.  After 2,000 years you would thought the place would be finished by now.

This pic raises so many questions about pelicans in London.

One of the joys of walking around London is checking all of those properties you have bought and sold over the years.  If only you had kept some of them, what would they be worth now. I’m talking Monoply of course.

The Greenwich Meridian

A walk through Westmister Abbey is pretty amazing and more so when the choir are rehearsing.  The acoustics make the walk through the Abbey unforgettable.  Not to mention walking past the tombs of Kings and Queen from so long ago along with people like Geoffrey Chaucer and Issaac Newton.  However for all you tradies or contractors out there, there is a tombstone for a plumber who once worked at the Abbey.

Seems there are very few old people in London.  Everyone looks so young – or is it me.  No some research on the web and it’s confirmed London has the youngest average age of all UK cities.

Buckingham Palace is stunning.  The Queeen and Phil didn’t offer us a cup of tea but the tour was still memorable.  What was particularly memorable was that whilst there were a couple of well armed folks at the entrance to the Palace, inside there were no weapons of any kind visible to the public.  Even on the way out a line of very well dressed young ladies with umbrellas directed you to the Exit.  So very British.

You have to love the London Tube.  £3.10 for a 67 mile trip from Heathrow into the centre of London.  A one hour ride for about $5.

More cities to come.