The Flight Home

After checking in at Manchester airport, we headed off to the gate only to find that the flight was delayed for 'operational reasons'. Some problem with a cargo door but this was eventually resolved and we taxied out about an hour late. Next stop Dubai - after a 7½ hour flight.

By the time we arrived in Dubai, we only just had enough time to get to the departure gate before the next flight was ready to board. Miriam had tweaked a nerve in her back and would hardly walk when we got off the plane. The thought of another 13 hours on the plane was a bit daunting. Fortunately, we found a reclining chair for her to stretch out in. This (together with some painkillers) alleviated her discomfort. After a quick change of clothes and teeth clean, we boarded our next A380 for the long flight to Sydney.

The first half of this flight was in the dark so we did manage to get some sleep but it was mostly spent watching more movies. After 4 hours I was starting to feel I was over flying for a while, then I saw that we still had 9 hours to go!

Finally, we reached Sydney and really felt like we were almost there. By now, we had been traveling for 36 hours (since we left the Travelodge in London) with more-or-less the same clothes on and no more than 3-4 hours sleep. It is amazing but, on previous visits to Sydney airport, I had this impression that it was a really big place. Loads of aircraft movements, complicated terminal buildings and long, long taxiways to get to the runways. Now that we have been to Dubai, Sydney feels like a small domestic airport! And this even though we never actually left Dubai airport, just walked from an arrival gate to a departure gate.

Next stop was Wellington after 'brief' 2½ hour flight. Christine picked us up from the airport and we were back in Martinborough by 5pm. 48 hours travelling and we were certainly feeling a bit tired. Miriam cooked us up a nice red-curry with some chicken and Christine headed back to Wellington since she had an early start in the morning. We finally hit the sack at about 10pm. This is the only way to beat jet-lag, force yourself to stay up to the local bed-time, no matter how tempting it is to crash out.

Everything at home was fantastically clean and tidy. I had been thinking a lot of lawn mowing would be required since we are well into Spring and it always takes me a month or so to get the grass under control. Our house-sitters have done a fantastic job in keeping the place under control. All the alpacas were fit and healthy. The only disgruntled member of the house was Bill our (only) cat. He doesn't really like strangers and it took him until the early hours of the morning to work up enough courage to come in to see us. Was he ever happy it really was us. Now, two days later, he is still reprimanding us for leaving him for so long.

So here we are, 6 weeks of travel under our belt with no dramas and very happy to be back in our own bed.

I think this is officially the end of this blog!!

Knutsford

Our flight home is at 9pm so we spent the afternoon with Julie & Richard. They took us out to Knutsford, a small village, south west of Manchester to while away the afternoon. The name of this village derives from Cunetesford ('Canute's ford') as was mentioned in the Domesday Book. However, the derivation is a somewhat controversial topic. We had a light lunch on a small cafe which doubles as a penny-farthing museum! I have never seen so many penny-farthing cycles - and they hang rather ominously above your head.

After lunch, we had a quick look around the town and then headed off to Tatton Park. This is a nearby historic estate with a grand house (Tatton Hall) and lovely gardens to wander around. Unfortunately, due to our lateness and reduced winter hours, the house was closed. We had a quick walk around the gardens but had to retire to the cafe for afternoon tea as, when the sun dropped below the trees, the temperature also plummeted.

After coffee and cake, time was marching on, so we headed off to Manchester airport to start our long journey home.

Heading home

We woke early on Tuesday to get our final breakfast from Carlo's Kitchen next door and depart for Euston on the tube.

Our timing was not perfect because 9:30am on a week-day is not a good time to try to catch the central London tube lines with two large suitcases and associated hand luggage! We started by getting the Jubilee Line from Southwark to Green Park. The first two trains were absolutely packed with no room for anyone else except by squeezing in. Luckily they were coming in to the platform about a minute apart so missing two trains wasn't a problem. The problem was they were all full. I suggested we move down to the back of the train to see if the last carriage might be a bit easier. The next train had some room but only enough for me with both suitcases (stacked end-on-end like another person) plus my backpack which I had trouble keeping clear of the doors. Miriam opted to wait for the next one. Then the train kept stopping on the tunnels waiting for signals due to a broken-down train at Willesden Green.

Next stop for me was Westminster where I had to get off again just to let other commuters leave. There was also a young lass who had fainted in the car and was helped off by some other people; plus there was a guide dog peacefully lying on the floor ignoring the whole commotion! What a ride.

Finally, I got to Green Park and waited for Miriam. She duly arrived and then we had to make our way to the Victoria Line to do it all again. Luckily this was not so full and by Oxford Circus the train was mostly empty so we arrived at Euston in plenty of time.

We ended up being about an hour early for our Virgin main-line train to Manchester but better early than late. Our tickets were cheap £20.00 early purchase ones with no possibility of refund or change. The normal fare is around £140.00 so it was quite a saving.

The Virgin train to Manchester only took just over 2 hours! Very smooth with almost no train noise and the countryside whizzing by. I measured the speed with my Sat Nav app and we were doing around 200kph most of the way. The Google Maps display couldn't actually keep up with the progress of the train as tried to download the satellite images from the net!

We were met at Stockport (just short of Manchester Piccadilly) by Julie and Richard and we spent the afternoon with them. I'll put the afternoon into the next post.

Last Day In London

For our last full day in London we had a few final tourist things to do.

First up was the Emirates Air Line. This is 10-seat gondola over the Thames from the O2 Arena at North Greenwich to near Royal Victoria on the DLR. The ride is pretty quick but gives a good view of this part of London. There are cranes everywhere as the development of new apartments and high-rises continues a pace.

Looking down the runway of London City Airport

Rather than taking an immediate return journey, we caught the DLR to Pontoon Bridge. This involved traveling to the next stop (Canning Town) and then back on the other line to Pontoon Dock. The reason was that I wanted to have a close-up look at the Thames Barrier. I had determined that they raise and lower the gates once a month (just to make sure they still work) and today was the day! Surprisingly, there is a really nice park next to the barrier which is one of London's hidden gems. Designed as part of a competition (and completed in November 2000) it is a really nice peaceful area. It is only let down by lack of maintenance and some of the 'features' are a bit tatty now. The segments of the barrier were duly raised one at a time. I took a few photos to show the various states of one central segment - the movement is almost imperceptible. Not exactly exciting but well worth the effort of getting there.

Middle section on the way up

Back on the DLR we returned to the Emirates Air Line and traveled back to North Greenwich. We then had a lunch stop at a Mexican place near the O2 Arena and, after lunch, had a walk around inside the O2 building itself. It looks like a big tent but is really, really big. Just the half we had access to has something like 27 restaurants plus other shops. There are also a few cinema complexes and an Elvis exhibition. All this just around the edge. The arena itself is in the middle and can host concerts, ice hockey games, you name it.

The only thing left on our list was the Museum of London at the Barbican. This required a complicated tube ride and we finally got there at around 3pm. Thinking it was open until 6pm we started looking at the exhibits from the beginning (pre-roman that is). Suddenly, at 4:45pm they announced it would be closing at 5pm! Damn, the signage said 6pm but maybe they are in Winter mode now. Feeling somewhat weary from our day's excursions, we headed back to the Travelodge to pack. Tomorrow we catch a Virgin train from Euston to Manchester (at 11am) arriving at 1pm. Our Emirates flight is at 9pm so we will have plenty of time to catch up with Julie and Richard and get to the airport.

London Pass - Day 3

Sunday was perhaps not the best day to end our 3-day London Pass. Every tourist and every family in London with small children seemed to be out-and-about.

We started by heading to The Globe to have an official tour. This was great and the rebuilt Elizabethan theatre is quite magnificent. Our guide was a welsh chap who was very informative and entertaining. After the 40 minute guided tour we spent another hour or so walking around the static displays listening to the supplied audio guide.

Next stop was the Courtauld Gallery which took was a 40 minute walk away. A refueling stop was necessary at a pub nearby where we shared a platter and had a couple of drinks. The Courtauld has a number of Italian Renaissance paintings and a few by Gainsborough and Reynolds but we were mostly there to see the Impressionists paintings.

Next (and last stop for the day) was the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. We had been there many years ago and really enjoyed it. This time it seemed to be overrun by small children running around and making lots of noise. I guess this should have been no surprise on a Sunday but the problem was that place had been revamped in recent years. Now it was much more like a theme-park with plenty of things the kids could do to make noise!! After a fairly brief wander around we decided to leave and retire to a pub.

After a couple of drinks we noticed that the Australia/Scotland RWC match was playing. What a bummer that Scotland lost on the last few seconds. We ended up chatting with an English couple who were also disappointed that the aussies won and shared a few more drinks with them. After swapping business cards, we headed back to Southwark on a 176 bus. It's amazing how useful a smartphone and few apps can be in finding your way around a place like this!

We stopped at a Turkish restaurant on the way back to the Hotel and had a great fixed-price meal of 2 meze each followed by a main with a glass of Turkish house wine.

London Pass - Day 2

I was up bright and early (i.e. 6am) so had time to write the blog for yesterday only to have Miriam tell me that we were too early.The breakfast place next door doesn't open until 8:30am!!

Today was a 'river' day whereby we can use our London Passes to get 24 hours travel on the City Cruises ferries. These travel from Westminster Pier to London Eye Pier (actually just across the river and downstream about 200m). Then on to Tower Pier and, finally, a longer run to Greenwich. After breakfast we walked to the London Eye Pier and got our Red River Rover tickets. First stop was Tower Pier so we decided to have a quick look at the Tower (again). We last did this back in 78-79 but it is as popular as ever. In fact, I would hate to see it in the peak tourist season! There was a cold niggly wind blowing and temperature about 13C - but there were still thousands of people queuing to get in. Luckily, our London Passes didn't require 'purchasing' a ticket as we were just scanned in at the gate.

The tower is much as it was the last time we saw it but it is still an interesting place to visit being so intact. We even popped in to see the Crown jewels which involved some queuing; but it was bearable. The crowns, sceptres etc. look quite unreal and you could be looking at something artificial.

Back on the boat we headed off for Greenwich. This was really just for the boat trip and the London Waterman chappy doing the 'free' commentary was very entertaining and informative. The development of apartments and the Canary Wharf complex south of Tower Bridge is quite remarkable. Our guide pointed out things like the London residences of Helen Mirren, Michael Crawford, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen. At Greenwich, we simply walked around the streets a bit, had a look through a fairly tacky 'Vintage Market' and finished with a drink and nibble in a pub. Then it was back on the boat to Tower Pier again.

Our next visit was the HMS Belfast. This involved walking down to Tower Bridge, across the bridge and then up river to the ship. This was essentually directly opposite the Tower Pier terminal! A distance of about 2km and it involved negotiating thousands of tourists most of whom were busily taking selfies with their new 'selfie stick'!!

The HMS Belfast is something we had not done before but it is well worth a visit. The way they have presented it you can really get a feel for what life was like on this war ship. The visit involves climbing down (and eventually up) many steep metal gangways - always facing the steps as they are too steep to use like a normal staircase. Miriam got a bit sick of this but I was having a ball. It was so engrossing that we eventually got chucked off at closing time!

To use our boat passes, we then headed back over to Tower Pier (another 2km walk) and only just made the last boat up river to the London Eye Pier. At which point Miriam was pretty well done in so we had a quick and very nice evening meal at the same sushi place where we had lunch on our first day here.

To finish the evening we bought a bottle of wine from a local Sainsbury's and headed back to our hotel room to watch the All Blacks annihilate the French!!! Well done those guys - I have to say it was a pretty good game by the AB's.

London Pass - Day 1

Friday is our first full day in London and time to break out the London Pass. These cost us £100.00 each and give us three days access to a variety of paid attractions in London. The pack also included a £25.00 Oyster Card which we have mostly used up already.

After breakfast at Carlo's next door to the Hotel we set off for the Churchill War Rooms. This 'secret' bunker was where Churchill and his government and armed service leaders planned and led Britain to victory over Germany in WWII. It has only been opened up in recent times and gives a fascinating view of what it must have been like. Certainly very cramped, dim and noisy with most people sleeping there as well. Luckily we finished just as a huge school party arrived!

Next stop was the Household Cavalry Museum. We weren't intending to go there but, having walked across Horseguards Parade, it was right there just beckoning us to go in. It is quite a small museum and covers the history of the Lifeguards and the Blues & Royals - it's well worth a visit. Out front there was the usual throng of tourists getting their pictures taken next to one of the two mounted guardsmen. I'll bet they love it when someone gets bitten by a horse. The actual guarding seemed to be being done by policemen in full protective gear plus sub-machine gun!

By now (2pm or so) we were a bit worn out. We retired to a nearby pub for a scotch egg (made with haggis) for Miriam and a Cumberland Sausage roll for me. After our large breakfast we weren't particularly hungry but we both needed a sit down.

The third stop for the day was the Banqueting House. The building is the only remaining part of  Whitehall Palace which Henry VIII built. The rest of it burnt down in the late 17th century. The building is being renovated so was a bit underwhelmimg inside with the all the windows covered over. The audio guide helped explain how it was used over the last few centuries. The ceiling is covered by three massive and six smaller paintings by Peter Paul Rubens.

With all the walking, Miriam was pretty worn out, however, we still felt we had one visit left in us. On to the tube and off to Kennington (south of the river near the Oval). This is where you find the Beefeater Gin Distillery. It was about a 1km to walk from the station and we only just made it in time for the last tour of the day. There is a small museum explaining the history of gin in London and the establishment of 'proper' Gin distillers. Then a quick tour explaining how they make the entire Beefeater Gin production using 5 large stills. Finally(!), we all got a large Gin and Tonic in the bar. A very nice way to finish the day.

It was then back on the tube and off to Southwark, Miriam didn't feel like going out for dinner so we bought some supplies from the convenience store near the Hotel and had nibbles and a beer in our room. Breaking her rule of not doing so, Miriam watched an episode of Coronation Street!! Shock horror, we didn't recognise at least half of the characters!!