Day 54. 9 July 2023 London Westminster to Temple

Posted on 10/07/2023 by Greg

We decided to have an “early” walk before breakfast this morning. We got away from the hotel at about 7:45am. The streets were empty, no cars anywhere and very few people out. The streets had barricades around them, we got the idea something was going on. But we loved our quiet London, just for us.
We walked south along the Thames towards Westminster. There was little wind and the light was pretty soft, so we got some reasonable photos. We walked past the London Eye (across the river from us) Continue reading →

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Day 53 8 July 2023 Cambridge to London on the Thames.

Posted on 09/07/2023 by Greg

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A lazy morning, midday check out, train to Liverpool St Station, London at 1:03pm
We got to the station via an Uber at about 12:30pm. Our train made 8 stops to London, much better than the all stops we had coming up. The train looked new and was pretty comfortable. We got destination and stop announcements coming into and leaving each station, free wifi and a clean train = winning.

The countryside is all farming outside Cambridge, mostly grain crops with a bit of dairy. It got more suburban as you would expect, the closer we got to London.
We got to Liverpool St Station without any issues around 2:20pm and hopped on a Circle Line train to Embankment Station and strolled to our hotel, The Royal Horseguards.

We got to the Horseguards at about 3pm, checked in, got the bag I dropped off on Wednesday, and went our room.

We have an 8th floor Riverview room, with views over the Thames to The London Eye and the Hungerford and Jubilee Bridges, and the Thames beyond them. A nice view to finish our time here.

For dinner we went to The Clarence, Whitehall, a pub close to our hotel, Continue reading →

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Day 52 7 July 2023 Cambridge

Posted on 08/07/2023 by Greg

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We had a special day today, we were shown around Cambridge by Deb’s first cousin once removed, Eleanor. Eleanor did her Law degree at Cambridge, and graduated last year. She came up here especially for us from London. It was so good to get here insight into the University and to see where she lived and studied during her time here.

But I get ahead of myself. Earlier in the morning I went for a walk around “town”. I managed to get a little bit of video of The Corpus Clock, a strange looking device gifted to the Corpus Christi College by its creator Dr John C Taylor OBE.

The clock has no hands and the time is given by the position of lights on its metallic disks, it is gold plated and has a “grasshopper escapement mechanism. It’s so interesting to watch. Continue reading →

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Day 51 6 July 2023 Mayfair to Cambridge

Posted on 07/07/2023 by Greg

Finished tidying the flat and were out by 8:30am. We got a little lost getting to the train station but we got there. A quick train to Liverpool St Station and a 30 minute wait for our train to Cambridge.
We were away from Platform 3 on time at 9:28am.

We were lucky enough to be sitting across the aisle from three 20’s “boys” loudly talking and playing games on their phones and a person behind us coughing, and 9ne of the boys wasn’t well at all.
It seems like our train is an all stops to Cambridge. Hearing aide off for me and ear plugs in for Deb. Nasal spray for us both!!! Continue reading →

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Day 50 5 July 2023 London Kensington Palace

Posted on 06/07/2023 by Greg

We’re in the UK, must be time to visit another Palace!

We have tickets to Kensington Palace for opening time, 10am. Currently they have an exhibition in the Palace entitled “Crown to Couture – The Fashion Show of the Centuries”. Being such fashionista we couldn’t wait!

Continue reading →

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Day 49 4 July 2023 London – Soho. The end is nigh!

Posted on 05/07/2023 by Greg

A week today we will be halfway home, so today was partly about that. 🙁

We began getting organised for the next week of our trip, we go to Cambridge on Thursday and had arranged to leave one of our bags at our last London hotel.

Around 10:30am we stopped sorting out our luggage and went out for brunch. An Indian brunch, a bacon and egg naan brunch! Continue reading →

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Day 48 3 July 2023 London Mayfair

Posted on 04/07/2023 by Greg

Today we spent the morning strolling through the north part of Mayfair.
We walked through Grosvenor Square and eventually to Mercato Mayfair, what is described as a hip market in Mayfair. It is in a deconsecrated church and now houses small niche eateries over two levels and about 3 bars. Continue reading →

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Day 47 2 July 2023 London Marylebone Market

Posted on 03/07/2023 by Greg

We didn’t really have too much planned for today. A visit to a local market, watch the cricket on TV and then Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral in the afternoon.
Well, as the song goes, “2 out of 3 ain’t bad”. Wow. Who would have ever thought I’d quote Meatloaf!! Continue reading →

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Day 46 1 July 2023, Lords Ashes Test

Posted on 02/07/2023 by Greg

We left home at about 6:45am to get to Lords cricket ground. The test has been sold out for a while now, and we were lucky to have Reciprocal Membership Cards for the MCC.

We arrived at about 7:10am and the members queue to get into the ground was already very long. It stretched from the Grace Gates to around the back of the media centre in the east, maybe 300m. We had heard that the first members on the queue start lining up at around 4:30am. And they are old members. The queue was 99% white men. By the time the queue started moving it was over 500m long. Continue reading →

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Day 45 30 June 2023 A day in Hampstead

Posted on 01/07/2023 by Greg

We were out of the flat around 9am and walked up to the Green Park underground to make our way up to Hampstead just north of London. Our train arrived and things went a little, not as planned! I got obstructed getting on the train and the doors closed before I could get on, Deb was already on board. I waved good bye as she sped away. I hopped on the next train, only a minute or two after Deb’s train left, hoping she was waiting for me at Euston Station.
I got to Euston and she was waiting for me on the platform, like something out of a movie really.  😀 Continue reading →

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