Wednesday 7 September 2016

Back to London ... or was it?

After four days in and around Reading I headed back to London. I had managed to get a ticket to see Buckingham Palace with a 4:30pm entry time.

Once I finished at the Berkshire Records Office, and fresh from the thrill of holding the voluminous Will made by my 5xgreat grandfather, John Glanville, it was a case of collecting my luggage from the Ibis followed by the short walk to Reading station and the next train heading in to London.

I had a couple of tube changes to do before getting back to Caledonian Road and dropping my bags in my room at Hotel Makedonian before heading out to Buckingham Palace.

The weather had been a bit miserable with drizzle early in the day. By the time I got to Buck Palace the rain was more than a drizzle. Having been warned that their could be long lines to get in I presented myself a little after 4pm only to be sent away as they were running more than 15 minutes behind and they did not want anyone in the queue with tickets earlier than 4:00pm. I went off in search of a coffee which was not an easy thing to find close to the Palace.

Eventually the 4:30pm ticket holders got their turn and, after going through a security check, we were able to access the palace.

A number of teh rooms were open along with special exhibitions. This year the feature exhibition were the fashions across the 90 years of the current queen's life. This came with explanations of the circumstances in which some of the garments had been worn, including the christening robe that has been used by so many of the royals over the past 150 or so years. Of course, internal photographs were no allowed. I'm sure that they were hoping that most visitors would buy a souvenir book of their visit. Not me. I was much too aware of how close I was to my weight limit to add a heavy paper based book to my goods and chattels.

Once outside, photographs were fine.

In keeping with a general theme of scaffolding clad buildings, here is part of Buckingham Palace:




The grounds of the palace are quite extensive. Given its location right in the heart of such a big city this hidden haven was a bit of a surprise. There were lakes and lovely landscaped areas:



A view across one of the lakes towards the palace.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the visit is that it was through areas of the palace that are rarely shown . How many times have we seen the royal family on that balcony? Oodles ... and yes, I did see it ... however the majority of the places we trundled through are not generally shown on the news.

Leaving Buckingham Palace I wandered back through Green Park and various bits of the city before arriving back at my lodgings.

I did take the odd photo during my meanderings:

These ladies were in urgent need of a clean

Sculptures pop at all over the place in London
I ate down near Kings Cross Station. The area is full of eateries with a wide variety of options.

So much for Friday 19 August.

All up I had logged 25,219 steps for the day.

On Saturday 20 August I was definitely playing the tourist. My first stop was Tower Bridge. Along the way I did stop and look at some of the shiny new buildings that are gracing the skyline. The change in architecture is evident all over central London. The classical architecture that I remember from earlier visits is being overtaken by modernist buildings that have taken on all sorts of strange shapes.







Finally I spied my target:

Tower Bridge (often thought of as London Bridge) a city icon
To get to Tower Bridge I wandered passed The Tower (of London) and the infamous Traitor's Gate

Tower of London

Traitor's Gate complete with green, sluggish water
There are a number of exhibitions inside Tower Bridge. The penny farthing was included in an exhibit showing the modes of transport back in the early days of the bridge.




We were whisked up to the viewing level of the bridge and you certainly get some great views across London from the top of the bridge.

View along the Thames from Tower Bridge

"The Big Gherkin" (top left) that makes the Tower of London (bottom right) look puny

Some of the new "futuristic" buildings that have popped up along the Thames

I was not too sure about the benefit of looking down through the glass floor onto the road below
Part of the Tower Bridge offering was a trip through the engine room. This is the bit that opens up the the lower section of the bridge to allow ships to pass up the Thames.

One of the huge furnaces in the engine room


The building below houses the City of London administrative offices. I'm not sure what it says about the state of the city given its tilt from the upright.


Having done Tower Bridge I decided to venture further afield. Initially I had though about visiting Kew Gardens and then on to Hampton Court Palace but decided to headed to Hampton Court Palace and bypass Kew to this time. As it turned out this was a good decision as it took quite a while to get out to the palace and there was much to see.

Yet another huge collection of buildings.

Hampton Court Palace played a significant role in the life and times of Henry VIII. Being out of London, with ready access to large parks, it was a regular haunt of the court.


There are extensive gardens within the palace grounds



Dinner, anyone?



While the Henry VIII era kitchens were open for view it is still hard to image the extent of the staff and the business of the kitchens when the court was in residence.

One of the gates at the palace
Hampton Court Palace sits on the bank of the Thames. The river was used as a highway between central London and Hampton Court Palace. It is not hard to imagine a fleet of barges heading up river with the members of the court and all their trappings. It would have been an impressive sight.

Leaving Hampton Court Palace I headed along the Thames towards Richmond. The aim was to get in a decent walk and it proved a very pleasant stroll. The path is well maintained and generally easy walking. It was a pleasantly warm day and I did take advantage of a riverside pub for a toilet stop and to grab a drink.

Part of the track along the Thames

There were lots of buildings along the river

A couple of the many fishermen I passed. Most of the fishermen had shelters and had obviously settled in for the afternoon


The bridge at Richmond ... a welcome sight
 From Richmond I took the tube back into central London stopping to grab some dinner before returning to my hotel.

Step count for the day was 35, 063. I had walked a little over 25kms.

Sunday 21 August was my last full day in London and I had decided to do a few chores in the morning before heading out.

It was very quiet when I went down to have breakfast. It appeared that most of the guests were having a sleep in. The breakfast offered at the Hotel Makedonian was more than adequate with juice, cereal, cold cuts, cheese, boiled eggs, bread rolls and bread for toast. I really appreciated the freshly brewed pot of coffee that got replenished when it got down.

My first stop today was in Islington where I had a pedicure ahead of the walking week in Spain. I grabbed some lunch there, too, before heading off to Westminster and the Greenwich ferry.

For many a long year London was serviced by a single bridge: London Bridge. In addition to the bridge boats plied the river ferrying people from one side to the other. Today there are many more bridges. Here is a selection of some of the ones I saw between Westminster and Greenwich.











Ahh ... Tower Bridge. From time to time the road level is opened up to allow ships to pass up river. As our ferry approached the bridge ...







...  it opened up! It really does happen

From Greenwich I took the Thames Path and walked back to Tower Bridge. In theory this should have been a straightforward walk of around 6km. It would have been if some of the path signs had not be turned around. It is frustrating when you recognise places that you have already passed not long before. The other issue with the path is that it does not always go along the river. Much of the river bank is in private hands and the public cannot walk/ride through these sections. The walk had me frequently moving a street or so back from the river and then returning to the waters edge.

In the end I walked a little over 19km for the day with 33,484 steps.

Leaving London ... Monday 22 August


On Monday I left the hotel before breakfast as I need to get out to Gatwick Airport for my flight to Spain. I made my way by tube to Victoria Station and took the Gatwick Express to the airport. The only problem I encountered was that the ticket sales points required cash as the electronic payment systems were down. Cash??? I had to talk to a cash machine to get enough cash to cover the fare. I was not the only surprised passenger and quite a few people were pretty cranky about the ticketing service.

I am always surprised, but by now shouldn't be, with just how much carry on luggage many travelers have. In addition, quite a few people presented with overweight checked luggage for which they needed to pay additional fees. I was tankful that I was under my 23kg allowance.

I was flying Vueling from London to Barcelona and then on, many hours later, to Santiago De Compostela. The flight was uneventful and duly deposited me in Barcelona.

My original thoughts had been to go into Barcelona and do some sightseeing prior to the evening onward flight but after a busy couple of days I decided to veg at the airport and rest my legs.

Jen was due to arrive from Athens around 5pm. Our plan was to eat at the airport ahead of getting our 19:50 flight to Santiago. Jen did not appear. In the end I had to board my flight. The staff at the gate did tell me that the Athens flight had been delayed.

On arrival in Santiago I managed to find someone who was able to let me know that Jen would be arriving around 8 o'clock the next morning. With that news I grabbed a taxi and headed into the city centre and the Hospederia San Martin Pinario which was located near the cathedral. The trip between the airport and the city centre is fixed price and I was happy to pay the fare to be dropped off at the hotel.

I had not eaten and it was almost 11 o'clock by the time I had checked in and dropped my bags in my room. Fortunately the Spanish are late diners and I was able to find a restaurant not far from my lodgings which was still open and serving dinner. I had a luscious fish stew in very pleasant surroundings. I hadn't taken my camera with me so, sorry, no photo of this great dish.

Tuesday 23 August

I was up early to ensure that I managed to get to the airport before 8 o'clock to meet Jen. 

I opted to catch the bus on the way out. The bus station should have been 15 or so minutes away from where I was staying. I did find it but it took a little longer than 15 minutes. The airport buses run every 30 minutes and I managed to arrive in plenty of time. 

It was a relief to see Jen emerge from the arrivals hall.

We opted for a taxi back into town and after dumping Jen's bags headed down to the breakfast room to load up for the day.

By the time I had crammed books and dirty clothes into the small backpack that I had been using, important as I needed to get the weight of my suitcase under 20kgs, and dropped it off to be stored for the week that we would be walking the morning was almost over.

Finding the bus station (again) was easier said than done. We certainly did quite a bit of walking (and suitcase dragging) before we arrived at the place where we needed to catch the bus to Lugo. The busy tourist season was obviously over as most of the bus companies operating out of the facility no longer had operational ticket counters. We eventually managed to buy our tickets for Lugo and with some time to fill in went and grabbed some lunch.

Jen had spied someone with a toasted sandwich and try as we may our language skills did not permit her to order her sandwich toasted. Never fear ... all the sandwiches came out toasted. Getting an untoasted sandwich would have been the problem.

The route between Santiago and Lugo took us to the coast and some very pretty scenery. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any useful photos.

The bus station in Lugo was situated just outside the town walls. As our bus to Sarria did not leave until 5:30pm we had some time on our hands and filled it in checking out those walls and the pleasant plaza in front of the entrance.


Jen standing next to the wall surrounding Lugo



The little plaza just outside the Lugo town wall
 Our bus duly left at 5:30pm. It was very much a local bus with people, mostly women, getting dropped off and picked up long the road.

Once in Sarria we were pleasantly surprised at the ease we had in getting to the hotel we were staying at.

After checking out our room we headed out to check to find food. Just across from the hotel there was a string of eateries. At the early hour that we walked along the strip most tables were filled with people eating tapas and imbibing. We were early dinners but were catered for without any fuss. I did get one food photo - Jen's first course which was a mix of egg, mushrooms, red pepper and some other bits and pieces which she declared to be very tasty.

Jen's first course


As we had both had a late night and early start to the day we were pleased to be able to call it an early night.