1st Day - Leaving Sydney
May 13 in Australia
⛅ 17 °C
Hi all. This is another one of my impulsive jaunts, where I take advantage of the fact Buckie has some free time during a overseas work trip to go sight seeing. This time we start in London - what will we do? Absolutely no planning this time, just going to wing it each day.
Was on the fence about taking this trip, only firmly decided the day before, even then there was a few things I had to reschedule/finish/organise that could have meant I would have to cancel.
Flights were hilarious. Twice in recent years I’ve gone to the EU and both times it cost me $3000+ for a return flight leaving from Sydney. This time the considerations were:
- Booking was super last minute.
- Fuel prices have spiked enormously in the last few months.
- And oh yeah, there is a war on. The conflict zone that sits directly between Sydney and London. And oh yeah, remember not to fly too close to Ukraine either.
So given that $3000 is what it costs under normal circumstances, I was expecting to have to pay a big premium given the above considerations. How much were the tickets???? Less than $1500. Unbelievable. I have not been able to figure that out.
The major dilemma I had was actually with donating blood. One of my goals 2026 is to max out my blood donations. With plasma you can donate every 2 weeks, with whole blood the cooldown is 4 weeks to start donating plasma again and 3 months before the next whole blood.
This year I intended to hit the donation times the moment they popped and donate the maximum amount of times. There is actually a trade off to be made because to acheive the highest possible donations, you take the repeatable plasma quest every 2 weeks while avoiding the longer cooldown from whole blood donations. However whole blood is much more important to donate (trauma patients, surgeries, etc), so it's better to max those out even though the total count for the year will be lower.
Why is this relevant??? Because I was due to make a whole blood donation on the day of my flight. The sub $1500 flight left first thing in the morning so I couldn't squeeze the donation in. There was a later flight, however they were $500 more expense. I kinda agonised over this for quite a while, am I really going to spend $500 just to donate blood slightly earlier???
I consulted with a psychologist about my moral dilemma. We went over a few things, due to his help I recognised there was other elements I hadn't considered. The early flight had a 14 hour layover in South Korea, where as the later flights did not. By not taking the earlier flight I would be giving up the chance to spend a big chunk of time in South Korea, a place I had never visited. Thus I booked the earlier flight. I would not be able to hit the donation cooldowns the moment they came up, but I resolved to limit the delay as much as possible by donating the moment I landed in London. Ok, not the most ideal but an acceptable compromise.
Checked entry requirements for UK, EU, and South Korea. Easy peasy for an Australian. Just some minor online paperwork.
Where am I staying in London when I land? Meh, I'll figure it out later.
The other big issue was I had a Uni assignment due. Theoretically I could get this done on the plane. Getting everything loaded on my Ipad was a pain, there are a surprising number of factors to consider. The assignment has to be in Word. Ok, do I have Word on my Ipad? Yes but it needs my Microsoft login. If I put in the login now, will it ask me again for it later at an inconvenient time? Ok, sure it now works - but will it work when I'm on the plane because it wants an internet connection? OK I've tested it with the internet turned off and it seems to function.... but is there something I'm missing that will trip me up later?????? And that was just for Word, add a whole bunch of other elements that I had to fiddle with and test out and try to anticipate problems with. Even once you think you have all your ducks in a line, and everything 'should' work, there is that nagging feeling that you have overlooked something. Something that makes all your other preparations pointless.
As I have previously, I lent my Tesla to Dave while I'm away. He also very kindly offered to drive me to the airport very early in the morning. A huge favour because he had a full day of work that day.
Ok - booked tickets at 10pm that night, flight is 7:55 tomorrow. Check. Transport to airport organised. Check. Everything needed to complete my assignment loaded on the Ipad. Check. Bag with some spare undies and socks, toiletries, chargers, etc? Check. (no checked baggage for me, haha!)
Ok, gtg.
Arrived at the airport on time (Thanks Dave!!!). Had some Macca's. Two funny things happened, the first was that my name on the receipt was "Valued Customer", which from now on will be the only name I respond to. If the situation is urgent, I will accept VC.
The other thing that happened is I had all the time in the world, so I left a review. Said the food was served quickly and tasted nice but the floor in the eating area was very unclean with lots of discarded food. I posted the review and thought nothing more about it, then 4 or 5 minutes later a Macca's employee comes out with a broom and starts cleaning the floor - I guess I caused that to happen.
Korean Airways flight KE402 - The seat has a very nice amount of room. Would prefer if the seat slanted down a bit more as the edge puts a bit or pressure on your leg. Nice food. Definately prefer window seats now so that I can lean against the wall to sleep.
Sent a photo looking out the window for Buckie to geolocate.
Flight takes off. Getting Uni work done. Watched inflight entertainment, the film Mercy (Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, it was... fine.) and Anyone But You (set in Australia!, with Sydney Sweeney and no one else notable). Slept a bit here and there. The personal overhead light was much too bright, so I stuffed some paper into the light fitting to reduce it.
Next up, Korea!Read more
1st Day - South Korea
May 13 in South Korea
☁️ 16 °C
Impressions of Korea from the air - Many clusters of highrise buildings, nestled among forested mountains, roads look well built and organised. Interesting industrial works.
Ok - I've got 14 hours to do things till my next flight. Breeze through customs with just my passport (no visa required).
Korea has one of those silly currencies that nobody understands because the numbers are all too high. Should a pack of tic tacs cost 1000000? 1000000000? 1000000000? Nobody actually knows because your attention drifts while trying to count the zeros.
Took the train to Seoul. Train very nice and modern. The ticket inspector, upon entering the carriage, bowed to everyone. She then proceeded to not really check anyone's ticket, instead spent about 10 minutes helping a group of older gents who were trying to look something up on their smart phone.
Homeless encampment at the train station. Actually I saw a surprising amount of homeless people. One thing I noted about the encampment however was that the ground surrounding it was kept spotless.
The streets in Seoul are wide. The indicators to walk across have no sound and count down how long you have before they turn red.
Never seen so many affluent, well dressed people. Passed thousands and thousands of them. Every city I've been to has it's rich quarter but Seoul seems to have a highly disproportionate number of wealthy people.
People here keep to the right. Wrong!
Other things of note. Workmen wear blinking LEDs over their high vis. CCTV everywhere. Lots and lots of people out and about enjoying themselves, even late on Wednesday night. They have fewest number of obese people I've seen anywhere. Occasionally very large, very bright LEDS screens on the side of buildings, this and the general cleanliness and newness of the city give it a high-tech feel.
Visited various temples and palaces around the city. It was too late for any of them to be open so I could only look from the outside. They had a section of the Berlin wall up on display, the information board was badly translated into English and the light poles in that street are made in the style that existed in Berlin at the time the wall came down.
Missed my train back to the airport. The first one the next morning would be too late. Had Macca's while I figured out what to do. In Korea they give you a substancial cup instead of something to throw away, when finished you put it in a sink and they wash it for reuse.
Came up with and discarded various plans of how to get back to the airport. Including one which would require me to speedrun through security and get to the plane in 30 minutes of arriving, ehh too risky. Just took an Uber back. Boring, expense but low risk.
The security gates were shut for the night, so I just hung out in the front part of the airport. I wandered around for a bit before having a sleep on one of the long benches. A number of other people doing the same thing, kind of reminded me of sleeping in the shelters on the AT.
Had a shower at the airport for $6. The water pressure was absolutely amazing.
After that it was back onto the plane and off to London. I again had a window seat and there was no one in the middle, so I could kind of lean up against the wall and swing my feet over to middle in a vaguely diagionalish manner be a bit more comfortable. There was a Korean guy in the aisle seat that I chatted to. He was always very johnny-on-the-spot with passing me my meal and the rubbish back the other other day. At the end of the flight he wrote me a note telling me I'm a pretty awesome guy. I am used to this behavoir now, people act this way towards me a fair bit.
Next post London!Read more
TravelerIn Zimbabwe, the local currency is also the same. There they don’t give change in “small” amounts, as they don’t have small currency. Instead, they give your change in lollies. The first time I was offered lollies, I said no thank you, I want the change in cash, and he said no you can’t have cash, you can only have lollies! Lol.
2nd Day - London
May 14 in England
☁️ 12 °C
Landed in London. Hung around at the airport for a while thinking about what to do. Started googling blood donation clinics. Most would close before I got there but there were a few open late. Also, I needed to down a bunch of water and give my body time to process it, so I booked the latest possible donation time. The best option was a place in Brixton, which would prove to be an.... interesting place.
The trains in the underground were very disappointing. Very old, dingy, and extremely loud screeching coming from track. Definately in the hearing loss range. Still they did move quickly and run regulary. The stations were often a rabbit warren of tunnels, albeit reasonably signposted, but it was difficult to in my mind to visualise where the stations were and how they connected together.
The train I took was also headed to..... Cockfosters. Ok.
Brixton. As yes. Feels dodgy, the population is almost entirely non-native, very high police presence, and CCTV everywhere. There was a police van setup on the pavement outside the station, taking up half the walkway with a big nest of cameras and signs proclaiming they were doing facial recognition. I was very alert the whole time while out on the street, though I have been in far scarier places - here at least there were lots of people bustling about, it's worse when the street are lined with idle people just "waiting" and you constantly feel you are being sized up.
Checked into hotel. This was the first of many times where the default way to enter a place is for them to eyeball you before pressing a button to unlock the door. The kettle was also hardwired into the wall to prevent people stealing it. Otherwise the hotel was fine.
Downed a whole bunch of water, chilled out for a bit while my body digested it. Did a bit of my Uni work.
Also checked in Buckie. He was finishing up with his collegues. They were at Cambridge in a great hall having a send off. He sent me a pic, looks very much like Hogwarts!
Blood donation time! Even here there it is buzz-to-enter. And honestly the clinic felt very behind and kinda dingy compared to our donation centres at home. No motorised chairs, blood pressure taken by manual pump and dial, for fewer snacks/drinks, and generally not hyper-clean like Aussie ones are.
Filled out the form, there were some different questions than I got when back home. This is also where I first encounted what would become a reoccuring problem - they asked me for my name, DOB, and address. When I registered for the donation they required a UK address and at time I hadn't booked a hotel, so I could not even give that. So I picked a random address from google maps, that happened to be Sea Life - the London aquarium, that will be where I live. Like a penguin or something.
Their procedure required many times to confirm my details and I am required to give the correct answer. So time after time I would read the address out from my phone and confirm, yes, I live at a public aquarium.
Additionally because I just registered in their system without any prior history, it flagged me as a first time donor. At different stages of the process a new person would come to help me, see I was flagged as a first time donor and treat me with the kid gloves, asking if I was doing ok, how was I feeling, any pain or anxiety, would I like a snack or a drink, make sure to stay in the chair for 10 minutes after the donation and only leave if I was truly feeling ok. Everyone time I'm like, my dude, I probably more experienced with this process than you are - maybe I should if "you" are doing ok.
And yes new person, I do live in a marine park.
Also, back home they will give you a squeezy toy to play with using the arm the needle is in, to aid blood flow. Here they give you nothing and just ask that you make a squeezing motion with your hand??? After a while, when there was an issue with the flow rate, they scratched around and found what looked like a used toilet roll for me to play with. Whatever works I guess.
But all in all the donation went fine. Still miffed that I'm a day or so out with my donation timings but sometime you have to compromise.
On the way back to the hotel I grabbed some KFC, it's pretty much on par with what we have at home.
The rest of the evening was spent in my hotel room feverishly completing my Uni assignment. Some issues with formatting on Ipad that I couldn't resove but there are no marks for style - only that the information is clear. It was also awkward to be writing/calculating things and keep having to flick back to your notes or the text book when using only a single small screen, especially as the memory seemed limited and sometimes would have to reload the data that I just referred to a minute ago. Word is also really shit when using a local save file on an Ipad. Maybe, like Steven Jobs would suggest, the problem is not with the Apple product but that the user is wrong. Maybe I was.Read more
3rd Day - London / York
May 15 in England
☁️ 10 °C
Not much sleep as I worked on my assignment throughout the night. Drank a coffee around 2am because I was beginning to feel withdrawal symptoms (they did not give you much coffee on the plane) and I wanted to boost to finish off the assignment, and my sleep schedule was so thrown out anyway I felt a 2am coffee won't mess it up any more than it already was.
Finished the assignment in the early morning (finally!). Last thing I had to do was write 300 words on the considerations a business should be aware of when implementing AI, a subject I'm already very familiar with. Basically just plopped down my own thoughts and then just linked a bunch of publications as supporting evidence.
With the assignment done I napped for a bit before moving out into the city to meet Buckie. One thing I love is that lazy people here move over to one side on the elevator to allow others to pass on one side - very nice! A few months ago I was so frustrated by a pair of people that just HAD to stand next to each other for multiple elevators that I belted down the elevator coming up (fortunately empty of people) rather than continue to stand stationary behind them. Well done England!!!
Met Buckie at Gails. Food was absolutely delicious. Bit disappointed to later learn it is a corporate chain rather than owner operated. This was also my first time encountering different prices for takeaway vs dining in.
We then proceeded to go and meet Pod at the pub King Charles 1st. The pub is very old school and cozy. Small capacity, community run. Pod met Buckie on while he was streaming on Twitch, and is also involved in professional wrestling.
After that we went to have a ride on the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel which they built in the year 2000. Much like the Eifel(?) tower it was intended to be a temporary structure but was so well received that they made it permanent. View from the upper points was incredible and we had great weather for it.
We then proceeded to a small fish and chips place along the Thames(?), which Buckie had gone to just a few days before and highly rated it. The fish and chips were indeed delicious and the views were great. Photos on the wall showed that Pierce Brosnan had been here.
And in that theme our wandering took us past the MI6 building, something I recognised from the James Bonds films. You are able to go right up to it, although it is very heavily fortified.
At one of the train stations in our journey we encountered platform 9 and 3/4. There is half a trolley merged with the wall a long, long queue of people waiting to get their photo with it.
After much discussion of what to do, we came up with the following plan. Go north to see Hadrian's wall (one of my bucket list items) and take the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam. We also decided to go to York and stay the night rather than going all the way to Newie in one hit.
We then bid goodbye to London, though we both had to return to it in about a week to catch out return flights, and got on the train to York
On the north there were many, many jokes over who had the best seat.
Arrived at York. The town was absolutely awash with well dressed people out enjoying themselves. At first I thought there must be a wedding but it quickly became apparent there were too many people for this to be just one or even two big weddings, and the demographics of the people were heavily skewed male. Turns out it is "race day" and everyone comes from miles around.
With so many people in town there were no rooms at the inn. The hotel clerk guided us to the hotel next door. We walked into the lobby. It was exactly the same as the one we had just left. It even had precisely the same art. We joked that the same clerk was going to come out to greet us while pretending we hadn't just met.
After we check in, we deposited our bags in the room and headed out. We passed the same clerk directing a new set of visitors to our hotel. We strolled round town, taking in the old buildings and fortifications. There is a wall that used to protect the town but the town has long since expanded past it. It is in very good condition and very cool to see.
Tried to find a nice English pub to have a meal but they were all too loud and packed with the race day people, so we settled for fast food.Read more
4th Day - York / Newie
May 16 in England
☁️ 13 °C
That night in York, a few revelers had the room next to me and came back around 2am. I could hear them quite clearly but they settled down quickly, so that was nice.
That morning I tried emailing my Uni tutor to ask a question. Could not figure out if there was a maintenance problem or if it was because I was connecting to the UK. Trouble shooted for about 45 minutes before abandoning it, it really was not that important.
Did a bunch of planning with Buckie for our visit to Hadrian's. Made plans, changed plans many times.
Stayed in York for most of the day. Strolled around visiting castles, cathedrals, markets. There is a place very much like diagon alley, I would guess it probably even the inspiration for it. Purchased some postcards and magnets. Stopped in at a bakery there and had a scone, it was exactly like the ones I used to make with Mum when I was a kid, very nostalgic.
Stopped in at a little restaurant along a bridge near the river. Food was excellent.
Was strolling through York and came across one thing that really bugs me, and this same issue in the USA, was posted maps of the area not orienting north to the 12 o'clock position. I have a very deep and very pure hatred of this, and it has caused me no end of confusion. Whichever politician that promises to lobby the UN to add this to crimes against humanity will have my support.
Took the train to Newie. Buckie graciously offered me the window seat, however there was no real window to speak of. More jokes along these lines.
We wandered about town for a while and took in the many bridges. One of the bridges.... seems familiar. Very, very familiar. Like come on, it even has the tower things at the end of the arches. Apparently this bridge officially opened before our Sydney Harbour Bridge, but we started building ours first so we have dibs on the design. Gave it a downvote and moved on.
Buckie looked for Singing Hinny's a local delicacy he wants to try. Ultimately we were unsuccessful.
Found a hotel. Interesting place. The clerk insisted on keeping the heat in the reception area on high. Ridiculously high. The rest was fine. 3 levels up a beautiful staircase. Weird configurations of rooms and weird configurations of bathrooms (three rooms, one has an ensuite, the other two have a separate bathroom only their room key can access, made sense once you figure it out). Cool common area to hang out in, and a washing machine that we made use of. No washing powder, so we bought a big box and left it behind for future people.Read more
5th Day - Newie / Ferry to Rotterdam
May 17 in England
☁️ 12 °C
Left the apartment early. The whole city is empty on Sunday mornings, I guess everyone is sleeping off their hangover. No bakeries open, so no Singing Hinnys. Very disappointing!
Walked around for a bit, visited the world's worst lookout. I had to cut the picture of it because I'm limited to 25 photos, and I wanted to include, you know, things that are actually interesting to look at, so all I can do is assure you it was a very terrible lookout indeed.
Train to Hexham at 9:00am, Buckie bought sausage roll from Greggs at the station that was disappointingly cold. Greggs are kind of like mini Baker's Delights, and they are everywhere.
At Hexham we had 30 minutes until the bus, so we walked up the hill toward a cathedral. It was closer than expected, So we got to it with plenty of time, but again, pictures of it did not make the final cut.
Bus to Chesters Roman Fort and Museum. The bus is called AD122, which is a reference to the year 122 AD which is the year Emperor Hadrian gave the order to begin construction of Hadrian's wall. Chesters was a fort built along the wall, even extended a bit beyond it and had a town pop up behind it with all the camp followers that usually spring up wherever there is an army around.
Of the actual wall there wasn't much, it is almost only the fort that is visitable. I've included a photo of one of the small, fenced off sections of the wall. Enough to say I'd been to the wall and actually seen it.
Buckie and I had much spirited debate over whether or not to enter the fenced off areas. I continued to argue against it even after the sign giving you permission to enter was pointed out to me.
The fort is located next to a river. Interestingly on the barbarian side. It seems intuitive to wall off along the south side, as the river would be an additional and substantial defensive barrier. We speculated that perhaps the river was an important trade route and thus needed protection.
In some of the photos you can see what is left of the underfloor. Basically they placed large flat stones over pillars to create a cavity beneath. In this cavity a fire was lit to boil water, the resulting steam would waft throughout the cavity and heating the room above.
There is also an underground treasury, this was obviously strongly constructed which is why it survives to this day. Above the treasury was a large open indoor space for meetings and ceremonies. Statues of gods adorned this room and religious services carried out. This served the dual purpose of having the treasury guarded by the gods as well as men.
The pictures of Buckie and I posing. We are standing on the southern side of the wall looking out beyond the pale, holding the line against the uncivilised and cruel barbarians of the north!
I was always careful to never actually touch or step on the stones, though were some kids running along the tops of the walls that caused me to clench my teeth harder than Stannis would have.
The wall is only 80kms long. It is on my bucket list to hike the length of it. One day.
On the way back we discovered the ferry to Amsterdam we planned to take had been fully booked. Word had gotten out that we were going to travel on the ferry, so various fans and influencers bought up the remaining tickets in hope of getting a selfie with us.
We needed to make new plans. And fast. The train back to Newie, that we had tickets for, was approaching and we had to decide if we were going to get on it or stay and visit more Hadrian's wall and take the ferry tomorrow. Found a different ferry that was leaving today but from Hull to Rotterdam. Checking the train schedule, we could just make it using the following:
Hexham -> Newie -> Doncaster -> Hull
Tight but doable.
Went fine until Doncaster. Train was initially.... 9 to 3 minutes, window was 10, at the station we were 10 minutes behind. Looking up diagrams of Doncaster station but they were difficult to find. Ran to platform 0, yes zero. But no dice. Never even saw the train.
Immediately Ubered to Hull. Romanian driver. Drives a white Tesla Model 3 so obviously he is very cool and smart. Have great conversations about Romania and the UK. Drove quite very fast, at one point doing 90 in a 60 zone.
The email said we had to get there 90 minutes before the ferry departed and we got there EXACTLY 90 mins early. The staff at the terminal were very relaxed, I'm sure they would have let us board up until the last minute.
Buckie declared a 200ml bottle of booze, they seemed surprised someone would do this and seemed to lack a procedure to handle it. After a bit they very casually took the bottle and vaguely assured we could get it at the other end, no ticket to claim it later or anything.
Interestingly there was no security screening, just passports - I learned the baggage search/scanners/etc are just if you are travelling on an aircraft. Makes sense I guess.
Accepted an offer to upgrade our room to bigger beds for 25 pounds. Dinner at buffet, very nice. Serving staff were extremely eager to take used plates away (we joked that they are paid per dirty plate they return to the kitchen).
Water pressure in the bathroom sink was insane.
We were sharing a room for the only time on this trip. They do not offer single person berths and a double is $600 AUD. Both of us slept well and neither heard the other snore, so that was good.
Next stop, Rotterdam.Read more
Day 6 - Ferry to Rotterdam / Amsterdam
May 18 in the Netherlands
☁️ 12 °C
I woke up early, made a coffee and spent some time drifting around the ship. At that time it was like a ghost ship, absolutely no one around and everything packed up and cleaned. Took some photos, worked on this blog for a bit. As the morning went on people started emerging, and the PA announced it was breakfast time. A few more announcements from the PA later I wandered back to cabin when we had 30 minutes left before docking.
Buckie was still fast asleep, apparently the PA was not working in our cabin. We did later discover that it worked weakly in the bathroom but you couldn't hear it if the door was shut.
I made myself another coffee as Buckie was going through the wake-up stages. He pointed out the coffee sachets I was using in fact contained decaffeinated coffee. I immediately dropped them as if they were molten hot. Why do these things even exist??? Are people really drinking instant coffee for anything else other than the caffeine? I even went through the garbage to confirm the sachets I'd used earlier were normal coffee.
Having sanitised my hand after touching the decaf, the ferry pulled up in port. Rotterdam had a very industrialised port with expansive facilities. Lots and lots of liquid (I assume oil) storage tanks. Buckie reclaimed his gin from the service desk and we took the shuttle that we had arranged prior, as the wharf we docked at was in the middle of nowhere,
Walked around the city took in the art. Amazing gardens and rewilding in the city.
Train to Amsterdam. The train was delayed for some reason, we were stuck on the tracks for about an hour.
Included a picture of my tattoo. No, not a real one. It's leftover adhesive from when they bandaged me up after donating blood. I don't know what Hogwarts-style magic they use on their medical tape but the stuff just does not come off. It's on the inside of my arm and everytime I catch sight of it at the edge of my vision my brain registers it as a tattoo. Buckie says it will come off if I use an alcohol based solvent, but I'm pretty sure there is a magical component so I'll just let it fade with time.
Arrived in Amsterdam. The whole city smells of pot smoke. I'm not even kidding. Is everyone here high all the time? How does any work get done?
Hotels in Amsterdam city centre were very expensive. But found one just 15 minutes down the metro that was substantially cheaper. The clerk said he had just dropped the price. It is also called the Hotel... Isis..... which may lead to some spicy interactions if border security ever does a search of my devices. I can imagine them asking "Who did you stay with while you were in Europe?"
Amsterdam is a city of canals, so we decided to take a cruise. Very beautiful old buildings and art. Plugged in to listen to the audio tour. Apparently back in the day there was a tax based on the size of the facade of your house, this resulted in people trying to minimise the front of their house as much as possible. Today the effect of this can be seen as the city consists of long rows of narrow house fronts all squished up together, which gives the city it's now iconic look.
The audio then said that the people, in response to this tax, kept the facade as narrow as possible while expanding the width of the houses at the back. This immediately caused Buckie and I to give each other a sharp look.... like, the physics of that works..... how exactly? Proceeded to joke about the Dutch having discovered non-Euclidean geometry in 1300 AD and have been using it to circumvent city ordinances ever since.
The cruise also took us past a great many house boats. A lot of these houses are built upon floating concrete platforms. This is a leftover from the days of do-whatever-you-want, and people simply built them then maneuvered them down the canals to wherever they wanted to live in the city. As time went on more and more of these things were built and the whole thing started to get a little bit silly, so the city registered each existing one and has since refused to grant licences for new ones. So all there is now is all there will ever be.
In addition to the canals, Amsterdam is also a city of bikes. Huge amounts of them. Great to see. Also a lot of Teslas in the streets. Occasionally we also encountered comically small cars, I've included a picture of one.
For dinner we went to a restaurant called Sonoveld's. As we queued up another customer exited the building and, without prompting, immediately began to rave about the quality of the food, praising it enormously. He went on and on about this for a while.
Once he'd left I joked that it was nice to have met the owner.
We had a starter of bread with dips. The two dips at either end were really, really good, the middle one so-so. Buckie ordered a sausage/mash combo and I ordered ribs. Both dishes were amazing. Honestly some of the tastiest food I've ever eaten. The place is also very cramped inside, they have put in as many tables and chairs as possible and it was packed with customers. Fortunately it was not too loud inside.
Took a picture of a sign that is funny in English, I assume it is telling people not to drive on the shoulders of the road and they felt they needed to add a term to stress the importance of this. It was underneath this sign I got my first (of many) offer of drugs for the evening. So the sign is doubly memorable.
We then spent some somber time at Anne Frank's house. I've never done a deep dive into her story but some of her diary was on display, and honestly it was very moving and heart breaking.
The next thing we did was visit Amsterdam's red light district. Much discussion/mirth as to how this segue from Anne Frank's house would appear to readers of my blog. I can't figure out a way to present this chain of events, other than to say that these two links were unrelated. Look, it's not like.... ehh, I'm not going to explain it.
Only one picture of the red light district. There are understandably restrictions on photography there.
Many mundane businesses there have simply added the prefix 'Red Light' to their name, as well some.... red lighting. You have Red Light Bakeries, Red Light Tourist Trinkets, Red Light Mini Marts, Red Light Cafes, etc, etc, etc.
But the main draw, obviously, are the girls. The area had many glass doors framed with red behind which girls in scanty clothes seeking to entice passerbys inside. Much loudly tapping on glass and posing for whomever makes eye-contact. Occasionally one of them will open the door slightly to offer services. It's honestly kind of surreal, the girls are wearing inch thick makeup and the posing behind glass panels in lingerie gives the whole thing a department store maniaquin aesthetic. If you have seen Blade Runner, it has that vibe.
We were also there on a slow night, so perhaps 1/5 of the doors were occupied. I assume the whole staying behind the door thing is a way around a law prohibiting solicitation on the street?
The demographics of the area was not quite what we had expected. There are many old people wandering around, as well as parents with their teenage kids. Relatively high police presence but nowhere near that place I stayed in London. Many, many people on the street hawking drugs.Read more
Day 7 - Amsterdam / Dusseldorf
May 19 in Germany
☁️ 11 °C
Decided to change up the standard front page photo with one of the hotel's cat. Lovely animal.
The first thing I noticed after getting up was there was a charge to my credit card of about 8 euros that occurred at 3am. We had gotten back to the hotel before midnight, so I wondered about this for a while - was it fraud? Eventually I guessed that the tap-off from the metro had not worked correctly and I was being billed for that. I'll keep an eye on it to see any other transactions like this pop up.
The hotel Isis certainly is a mixed bag. Cheap, close-ish to the station, 15 mins train ride from the city centre, great water pressure in the shower. Against that the walls are made of tissue paper and the wooden floors transmit sound throughout the whole building, so much so that you can clearly hear anyone walking around the hotel. It also has doors to the room that do not automatically lock, and no kettle/coffee. However there is the cat to greet you at reception, so that makes up for a lot of the downsides.
We proceeded to visit the Rijksmuseum. It's most significant piece is an enormous painting titled The Night Watch. I was unfamiliar with painting and only learned about it the day before from Buckie, but apparently it is very famous. The painting has long been coated with a dark varnish, which incorrectly gives the impression of the scene taking place at night.
Some facts about it I recall was that twice people have tried to damage it by slashing. The first guy did it to protest his inability to find a job, however he was so noodle armed that the blade did not even penetrate the varnish and the actual painting remained casually unconcerned during his feeble attempts to damage it.
It was not mentioned if this act of vandalism resulted in job offers.
The second guy actually managed to penetrate the varnish and damage the painting. This damage was restored as best as possible but some small slashes are still visible if you example the painting closely.
Unfortunately at the time we visited it there was some restoration works being done on it and the scissor-lift thing prevented getting a good view of it. Still I'm glad I got to see it, and actually kind of cool the see the restoration works going on.
Spent a fair bit of time at the museum. Many fantastic paintings and sculptures.
There was a room full of old books, some of which were being examined by experts while we were there. The room had sound proof doors and you had to be silent while in there. There were also some incredibly large and incredibly detailed doll houses, which unfortunately I forgot to photograph.
After the museum we observed a bird eating something off the ground.
Once we had seen enough of the bird it was time to leave Amsterdam. The train ride out was very interesting. They have very extensive and high capital agriculture going on, I've never seen land being used so intensively before. Huge, very expensive looking green houses taking up 10s of acres each. All the land is precisely allocated and farmed right up to the boundary, with the occasional canal of water between them. It was very impressive.
Our next stop was 's-Hertogenbo'sch. Yes, that is how it is spelt. As mentioned previously, Buckie has a list of food he is eating his way through, and 's-Hertogenbo'sch is one of the places to get the delicacy Bossche Bol. There are two bakeries in town, one is "the one" to go to get it and a lot of people do, the second was far less well known but they looked absolutely delicious so we decided to go there.
The Bossche Bol is a delicious combination of chocolate, pastry and cream. Buckie recorded himself eating and commenting on it, I assume he will play these videos on his Twitch stream.
We looked around 's-Hertogenbo'sch for a while and then boarded a train to Dusseldorf. Interesting place, as are all European cities to us. It also has the largest willow tree I have ever seen.
On our way to Dusseldorf we missed our connecting train at Velno, something which we got very salty about. There were a number of issues all conspiring together. Our train was delayed, there was no information online as to what platform the train we had to catch would be leaving from, there was not a working display board at the station, you could not book a ticket online, the ticket machine had far too many options to consider after you simply click "buy a ticket", after you select English at the ticket machine it will switch back to non-English in later menus, and finally, after we had overcome all that, the train was PARKED DOWN THE OTHER END OF THE PLATFORM as far away from the station building as possible (it closed it's doors and took off as we were running toward it).
We were not happy about any of this.
Ended up strolling around Velno until the next train. It was interesting to note that the agriculture is getting noticeably less intensive the further south we went.
On our way to Dusseldorf I began looking for a hotel using the various travel apps I have installed. I found a great deal. A hotel room, within 1 km of a station, with a private bathroom, for a mere $56 AUD. Amazing deal. I've stayed in bunk rooms for less but for a private room with an ensuite this was a new record deal. The only issue we discovered was that although they provided you with a kettle, there was no cup provided, making it not possible to make coffee in your room. Strange. I've added a collapsible cup to my travel kit list in case this happens again. The room was also very close to a rail line but the sound was sufficiently muffled when you close the window.
As we were leaving the train station in Dusseldorf, there were some people waving Isreali flags and shouting angrily. A number of police were standing off to the side. Not sure what it was about.
We went to dinner at the Loffelbar, just a bit down the road. I chose something outside of my normal choices, a goat burger, and it was excellent.Read more
Day 8 - Dusseldorf / Basel
May 20 in Switzerland
⛅ 21 °C
Had a bit of a sleep in this morning
Wandered the city for a while, quite a bit of bird life. The part of the city that we wandered this morning is significantly nicer than the area that our hotel is located (part of the reason it was cheap).
Found a local market, bought a coffee due to the no-cup issue at the hotel. I also bought and ate a herring and onion roll. The taste brought me back to my childhood when I would eat these things fairly regularly. As I was purchasing it I accidently split my coffee over the guy's display, no issue I quickly cleared it up. The seller made it very clear that the credit card reader was charging the correct amount for the sandwich and he showed it to me again to make it clear that the transaction had gone through. I assume there have been issues or allegations of fraud previously.
Our train out of Dusseldorf was 20+ mins late. This is becoming a common issue.
On our way to Basel, Switzerland. Very exciting!
We were approaching the part of our holiday where we had to start planning the return trip. Due to the complexity of the travel routes Buckie chose to go to a ticket office - which ended up being a bit of a saga. Initially I wasn't sure if I wanted to return to London the same way, so they started booking a 1 person journey through the train system. During this process I changed my mind and said make it two. There was only 1 seat on a critical part of the train journey, so I said ok just make it 1 again. However during the booking they had "reserved" the seat somehow, and when they exited out of the system to book 2 tickets they could no longer re-enter the system to book that seat (with the seat remaining unbookable due to their previous reservation). The only option was to wait for the reservation to expire and hope no one else snagged. We left the office with part of his trip booked and the hope he would be able to book the single open seat when it became available again.
The ticket office people were very polite and lovely. There were actually far more people working in the travel office than I would expect in 2026.
Arrived at Basel and checked into the hotel. The procedure is a bit special, involving walking uphill to another hotel than the one that you are checking into. But got it sorted in the end. River front view of the Rhine from our rooms was incredible.
After checking in we went out for a bit and took a motorless boat ride (reaction ferry) across the Rhine. What is a motorless boat ride? Well there is a cable that stretched across the Rhine, with a boat attached to it by looping a rope around the cable, allowing the boat to slide along the cable depending on how it angles itself to the water current. There appears to be two elements that control this, first you switch which side of the boat the rope is attached to (left side means has the boat's left side (some would call it 'port side') faces into the flow of water, and attaching it to the right side (starboard, again, according to some) has the right side of the boat face the current.
The other element is a rudder that the boat operator (some would call him a captain) operates.
These two elements are used to provide sideways movement across the river, while the cable keeps the boat from drifting downstream. Kind of fun to think of the physics of it.
There were some other people on the boat, we took their photo for them. They then took photos of us. Too many photos. From many angles. Spamming the Take Photo button all the time. Later, I had to spend 30 minutes deleting most of them.
Once on the other side we took the tram back over the Rhine.
Went to dinner . Sausage with spetzial, was very nice. The starter, asparagus soup, was amazing ( I'd only ordered it because it was healthy sounding).
While eating dinner a bike rider had a massive stack on his bike out the front of the restaurant. The waiter didn't care, he said he thinks they all ride recklessly and deserve things like this. The bike guy must have been seriously injured because a large crowd gathered around to help him and an ambulance arrived a little while later.Read more
Day 9 - Liechtenstien
May 21 in Liechtenstein
☀️ 13 °C
It is notable that hotels in this part of the world do not have AC, something which I also noticed when I was here in 2022. I assume Switzerland has historically been cold enough throughout the summer to not need AC, but global warming is changing that. Last time it was hot enough in my room that I had to go pester the clerk at the front desk for a pedestal fan, this time one has already been provided in the cupboard.
Clothes getting a bit sinky, needed to find a washing machine. Ultimately I would be unsuccessful in this, and would wash my clothes in the bathroom sink. Need to remember to bring paracord next time to make a washing line.
I'd had a good nights sleep and woke up early, so spent the morning wandering around the area taking photos. Bought a coffee and tried to pronounce milchkaffee, something which I thought was within my capabilities when reading the word but failed completely in practice.
Met up with Buckie and took the train to Sargans, change to go to Sevelens, then we would simply walk into Liechtenstien. Why are we going to Liechtenstien? Because it is one of only two countries in the world that is double landlocked (has no ocean access because it is surrounded by countries, and those surrounding countries also have no ocean access because they themselves are surrounded by yet more countries). Is this a 'good' reason to spend time and money to visit a country for this reason only? Opinion varies but, meh, we are doing it.
Failwhale at first attempt to enter Liechtenstein. Having arrived at Sevelens we walked for a bit before crossing a bridge into Liechtenstein. Great success at crossing the border but we reached the end of the footpath that petered out leaving with no real room between the barrier and a busy road.
Crossed back into Switzerland and crossed back again into Liechtenstein using another bridge. Pretty cool bridge actually, a wooden, covered bridge. Occasional pile of horse poo to dodge.
After a bit on a long walk we arrived in Vaduz, and stopped in at a cafe. Great place and great food. Amazingly pleasant staff. The weather was also noticeably getting hot, so it was nice to get inside. I started making the first of many comments that Australia's weather had followed us to Europe.
While in the cafe, Buckie wrote out all the postcards he had collected so far. Bit of drama finding the post office but we got there. Pottered about town for a bit after that. There is a really nice castle overlooking the town but apparently the prince was in residence and didn't feel like having tourists in his house that day. We also chatted to a German guy who said the Swiss trains are much more reliable and nicer than German trains, something to which we could definitely attest!
We visited two museums. First the Treasure Museum. It has what is basically an airlock but for light (lightlock?), to prevent UV rays from entering and damaging the artifacts. You put your token in and the door opens, you step into a small chamber, the door closes behind you, and after the perfect amount of time to make you think the mechanism has malfunctioned, another door will open and you can access the treasure room.
The treasure room has a large number of artifacts, some on loan from the prince. Many jeweled Easter eggs and paintings, as well as a piece of moon rock. Liechtenstein engineering firms had provided vital technology to the Apollo missions, with the Liechtenstein flag being carried to the moon on Apollo 11 and Apollo 17. One of those flags and a piece of the moon is now on display in the museum.
We then went to the... Liechtenstienisches LandesMuseum. Yes, that is really how it is spelt. Very enjoyable place to visit. Has displays from thousands of years ago (pottery shards, arrowhead, skeletons, etc) all the way up to the modern day. Lots of beautifully taxidermied animals as well.
Bus back to Sargans. Ticked off "Cross a national border using a bus" from our list.
At Sargans I spotted a food stand selling bratwurst. This was the beginning of a comedy of errors. I ordered the food and the guy started cooking it, only when I went to pay did he tell me he only accepted cash. This was the first time I'd encountered this problem, and I didn't have any on me. I ran around to find Buckie who had gone to buy train tickets, he only had Euro, which fortunately the guy accepted. The cooking process also took longer than expected, which caused us to miss the train but fortunately the next one was only 30 minutes later.
We traveled back to Basel and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for the fact all the restaurants were closed by the time we went to get dinner. I wasn't really hungry after the bratwurst anyway, so I just ate some crackers I had in my bag and went to sleep.Read more
Day 10 - Basel to Göttingen
May 22 in Germany
☀️ 24 °C
Today was the last day for Buckie and I's combined adventure. But the show was far from over. To start the day we went in the early morning down to the Rhine. Much like our trip to Liechtenstein, this activity had only one, silly purpose. We were going to bring our Different Ways of Crossing a Border count up to 6. The list so far:
Airplane
Ferry
Train
Walk
Bus
(I’d initially assumed we had crossed a border using the reaction ferry (and the tram back over), but Buckie just informed me that that stretch of the Rhine does not have a border running down the centre. As I write this today, 2nd of June, I’ve had to remove those methods)
Today we would cross a border by swimming.
It was a cold morning and the water colder. But honestly, nothing you couldn’t adjust to after 10 minutes of swimming around.
According to Google Maps, which I took to be an authority on the matter, if we swam out along the shore until we were perpendicular to the bridge (Alte Rheinbrücke) then we would have crossed the border into Germany from Switzerland.
The Rhine is a shipping lane but I figured as long as we kept within a meter or so of the shore line then we should be fine (or “she’ll be right”).
Everything went, heh, swimmingly at first. We had chosen an area where we would be out of the main current, the river widened and were in an area where water just lazily circled round. Besides if anything went wrong we could just swim into the main column of water and find a place downstream to get out, or call for help for people walking along the bridge. We swam strongly along the shoreline and quickly found ourselves perpendicular to the bridge.
Heh. That was easy. Now we are in Germany.
Time to go back.
But it was then I discovered the water was swirling along the riverbank back into the main flow of the Rhine. As much as I tried to swim against it, I wasn’t making much progress. I’m not a powerful swimmer, so I couldn’t maintain the effort necessary to swim back along the shore to where I could get out. The shoreline was also too steep to climb out from.
This was somewhat problematic. All those stories of swimmers exhausting themselves only to drown later began to flick through my head.
After a few attempts to swim against the current. I grabbed onto a structure that was jutting out from the shoreline and paused to consider the situation. Not ideal but far from dire. I observed that the structure I was holding onto had a wooden pailing fence dipping into the water that extended down the shoreline for a bit. Hand over hand I pulled myself along the fence, this managed to get me past the strongest part of the current. I still could not get out of the water yet but the current was weak enough and the river bottom shallow enough that I could push off the bottom and move along easily enough. A few minutes of this and I was back to the beachy area where I’d started.
Having escaped death and crossed a border by swimming, I figured we’d had enough for the morning and headed back to the hotel.
The end of Buckie and I’s adventure was fast approaching. But there was one more item to tick off. Buckie located another item on his food list, a Birnbrot. Very, very dense food. Tasted like Xmas pudding wrapped in pastry. Food people would take while travelling, I assume. According to the wiki the primary filling is pear, also containing raisins, walnuts, apples, and figs. Quite enjoyable, though one of them feels like an entire meal (we joked it was the Swiss version of Lambas bread).
After that it was time for us to part ways. Buckie got on the train to Paris and I to Göttingen. It had been just under a week since we met up in London but seemed like an eternity ago.
Had a little bit of time before my train arrived after Buckie had departed. Found a nice shop to purchase Mum a gift as her birthday is approaching.
I had messaged my cousin the previous day about meeting up. The first relative in Europe I’d made aware of my presence (wanted to avoid disappointment if I couldn’t reach them). It actually worked out really well, as she and her parents were meeting up today and they had space for me to stay with them. Winning.
The train to Göttingen was certainly a time. The trains here have two systems of seating, reserved and unreserved. I, being cheap, had purchased the unreserved ticket. You can either book a specific seat (for a fee I think) or have an unreserved ticket with no assigned seat. The seats have little displays that say what stations they are booked from and to, so unreserved people like me can sit in them up until the station that a reserved person is getting on. I think in theory there is always somewhere for someone to sit but if it's a heavily booked train then you may have to change seats as reserved people come and go, kind of like a weird game of Frogger.
Then there was the guy I refer to as the Water Boy. This clown attempted to sit next to me on the train. Attempted being the key word. He fumbled his bag trying to put it in the racking above my head and caused his (apparently???) open drink bottle in the side pocket to fall out and onto the seat. The drink bottle splashes water over me and the seat. The drink bottle is now lying horizontal on the seat and begins to glug-glug water from it. Water Boy stares at it dully and does nothing. Water continues to glug-glug from the bottle. More time passes. Galaxies form and die. More water pours from the bottle. More staring at it. Finally Water Boy decides to pick up the bottle which at this point has discharged more water than Niagara Falls. Water Boy stares at the wet seat for a long time like it's a sight beyond mere human comprehension. Does not apologise for wetting me. Slowly, ever so slowly he makes a comment like "huh.... the seat is wet", as if he is uninvolved and is only discovering what someone else has done. Water Boy then moves away to sit or soak another seat down the other end of the train. Leaves me here having to advise people that if they sit next to me they are going to get a wet bum. Implicitly I am the one who created the mess. Thanks Water Boy!
Having dried off, I arrived at Göttingen. Initially did not see my cousin on the platform. It’s been two years since I’d seen her last, wondered if she had radically changed her look and I’d not recognise her. She solved the issue by calling out to me first.
Walked back to her place, about 30 minutes. University accommodation. She is studying to become a doctor, smart girl. Her parents arrive a while later. Nice family meetup.
We went shopping and then had dinner. Delicious. After that we went up to a castle overlooking the town, the Burg Plesse (looked it up later, it means Pale Castle). Watched the sun set while enjoying a Bundaberg Ginger Beer that they had bought for me. Great way to spend the evening.Read more
Day 11 - Göttingen to Klingenberg
May 23 in Germany
☀️ 25 °C
Got up earlish to catch the train. My Uncle (Cousin? I’m not actually sure of the exact relationship), had gotten up even earlier than me to prepare breakfast, including bread prepared the night before and only needed 30 minutes of baking.
Very tasty breakfast, very German way to start the day as well.
Bid goodbye. Very sorry I could not spend more time with them. Especially as they were going hiking later that day, which I would have loved to do.
Walked to the train station and boarded the train to Dresden.
Met my other cousins, which I had not seen in years. Netti had actually come to Australia about 2 years ago but I was over in the USA doing silly things on the Appalachian Trail at the time, so we missed each other.
Had wonderful walk around Dresdan taking in the sights. We observed an old, very large soviet era mural on the side of a building, depicting German workers in the soviet style.
Another extremely impressive (and extremely large) artwork was the Procession of Princes (Fürstenzug). It is over 100 meters long and depicts the rulers of the area, the earliest date is 1127 - there are dudes before him but they don't have a date, maybe they are mythical? The oldest date is 1873, again with people after that, so I dunno - maybe it represents a transition from absolute rule to forms of democracy (as represented by lots of people)? It will come as a surprise to many that I am not actually an expert in Saxon history.
My cousins kept pointing out the Women's Church, literally "Frauenkirche". I later checked the wiki, in English you instead might refer to it as "The Church of Our Lady". It is huge and dominates the views in Dresden. Like so many old structures in Germany, it was bombed during the war and reconstructed later using as much original material as possible.
We had lunch literally just across from the church. The place was packed but two older gentlemen allowed us to sit at their table with them. I had nuremberg sausages, sauerkraut, and potato mash. All of it was very delicious.
We then took a stroll down the Elbe (I mistook it for the Rhine, who knew Germany has more than 1 river?). Taking in the Academy of Fine Arts, the Cathedral St. Trinitatis and many other fine old buildings.
We then proceeded back to my cousin's apartment, and enjoyed a coffee and hung out in the very nicely setout backyard for a time.
We then proceeded to my other cousin's place. She lives in buildings that used to be her father's factory (the business still exists but has moved to new premises), and has tons of indoor space available for her and her family. She keeps 2 horses, 3 dogs, a cat, and raises rabbits for eating (except for the ones that are given names).
Then it was then onto my Auntie and Uncle's place. I've been here a long time ago, both as a child and in my twenties, so I have some memories of it. It has been beautifully renovated, so it feels very modern.
Just as I had the previous day, I got lucky with my timings. The family had already arranged to get together for a BBQ, and I just happened to turn up on that day. Winning.
The food was amazing, especially the fish. And it was really great to meet everyone, including 3 family members that I had not met previously.
During the BBQ, in amongst the giggles at my attempt to pronounce Göttingen, it was suggested that I take a flight out of Prague instead of Berlin. It would mean I get to visit another country and it was the some distance away. There are also buses leaving regularly from Dresden. I checked the flights out of Prague that were going to London and could not believe that they only cost €56, instead of the €300-400 from Berlin.
Don't know how it is soo cheap, but it was a much better idea than what I had been planning.Read more
Day 12 - Klingenberg / Prague / London
May 24 in England
☀️ 31 °C
Had another German style breakfast with my Aunt and Uncle. I could get used to this!
After showing me the photo album of their trip to Australia, they very kindly drove me into Dresden. We arrived just in time for me to catch the next FlixBus.. The Flixbus’ run every half hour, apparently there is a huge number of workers moving between the cities everyday that drives the demand for these services. Certainly I appeared to be the only tourist aboard taking photos of the scenery.
It was interesting to see the countryside change. The leaving Dreden the area has a mix of mountains, forest, neat farmland and villages. Czechia feels much more open and largely flat, with the occasional tall mountain range.
The FlixBus dropped me off in Prague. I felt the need to pee. I checked a few places but they were all pay-to-pee. No worries, I’ll just head to the nearest McDonald’s…. which also turned out to be pay-to-pee.
I love differences between countries and cultures, and I'm not saying everywhere should be the same. But pay-to-pee can just universally go in the bin.
I located a public park and strolled through, just casually glancing around in an unhurried manner like I was just out for a stroll and my bladder wasn’t completely full. Located an isolated corner with no one around and bushes to screen me, and I dealt with the issue.
Feeling much better I began to explore the city, while kinda wondering what the Czechs would think of me given my first ever act in their country was to take a stealth-piss in one of their public parks.
I strolled along the Vltava River, a very large body of water though quite muddy. It is full of weirs and dams, including one part where people were using the funneled water to go surf boarding. A lot of very large tourist ferries were also moving up and down, so many in fact I had trouble imagining there were enough tourists to keep them all in business.
The weather was quite hot, so I stopped in the shade for a while to book my flight out and plan how I was going to get to the airport (it is unlike me to make plans and book things at the last minute!). Once that was done I checked how much time I had and what there was to do, the main castle up on a hill, something visible from most parts of the city, seemed the best idea.
I continued strolling along until I came to a bridge that led toward the castle. The area was starting to get very heavy with tourists. I started across. It was a pedestrian only bridge and was thick with people. Every so often there were sculptures, some very popular with people queueing up to get their picture taken with them.
The sculpture of Jesus on the cross attracted the biggest queue. People approach and place their hands on two specific places at the bottom. You can see in the photo how those places are much more worn and shiny than the rest.
I crossed the bridge and started making my way up to the castle. At some point I left the main tourist path and started going through side streets. It was one of these side streets that I can face-to-face with Winston Churchill, or a bust of him at least. The plaque displayed one of his quotes:
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Goodwill
I gave him a pat on the arm and continued on.
Another place of interest I passed was the Israeli embassy. It had far less security than I expected. Did not include a photo of it because it really was not that interesting to look at.
After a long walk up the hill I arrived at the Prague Castle. I checked the wiki, it is literally called just that. It is where the president of Prague hangs out. There are some serious guys with guns standing guard out the front.
I was happy to see that you can go into the castle grounds and around it for no expense.
Inside the castle is the St. Vitus Cathedral. Extremely huge and impressive. The amount of work that has been put into the building is incredible. And it was so large I could not quite fit it all into frame in my photos.
The views from up on the hill are also amazing. The whole city is spread out before you.
Caught a taxi to the airport. Only learnt there that he only accepted cash. So left my bag in the car while I ran in to find a cash machine. It had a minimum withdrawal of 1000 Czech dollar things, whereas the bill for the taxi was only 700. But happy enough to give it all to him.
Got on the plane. British Airways. There is not much seat room, my knees were pushed into the seat in front of me a fair bit. But as it was less than 2 hours it was fine.Read more
Day 13 - London / Korea / Home!
May 25 in Australia
☁️ 20 °C
Arrived in London and found a cheap hotel. This was a bit of a mistake because, as I’ve been mentioning in previous posts, the weather was getting hot and London was no exception. The hotel suited me fine except for no AC! So that made the night somewhat uncomfortable.
The next morning I found a laundramat because my clothes were getting stinky again. Problem that he only accepted cash, but he let me put my clothes in and start washing while I again went to find a cash machine. Then I had a moment of feeling dumb because I gave him a £10 note and he gave me £10 of coins to put in the washing machine, took me entirely too long to figure out how his business was generating a profit. After that the clothes went in the dryer and I was off to take in some of London before my flight.
So hot.
I wandered the streets for a while with no particular destination in mind. The churchs here feel quite humble after Prague.
Eventually made my way to Buckingham Palace. I’ve been here before but it is still great to see. I even got to see some of the guards marching around.
Did I mention it was hot??
After Buckingham I did some more wandering around London, again with no particular destination in mine. Just taking in the sights and feel of the city.
Called an Uber to take me to the airport (there were some closures of the rail lines and I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do to get around it). Still had about £11 in change, so gave it to the driver as a tip.
Flew to Korea (again). This time I did not have a huge amount of time between flights, so just chilled out at the airport and worked on this blog for a bit.
The Koreans were however, determined to entertain me. There is a group of reenactors dressed in traditional and warrior attire that marched through the airport to the sound of their beating drums. After a while they stopped and held demonstrations of traditional weapons. Very cool.
After that I flew back home. There was an annoying baby in my row that kept crying throughout the flight. No matter.
And finally, after many hours, back home again. Until next time.Read more
TravelerLove your planning!! All that fuss with getting the things on your iPad to work, you probably could have just done the assignment before you left! And if a Korean airline catches on fire next week because someone stuffed paper in the light fitting you may want to delete this post! Lol. What an adventure, even before you start the adventure.