United Kingdom
Charing Cross

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    • Day 22

      Ausflug nach London

      August 23, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      Heute steht ein Tag London auf dem Plan. Etwa 15 Meilen von unserem Campingplatz ist eine Endstationshaltestelle der Londoner U-Bahn. Dort stellen wir unser Auto ab und fahren zu unserem ersten Ziel. Daniel und Yuna wollen in die National Galerie. Dort angekommen müssen wir aber leider feststellen, dass diese heute geschlossen hat und so entscheiden sich die beiden, ins British Museum zu gehen. Petra und Lilly erkunden inzwischen die Gegend. Zuerst geht es nach Chinatown. Petra hatte bei „to good to go“ etwas am Vortag bestellt und das wird dann als nächstes abgeholt. Eine Box mit leckeren Cupcakes 🧁. Lilly und Petra legen eine Pause im Green Park ein, die Cupecakes werden aber verschont, bis wir uns alle wieder treffen. Danach geht es dann vorbei am Buckingham Palace und weiter zum Big Ben. Dort treffen wir uns dann alle wieder. Lilly ist ganz begeistert, dass wir dass wirklich wieder hingekriegt haben, ohne das sie eingreifen musste 🤭.
      Die 26 Grad sind für einen Londonausflug herausfordernd. Diese Temperaturen sind wir ja so gar nicht gewöhnt 🥵. Und so weiten wir die Stadttour nicht weiter aus und fahren zurück.
      Am Abend nach dem Essen fahren wir nach Southend-on-Sea, etwa 30 Minuten von unserem Campingplatz. Dort ist Adventure Island. Leider sind dort keine Hunde zugelassen., was uns am Eingang mitgeteilt wird. Petra und Lilly machen einen Spaziergang durch den Ort und Yuna und Daniel stürzen sich ins Getümmel. Um 22 Uhr macht der Park zu und wir fahren zurück. Als wir ankommen, stehen wir allerdings vor einem großen, etwa 2,5 Meter hohen Rolltor. Der Park, zu dem unser Campingplatz gehört, hat im wahrsten Sinne schon alle Tore geschlossen. Als wir am ersten Tag hier angekommen sind, hatte die Rezeption schon zu bzw. sie war nicht auffindbar. Da wir aber bei der Buchung schon eine Platznummer zugewiesen bekommen hatten, hatten wir uns dort niedergelassen und die verschiedenen Zugangscodes für die Klohäuschen bei den Nachbarn besorgt. Am nächsten Morgen hatten wir die Rezeption auch nicht gefunden und da wir uns ja versorgt glaubten, haben wir auch nicht weiter gesucht. Aber wir wussten ja nicht, dass es nachts ein Tor gibt und auch nicht, dass wir mal davor stehen würden. Ans Telefon ging um die Zeit natürlich keiner mehr ran. Und so kletterte Daniel über das etwa 2,5 Meter hohe Rolltor und machte sich auf, einen Camper zu suchen, der noch auf ist und das Passwort rausrückt. Unsere zuverlässigen Nachbarn sind noch munter und versorgen ihn auch mit diesem Passwort. Ein Glück, sonst hätten wir wohl alle klettern müssen.
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    • Day 12

      Site seeing in the cold

      November 25, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 43 °F

      Once again, the weather was clear and dry.  However, it was still much colder than Russell was prepared for.  So one of our first stops was to find Russell some earmuffs.  Good thing there were places set up for tourists who came to London unprepared.

      Then we wandered about separately for a while.  I checked out some small Christmas markets and wandered about London streets, while Russell visited the National Portrait Gallery.  I ended up window shopping in a pretty ritzy area.  Saw these really good looking men's dress shores.  They were close to $1000, so they better be good looking!  Eventually, we met up again and did some more wandering.

      There was a large peace protest planned, but we tried to avoid the blocked off roads.  We ended up passing another giant blocked off road where they were filming a movie.  They were filming a car stunt while we were there and we got to see one take where a guy is jumping from the top of one moving car to another speeding vehicle.  I could only see the very beginning of the stunt, but it was still fun to see how much effort goes into about 10 seconds of screen time.

      After several hours of wandering around, we headed back to the hotel before heading to our early dinner reservation.
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    • Day 39

      Eurostaring it to London

      March 10 in England ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

      From Paris to London in the Eurostar in 2 hours. How amazingly easy, smooth and modern! To think one rides under the english channel. Even those more claustrophobic would find it a rather pleasurable experience!

      What a culture change. From the french tube stations to the english, I met up with Phyllis at St. Martin in the Fields for mass and tea afterwards.

      An unexpected change in plans had me changing my lodging arrangements to her house in Trafalgar Square. But what an absolute pleasure to be with her smack in the center of London, on one of the most expensive roads on the monopoly board!

      In the evening I met up with Seva, a friend from 6 years ago in Barcelona!
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    • Day 40

      Trafalgar Square chez Phyllis

      March 11 in England ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

      So after a miscommunication it ended up unexpectedly being a guest at Phyllis' place smack in the centre of Westminster, London. I couldn't have wished for anything better. Not only because I am within walking distance of Westminster and all the sights, or all the main West End theatres, but also because it allows me to save considerably on transport, which is so crazy expensive. Well, actually, everything here is crazy expensive.

      On my first day I took a prolonged wall through the horse guards near Downing Street, through St. James' Park, past Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial Square (where all the famous royal family events get televised ), through Green Park and into Hyde Park. From there I ventured into South Kensington for a sneak peak at opulent Harrod's and its beautiful food courts and galleries.
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    • Day 42

      Chlling... Recovering...

      March 13 in England ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      At this stage, I was so destroyed from all the Paris activity and the traveling and meeting up with people and doing things that upon arrival at Phyllis extremely welcoming home , I almost collapsed and had the luxury of retreating into this little oasis of colour, comfort and safety in the middle of the centre of London craziness.

      I was able to rest, eat healthy and do stuff that needed doing. Like contact the people that needed contacting and get some master's study in! While in Amtwerp I missed the latest module and had some real catching up to do.

      So both Phyllis and I spent our days preparing deliciously colourful, fresh and healthy meals while in between studying/working.
      We had some real quality catching up sessions in between, which were invaluably helpful to me regarding what my next professional steps should be. As you might jave noticed, I haven't exactly been in a huge hurry to get back go work.

      Also, she shared with me where her Social Impact Game project is at and how it is advancing at amazing strides. They are networking and have quite a few very interested large-scale parties, and they are currently undergoing a petition to integrate AI into their initiative which is going to make it take off!
      What a provilege to see all this cutting edge novelty happening and what hope to think that this is going to be having a social impact.

      Also... Phyllis introduced me to some very interesting people at her community in St. Martin in the Fields, as well as people in her work circle. What an exposure!

      On the tuesday I joined Seva in the London Buddhist Centre for a meditation session.

      On wednesday Phyllis and I went to a lovely mass where poetry was read and interpreted, as well as sung by the most beautiful sounding choir. It really brought me back to my choir days!
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    • Day 5

      Off to the big city

      August 17, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Today, we started the day with a strange feeling. Yesterday, I switched off the mobile phone, woke up in the night. To look after the time, I started the mobile phone. Bähm... I entered the wrong pin. So, I switched off again and tried it in the morning.
      Bähm... also in the morning I entered the wrong pin again.
      The third time I was so sure. This is it. Bähm... "You entered a wrong pin three times. So, the mobile phone will be locked. Shit, shit, shit... That cannot be true...

      So, because we didn't achieved somebody at home, we had to check out at 10:15 a.m. and drove to the airport. Without taking photos, without playing games on the mobile for Michael...

      Departure from Jersey was planned for 1:50 p.m. Due to very bad weather conditions in London we departed at 2:50 p.m. Arrival at London after a turbulenced flight was at 3:45 p.m.
      There was so much rain there and chaos so that we had to wait in the aircraft for further half an hour. After the busses arrived at the runway there was no steps to went out. So we had to further wait again...
      After preparing the steps a few minutes ago we left the aircraft by heavy rain. So we got wet from top to bottom.

      The Heathrow Express was found quikly, we bought a ticket for 38 pounds (return ticket). After a short journey with three stops we arrived at Paddington Station. It was so crowded, I regret leaving Jersey for this trip to London. Everything was so easy in Jersey, so relaxed. London was crowded, confusing, loud and dirty.
      But we learned that due to that bad weather conditions there was closed a few tube stations and the people gathered en masse everywhere.

      My phone didn't still work so I couldn't took any photos from the crowd.
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    • Day 2

      Day 2 - London

      October 14, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

      Arrived in London around 11:30am after a ‘quick’ overnight flight of 7 1/2 hours…unfortunately, not much sleep was had - sure missed traveling Cathay business class. Took an Uber to our ‘home’ for 4 days in Kings Cross. Despite the distance being only 10 miles, it took over an hour - crazy. Checked in quickly and then headed out right away into the brisk autumn air…gonna try and push through til bedtime. Aimlessly walked down to the Thames and back. We will get more serious about actual sightseeing via Big Bus tours tomorrow. Delicious Mediterranean dinner and back at the flat by 7:30 trying to stay awake…and warm…the thermostat is broken and there is no one around to look at it til tomorrow. Super excited concierge though; pumping us for info cuz he is coming to western Canada next year. 8:30pm - lights out.Read more

    • Day 42

      Lunch with guests

      March 13 in England ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

      On thursday we had guests over for lunch. Phyllis set up a meeting so I could meet Dr. Alka Patel and Phyllis' business partner Gabe.
      Alka is a GP doctor who manages to get herself out of the system by setting herself up to work with a specific niche of clientelle offering services as a "longevity concierge". She basically offers youthening people's biological age through multiple lifestyle interventions and hacks with very sophisitcated biological age tests pre- and post-intervention.
      During lunch we all had a very interesting conversation about the Social Impact Game and its progression, Alka's expertise and vision, society, healthcare, wellbeing, the experience of being a doctor, etc. After that Alka and I had a chat over coffee where I was able to ask her some key questions about her professional trajectory and her type of practise. It was very eye-opening to learn her astute change of tactic and I received some sound advice from someone who has stepped out and made it for herself quite successfully!

      After that, Phyllis and I walked over the Thames to the National Theatre in South Bank to catch a play. We watched Dear Octopus, a 1938 story of a 4 generation family get-together for the grandparents' golden wedding. It accompanies us through the family dynamics and the issues of each of the components in a very entertaining, pleasant and funny way. The set was a turning set which very ingeniously allowed us to see them interactions in different parts of the house.
      What a treat!
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    • Day 44

      West end !

      March 15 in England ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      After a full day of intense work at home we decided to catch some last minute tickets to a play in one of the dozens of theatres that are within 3 streets walking distance. Oh, the joys of being right near the West End.

      The Mirror is about a play being played within a play, within a play, within a play, set in an imaginary communist regime where the arts are heavily sanctioned and need to be done in secret. What initially seems like a wedding quickly turns into something completely unexpected. They managed to interweave the plot and the multiple layers of plays with a very smart use of humour.
      Highly entertaining!
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    • Day 4

      American Bar at Savoy

      June 15, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

      What a GORGEOUS place. The Savoy is absolutely remarkable. Starting at the American Bar for some pre-dinner cocktails. Even the Coke is presented with class.

      The bathroom is the best we’ve ever been in, too.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Charing Cross, צרינג קרוס, チャリング・クロス, 채링크로스, Чаринг-Кросс, 查令十字

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