Author: Tim

Sunday, February 2 – transit from Monte Carlo to Paris

It’s another full day of train travel, and I’m looking forward to it! The itinerary:

• Monte Carlo to Nice: 24m, no 1st class car (oh no! I guess I’ll survive!)
• Nice to Paris: 5h 58m
• Paris Gare de Lyon to Hotel: Paris Metro, one change, 30m

It was a very relaxing day. No drama thankfully! The views weren’t as dramatic as in Switzerland, but we did travel along the coast for a while, and that was beautiful!

Monday, February 3 – Paris

During my time in London I had the good fortune to visit Paris several times. So, my urge on this trip was to maybe take in some things that are off the beaten path, or I might have overlooked. There was one tourist spot I had to visit this morning though…

Thursday, January 30 and Friday, January 31 – Monte Carlo

The shorts are coming out today! I don’t care if I look like a tourist in uber fashionable Monte Carlo! The forecast for the next two days calls for party cloudy skies, with temperatures in the upper 50s.

This post is going to be all about pictures! I’ll lead off with a couple from my hotel…

I mentioned in my previous post that Monte Carlo is set into the side of a mountain, so although the city covers a small area, the steepness makes it difficult to cover on foot. To alleviate that there are several public elevators located throughout the area. And two of those were the ones I could have used last night to walk from the train station to my hotel. The issue was finding the first one…

Okay, enough of this boring stuff, let’s get on with some pictures of beautiful Monte Carlo!

I also took a tour of the Collection of Voitures Anciennes, which is a museum featuring some of the private cars in the collection of the Prince of Monaco. I’ll just bore you with a couple pictures here…

And finally, I was incredibly happy to learn that the start of the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique was taking place here on Friday! The staging took place during the day, and the public was allowed to roam freely amongst the cars! Very Nice! Once again, I’ll only post a limited amount of pictures here, so as to reduce the chance of reader abandonment!

Saturday, February 1 – Monte Carlo Casino

The Monte Carlo Casino offers a few options when it comes to taking a tour and/or gambling:

• Self-guided audio tours are available while the casino is closed, from 10am to 1pm. The cost is €17. The tour includes access to all of the casino rooms, with photography allowed and no dress code.
• Gambling begins at 2pm. The cost to enter is €17, of which €10 is refunded by way of a credit towards gaming, drinks, or meals. There is only access to some of the rooms, photography is not allowed, and the dress code is fairly lax (jeans, collared shirt, sneakers). At 7pm, the dress code becomes more stringent.
• An all-day pass for €17. This combines both items above, with the exception of the €10 credit.

I went with the last option. I’ll describe how it all went in the captions of the pictures below. Note that the exterior pictures of the casino were taken on Thursday and Friday.

So, how did the gambling go? I arrived at around 2:30, and it was pretty quiet. I wanted to play blackjack, and there was one table open with a €10 minimum. There were two people playing, so I joined in with a €100 bankroll. It was going fairly well, up and down, pretty much staying even. And then a group of three guys joined us. And they were playing stupid. I put up with it for a little while, but then started losing, so walked away. I ended up playing for about 30 minutes and lost €40. It was still pretty empty in the casino, but I stuck around for another half an hour, watching the limited action at the other gaming tables, and then cashed in and left. I did keep a €5 chip as a souvenir though!

Tuesday, January 28 – Vaduz

It’s a rather rainy day, so it seems like a perfect time for rest, travel planning, catching up on loose ends, and work on the journal. I pretty much saw all of Vaduz yesterday, but I did head out for a while today and visited the Postage Stamp Museum. That was pretty interesting! I also went to the grocery store to pick up some food. I’ve still only had the one sit-down meal so far on the trip, which seems kind of sad, I know. I’ve just got to the point where I find it rather boring to have a meal at a restaurant by myself. (Is that another old-age thing? Probably not, I’m just weird!)

I promised you the story about my 1st class train travel. Well, by last Friday I had (finally!) figured out the final steps of the trip. I looked at online train schedules and came up with the routes and times I wanted for the three remaining journeys. So I went to the Luxembourg train station to purchase the tickets. I ended up working with a great agent and she suggested that I consider buying a Eurail Pass. Of course! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that myself! Must be that elderly brain function coming into play again! She went ahead and crunched the numbers, comparing individual purchase versus rail pass, and it wasn’t even close. And this took a fair amount of work on her part, because there’s more to booking the travel than just buying the pass. For many trains a reservation is required; in that case there is a fee on top of the cost of the pass. And as a bonus, it turned out the cost of a 1st class pass wasn’t much greater than that of a 2nd class one. So, there’s the story! And as you’ll see in my later posts, I have some long rides coming up, so I’m happy I went with the upgrade.

I should mention that the pass I bought allowed for four days of travel over a 30 day period. But wait, why am I buying a four day pass when I only have three days of train travel left? Well, that wasn’t an option over the time period I wanted. So you’re probably thinking: “You idiot, if you had thought of the pass earlier you could have used it on the trip from London to Luxembourg!”. I actually asked the agent about that, and she said it was unlikely I could have used the pass for that trip because there are very few Eurail reservations available on the Eurostar trains. She was probably just trying to make me feel better! (FYI, the cost of the 1st Class Eurail Pass was €295.)

A final note about my train tickets: I was able to book all the required reservations, except for one: the journey from Milan to Monte Carlo. The agent said that she was unable to access the system of the train company to make the reservation, and that I should check back with an agent on Sunday when I depart for Liechtenstein. This one reservation will turn into an interesting adventure. More details to follow in tomorrow’s journal entry…

Loose ends…

I should mention that Vaduz was very clean. Unlike a lot other European cities I’ve visited, there was no graffitti to be seen.

Sidenote regarding passport stamps: I’ve only had my passport stamped once on this trip – when I departed St Pancras station on my way to Brussels. At Heathrow they now have something called eGate, which is an electronic entry system via a passport scan. I never met with an immigration agent. It went very fast! After entering Belgium, and for the rest of my journey, I’ve been travelling in the Schengen Area, which comprises 26 European countries that have eliminated all passport and other types of control at their mutual borders. The merchants in Vaduz have tried to monetize this situation, by charging tourists $3 to place a Liechtenstein stamp in their passport. Not!

Wednesday, January 29 – transit from Liechtenstein to Monaco

I’ll lead off by telling you what happened when I checked back at the Luxembourg train station on Sunday regarding my Milan to Monte Carlo reservation. The agent I met with this time stated that the problem was not with the system, rather it was a case where she could not make the reservation, I would have to do so myself online. She gave me the web address of the Italian train company for reference. As luck would have it, my train from Luxembourg City to Mukhouse had wifi. So I went to the website, but was only able to find information on trains running between Milan and Venice. (damn Italians!)

But I did have a little over an hour of connecting time in Mulhouse, so I met with a ticket agent at that station. She told me my best option was to make the reservation during my connection in Milan. That wasn’t good for two reasons though: a) I only had 20 minutes in Milan, and b) I didn’t want to wait to the last minute, in case no seats were available. We finally got to the point where she could make a reservation for me on the train that goes from Milan to Monte Carlo, but only as far as Ventimiglia (located on the Italy-French border). From there I would have to get off the train (even though the next stop after Ventimiglia is Monte Carlo!), and take a separate train to Monte Carlo, which does not require a reservation. Crazy, right! But whatever, let’s book it. This isn’t the end of the story though. More to come when we get there…

Today is a long day of travel. I reverse my steps from Vaduz to Sargans to Zurich (bus/train), and the rest of the day goes like this:

• Zurich to Milan: 3h 40m, 20 minute connecting time
• Milan to Ventimiglia: 3h 44m, 32 minute connecting time
• Ventimiglia to Monte Carlo: 30m

It was a long day, but I find train travel relaxing. I enjoy just watching the scenery go by. The route through Switzerland was particularly beautiful, with lakes and mountains. I tried taking some pictures, but they were worthless (blurry, reflections, light pole in the middle of the shot, etc).

The journey was very smooth and relaxing until I arrived in Ventimiglia (we were 10 minutes late arriving in Milan (damn Italians!), but I still had 10 minutes to make my connection).

So, upon arrival in Ventimiglia I exited the train and headed to the station to check on the track location for my final segment. Well, I look at the departures board, and notice that my train has been cancelled (Cancellato!)! Wait, what!?! And all future trains to Monte Carlo have also been cancelled. (damn Italians!) It’s 7pm, and I’m in a kind of in panic mode trying to figure out what to do next. I quickly remember that the train I was just on is also going to Monte Carlo. So, I head back to that track with little hope that it would still be there, but thankfully it still is! Wow! Thank you! It turns out they have a long stop time in Ventimiglia because it’s at the border and they do a crew change. Again, thank you! I’m back on the train, in my original seat, ready to head to Monte Carlo. Then the (new) conductor (French) comes by to check my ticket. Oh oh. Well, I explain the situation, show him my ticket from Milan to Ventimiglia, along with the Eurail pass, and he lets me carry on the rest of the way (love the French!). And it turns out it’s only a 10 minute ride to Monte Carlo. I’m not sure what I would have done if the train had already departed; probably would have ended up in a taxi. Not sure how expensive that would have been?

Getting from the train station to my hotel was a little bit of a struggle as well. On a map, they are very close. The issue though is the third dimension. Monte Carlo is very hilly, with winding roads. The hotel actually sent me directions, but they were a little unclear, and involved an exit I couldn’t find and a of couple elevators, of which I could only find one! I eventually made it part of the way up the hill, but then had to rely on Google Maps to get me the rest of the way.

Travel Tip: Did you know you can use Google Maps without a data signal (cellular, internet, wifi)? The GPS in your phone will still track you without a signal. The key is downloading the map data while you have a signal (preferable a low cost signal like hotel wifi!). The caveat is that Google Maps will only allow downloads of maps for a limited area. So in my case tonight, I briefly used international roaming to get a cellular signal, download the map of the area around me, and then went back to airplane mode to track my route to hotel.

Thursday, January 23 & Friday, January 24 – Luxembourg City

Apologies for the delay in updating the journal, it’s been a busy few days!

In looking back over the course of my travels, I must say that I have had pretty good luck with the weather. As recently as my trip last winter, I encountered beautiful days at the critical locations (Iguazu Falls, Galapagos, Easter Island). And my multi-day trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu could have been ugly, but turned out great. The one case of bad luck I can recall was my trip to Nepal. I went during the time of year that typically promised the optimum viewing of Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, the week prior to my arrival a typhoon made landfall in India and worked its way north to the Himalayas. The good news is I missed that week, because it rained every day in Nepal! The bad news is that clouds still covered the mountains during the week of my stay. Oh well, I still had a great time, and I ultimately did get a glimpse of Everest – by taking a small plane up above the clouds! That was pretty cool in itself!

Anyway, I digress. The point I’m ultimately getting to is the fact that my entire stay in Luxembourg City (and beyond) was engulfed in clouds and fog. But there is a bright side (pun intended!) – it didn’t rain or snow! And it was still a fun stay; I’m just disappointed I wasn’t able to present the true beauty of the city.

And there was a comedic aspect to the whole thing. I was following the weather using the app on my phone, and here’s how it went these two days:

• Forecast as of Thursday Morning: Cloudy in the morning, clearing skies around noon, and for the remainder of the day. That’ll work – I’ll walk around in the morning, get the lay of the land, and then do some picture taking in the afternoon.
• Forecast update Thursday Noon: Still cloudy, clearing around 3pm, will remain cloudless through the afternoon and evening, and all day Friday. That’s fine, there’s still plenty more to explore, and I can decide what I want to go back to this afternoon and tomorrow.
• Forecast update Thursday 3pm: Pretty much a repeat of noon, just 3 hours later! (cloudy, clearing for tonight and tomorrow). Okay. I’ll try for something tonight.

Well, you can pretty much guess how this played out. It was cloudy Thursday night and Friday morning. But the forecast continued to tease about clear skies in the afternoon. Of course, that never happened! I wasn’t going to be fooled twice though (I’m no dummy!), so I gave in and took some pictures of a cloudy Luxembourg.

Luxembourg City has a population of about 120k, of which 70% is comprised of foreigners. It is a significant banking and administrative center in Europe, and it is ranked as having the highest per capita GDP in the world (2018; the U.S. is 8th).

It’s a great city for walking, because it is not particularly large. But its layout is complex, as the city is set on several levels, straddling hills and dropping into two gorges.

Okay, enough babbling, let’s get to some pictures!

Saturday, January 25 – day trip to Vianden

Vianden lies on the Our river, near the border between Luxembourg and Germany. It is known for its impressive castle and beautiful location in the Our valley.

The trip from Luxembourg City takes about an hour, split equally between a train followed by a bus. And it was nice that I could buy a public transport day pass for €4, which covered the whole trip.

Of course it was a cloudy day; actually bordering on foggy!

Sunday, January 26 – transit from Luxembourg to Liechtenstein

Here is my travel schedule for the day:

• Luxembourg City to Mulhouse, France by train; 2h 30m; 1st class (more about that in a later post!)
• Mulhouse to Zurich by train: 1h 20m; 1st class
• Zurich to Sargans, Switzerland by train; 55m; I had a 1st class ticket, but sat in 2nd class
• Sargans to Vaduz, Liechtenstein by bus; 30m
• Vaduz Au bus stop to hotel on foot; 5m

Monday, January 27 – Vaduz

Liechtenstein is a small country, with a population of about 40k (the population of Vaduz is 5k). It is 15 miles long x 8 miles wide.

Tuesday, January 21 – last day in London

I had big plans for my last day in London; enhanced by the fact that it was also my 60th birthday! I started out back at the V&A Museum, where I attended a tour/talk regarding the history of the museum. It was very interesting!

It was a beautiful day, so I decided to take a walk through the parks as I made my way to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (planning on attending a show tonight). On the route to Kensington Gardens I stopped to get something to eat at a favorite sandwich shop. Well, let’s just say it was not as good as I remembered! Was it always marginal, and my faulty memory just made it seem better, or had it actually had a serious drop in quality over the years? Mmmm, I’ve got to go with the latter. But I am 60 after all, so you never know!

By the time I reached Leicester Square I was getting kind of tired. Still feeling the effects (or is it affects, I never get those two straight?!) from an over-strenuous weekend, or just old age? Probably both! So, sadly, I decided to head back to the hotel and get ready for my day of travel tomorrow.

Sidenote: I did put in 17k steps today, so maybe being tired was a little justified!

What a pathetic birthday, right? No arguments. I don’t even have any decent pictures to post. This is one I will try to blot out from my memory. And based on my sandwich shop issues, that shouldn’t be a problem!

But how appropriate is it that on my 60th birthday I was too tired to make a night of it!!

Wednesday, January 22 – transit from London to Luxembourg

I’ll be travelling in four different trains over a period of about 6 hours today.

Step 1: Take the tube from South Harrow to St Pancras. Duration: about 45 minutes. Class: none. Reserved Seat: yeah, right!

Step 2: St. Pancras to Brussels – Zuid through the Chunnel on Eurostar. Duration: 2 hours. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: Yes.

And here’s probably the only good thing about turning 60 – I now qualify for the senior discount on European train travel! Whoo Hoo!!

I had a 28 minute layover in Brussels, which turned out to be a good thing because we arrived 20 minutes late!

Step 3: Brussels to Arlon (a Belgian city near the border of Luxembourg). Duration: 2 hours 50 minutes. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: no.

I only had 5 minutes to catch the train to Luxembourg, but thankfully we arrived on time (as you’d expect for most of the European train systems). And my connecting train was just one track away.

Step 4: Arlon to Luxembourg City. Duration: 22 minutes. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: no.

Friday, January 17 – London

Began the day at the Natural History Museum to attend the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. I been to this in previous years, and it continues to amaze! Unfortunately, no photography was allowed within the exhibit (although I did see one person taking pictures – annoying!). If you’re interested in seeing some of the images though, a link is here.

Following the photography exhibit I meandered to the north part of the city to visit the always-interesting Camden Market. For those not familiar, the market contains over 1,000 shops and stalls selling fashion, music, art and food. It’s a fun place to spend the afternoon!

Saturday, January 18 – London

A beautiful day! Temps in the 40s, low wind and clear skies. I think some walking is in order! My route of choice is the Thames Path – specifically along the north bank heading west (up river) out of the city (The Thames Path is a long distance walking trail, following England’s best known river for 184 miles as it meanders from its source in the Cotswolds through several rural counties and on into the heart of London).

I started at Hammersmith Bridge, and made my through Chiswick, Kew, Brentford, Isleworth, and finished just short of Richmond. It’s a lovely walk, especially on a day like this! I racked up a little over 27k steps for the day; just below this trip’s high mark! Doh! Below are some sights along the path…

I finished the day by spending a wonderful evening with my friends (and former landlords) Mary & Tony on Harrow on the Hill. We began the night with drinks at their beautiful Georgian home, Byron House, and then made our way to a nearby pub for dinner. This was the first proper sit down meal I’ve had so far on trip. Sad, I know! And what did I have on this rare occasion? Bangers and mash. It was very good! It was lovely to see you Mary & Tony! Thank you for your hospitality!

Sunday, January 19 – London

Great news! It’s another beautiful day! Basically a repeat of yesterday. So, I think I’ll go all Groundhog Day and make another trek on the Thames Path. I’ll mix it up a little today though. I’m going to take on the SOUTH bank, and head EAST. Crazy, I know! I started out at Embankment and made it all the way to Greenwich. Today’s step count was a little over 26k. Once again, just short of my trip PB. Ugh!

Monday, January 20 – London

What to do after the weekend of 50k steps? Rest!

I spent the day finalizing my departure details to Luxembourg on Wednesday, and figuring out how to travel from Luxembourg to Liechtenstein by train (here’s a hint: it can’t be done!).

Tomorrow concludes my stay in London, and is a big day for me. How should I spend my last day? Mmmmm…

After my weekend of walking I’ve covered nearly a quarter million steps on this trip, averaging over 16k per day. That won’t last!

Wednesday, January 15 – London

More cars today! Apologies if I’m boring you! I stopped by The London Film Museum in Covent Garden, where the current exhibit is Bond in Motion, featuring the vehicles from the James Bond movies. It was a great collection; I spent a lot of time there. They were also showing a James Bond documentary on a continuous loop, so I stuck around to check that out as well.

Unfortunately, one of the cars missing from the exhibit was a fully restored version of the Aston Martin DB5 from the 1964 film Goldfinger. It sold at auction last fall for $6.4 million!

Following the Bond exhibit I made my way over to Trafalgar Square, just in time to attend a “Ten Minute Talk” at The National Gallery – this is where one of the museum’s curators chooses a single work from the collection to discuss. Fun stuff!

Next door is the National Portrait Gallery, and they have a painting there that has my all-time favorite title – Mike’s Brother, by Sam Walsh. So I headed over to revisit it for a laugh. Unfortunately it is not currently on display! Ugh! I found a picture of it online though…

This evening I attended a concert in the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre. It was a performance of Ravi Shankar’s only opera – Sukanya, and featured the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It was very good, and included wonderful dancing.

Thursday, January 16 – London

Today was a day of rest! I ran a couple errands in town and did some trip planning and journal writing. Fun stuff, I know!

Through the first 9 days of the trip I’m averaging 15,360 steps per day. Ahead of my South America pace, but the average will drop after today, and I likely won’t be able to keep up the pace.

So, my Fitbit band broke the other day. That’s the third one that’s failed in the last few months. Fortunately I haven’t lost the tracker in any of those instances. I have a theory on the failures: A few years ago I bought several knockoff bands at the same time on eBay. I guess they’re just at the end of their (short but cheap!) useful life. I’ll probably trash all of them when I get home. I did bring a spare band with me on the trip. But I’m afraid to wear it! So I’ve just kept it in my pants pocket as I’ve walked around. Should give a pretty close result, right?

Monday, January 13 – London

I took a walk this morning to my old work neighborhood. Had some good memories of the familiar sights along the way. Most of the same shops still occupy the High Street, which was nice to see. There is one major change though: The company sold off our office building a couple years ago and it is now being converted to flats!

The rest of the day was spent taking a leisurely walk through Central London – one of my favorite things to do.

I finished the day across the river at the Tate Modern Museum, where I took a tour of their “Cities” exhibit.

Tuesday, January 14 – London

I spent almost all of today at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Kind of weird, I know, but there’s so much to see! I started off taking in their “Cars” exhibit (of course), and followed that with two separate tours – one general and one of their theatre and entertainment area.

Saturday, January 11 – London

Today was rather low key. I ran a couple errands in the neighborhood, did some trip planning, and worked on this journal.

This is probably a good time to point out that I expect (plan?) that my traveling this winter will be at a much less manic pace than last year. I was on the move a LOT in South America. Hopefully not so much this year. As a result, this journal may not be as interesting to read. Apologies for that. Hopefully I won’t lose too many of you along the way!

I began charting my steps for this trip and noticed something interesting. Over the course of my 11 week stay in South America last year, the maximum number of steps I achieved in one day was 28,062 (Iguazu Falls hike). I’ve already topped that! On Thursday, during my walk through the parks I logged 29,103! Maybe I’ll have a 30k day this year?

Sunday, January 12 – London

I did a little exploring in the east end of London today. First item on the agenda: Going to church (what?)…

The rest of the afternoon was spent roaming around a few of the weekend/Sunday markets in the area.

Welcome back everyone! My Journal has emerged from its Spring-Summer-Fall hibernation! And following on from my last post in March – thanks again to all of you for taking the time to read and comment. It means a lot to me!

This year will feature split trips, as I’ll be heading back to the States for Ali & Matt’s big event in New York next month. Can’t wait!

I’m leading off with a no-set-itinerary month in western Europe – arriving in London and departing from Paris. I’m hoping to take in some train travel along the way, but you’ll have to watch this space for confirmation! (can I write a tease, or what?!?). So, without further adieu (a little French prep!)…

Monday, January 6 and Tuesday, January 7 – transit from Madison to London

I departed Madison on the 10am bus to O’Hare (thanks for the drop off Chuck!), arriving around 1pm for the 4:20 departure. When booking my flights, I noticed there were some good deals on using miles to Europe. So, I ended up splurging on an Austrian Air business class ticket, connecting through Vienna. Very uncharacteristic of my cheap self, I know!

The flight was a little over 8 hours. With the late afternoon departure I figured I’d be awake most of the trip. That wasn’t the case though; I slept a fair amount (maybe the multiple glasses of prosecco had something to do with that!). In fact, I ended up watching only 1 3/4 movies (Ad Astra and most of The Kitchen (don’t tell me how it ends!)). Now, normally I would say sleeping on a flight is a good thing. However, when one is making a rare appearance at the front of the plane, maybe not so much!

After a 3 hour layover in Vienna, I arrived at Heathrow around 1pm on Tuesday. I decided to book a hotel in my old neighborhood*, because a) I missed it, and b) it was less expensive than central London. Of course though, the latter is my main reason! (cheap!!)

* Quick Backstory: I know most of you are aware of my history with London, but here’s a quick refresher for you and totally new information for the others. I lived in London for 4 years, leaving at the end of 2010. Subsequent to that I was back for a few business trips; the last being for several weeks in the summer of 2014. I enjoyed my time here immensely, so after 5+ years away, it was time for a return! But why in the winter, you ask? a) less expensive (of course!), b) less crowded, and c) Madison is a great place to be in the spring, summer and fall!

I brought along three of my old Oyster cards for the trip (weird that I kept them, I know). The cards are used as payment on the tube and bus. I was hoping I might have some money left on them. Card #1: zippo. Card #2: 60p (bummer!). Card #3: £8 (nice!). I’m impressed that Transport for London includes no expiration date on the funds. I know my train card from Perth did. And the NYC MetroCards do as well.

The options to get from Heathrow to South Harrow are (in descending order, by cost): taxi, tube, bus. So yes, I took the 140 bus. It’s actually pretty convenient though, because it’s the same bus for the whole trip. And even better, beginning this year it’s been made an express bus, reducing the trip length from 60 to 45 minutes, which is about the same time it takes on the tube. (another benefit: the 140 bus runs 24hrs – remember our very late night bus ride from Heathrow Holly?)

I was pretty beat by the time I reached the hotel, so ended up staying in for the rest of the day. And I wasn’t at all hungry following all that business class/airline lounge food. I was even served a meal on the 1hr 15min flight from Vienna to London!

Wednesday, January 8 – London

Notes on London photographs: I know most of you reading this have been to London, and regardless, everybody is familiar with the main attractions of this city. Therefore, the only pictures I’ll be posting during my stay here will either a) have some personal significance for me, b) be something unusual, or c) reflect a change that has occurred since my last visit.

Woke up following a solid, non-interrupted night of sleep. No jet lag. Bonus!

I need to take care of a little business this morning. I still have a UK bank account. Should probably close that out! Unfortunately there won’t be a huge windfall coming my way: I left behind £5 in savings and £55 in checking. I’m actually surprised they haven’t charged me any fees over the last 5 years! I also have in my possession one each of a £5 and £10 note that are no longer in circulation. Conveniently the bank will allow me to deposit those into my account before I close it. Brilliant!

1st stop upon my return? One of my favorite places in the city – The National Gallery. Currently on exhibit is the work of Da Vinci – primarily an analysis of the two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks that he painted. The earlier version is in the Louvre, and the latter here.

Thursday, January 9 – London

Another great night’s sleep! Will jet lag be avoided??

Today started out beautiful – clear skies with temps in the low 50s. So, I decided to do some walking through the parks of the city. I started out in Kensington Gardens, followed by Hyde Park and Regents Park. Sadly, by the time I finished rain was approaching. At least it waited that long!

For dinner the last couple nights I’ve taken advantage of the Tesco (supermarket) Meal Deal. It includes the selection of a sandwich or salad, snack and drink – all for £3. Awesome!

Tonight I attended a concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields, a church on Trafalgar Square. It was in a candlelight setting, featuring works by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi performed by the Belmont Ensemble of London. I went with a low-cost (cheap!) side box obstructed view seat. But it turned out to be great because I was in the most forward box, for which there was no obstruction! And it was a wonderful performance!

Friday, January 10 – London

It’s official, jet lag averted! Woo hoo!

The Harry and Meghan saga has been big news over here (as you would expect!). I have a feeling it’s been getting a lot of play in the U.S. as well. Frankly, I’m happy they chose this week to make their announcement. Otherwise, I fear my arrival would have been splashed all over the headlines, and I’d just as soon keep a low profile while I’m here!

Another nice day in the city, so I made my way to the South Bank for a walk.

I was rather tired today, so after some more walking and a visit to the Tate Modern, I headed back to the hotel.