Girls' Cultural Trip

As mentioned earlier, H-M and Tiina went on a cultural trip to London at the end of April. This was the second such trip, and by all accounts they had a good time.


The themes of the trip were museums, vegan food and theatre. One museum, one play and one vegetarian meal was planned for each day. They stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in Kensington, the Vicarage Hotel. The hotel was chosen mainly for its central location and the girls would use it again, although I suspect they might prefer something like The Dorchester or Claridge's. Those considering staying at the Vicarage Hotel be warned, the stairs are very narrow and very steep, so don't bring heavy suitcases.


Unfortunately, there seem to be very few photos of the trip, so evidence of the truth of what went on is rather limited.

Tiina about to tuck into a vegan meal.

H-M, Sarah and Stephen.

The travellers met Sarah and Uncle Stephen for an evening out at the show, 'One Man, Two Guvnors'. Sarah and Stephen are soon leaving London and moving back up North, to the Harrogate area.

Not snow, but petals!

Two engineers outside the British Library (Isaac Newton and Tiina).

U.K. Trip Report - Part 3

Day 6
The day started leisurely and the first item on the programme was a trip to the Imperial War Museum. It's a big place, so we only visited the rooms dealing with post-1945 conflicts. It was surprising and saddening to see how many armed conflicts there have been involving British forces in a period of general peace. Finding somewhere to eat proved more difficult than anticipated, as did navigating the bus system, so we ended up eating sandwiches on a very gusty Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square with Nelson's Column. (Extra points for those able to work out the flag on the building in the background.)

After lunch we strolled along The Strand to see if the BBC World Service shop still existed, it didn't, and then added to our daily dose of culture by visiting the Design Museum. It was ok but a little disappointing as half of it was closed for a change of exhibits.

A view of Tower Bridge.

Back in Caterham, we finished the day with a very nice fish and couscous meal (cooked by Stephen) followed by watching a recording of the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup.

Day 7
This day was devoted to shopping. I'm useless at shopping, all that happened was that I got fed up and didn't buy anything. I did, however, look on in amazement at the crowds of people queueing around the block at Selfridges - apparently there was a sale at the Gucci shop.

Day 8
A visit to the London Eye was the first attraction. I set off early(-ish) to be there before the crowds. The London Eye claims to be London's premier attraction and it is certainly worth a visit, especially if the weather and visibility is good.

Houses of Parliament viewed through the structure of the London Eye.


Houses of Parliament again.


A London Eye capsule.

After my 'flight' I met Stephen and we set off for lunch, at a healthy fast-food place Leon, where the food comes in cardboard boxes.

Lunch.

Fortified with "Grilled Freedom Food chicken with a light garlic and yoghurt sauce and a pot of powerful chilli sauce on the side" we set off to our next museum, the Cartoon Museum, where cartoons of former U.K. Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher were on prominent display.

After a coffee break and trip to a bookshop, we found ourselves near Euston station and outside the Wellcome Collection. It was advertised as free and so we popped in. This was a stroke of luck as it was most interesting and certainly lived up to its slogan.

'A free destination for the incurably curious.'

After all this hard work sight-seeing, we decided to skip cooking and eat out again, this time in a small Indian restaurant in Croydon.

Day 9
The final full day our my trip and we were wondering what to do. A musical festival in Leicester Square was advertised at which extracts from West End musicals would be performed and we decided to go and see what was happening. There were thousands of people so we were left outside the venue looking at the stage on big screens. We got to see some bits of the musical 'We Will Rock You'. Mind you, some of the singing seemed more like karaoke to us.

One of the flyers we were given mentioned a show 'Nanta (Cookin')' which was described as: "A comic, dance and music spectacular using Korean rhythms and acrobatic cooking." The description sounded intriguing so we decided to go and see. The performance was in Kingston and not in the West End, so we could afford the tickets - West End musicals are very expensive.

The show is set in a kitchen and has a quite simple storyline. The music is created using kitchen utensils and as a whole, Nanta is a mixture of drama, modern circus, pantomime and musical. I enjoyed it; it was good fun. For those wanting to know more, there is a promotional video here.

In case you think we had a laid back day and neglected our tourist duties, I'd like to point out that we also managed to squeeze in a trip to the National Portrait Gallery, a look at a Tamil demonstration, including some irresponsible driving by hyped-up policemen (racing up The Mall, tyres squealing, and tourists diving for cover) and a meal at Carluccio's restaurant, where we were treated to an ex tempore show; a guest on an adjacent table got up to speak to a friend on a neighbouring table and when she returned to her seat she found the waitress had already removed her plate and she couldn't finish her meal.

A couple of show dancers.

Day 10
The final day of my trip - an early departure from Caterham and off to the chaos that is London Heathrow. By the end of the day I was back in Finland and my very enjoyable big city break was over.

Aircraft at Helsinki Vantaa airport.

U.K. Trip Report - Part 2

Day 3
After the stress of the crowded city and mindful of the fact that the U.K. transport system doesn't work well on Sundays, we decided to stay out of town. After a leisurely start to the day, we went on a walk through the countryside near Stephen's place from Caterham to Merstham.

In the countryside on part of the North Downs Way.

While in the U.K. I was surprised by how good the food had become, I only had one bad meal - a traditional Sunday roast from a pub on our route; over-cooked roast beef, burnt Yorkshire Pudding, and carrots covered with some kind of rancid vegetable oil.

The offending food.

Day 4
On Day 4 I went by train up to Malvern to see my brother Patrick and his family. Patrick met me at the station and after lunch we went to collect Lois from her school.

Lois in her school uniform.

Patrick gave me a quick guided tour of the town and then we met Daniel, who had had a hard day's work at school.

Daniel in his school uniform.

Daniel introduced me to "The Shed," the family's second car, a Proton Aeroback (a hatchback version of the Proton Saga).

The chauffeur is ready.


Patrick and Jane in the kitchen.


In the garden, and not a dandelion in sight!

Day 5
After delivering Daniel, Lois and Jane to their respective workplaces (or in Daniel's case the bus stop from whence he went to his workplace) Patrick and I went for a walk across the Malvern Hills.

Jane's workplace, a slightly grander residence than Elk's Street.

Patrick on the Malvern Hills.

In the afternoon Patrick was setting off for Las Vegas, Nevada, USA so we took the train to London together. (Yes, you did read that right, he really was on the way to the self-styled 'Entertainment Capital of the World'.)

Stephen met us in Victoria railway station and we went for food in a local restaurant. No fine dining this time, we ate in Pizza Express.

The three of us together was a bit of a historic event; the first time since the year 2000 that we were all in the same place at the same time. And probably the first time since the 1980s that we were together without any of our sisters.

Peter, Patrick, Stephen

(photo courtesy of a passing Spanish tourist - gracias!)

32, 40 and 45 - but which number refers to which person?

U.K. Trip Report - Part 1

As some of you may know, I went on a short trip to the U.K. - on my own, without H-M, without Henry, and without Thomas. Below is a brief report.

Day 1

I arrived at Heathrow Airport around 9.00 a.m. and then took the train to central London, where I met Sarah, the youngest of my four sisters.

Sarah had some kind of 2-for-1 chitty so we went to a restaurant for early lunch, which unfortunately was not yet open. Disappointed, we walked onwards and came across Buckingham Palace, home of The Queen. The Changing of the Guard was in full progress, below a few photos:

A policewoman watching the crowds at 'Changing the Guards'.


The first guards moving out of Buckingham Palace.


The band moving along.


Sarah in front of 'Buck House'.

After viewing 'Changing of the Guard' we went for lunch and then set off on a walking tour of central London.

London Eye over Whitehall


Sarah on Horse Guards' Parade.


The view to Downing Street, residence of the Prime Minister. (Note the strong metal fence keeping the people from the ruler - not a good sign in a supposed democracy).


Sarah entering a 'traditional' English phone box.


Whitehall with Big Ben in the background and the women's war memorial in the foreground.


Big Ben and CCTV camera trained on demonstrators gathered on Parliament Square.

River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.

We completed our tour with a brief visit to the Tate Modern and then crossed over the Millenium Bridge (also known as the Wobbly Bridge) before getting the Tube to the railway station, where I headed off to Stephen's place in Caterham and Sarah went home to Amersham to get ready for her holiday in Italy.

Day 2

Day 2 was another day of sight-seeing in central London. First port of call was the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. This is a small museum in the Chelsea-Kensington area and it was interesting seeing how packaging had changed over the years. The museum is in a posher area of London and on our way there we saw 7 Porsches, a Maserati and an Aston Martin parked on one side-street alone.

Stephen in front of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising

It was time for lunch so we set off in search of a pub where we could have a simple pub lunch. We were in the wrong area - bistros, Thai restaurants, gourmet chocolate places, no problem; traditional pub, no way! We found somewhere that on the outside looked like a pub but inside turned out to be a much finer place altogether, The Prince Bonaparte.

The menu at The Prince Bonaparte, no steak and kidney pie or Ploughman's Lunch in sight.

After lunch we went back to central London and a cruise on the River Thames to Greenwich, of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) fame.

Stephen, addicted to his mobile phone, although it was very useful for finding our way around.

Museum ship HMS Belfast moored in front of Tower Bridge.

Greenwich is well worth a visit and while we were there for only a short time it was very pleasant. Our difficulties only started when we tried to get back to central London - signalling problems, Tube lines shut down for maintenance and so on.

With some detours we eventually made it back, although ended up eating out at Wagamama in Croydon rather than cooking at home.