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My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #24 – London UK- A 06/11/25

 HUGE number of photos of major London in this blog. My main London day & what a day!!!!!

6/11/25 Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel on Bayswater Rd is a fantastic stay & my room is very nice & the bed & the room entailed a great sleep. 7.30am is my usual fantastic breakfast on the 1st floor (same as Reception), so I was there at 7.45am & did I eat well! This enables me to get through my day without stopping for lunch .. too much to see. With great haste I was out the door & walking through Hyde Park again along dedicated walking trails but more a direct diagonal approach towards Hyde Park Corner (towards the Westminster City Centre). From there you see so many war memorials like The Bomber Command Memorial, statues of great significance like The Wellington Arch & beautiful autumn landscape everywhere you look. Amongst all the tons of leaves all over the grounds playful squirrels are abounding in their joyful playground. Obviously, people feed them despite numerous warning signage everywhere. I found one squirrel looking at me & when I did some soft clicking noises it came closer & then without any hesitation scrambled up my jeans to my knee allowing me to photograph it before it knew I had no food for it & ran back to its leafy playground. What an experience & to see them so playful .. leaving you with smiles all round. At certain points of walking paths intersections there are some handy directional signs, for this park is huge!

Within the meandering 5klm walk from my hotel I came up alongside Buckingham Palace, via Constitution Hill & the magnificent gates that would have cost a fortune to fabricate. I spent some time there seeing the magnificent Queen Victoria’s statue out the front & to take it all in; for my Mum was a real royalist who almost met the Queen in Parramatta when I lived in Sydney (The Queen basically walked past her at the gates to the new Cumberland Stadium of Parramatta’s Eels NRL club she was opening). I was so angry she ignored Mum, being the oldest in the very small crowd & out front). Mum was 1month younger than the Queen & they grew up ‘together’ in difficult times. Mum even looked like the Queen in life stages. I made this an important 1st thing to do in London for her. Happy now Mum (Mum passed away 2013)? She didn’t like Charles much, nor I.

The palace seemed much smaller than on TV & not as glamourous. Needs a bit of a wash on the sandstone. The famous balcony is not as high as I had thought also. The gates & fences were quite outstanding & so was the security (police with machine guns, etc). The Royal Guards (2 sets of 2 guards) do a well synchronised routine of walking the security gate of the palace. From the LHS, the palace extends well back & shows the gate where the royals, visitors & co would enter with their cars & again the security was quite impressive. There’s always a crowd here, so take your best photo possible.

From there, I went up the famous The Mall & towards the CBD with great historical buildings of grandeur & a little further The Duke of York Column caught my eye with its 40m height & a unique granite column slightly setback from The Mall roadway. With a little more walking I found myself at Trafalgar Square with an even more impressive Lord Nelson Tower Statue with its large bronze lions which is 52m high with Lord Nelson standing inclusively at 5m tall. This place is vibrant with street performers & pick pocketers of course, etc but it’s a great place to absorb & people watch. Phone snatching is prevalent in London now, so that is the major worry lately. This area then lead me to Whitehall (Parliament Area) where Royal Guards on horses are a photographic icon guard the complexes with high security police behind. I managed to see the horses & guards do their changeover to precision. This area also has the famous Cenotaph in the medium strip of Parliament St for Remembrance Day coming up.

A few more metres up I really wanted to go down Downing St, but the highest police presence prevents me plus it looks like there are permanent media setups just outside #10. Later on, I found out I missed a favourite of mine, The Captain James Cook Statue, for he was the one who discovered Australia, via Botany Bay on 28th April (my birthdate) but in 1770. One of the greatest navigators in history & achieved so much for England & the world. However, when looking at my photo of the Old Admiralty Building writing this blog, I had unknowingly taken a photo of the statue, so not all was lost.

Walking just a little farther I came across Westminster Abbey with the adjacent St Mary’s Chapel & the almost adjacent Big Ben (1mile away = 15min walk from Buckingham Palace) where I heard the bell tones of both icons along with the massive crowd near the river area. The Abbey was conducting a ceremony & services for the start of Remembrance Day & War Week. The suit dressed veterans & their family reps were very impressive, along with their badges & medals. The ground was cordoned off, so we could only watch with admiration. I was so impressed with the standard of this gathering in recognising the war veterans. So many poppies & miniature crosses all over the ground. I was a bit down on coming into the end of this wonderful ceremony but also no admittance today for the Abbey. So many great buildings in this area, like Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament (Lords & Commons), Victoria Tower & further away The Queen Elizabeth 11 Centre in purple lights. So much history here.

My next choice was to take a river cruise on the Thames River nearby. I took the option of the short river cruise of 3miles from Westminster Bridge (Westminster Pier) to Tower Bridge (Thames River Cruises suited me best at £14.50 return). We headed down the river seeing the main highlights like The London Eye (a giant 135m Ferris wheel with 32 air-conditioned capsules each holding 25 guests, located on South Bank). This attraction is the most popular paid tourist attraction with some 3mil passengers annually. It costs around $60AUD a ride for some 30mins rotation.

There are so many bridges of the River Thames, but one major structure caught my eye was the impressive Waterloo Bridge, totally constructed by women at the end of WW2, due to the lack of men available for construction. This bridge was built within the timeframe & under budget .. possibly no union involvement to stuff it up. I was so taken up about this bridge I neglected to get a photo. Another, almost hidden landmark near the HMS Wellington was The King Reach Commemoration Memorial which was erected for other reasons but establishes the boundary between The City of Westminster & London City. Of course, you can’t miss the great dome of St Paul’s Cathedral & The Shard (London’s highest building at 310m & about £28.50 to do the lift to the top). The other thing was made clear to me was The London Bridge is not the Tower Bridge, such is my travel ignorance at times. HMS Belfast is right at the Tower Bridge & is permanently docked into this location as a naval museum. After we docked at the Tower Millennium Pier, I then walked over the bridge in all its magnificence & then onto the Tower of London adjacent to the bridge (notice my bridge photo with the iconic red bus in the centre of the bridge).

Walking right around to the other side of the Tower of London fortress I purchased the entrance tickets from the on-site office at £28.50. I walked straight in without much security checks & took the priority decision to view the Crown Jewels. The misconception is there’s no real high tower (my expectation) & the whole complex is basically a low-level fortress surrounded by an intentionally dried up mote, converted to a green landscape now. The actual ‘tower’ is a very large building, about 5storeys high with towers either side of the entrance doors & is located in the centre of the fortress.

I was so impressed with the tower’s entrance doors I was overtaken by some young ladies taking a group photo. I offered to take their photo for them, but one lady was already getting their camera ready, so I quickly scrambled under the security rope barrier to be outside the camera scope. When the photo was taken the ladies said thank you & I didn’t have to do what I did, although much appreciated. I said, that’s what I do & then told them about my adventure of being at the Louvre (Paris) when it was robbed (scroll down to see my older blogs) & they were so enthused I continued & said I had some cheaper jewellery for sale to much laughter & then prayed the Crown Jewels were still safe inside. LOL to more laughter.

The jewels, crowns, robes, spectres, etc were beyond belief!!! Of course, no photography, video .. nothing but your eyes to ‘record’ these amazing treasures. The crown used by Kings & Queen’s in their coronations was too much to comprehend in its magnificence. Super impressive. As you enter different chambers to do the viewing you can, if you look closely, you can see the steel safe doors, each about 250mm thick. So much locked security. It takes quite some time to view all the items in this tower & takes most of your time, leaving very little time for me to view all the other areas. This fortress area is huge!! Bought some great booklets to remember the Tower of London experience for £13.00.

Leaving the fortress, I walked aimlessly around the City of London CBD to photograph certain iconic buildings but with time closing in on me I had to walk with more pace back to the Tower Millennium Pier & finally managed to get the return cruise after a bit of an issue with a ferry conductor who had it wrong (wasted 40mins of my valuable daylight time). By the time the next cruise boat arrived it was dark however I managed to see the river lighting of the landmarks & buildings for great photos so that made up for the delay.

From Westminster Bridge to my hotel (Kensington) was walking in the dark & not doing the short cut through Hyde Park that late for obvious reasons. All the way back to my hotel using the walkways of major roads were plenty of people so I had no real apprehension doing the journey. London certainly looks brilliant with the lighting everywhere. King Charles obviously has no such pleasure on night lighting .. Buckingham Palace looks quite dim & uninspiring. With such a huge day I broke my walk record on this 44day Europe tour at 32,555 steps = 25.55kms from 8.30am – 7.20pm. No buses, taxis or Uber for me.

I’ll end my Blog #24 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blogs will be more of London UK. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #23 – Bristol A & London 04/11/25

Bristol – 04/11/25

Another great morning brekky by Sue & she has a big day planned for me. Dave has other commitments, so it’s just us 2 for the day. Sue said to trust her driving & I was glad she was doing the driving to navigate the narrow road system. The landscape certainly was breathtaking.

First of all, we head near Nailsee, but really Wraxall, for the huge grounds of a Parks Heritage Trust of an old mansion & grounds called Tyntesfield. This mansion & grounds are amazing (540 acres of grounds) & now well protected under the heritage act. Sue absolutely loves this special place and visits often, with friends & shares a coffee catchup using her heritage Tyntesfield Member Card. Unfortunately, there are things happening in the mansion, so no public access today. Sue was so disappointed hearing that & now no chance at all of seeing the wonders internally but we had a great coffee & sweets catchup in their cafe. Of the insane grounds & mansion, one could only imagine what lies inside the mansion to see.

William Gibbs was the original owner (1790–1875) after purchasing adjacent houses & grounds & converting to building the mansion, a merchant who made his fortune in trade with Spain and South America. In 1842 the Peruvian government granted A. Gibbs & Sons licence (Father Antony {died 1815 with massive debts} & eldest brother to William, George) to export guano (nitrate-rich seabird droppings for fertiliser) to Britain & the fortunes grew astronomically. In 1842 William was the sole heir when his brother, George died. In 1860s William & his wife, Blanche transformed Tyntesfield to a Gothic Revival Style & then undertook the interior design. William passed away & he had a chapel almost completed by then, attached to the mansion. Inside the mansion William had over 72,000 artifacts on display from his world journeys & businesses. Antony Jnr later inherited Tyntesfield in 1887. Over the years & with a complex family beneficiary setup Tyntesfield was ultimately sold & The National Trust bought it in 2002 & opened it to the public for viewing after only 10days.

We spent quite some hours exploring some of the grounds including the Man’s Shed (ex-stables) I called it for the old wood turning shed with feet push lathes. Being a carpenter by trade I found this quite interesting & had a good look at this area in detail while Sue gave me further commentary. Sue took a photo of me in the vegetable & florist nursery & everything is done at Tyntesfield in the highest of quality & detail. This historical facility is well worth the visit & so thankful Sue enabled me to see this local wonder.

The next stop Sue had planned is back in Bristol to view the SS Great Britain, a steam ship which was the largest passenger ship in the world (3,300tons) at the time at 98 metres (321 ft) in length, SS Great Britain sailed on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in May 1845. SS Great Britain was designed by a young engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (from my last blog who also designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge).

Brunel designed a very innovative giant propellor system (measuring 4.7 metres (15 ft 6 in) across) rather than the traditional paddle wheels, although it also had six masts for sails when conditions were favourable. It had a full iron sheeted double skinned hull with far too many rivets to count. The ship made several crossings of the Atlantic, averaging 13-15 days per voyage which was a massive result. Unfortunately, on its 5th Atlantic crossing (September 1846), the huge ship ran aground in Dundrum Bay on the northeast coast of Ireland after the captain used a faulty chart and perhaps suffered from a faulty compass. All passengers & crew embarked safely. Ultimately, SS Great Britain was placed into auction. There were no interested buyers at the reserve price of £40,000. In the end, the ship was sold to Gibbs, Bright & Company in December 1851 for around £18,000, one-seventh of the cost to build the ship. Completely refitted, the ship took one more trip to New York and then was used as a passenger liner sailing regularly from Liverpool to Melbourne, Australia.

During the Crimean War (1853-6), SS Great Britain saw service as a troop carrier but survived the experience to resume its successful passenger route to Australia. Still in service in 1870, the ship’s glamorous past was but a memory, and it was used to transport coal from Wales to San Francisco. This now old ship was converted to cheaper sail by Antony Gibbs & Son in 1882 (from my last post on the Tyntesfield mansion) and made its last fateful voyage in 1886 when it was wrecked off the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic carrying exported guano (nitrate-rich seabird droppings for fertiliser). Remaining above the waterline, SS Great Britain had a long and ignominious end as a coal bunker and wool store for the next 50 years. However, in 1936, the ship was eventually scuttled due to being an obstacle for other vessels. Ultimately, it was devised in 1970 to bring her back to her home in Bristol where a German company used a flotation ‘mattress’ to get her out of the mud & transported by barge & restored as a tourist attraction in its original home & dry dock of Bristol. Today the ship is managed by the SS Great Britain Trust.

You can view this magnificent vessel on its deck, the 3 levels of tight stairwells including the steam plant. There are mannequins in full costume & action poses to give you the feel of those times. The unique propellor & steam engine is beyond amazing & you can see most of the rooms, kitchen & dining, etc without too much hassle. When you’re finished with the internal viewing you exit the ship & wander back to the pavement to a small outhouse where you can do the stairs again & venture down to the dry dock to see the entire hull, propeller, rudder & anchor where you can actually touch most of it. Sue & I spent about 90mins touring this vessel & it was well worth the visit & love the selfie photo you took Sue.

It was time to head back home, ready for dinner & Dave’s return from his soccer & for me to pack my bags for the train departure from Bristol Temple Meads Station to London tomorrow at 11am. Today, we walked 7,724 steps = 5.89kms.

London UK  05/11/25 

I was up early at 7am & did a quiet celebration for my daughter, Kate back home for her birthday. I was all packed & ready to fit in with Dave & Sue for their day. Dave has football commitments & Sue will drop me off at the Bristol Temple Meads Station in time for my 11am departure to London Paddington Station. Sue had the timing down to a fine art, but some traffic changes had happened, so we had to make up some time. Sue hurriedly walked me to the platform right up to the 2nd carriage (J) & by the time we said good-bye I had climbed on & the doors started to shut. Shame it was a hurried good-bye however, seeing Sue wave & smile was a blessing that all was good. I hadn’t even stored my bags then. Sue was such a delight to fit everything in for me & words of praise don’t do the true justice. So blessed to have great friends.

The train trip was such a breeze (1hr 40mins) to Paddington Station (a very busy station) & it was just a simple 15mins walk to my Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel on Bayswater Rd aligned with Hyde Park. The walk had a mixture of shops, apartments, pubs & basically everything else of a busy suburb.

The entrance to Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel was a little difficult to find as there was a redevelopment of a petrol station out the front, making the entrance on the side street. The sign said Reception 1st Floor & thankfully there were 2 passenger lifts in the lobby. I checked in OK, & after about 15mins checking in & settling into my room I was out walking around 1.30pm.

Across the road is the HUGE Hyde Park so I transversed through the Lancaster Gate entrance leading to a number of walking paths, seeing lots of people walking with their dogs, ducks in the lake & the gorgeous & playful squirrels bounding around in the thick fallen Autumn leaves of numerous trees & reached the other side to see the Gothic Prince Albert Memorial & the famous Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately, there was a school’s event on & no admission was allowed, but I could walk around it. The next few days will be taken up by War Veterans Remembrance Day commemorations so there will be no concerts, etc, nor a chance to see inside while I’m in London.

From there I just kept walking & looking at the excessively rich neighbourhood. I had a sense of a nosebleed happening with the money air around. This area also has some embassies as well & numerous British Flags flying. Eventually I had walked the half-length of Hyde Park to the Hyde Park Corner & then up to The Marble Arch (basically where Bayswater Rd ends & the start of Oxford Street). After a quick look around, I proceeded West along Bayswater Rd to my hotel to finish off the day. Quite the walk lap to do. All in all, I walked 12,149 steps = 9.53kms in that quick afternoon.

I’ll end my Blog #23 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blog will be more of London UK & I’m sure multiple blogs will follow on the number of days here. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.