February 6, 2025

Europe (July 2022)

We left Oslo, Norway, on 2 July heading to Copenhagen and then on to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Brussels and London. This is the first time we have done a European trip without renting a car – we are using trains between cities. During planning, we picked Eurail as the supplier of our various tickets. Unfortunately, they were swamped with pent-up demand from all the people who were getting back to travel after Covid. We were part of that demand. However, Eurail was not prepared and didn’t have sufficient support staff available to answer questions and fix problems. It didn’t …

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London with David, Justin and Meredeth (25 June – 4 July 2016)

25 June – Saturday Pat and I left Singapore arriving very early into Heathrow at 5:10 AM. After landing we spent nearly 45 minutes getting through Immigration and Customs because of the crowds. We topped up our Oyster Cards and took the Underground to the Canada Water station (the closest one to our AirBnB – click to see the listing). Because we weren’t scheduled to meet our AirBnB host until 11:00 AM, we stopped at the Canada Water Cafe, just outside the station, for breakfast. Then we headed for the BnB, just to see if we could find it – we …

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London III – Alison Joins Us

July 22 Boy are we lucky travelers! Alison L., the exchange student from the Ukraine who lived with us in Charlotte over the 2012-2013 school year, came to London to spend some time with us. We haven’t seen her for over a year and we have lots to catch up on, including her successes at law school. Alison flew into Lutton airport last night but came in too late to get transportation into London. So she spent the night at the airport and met us at the Baker Street Underground Station around 7 A.M.. She had to be exhausted! After …

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Fun with Coins – A Pound of London Fiddlybits*

As our time in London was quickly closing in on us all – Ray, Alison, and me – we started gathering up all the flotsam that accumulates around a busy vacation. We started looking through what we had set aside to take home and what we bought for souvenirs. I always take some of the local fiddlybits* home. Alison and I noticed there were several variations of the British coins and were trying to find one of each kind. We then noticed that the newer minted coins had an odd asymmetrical design to each one, slightly off center and just …

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London I – Michelle and Patrick

At the end of our second day in London, Michelle and Patrick Payne joined us. July 2 After a day visiting the British Library, doing three geocaches (including one at the BL) and having lunch and dinner, we met them at Heathrow at about 10 P.M.. They were late getting through immigration and customs, so when we stopped at the Liberty Bounds pub for a beer and something for them to eat, the pub kitchen was closed and all we could do was drink and have some crisps (chips in American). Patrick had a Truman Attaboy; Michelle and Pat, Weston’s …

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Just Arrived In London

Just arrived in our flat in London. Dumped our gear and headed out for lunch at the Town of Ramsgate Pub. Fish ‘n chips ‘n a pint. The weather is beautiful right now. Life is good! We rented a nearby flat for the month of July, using AirBnb. The listing for the flat is at http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2015390. The flat is located a 10-15 minute walk from the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Probably the two worst things about the flat: (1) it was a walk up 3 flights which at the end of the day seemed like 10 floors; …

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