Trip journal UK and Spain (September 21 – October 12, 2011)


Part 9: London October 8-12

October 8 (Sat): Before she went to work our daughter had lunch with us at 'The Blue Legume', Highbury & Islington. In the evening we went to Queensway for mass and dined with David and his family (wife and second son) at Mandarin Kitchen. Our daughter took time out to join us but had to return to office after dinner and didn’t come home well after midnight.

October 9 (Sun): Since our daughter has to work even on Sunday, two of us went to Greenwich in the morning. The Cutty Sark is still under repair (Badly damaged by fire on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation, the vessel is being restored and is expected to reopen in 2012.). We spent about an hour at the Greenwich market and had lunch at the Admiral Hardy Pub. We then spent the afternoon at the shopping mall of Canary Wharf.

October 10 (Mon): After a quick lunch at home we took the underground to Kew Gardens. The main sites we visited included: Temperate House, Xstrata Treetop Walkway, Pagoda, Japanese Gateway, Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, Evolution House, Princess of Wales Conservatory etc. The Treetop Walkway, a relatively new addition was somewhat disappointing. Personally I like the Conservatory and the Temperate House. At the Tesco Express near the Kew Gardens station I bought a bottle of 2010 Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (an average New Zealand white) for dinner.

October 11 (Tue): My daughter took two days off to keep us company during our last two days in London. In the morning we’d a look (via a real estate agent) at an apartment (New Caledonian Place), then did some banking arrangement at the HSBC, Surrey Quays branch. We then went to Baker Street for lunch at the Phoenix’s Palace. Afterwards I went alone to the Royal Academy of Arts for the Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement exhibition. And rejoined my wife and daughter for afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols.

October 12 (Wed): It’s our last day in London. In the morning I accompanied my wife to the HSBC, Surrey Quays branch though the account manager gave us a rain cheque. Then we went to King’s Road with our daughter. After coffee at the Fratelli Deli Cafe, Duke of York Square I went alone to The Wallace Collection. I spent almost two and half hours there; and bought some DVDs at HMV, Selfridges before going home. We took a mini cab to the Heathrow T3 at 19:00 for our 22:30 VS200 flight back to Hong Kong. Again I didn’t sleep well on the home flight as a small girl across the aisle cried and screamed for nearly an hour. I finished watching the ‘Pirates of Caribbean– On Strange Tides’ and spent most of my time reading books on my Kindle. We arrived back in Hong Kong nearly an hour ahead of schedule.

Thanks be to God for a pleasant and safe trip.

Equipment used: Olympus Pen E-P3 – Olympus M. Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II (35mm equiv. 28-82mm), Panasonic Lumix G Vario 45-200mm F4.0-5.5 (35mm equiv. 90-400mm) and Nikon 52mm Circular Polarising filter.