Great Britian then home
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Day 30. Coniston
Arrived Bank Ground Farm at 8:30 pm. Weather closed Heathrow so I didn't leave there until 3 pm, strong winds and flooding all over England.
Day 31. Coniston
Great breakfast, real milk, toast and marmalade (4 slices), bacon (3 rashers), fried eggs (soft and 2), hash brown, tomato, sausages, mmmmmm a breakfast any traveler to Egypt would appreciate. Almost snowing today, snow on the mountain tops. Drove around Coniston water. Streams everywhere and the lake was very high. Over to Windermere and the Steamboat Museum then back to Coniston via Hawkshead for a cruise on a wooden launch. Good steak and great ale's for dinner at the brewery.
Day 32. Edinburgh
Left lakes at 10 am and over the Kirkstone pass (1495') where I had a bad coffee and got snowed on. Pleasant drive to Glenkinchie Distillery and Gilstone Lodge. Very comfortable and friendly. Guinness and Steak and Kidney for Dinner at the local pub.
Day 33. Edinburgh
Kippers on offer for breakfast, declined. Bus to Edinburgh and a tour around on an open top bus, very cold. Down to Britannia at Leith, interesting, The Queen and Duke had very small beds. Martin Wishart's for lunch after a dram at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (A Linkwood cask strength, 62%!!). Local smoked salmon and Guinea Fowl for lunch and a real macciato!! Hooray. Back to Edinburgh for a walk around. Dinner at a local Italian Restaurant. Got a lottery ticket.
Day 34. London
Travel to London with BA, officially got an upgrade!! In reality just an extra leg room seat. Much appreciated (I'm 192cm and 120Kg). Staying in North London in Woodside Park.
Day 35. London
Big day today (Saturday), Tube to Trafalgar Square, walk down Whitehall to Houses of Parliament. Tube to Warwick St, then walk along canal to Camden Lock and market, lunch. Tube to Monument and walk to Tower Bridge. Then into and up Tower Bridge. Tube to Leicester Square, really rocks with buskers etc. Met fellow Egypt traveler Catherine, Walk to Piccadilly Circus and dinner in Chinatown, unfortunately not Wong Kee's. Had to queue. Coffee in Leicester Square then back to North London.
Day 36. London
Another busy day. Harrods first, it was closed!! Walked to Hyde Park Speakers corner via the Serpentine. Some class a wacko's there. Down to Hyde Park Corner where they were cleaning up after the start of the Brighton Vintage Car Rally, Doh missed it. Met Kerry, another Egypt traveler, walked down to the Eye via Buck house, Horse Guards and Westminster. Ferry to Greenwich (and Back) to see market, Cutty Sark and lunch. Walk in rain to Leicester Square, Dinner in Bistro.
Day 37. Transit
It was chaos leaving Heathrow, got there with plenty of time and the economy checkin was packed, feeling smug I walked down to the business checkin, disappointment, it was packed as well!! What is going on? BA had a world wide computer failure, solution cancel 12 flights and tell everybody to get new tickets!!! Suddenly 3000 people queuing for seat allocation in 20 queues move across to one queue for a new flight. More chaos. I ran away back to my doss, got on the phone to Qantas and flew back to Melbourne via Singapore that night instead. Not a pleasant flight, you have two sleeps on the one flight it's that long.
Bad luck about Tokyo, next time maybe.
Day 38. Singapore - Transit
Qantas Club lounge is a very pleasant retreat after being stuck on that long flight.
Day 39. Melbourne
Home Sweet Home, looking forward to my next trip however.
Steamboat Museum
Glenkinchie Distillery
Edinburgh
Regents Canal
Tower Bridge
London
Patrick Newman © 2000, 2001