After a horrific lockdown experience in Shanghai in 2022 China finally opened the border and we were like horses out of the gate at Cheltenham. We actually departed on the 8th of January which was the very first day the boarder opened so we were one of the first people to leave the country on holidays in three years.
Our first stop was my hometown of Dublin and we were in for a surprise. Sunrise is shockingly late. Having been living in Shanghai for 20 was I had forgotten about going to work in the dark in the early morning. We didn’t really tour Dublin much as it was a trip home to meet friends and family.
London next to meet my sister and other friends. I lived there in the 80s so I am quite familiar with it and of course we hit many of the usual tourist spots for the kids including Tower Bridge, known incorrectly to many as London Bridge. And of course the London Eye, well worth the visit and no queue in the winter. We had a great time just wandering the streets and taking snaps with our iPhones. Lola got some nice street photography style shots of me in B&W with our youngest.
The most beautiful hotel in London and probably most expensive. We didn’t stay there.
The best bridge in the world.
Crazy kids had to have an ice cream outdoors in the winter. They were shivering like crazy by the time they finished.
Pigeon attack in Covent Garden.
Peter Pan statue in Kensington Park.
The London Eye is great to visit in the winter with no queue whatsoever.
Saville Row and the surrounding streets were a mist for me to visit.
The older underground the world has many beautiful architectural elements to discover.
Turns out our BnB was only around the corner from the famous crossroads on Abbey Road so of course we had to.
One of my favourite places in the whole wide world, the wonderful Natural History museum, both for the exhibits and the architecture.