Tag:uk
It’s July 2020, and Covid has created havoc across the world. I live in Victoria. The leper colony of Australia. We are now in stage four lockdown with the harshest restrictions in the world. A Nighttime curfew only allowed 5km from home during the day, shops closed, masks mandatory, businesses closing, and public transport halted. The only option for a holiday is in my imagination.
Photoshop and Luminar
My passport is Adobe Photoshop, and my mode of transport is Luminar 4. This time, luggage wasn’t a problem, nor was choosing what to wear. I made the entire trip in my pyjamas during lockdown 2020.
I gathered together images from previous holidays, fired up Photoshop and Luminar, settled into my desk chair with a coffee, and took off!
Arctic Circle
First stop was the Arctic circle – I had signed on to repatriate three lost polar bears. The boatswain took one look at my pyjamas and handed me a puffy jacket. Then, while he steered, I took photos for posterity.
Leaving the bears safely on a genetically modified ice floe (guaranteed not to melt), we jumped on a plane and headed for Cairns. Queensland. The sunshine state. No lockdown 2020 in Qld. Currently locked tighter than a chastity belt against anyone from Victoria or NSW.
Sunny Cairns
The sun was rising as we arrived and settled in. waving goodbye to Biggles as he flew away from our cuckoo nest. We spent a pleasant and warm few hours in Cairns – then hopped a hot air balloon and headed to New Zealand.
Drifting across the Tasman, we hovered over Melbourne briefly (who would want to land there!?) and watched the space shuttle take off from Princes Pier.
Stonehenge, UK
Our hot air balloon then dropped us at Stonehenge in the UK. We had heard a confluence of druids coming in on Samhain night to attempt a ritual, to drive out the virus. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful, so the druids headed back to Avalon to report to the lady of the lake.
We bid adieu to our balloon pilot and boarded a flight for Norway. The northern lights were illuminating the skies as we flew over the fjords.
We landed briefly to stretch our legs and had a short visit with Rudolf. He was on holiday from the North Pole – he figures Christmas is cancelled this year, so he was backpacking around Europe.
To be Continued.……..
It didn’t always go to plan
On our third day in London, we were due to do a Stonehenge and Bath tour. All five of us were (we thought) on the same tour. A cab was booked to pick us all up at 7 am and take us to the tour collection point. At 6.45 am we realised that our tickets show TWO different drop off points. Same destination – but different tours.
Cabbie decided to drop off the three at their pickup point for an 8.30 am departure – then took us to our drop off point for an 8 am departure. And naturally – we didn’t make it in time. While the others were still waiting for their bus to go, ours had gone. No refunds for missed buses, money done. Cue anger and frustration. We went for a very grumpy breakfast while we took stock of what to do with our day now.
Saved by the tour agent
After pulling up the big girl panties, we decided to start with the hop on hop off bus and take it from there. While we were on the bus back in Australia Benjamin Lord of Expert Class Travel had seen our post bemoaning our missed bus, and had pulled the iron out of the fire. Benjamin gave me a call and offered to rebook us onto a tour the next day, to which we readily agreed. He then booked us on the Bath/Stonehenge tour at no cost to, us which was extremely generous and him. So we decided we would change our ticket for the Tower of London from tomorrow, to today and visit the tower.
Riding around on the hop on/off bus, we rode around for a while and got off at Tower Bridge.
The Tower
We wandered around and over the bridge and down to the Tower of London on the opposite bank. By the time we arrived, it was already packed. It was term holidays in London. And considering it was a glorious sunny day, even the locals were out. The lovely lady at the ticket booth changed our ticket without a hassle, and we entered the tower.
The tower was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It’s amazing (to me) that the building is so old… old buildings in Australia are around 200yrs yrs old. This one was over a thousand! Loved the building and the architecture – but I must say I was very unimpressed with everything else. I expected rooms set up like it was in the day.. and while there was a couple – there wasn’t many.
The queues for anything were miles long (or so it seemed). I wanted to see the torture room – but that had a queue extending back to harrods.. and the queue for the Crown Jewels went almost back to the airport.
Characters in costume
Adding to the historical tone of the tower were several costumed actors, strolling around. They reenacted various events regularly. Sir Walter Raleigh on his way to the scaffold. Queen Elizabeth I as young woman was kept there, a courtier, a Lady in Waiting etc., I loved the characters in costume 🙂
Hop on/of bus
Leaving the Tower we headed back to the Hop-On/Off bus stop. And then got promptly got lost. So we walked all over and eventually found the stop for the bus before changing routes at another stop to get on the red line hop on/off. Finally arriving at Harrods Department Store.
Harrods
The store was massive and expensive! Up on the Christmas floor 2 metres of tinsel was 25 pounds (around $50!) The deli floor was fabulous. I loved the way they all dressed like back in Mr Selfridges time LOL
Day 3 in London and we were taking a bus tour to Canterbury and Leeds Castle. As the tour didn’t leave till 8.30 am, and it was just the two of us, we decided to take the train in. Woodside (on the northern line) to Euston Station, swap lines to the Victoria Line, get off at Victoria Station, and it was an 8min walk to Victoria Coach Station. Victoria Coach Station is a big bus terminal where all the national line buses leave from as well as the tour buses.
Leeds Castle
We were travelling with Evan Evans tours for our tour, and our first stop was Leeds Castle. Constructed in 1119 during the reign of William the Conqueror’s son Henry 1, the Castle was a Norman stronghold. However, it was also the private property of six of England’s medieval queens; a palace used by Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon; a Jacobean country house; a Georgian mansion; an elegant early 20th-century retreat for the influential and famous; and in the 21st century, it has become one of the most visited historic buildings in Britain.
Maison Jansen
The last private owner was Hon. Olive, Lady Baillie, a wealthy Anglo-American heiress who acquired Leeds Castle in 1926 when it was sold to pay death duties. In the 1930s, Lady Baillie entrusted the design of her interiors to Stephane Boudin (1888-1967), president of Maison Jansen, a leading design firm in Paris. He was considered the foremost designer of grand interiors in the French taste, and his other clients included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Jacqueline Kennedy. The glamorous and luxurious interiors he created at Leeds Castle from 1932 onwards can still be seen today. Lady Baillie’s bedroom suite is a high point of his work, with its delicate Louis VIX style panelling. Leeds Castle History
Landscaped gardens
The castle’s grounds include 500 acres of parkland and beautifully landscaped gardens with swans and ducks swimming around the lake. Shortly before Lady Baillie died in 1974, she put plans in place to create a charitable foundation and transferred the castle and grounds to it. The foundation now manages the castle and attracts around 600,000 visitors a year.
Canterbury
Leaving Leeds Castle, we travelled to Canterbury to visit Canterbury Cathedral. The cathedral is the ‘mother’ church of the worldwide Anglican community. Unfortunately, scaffolding covered part of the outside, so it wasn’t terribly photogenic (the perils of visiting places in the offseason is that’s when they do repairs). The cathedral is over 900 years old, with the Quire and stained glass windows dating back to the 12th century.
Thomas Becket
The cathedral is most famous for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170. After a long-lasting dispute, King Henry is said to have exclaimed, “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” four knights set off for Canterbury and murdered Thomas in his own cathedral. A sword stroke was so violent that it sliced the crown off his skull and shattered the blade’s tip on the pavement. The murder took place in what is now known as The Martyrdom. Shortly afterwards, miracles were said to occur, and Canterbury became one of Europe’s most important pilgrimage centres. Cathedral History
The interior is beautiful, and I loved the ornate ceiling over the Quire – amazing to think the workmanship was from Mason’s 1400 hundred years ago! All handtools!
Days End
After leaving the Cathedral, we headed for lunch. It was really windy out, and we couldn’t find any tables and chairs free inside any of the cafes. We finally ended up going to Burger King. Bad choice. I felt sick for the rest of the afternoon. From Canterbury, the bus took us to Dover. It was a big bucket list tick for me like Stonehenge, the Eiffel tower, and the northern lights. My father always talked about the white cliffs of Dover and the Vera Lyn song. In fact, the White Cliffs Of Dover was played at his funeral.
Biggest disappointment of the whole trip. We had a 15 photo-op stop-off. The guide said quote, “it’s not the best place to see them, but it gives you a look. You have 15 mins” WTF?? If that’s all we get, why bother stopping there??? She was right; it was a crappy location, and I didn’t take one picture on my camera. Just happy snaps on my phone (I was starting to dislike bus tours, and by the end of our trip, I had sworn I would never do another one, more on that later)
About 12 months ago, a group of us (all amateur photographers) signed on to do a 3-week trip covering Tromso, London, and Paris. The price looked excellent – too good to pass up. Add the lure of northern lights chasing, and we were all keen. But the initial cost proved to be only the beginning. I found there are many hidden costs of planning holidays.
While the price was undeniably great, there were hidden costs. Costs that I didn’t consider as a first-time long-haul overseas trip at the time before I said yes. Things you don’t think to factor in with the glow of excitement over an overseas trip to far-flung places. And no, I don’t mean travel insurance and spending money, which I had budgeted in.
No Regrets (do it all)
Considering the vast distances we are travelling to get there, (35 hrs travelling time Australia to Tromso with three plane changes). Add in the likelihood that, most likely, we are never going back due to distance and cost. Therefore, we all wanted to get shots worthy of bringing home. The last words I wanted on my lips at the end of the trip was “I wish”. I wish I had bought a wide-angle lens. I wish I had the new filters I have been looking at. I wish I had a better/bigger/smaller bag; I wish I had better clothing for the cold; I wish I could have afforded to take that extra tour. I wish, I wish, I wish. You see where I am going.
Gear
As it’s a photographic trip, we have upgraded our camera gear. Three of us have new cameras (two wholly changed over from Canon to Olympus. And yes, add all the new lenses that go with that. All of us bought extra batteries to cope with the cold. Some have new filters, others new camera bags, additional memory cards, lighter carbon fibre tripods, new smaller lighter laptops and externals to back up the images, and bigger camera bags to fit in snacks, water, and wet weather gear. The shopping went on and on and on and on.
Clothing
Also burning through the credit cards and savings was clothing. It’s forecast to be between 1C – 5C in Tromso. So thermal underwear, snow boots, waterproof hikers and photography gloves were on the shopping list. We also bought photographers gloves, designed to keep the hands warm but engineered work the cameras were purchased.
Add down coats, thermal hats, snow socks, and windproof, waterproof pants. London and Paris will be a little warmer. We had two nights booked out northern lights chasing. Plus day trips out on arctic wildlife spotting and night trips elsewhere, the arctic gear was the first thing we ordered
Hot Hands and Toes
Hot Hands (little heat-activated pouches that give off heat for 8-10 hours) have been purchased and stockpiled over the winter months to take with us. Sorry if you went to chemist’s warehouse and there was none left. But we needed them? One hot hand in each pocket to keep batteries warm (they go flat quicker in the cold), plus one in each glove. Buy packing cubes to find things when I need them instead of going through my suitcase like police with a search warrant. Add a couple of small laundry bags and cubes!
Electronics
Travelling overseas, everyone realises you need special power adapters. Travelling to Europe and the UK, we need one for each country. Add a powerboard to simultaneously charge camera batteries, watches, iPhones, iPods, and laptops. A power bank for charging phones on the go and recharging batteries quickly after being out shooting all day before going out again most of the night. Add a double camera battery charger.
Tours
Since we had some free days and followed on from the ‘no regrets’ mantra, we also planned to see and do as much as humanly possible while there. Cram as much in, see as much as we can, photograph everything, sleep when we get home. So, we needed to fill our ‘free days’ with tours, right?
In Tromso, add an arctic wildlife experience and add another night of northern light chasing to maximise our time. Add tours in London to Cornwall, white cliffs of Dover, Cotswolds, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, Tower of London, Alice in Wonderland High Tea. in Paris, add a skip the line Eiffel tower to the summit and Mont St Michel. Stay an extra few days, travel to Germany, and take the train rather than fly. It’s all about the experience, right?
Add tours to the Castles and another to Salzburg, Austria. Oh, excellent, look, another $2k gone. Tetanus shot (doctor’s orders). Oyster cards, global sim, convert Aussie dollars to cash in three currencies, so we have some folding stuff on landing. Letter from the doctor for medications. New packets of said medications have to stay in their boxes and not be in pillboxes.
Forgotten Anything?
Ummmm, I don’t think I have, but despite that, we have more gear, backups, and planning than Roald Amundsen or Scott of the Antarctic. Despite covering every eventuality I can think of, I am confident when I get on the plane. I will remember something I should have bought or packed!