Passport to somewhere…
Yes, it’s that time again – time to renew the passport.
It doesn’t actually expire until January, but it’s a bit battered after being stashed in my pocket during the three weeks we’ve spent in Portugal this year (there’s a need to keep ID or a passport on you at all times when out and about).
So, I looked everything up on the appropriate website, got an application form that covers renewal proceedings and asked about photos. I got the answers I needed, filled the form in last night and went to do the deed today.
Eventually! Went to get photos and wasn’t happy with what I was being told about them. Gave up and went to another town (well city actually) and was told the same thing – that I shouldn’t wear my specs when having the photos taken.
Which was news to me, especially as I’ve been wearing specs for around 52 years… Apparently it’s to do with the eyes.
Got the shot taken and approved by the photo shop doing the deed and went up the road a bit to get the renewal form processed.
Everything was done and dusted, checked over and paid for.
Then it was pointed out to me that the background used by the photographer may not be appropriate as it’s a white one.
So I may get my new passport in three weeks time – or a letter asking me to submit some photos without a white background.
Time will tell whether the eyes have it or someone decides to do a background check!
Big bags? Where we’re going, we don’t need big bags…
So, how big a bag do you need for a couple of nights away?
If your accommodation is a hostel, guest house or a hotel, then the answer is definitely a small one, even when your chosen transport is a five door small hatchback that can take enough stuff for a week’s camping in the boot area alone.
Last weekend wasn’t the warmest one or the driest one that Caroline and I have encountered over the last six weeks.
It was also a weekend of two halves – one night and some time on the Northumbrian coast and then one night and some time in one of my old stamping grounds for both work and play. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The whole trip was a bit of a mad idea really that was formulated at very short notice – i.e. last Thursday. The initial idea was a one night only hit and run exercise to the Northumbrian coast to see whether we could see The Northern Lights. Things changed though on Friday when Caroline’s schedule unexpectedly changed and we could have another night away – hence the visit to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
As the dress code for the weekend was destined to be a relaxed casual one, there was no need for either of us to have a big bag full of clothes to cover all eventualities.
In Caroline’s case, her bag was a large size Healthy Back Bag (15 litre) whilst mine was a 10 litre man bag bought when I was staying at Imperial College in London back in August.
Were they the right bags given that we were in was to be a reasonably posh guest house in Seahouses and a Hampton by Hilton hotel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne? Oh, yes, they were right.
As ever, the heaviest stuff was worn. The Peter Storm soft shell trousers that were too warm for storms in Portugal were perfect for daytime and nighttime (we spent around 3 hours outside on Saturday night waiting for those pesky Northern Lights to appear) as were the t-shirt, Craghoppers Corvus zip neck fleece and The North Face Nuptse Vest (down filled).
Caroline’s weapons of choice included a Rohan Ultra Silver Camisole, a Rohan Stria crew neck long sleeved shirt, a Rohan Pathway Cardi fleece cardigan, a Tog 24 down vest and a pair of Rohan Troggings.
Respective footwear choices? Salomon ventilated approach shoes in my case and a pair of The North Face Hedgehog GTX approach shoes in Caroline’s.
And in the bags? Rohan Progress polo and the wardrobe’s latest addition (a Rohan Stratum Polo Long Sleeve) plus a pair of Rohan Goa trousers, a couple of pairs of Rohan Cool Silver Trunks, a couple of pairs of M&S trainer socks plus the usual wash kit and a Snugpak travel towel, just in case.
Caroline’s bag was also Rohan filled – couple of long sleeved tops, another Ultra Silver Camisole plus her wash kit and her Ecco Blom Lite Ballerina Pump shoes.
Did everything work? Yes, it did. Not everything was from Rohan this time around, but the items that didn’t carry that brand name were chosen because we know they work and they have been repeatedly used over the last five years or so.
The choices were also useful in both the coastal and urban situations and allowed us to layer according to the prevailing weather conditions, so whilst some items have been used out in warm climes, they also proved their worth as part of a subtle layering system for a couple of Autumn days out.
Had we used public transport as we do on some of our travels, the choices of clothing, shoes and bags would have been ideal.
Did we need anything else? Well Caroline had her umbrella with her to combat the rain showers on Monday morning.
As my pound shop umbrella had popped its clogs in Portugal, it was time to head into Poundstretcher and bite the bullet as the replacement brolly cost the princely sum of £1.99.
Did packing light work once more? Oh yes and it was worth it to see the look on the face of the receptionist at Hampton by Hilton in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when we checked out and I said ‘Yes, this is all of my luggage…’.
Portugal Packing v3.0 – the verdict!
So, how did things go with the items listed on Portugal Packing v3.0?
Very well actually (and everything bar the worn stuff did go into our respective Osprey Farpoint 40 packs). Virtually all of the clothing taken along earned their place in the pack or on me in the case of the items worn on the plane.
The only mistake I made was in taking along my pair of Peter Storm Soft Shell trousers.
They’ve been worth their weight in gold since I bought them last year, but they were too heavy an item to take along and wear in Portugal, especially given the temperatures encountered (even on the couple of wet, windy and generally stormy days).
When the storm hit Porto on the Tuesday of our trip, I ended up wearing one of my Rohan Cool Silver t-shirts, Rohan Goa trousers and the same brand’s Silver containing socks and trunks. The top layer was my HyVent jacket from The North Face. On my feet were one of the two pairs of Salomon ventilated shoes that I’d taken along.
Despite the conditions, everything worked well. Yes, I was wet from the bottom of the waterproof to the pavement and the inside of the jacket’s sleeves were damp, despite the pit zips being opened to provide some ventilation.
The rain was teeming down though and as it was still relatively warm, I’d expected some condensation in the sleeves as the linings were solid rather than mesh and also because I was wearing a t-shirt rather than a long sleeved shirt so my bare arms were helping raise those condensation levels.
Now the Goa trousers may be lightweights and meant for tropical use, but this combination worked in their favour once I got out of the rain and into the photography museum we were aiming for during the storm.
They were soaked when I entered the museum, but as I wandered around, they dried out.
So much so that I was able to sit down and partake in one of the many espressos imbibed over the course of the trip. The vending machine coffee was fine, but it wasn’t going to stop the rain, so after a while it was time to get back out there and try and find some lunch.
And yes, the Goas got soaked once more, then dried out again whilst waiting and eating fodder and then got soaked once more as we left the cafe, went to do some food shopping and headed back to the hostel we were staying in at Porto.
End result? Worn/soaked/dried/soaked/dried/soaked and you get the picture by now. Not only did they perform well under the challenging conditions, they also coped well with the heat encountered later in the week and over the time we were in Coimbra plus the lower temperatures and breezes when we were on the Atlantic Coast.
Washing and drying wasn’t a problem with the Goas either. Once we had a decent sink and places to dry kit out, then there weren’t any problems with the washing and wearing of any of the kit we’d taken along.
Caroline’s storm days kit worked as well as my own – the Rohan Thai trousers worked well as did the selection of tops used on the days and her somewhat elderly Berghaus PacLite Gore-Tex jacket. Her Ecco Blom Lite Mary Jane shoes did get a soaking, as did my Salomons, but they did dry out relatively quickly and were usable a couple of days later (something we’d anticipated, hence the decision to take two pairs of shoes each rather than lighter or flimsier items).
All of our tops performed as expected, especially the Rohan Stratum Polo Long Sleeved which came into its own on the nights when we could sit outside restaurants to have a meal.
Caroline was also more than happy with the couple of Ultra Silver Camisoles and the matching briefs that she’s taken along. These were used on their own or as part of a low-key layering system on cooler days, but washed and dried like crazy every couple of days, as did her Serene vest tops.
One thing that we did forget (okay, one thing that I forgot!) was our Lifeventure travel sink plug.
The sinks in three out of our five different lodgings in Portugal didn’t come with sink plugs, so necessity was the mother of invention. I plugged some sinks with socks whilst Caroline found that the top from her Nivea roll-on deodorant did the job in one place.
Other than that, it was make do and mend with the plastic top off a Pringles tube or the plastic top from a small tub of Hagen Daaz ice cream. Needless to say, a small amount of food consumption went on before these tops were used in the sinks…
Anything else? Yep, the tea tree oil worked well on the insect bites, as did the tube of gel that was bought in Porto to help combat the results of unexpected encounters with mosquitos.
The lavender oil had helped to keep the flying nasties at bay, but some had got through, resulting in 10 bites on my back, legs, arms and face, even though I had kept myself under the bed sheets on even the warmest nights in Portugal.
What I wasn’t expecting was for one of my pairs of shoes to deteriorate. One of the fabric lace retainers came away and as the two weeks wore on, it became apparent that the shock absorbing materials were breaking down inside the sole unit.
Although the shoes weren’t that old, they had done around 400 miles or so. Given that I have gait problems and also have trouble with my left leg as a result of that stroke a few years ago, I knew that it wasn’t something that I could put down as a problem with the shoes as I’ve been wearing Salomon shoes and boots for years now and not had any problems.
As a result, they were left in Portugal – not in a bin, but with someone who was going to repair the lace retainer and hand the shoes over to a local homeless charity.
On a lighter note, the umbrella that I’d taken along didn’t last either. It went inside out a few times in Porto and ended up being left in a guest house somewhere in Portugal.
It had served its purpose though in Somerset, London and Porto and as it had cost me the princely sum of £1, I wasn’t going to complain about being ripped off by a pound shop…
Portugal Packing v3.0
See – told you that it would be along shortly!
One of the reasons why there’s a Portugal Packing v3.0 rather than a Portugal Packing v2.1 is that our road trip in September 2015 was two weeks long rather than one week and the predicted weather conditions for the first part of the trip were dire…
Had the weather forecast been warm-hot and dry, then there wouldn’t have been any problems as all I would have done is swap a couple of t-shirts for a couple of polo shirts or smarter short sleeved shirts to ensure that there was an element of smart casual rather than just casual when eating out.
But the weather wasn’t destined to be warm-hot and dry over the first week. I’d taken the precaution of adding each of our locations to be visited on the Weather section of the BBC website so I could track a set of ten day forecasts for each town or city that we were visiting.
Every town or city showed the same prognosis for the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the first week. Something was coming and it did not look good – heavy rain and high winds.
So our packing lists were thought about and adjusted accordingly to take into account of potential weather conditions that were more reminiscent of Blighty on a bad day…
The heaviest stuff was worn for the flight, a good move as the weather at Liverpool John Lennon Airport on Sunday morning as we crossed the road from the hotel to the terminal wasn’t wonderful (and we were aware of the fact that we had to walk to the plane in order to board it – none of this bus to the plane nonsense here!).
In my case the Rohan Goa trousers were packed not worn and a pair of Peter Storm Soft Shell trousers took their place. The Rohan Stronghold shirt was worn again (plenty of pockets to keep passport, camera, reading specs and change bags to hand) over one of Rohan’s Core Silver t-shirts, but the top layer was a HyVent waterproof by The North Face.
Footwear came courtesy of Salomon once more, but rather than take sandals, flip flops or espadrilles as a second item, an identical pair of Salomon ventilated shoes were packed, just in case. Yes, it was tempting to take a pair of Gore-Tex lined shoes with me to counter the potential weather conditions, but these would have added more weight to the bag and ensured that my feet could sweat buckets if these shoes were worn on warmer days (prefer Gore-Tex lined footwear between October and March in the UK rather than in warmer months).
So, that was the worn line-up, but what was inside the usual Osprey Farpoint 40 bag? Another Rohan Core Silver t-shirt, two blue and one white Rohan Element t-shirts, two Rohan polo shirts (one Progress Polo, one Stria Polo) and a Rohan Stratum Polo Long Sleeve shirt for wearing on its own or as part of a layering unit if eating outdoors on an evening.
Packed trousers were not one, but two pairs of Rohan Goas tropical trousers. I’d liked wearing these during our Lisbon stay in July as they were cool to wear in hot temperatures, had good pockets to help deter thieving bar-stools and dried quickly after washing in Lifeventure Fabric Wash.
Rohan Silver trunks came into their own once more as did a few pairs of the same brand’s socks. New to the equation though were a couple of pairs of M&S trainer liner socks – easily washed/dried, but also useful enough to deal with my feet being encased in approach shoes after several months of padding around barefoot at home or in sandals when leaving the house.
The clear bag to be examined by security contained a couple of travel size Nivea Factor 30 bottles of sun cream, the bottle of King Of Shaves shaving oil that I’d bought for the last trip, a travel tube of Colgate Total toothpaste, small bottles of tea tree oil and lavender oil (tea tree to deal with insect bites and lavender oil to help prevent them – the latter didn’t always work!). Also in the mix was a disposable Gillette razor and the Slim Sonic battery powered toothbrush.
Techie stuff was the usual Kindle and Nikon Coolpix digital compact camera plus respective chargers and one three pin to two pin plug adapter. A Petzl e+Lite was packed as a light source, a Moleskine paper notebook for notes/accounts and a Fisher Space Pen to make the notes with.
I’d also got a new set of specs for this trip so one was worn, the reacting to sunlight specs were packed and the reading glasses stayed in my trouser pocket or day bag until needed.
I’d had reacting to sunlight specs before and found them useful, but the new ones are back with my opticians at the moment as the lenses started to work their way out of the frames after being used twice on this trip – apparently it was known problem with this type, but hadn’t come up in conversation when I was buying them… Ooops!
Owt else? My usual meds and back-up literature plus a small umbrella and a copy of Rough Guide To Portugal as I’d forgotten to copy the relevant pages before we left.
A new travel wallet came into play as a means of keeping my £’s separate from my €’s and to help avoid card details being skimmed by no-gooders with scanning devices. After July’s day bag problem, the chosen one was a nylon drawstring shoe bag that I had at home. It lasted three days and was replaced by a more substantial bag bought in a sports shop in Porto.
Caroline’s bag contents included Rohan’s Thai trousers (comfortable, light, good for hot weather and easily washed and worn again).
Other options included the same brand’s Linen Plus Tunis trousers and a dress that also used their Linen Plus fabric, a couple of Ultra Silver Camisoles and a couple of Ultra Silver Briefs (the camisoles were good for layering when needed and were also easily washed and worn again).
Oh, and her Rohan Serene vests and Malay top also proved their worth once more.
To cope with the rain, Caroline also took her Berghaus PacLite Gore-Tex jacket. Two pairs of Ecco shoes (Blom Lite Ballerina Pump and Blom Lite Mary Jane) were used over the course of the trip and a newly acquired two-piece swimming cossie was used for the obvious and as spare top and knickers if needed.
And her tech? Kindle, Pentax camera, her smartphone and the necessary adaptors. Both of our sets of adaptors were stored in IKEA wash bags – small, sturdy, zipped and cheap too. As ever, Caroline’s day bag was her Rohan Stowaway Daybag 3.
Now you may be wondering why there are so many mentions for Rohan products on our packing lists…
I’ve been using Rohan clothing for around 30 years now and Caroline’s been doing the same for around 10. The items we’ve been using on our travels have usually been bought in the sales or when there’s been specific offers on items instore or online.
Heck, we’ve even paid full price for stuff on a number of occasions, because when we’ve looked at other items from competitors, they’ve not always been what we’ve wanted for one reason or another…
So what are the verdicts on items mentioned in Portugal Packing v3.0?
They will be along on Friday!
Portugal packing v2.0
Why v2.0?
Because we’ve undertaken two visits to Portugal this year and our bag contents were changed from our original Portugal packing list to contend with the very different weather conditions encountered in July and September 2015.
v2.0 covers the stuff that was taken along in July when there was little chance of rain, but a very good chance of high temperatures and top of the charts UV levels, even in Lisbon – our destination and base for the week away. Fortunately, the weather conditions at home were approaching those in Lisbon.
The drive to Liverpool John Lennon Airport and a pre-flight night in the Hampton by Hilton hotel was a late one as Caroline had spent virtually all day at a family wedding. A swift change was made when she arrived home and the car was taken off the drive and pointed towards the M62 in search of the airport.
Baggage choices? Our trusty Osprey Farpoint 40 packs as usual as yes, we were travelling hand luggage, but on an airline that neither of us had used before – easyJet.
And the contents of the bags?
In my case they included a security friendly travel size wash bag that had been bought for the journey. It was originally full of predominately Gillette products aimed at travellers, but a little pruning and replacement ensured that the new contents covered all eventualities.
The disposable razor and small tube of toothpaste were retained, but in went a plastic cased Dove roll-on anti-perspirant instead of the smaller capacity metal aerosol.
That was followed by the Slim Sonic Toothbrush I mentioned a few posts back, a bottle of Lifeventure Fabric Wash for the clothes, a 100ml bottle of Lush’s Flying Fox shower gel for me, a small bottle of tea tree oil, a similarly sized bottle of King Of Shaves shaving oil and two small bottles of Nivea Factor 50 sun cream (Tesco had them on a 3 for 2 promo and they were worth the investment of buying a couple of deals each on Factor 50 and Factor 30 creams…)
Did they work? Oh yes and even though we were keeping the protection topped up, we still came back a little browner than we were when we left the UK.
As before, my usual prescribed meds, yellow Warfarin book and repeat prescription forms went in along with a pack of indigestion tablets and a few sachets of recovery powder (just in case there were too many glasses of vino collapso or local lagers imbibed over the course of a day…
Worn items included a pair of Salomon ventilated trainers, a pair of Rohan Goa trousers, one of four Rohan Core Silver t-shirts (the rest were in the bag along with a couple of Rohan Element t-shirts).
Why so many t-shirts? As good as all of these shirts are, expectations of 30+ C meant that for once I was playing safe and wearing two shirts per dayrather than one a day. I did however regret not having a polo shirt or two as a smarter option as we were eating out so much over the course of the week.
Rohan Cool Silver trunks and suitable socks completed the worn outfit and yes, there were spares in the bag of these. Other packed items included another pair of Goa trousers, my Nikon Coolpix digital compact camera and charger plus my Kindle and charger, a newly purchased Rohan Stowaway Daypack 20 packable day sack and a travel towel. Oh, and a copy of Rough Guide‘s Pocket Rough Guide to Lisbon plus a pair of Next espadrilles for sock free days or nights out…
Caroline’s clothes packing wasn’t quite a mirror image of mine as she packed a couple of Rohan Serene vest tops, a Rohan Malay Linen Plus top and a few other items from that brand’s travel linen range too.
Footwear choices were a pair of Ecco Blom Lite Mary Jane shoes and a pair of Merrell sports sandals. Her day bag was a Rohan Stowaway Daybag 3 packable handbag to hold her passport, camera, travel wallet, tissues, sun cream and a small bottle of water.
Was everything used?
Yes, it was and the washing and wearing processes also worked well too, even when washing out trousers. Washing was typically done on a morning before we went out and left to dry on hangers next to the windows once the clothing had been rolled up in a travel towel as a means of squeezing out any excess water.
The Rohan Goa trousers were just right for the trip thanks to a lightweight fabric that washed and dried quickly, two zipped pockets to take wallet, camera, reading specs and guest house keys and protect them from thieving bar-stools.
We knew that there is an ongoing problem with pickpocketing in Lisbon, but the owner of the cafe we ate in when we first arrived was quite forthright in his views when he warned us of the dangers of losing stuff (we did meet a lady who had had her smartphone stolen on a tram in Lisbon when we were in the queue for the flight home a week later…).
Out of all the things we took along with us, there was only one piece of kit that required a rethink. I’ve no doubt that the Rohan packable day sack will come into its own in the UK over days out and periods away over the coming months, but I have to admit to making a personal wrong choice by using it over the first few days in Lisbon.
It was a bit too big for what I wanted to carry around with me and I ended up buying a small cotton bag that sufficed for the rest of the week. The Rohan item won’t be wasted though, because there’s at least one trip coming up soon where it will be in its element, so it will be used again and again. The cotton bag purchased in Lisbon will be inside to use as a shopping bag…
And v3.0?
Along soon!
LDN strikes back…
When the initial plans for this London trip were made, Thursday was meant to be a day of leisure with the Tube used to whizz around the capital as a means of saving feet and saving time.
Yeah, right!
After breakfast and check-out of Imperial College (I gave it 10 on my booking.com review), I wandered up the road and onwards to Kensington High Street. The reason? I seem to remember that there was a National Geographic shop there. I’d tried doing the usual internet search before the trip and had found that the shop’s page wasn’t playing ball, something I put down to technical gremlins rather than anything else.
But it wasn’t to be. All I found of interest on the High Street was Ellis Brigham and that was it. Still, I’d stretched my legs as a way of compensating for the big breakfast and ended up back by The Royal Albert Hall and the collection of bus stops on the other side of the road.
And guess what? They were all full and not stopping because of the Tube strike. After about half an hour, I did manage to get on one of the crowded buses, but it stopped way short of its destination because of congestion and road works, so it was time to get off just before Trafalgar Square and then find somewhere to check out how much credit was left on my Oyster Card. That turned out to be a fairly quiet Charing Cross Station.
As it was about time for a mid-morning drink, I went off in search of same. Big mistake as everywhere was busy, so I headed into a Tesco Metro, got a litre of strawberry milk and slowly, but surely polished it off before heading towards Covent Garden once more.
Yes, it was busy, but not as busy as I’ve seen it before. Stanfords beckoned with books on the agenda and whilst there was a good selection of Rough Guides and Lonely Planets on offer, nothing caught my attention. Unlike the small representation of a Peruvian immigrant sporting a jaunty hat and a blue duffle coat (but no red wellies). With no marmalade sandwiches in sight, it was time to move on, and on, and on…
Now I knew that there was a recently opened branch of Rohan in the area and whilst I could have easily found their old site in Henrietta Street with ease, I’d left the address of this new store on the desk at home (D’oh!) so the on foot exploration continued until I eventually found myself on the familiar territory of Charing Cross Road.
Which is undergoing some changes (and then some). The demolition crews have been in thanks to Cross Rail and the reconstruction of the area as a result of the work being done to create this new way of getting around London. Oxford Street was a surprise though as a few of the places I used to visit have now gone the journey and whilst it was interesting to see a branch of Lush on Oxford Street, Caroline and I had just done some shopping in their Leeds branch, so there was nothing that we needed.
Lunch ended up being in the thoroughly exciting surroundings of McD‘s. I don’t use them much at home, but quick service times and cheap for London prices meant that it was a place to go and eat rather than savour. Then it hit me. I was flagging and despite the words of Dr Johnson springing to mind, the long day on Wednesday was catching up with me and I was getting a little weary of the capital.
The buses on Oxford Street were as busy as one expected on this strike day, but a wander onto Tottenham Court Road brought some enlightenment. Yes, it was tempting to go to the cinema to while away a few hours, but the only film I might have been tempted to see was Mission: Impossible 5. And that was a problem as I hadn’t seen numbers 3 or 4, so I probably had lost the plot in the continuing story of Ethan Hunt. Oh, and the daytime admission prices were a bit of a laugh… allegedly!
Still, all was not lost as they say in clicheworld. An almost empty bus with the words King’s Cross came along and I headed to said station. Yes, there were six hours to kill before the train home, but I had some money for coffee and snack and a well charged/well stocked Kindle so it wasn’t going to be too much of a problem. Or was it?
Loads of people everywhere had taken up the seats in the station concourse. The cafes were all full and taking a look at Platform 9 3/4 and the adjacent Harry Potter themed shop doesn’t take up that long. So I hit the pub and had a very fine pint of Beachcomber and then made a pint of cola last an hour whilst resting/snoozing on a very comfortable sofa in the station themed bar I was in.
When hunger started to rush in, choices had to be made. The pub prices were interesting, the cafes were still full and McD‘s across the road was also busy. It was tempting to buy something from the food market outside of Kings Cross but with a sausage roll costing £4.50 and a scotch egg coming in at £5, someone was having a giraffe as they say in the semi-local parlance… The bakers up the road from Wisepacking Towers charges 75p for a sausage roll while Co-Op charges £1.15 for two scotch eggs…
And then it happened. I remembered about the pub in St. Pancreas, found it, ordered some very good comfort food – sausage and mash – and a pint and waited for the food to arrive. It came, it was eaten and was very, very good too.
After that, it was back to Kings Cross for some people watching, reading and observing the number of bikes being wheeled or carried into the station. If I had a £100 for the number of Brompton folding bikes only that I saw over the next couple of hours, it would have ensured that my travel money pot would be rather full for a couple of years.
When the chosen train came up on the boards as being ready to get on, it was time to have a bit of luxury, some ‘free’ coffee and a chance to reflect on a day in London when there was no Tube service. Hectic was the word of choice before I dozed off for an hour and woke when the coffee and biscuits were served once more.
Will there be another visit to London this year? Quite probably, but it won’t be a solo on next time – plenty more to show Caroline when we head down there together (and hopefully there won’t be a Tube strike!).
LDN – going walkabout…
If it’s Wednesday, it must be London and a short walk was necessary to find the breakfast room at Imperial College…
Or should I say rooms, because breakfast is provided in one of the biggest student dining areas that I’ve ever been in, and because it was so busy, seats were at a premium, but the food was freshly cooked as the catering staff cooked more to cope with the demand. Given how busy it was, it was also a good idea to load up two cups of coffee before finding a table.
Once fed and coffee’d, it was time to pick up the bag from my room and head off in search of the sharing lunch items to have later in the day. Time to wander around the area surrounding South Kensington tube station.
Yes, there were loads of shops selling all sorts of things (including Lamborghini cars – I kid you not!), but it took a while to find a Waitrose to get a couple of packs of filled wraps and some pain au chocolate bars plus a couple of bottles of water. Once sorted it was time to head up to the RGS and the meeting point with the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum contributors and the trio of moderators who were joining us for all or part of the day.
Once we met up and introductions were made, it was time to take a wander around the Travel Photographer Of The Year exhibition in one of the RGS galleries and the adjoining gardens. Impressive? Oh yes as a certain cartoon bulldog that’s used to sell car insurance might say…
After leaving the RGS behind, it was time for a different London experience for me – getting on a London bus for the first time in about thirty five years! The destination on this part of the day was the Wellcome Trust building and a visit to the Institute Of Sexology (no, I hadn’t heard of it before either!).
Although an hour or so had been allocated to wander around this site, I found myself taking a wander downstairs to the multi-faceted shop on the ground floor (10/10 for stocking the London Modern Babylon DVD guys!) and a double espresso. Once everyone assembled, it was time for another bus, this time down towards Central London and St. James’ Park ( the park itself, not the similarly named football ground in Newcastle-upon-Tyne – only been there once to see a certain band that still had Bill Wyman as their bass player at that time).
After a brief wander through the park, it was lunchtime and starting to drizzle, so lunch was a standing up job for me as I’d noticed that others outside of our party had plumped for sitting down in deck chairs – and were being charged for this privilege!
Once we were fed, we moved on to see the tail end of the Pelican Feeding Time elsewhere in the park and witnessed a couple of witless herons trying to have a free meal for themselves by taking on some of the fish that the pelicans had left behind.
As the herons were failing miserably in their attempts at successfully feeding themselves, we moved on to Horse Guards and caught the mid to end sections of the Changing Of The Guard routine. Fortunately for me, I’d seen quite a few armed police officers in Lisbon a month before my visit to London, so seeing a fully armed police officer in Horse Guards wasn’t that extraordinary to me…
So, where next? Well, I could tell you the location but then I’d – nah, only joking! But somewhere in London are the offices of Lonely Planet and that’s where the bus journey and walk ended up And up as we were given entry passes to get to the six floor of the office block that Lonely Planet hang out in.
And what can you say? A suitable entrance hall with a selection of classic Lonely Planet guides surrounding a seating area, long desks with plenty of occupied and unoccupied computers on them (PC’s not Macs) plus meeting rooms and a library of Lonely Planet guides in both English and the multitude of other languages that they’re published in. A Forum/Moderator shot was taken for posterity by Lonely Planet’s Tom Hall before handing our passes in and heading out for the next bus and our next stop.
And the next stop was? Familiar territory – Camden Town and more specifically Camden Market. Why familiar? Largely because I’ve been to Camden Town a few times to see one particular band (The Skiff Skats) back in the mid-1980’s and also to take a band into the legendary Dingwalls Dance Hall back in my days of managing and promoting bands.
Camden Market is still one of the ‘hip’ places to go in London and yes, there were a few bearded hipsters in attendance that day too. After a wander around the market it was time to get undercover when the rain started, so an all-out personal assault on KFC was called for to get a drink and a small bite to eat at the same time. Once done, it was time to join the rest of the happy wanderers in the local Wetherspoons near Camden Lock.
When the rain stopped, it was time for a stroll along Regent Canal in the general direction of Lord’s Cricket Ground and onward to our eating place for the night – The Cedars.
It’s not the first time that I’ve eaten in a Lebanese restaurant and it’s certainly not going to be the last! As ever, I made a complete hash of trying to pronounce my menu selection (in English it was lamb cutlets with rice), but when the meal arrived, it soon became apparent that whilst I may polish off the cutlets, polishing off the rice might be a different matter. Needless to say, I wasn’t the only member of our group that had the same problem.
Want to know more about The Cedars – take a look at http://www.thecedarrestaurant.co.uk for more details. I suspect that like Arnie S, I’ll be back!
As the night was wearing on, it was time to head back to Imperial College. Now the quicker way back to my bed for the night was out of the question as a Tube strike had started at 6.30pm and it was now around 9.30pm. So it was time to get a couple of buses towards The Royal Albert Hall before crossing the road, heading back to the hall and phoning Caroline before finding a nice pint of cold Guinness and then bed…
Little did I know what the following Tube strike embattled day was going to bring!
LDN
Time flies – either when you’re having fun or when you’ve just thrown the alarm clock across the room!
I honestly meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but things got in the way a little and distracted me (honest!).
The trip to London was done at relatively short notice after receiving an invite from a fellow poster on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum to head to London and join in a grand day out on foot or bus around the capital. And to meet up with other posters plus a trio of Lonely Planet‘s Forum moderators.
Getting down to London was easy thanks to a couple of offers on Grand Central‘s rail services – just over £13 for the journey down to London from Yorkshire and around £34 for the journey back in First Class.
Getting around London was interesting, even though I’d invested in an Oyster Card. First up was getting out of Covent Garden tube station as work on the lifts meant that you could get off the tube at Covent Garden, but not get on it as there were two lifts working rather than the usual four.
First stop in Covent Garden was Stanford’s – one of the best places for maps, travel books and accessories that I know of. An Oyster Card holder was all I needed on this first visit of the trip, but other items were noted to pick up later in the week. After a wander around, it was time to hit the tube again and head towards Kensington to find my room for the night.
But not before a quick detour into the Victoria & Albert Museum. All I was wanting was a coffee and a piece of cake, but there was also the notion of seeing what was in there in anticipation of a return visit with Caroline in the coming months. The place was quite busy, even though the Alexander McQueen exhibition has finished a few days beforehand.
The coffee went down well, but the cake was left where it was considering it was £4.50 for one slice (Caroline’s comment during a phone conversation later on was that she could have made two cakes for that price!).
And so to the digs for my two night stay in London – the residence hall blocks of Imperial College. I’d found this on booking.com and booked it because it was remarkably near where the Lonely Planet meeting up point was going to be the next day – the Royal Geographic Society.
It was also just a short walk from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. At a smidgen under £140 for two night’s B&B it wasn’t that cheap, but as it was Summer in London, the price bullet just had to be bitten…
Mind you, the room was a cut above the residence hall rooms I had as a student twenty years ago – ensuite, tea, coffee and toiletries provided and an outlook over the park in Princess Gardens. There was also a mini-market in one of the adjacent blocks and a student bar/eating place that proved to be one of the cheapest places to eat and drink whilst I was in London that didn’t have a set of golden arches on the signposts outside.
After eating early, it was time to head to The National Theatre to see a performance of Everyman. Now I was in the back row to see this play, but given that it was London, a packed house and a good cast, I wasn’t going to begrudge the cost of the ticket to witness the performance – £15.
One thing I didn’t expect was the way in which the rest of the audience descended on the auditorium just before the lights went down – most people are usually in their seats in the theatres near home about 15 minutes before the play or show starts.
Now I like wandering around London and have been known to go to a function, spend the day there, hit the ceremony at the end of the day and then go clubbing afterwards before heading back to a hostel to get some sleep at around 3.30am. Not now though as I’m twenty years older and a bit wiser!
So it was back to Imperial College and a just-before-the-bar-closed pint of Guinness, a call to Caroline and then it was time for bed, but not before doing some clothes washing and hanging up to dry in readiness for wearing again two days later…
To say that the following day was full-on would be an understatement, but you’ll have to wait until Wednesday for the next instalment!
Social media…
I’ve had a couple of requests recently asking whether there’s any kind of social media aspects to wisepacking…
The clear and final answer on this one is no!
I’ve personally been on social media sites twice over the last five years and have left them after three months or so on both occasions.
I’m aware that there’s been comments left on wisepacking by those using social media, but on several occasions, I’ve not been able to read them anyway as they’ve been in the person’s native language rather than English.
Why don’t I use social media?
Largely because of the various posts received during my time on those sites that were of little or no interest to me.
Other reasons? The time being spent on social media that could be better spent on other things elsewhere coupled with the fact that I don’t lug that much tech stuff around when I’m heading off anywhere.
Most of the places I go to in the UK don’t have mobile phone coverage, never mind wi-fi and as I don’t have a smartphone, tablet or laptop, it’s a bit of a non-starter anyway. I got rid of the smartphone back in April, I still can’t see the need for a tablet and whilst I could be tempted to go back to having a laptop, I don’t actually see that happening soon somehow.
As a fiftysomething, I take things in on my travels and make notes in a paper notebook. These can then be used to formulate pieces on wisepacking or form the basis for pieces for print media (which is where I started and still believe in).
It may be an age thing, but it works for me!
Smartphones? Or dumb-ass phones?
It’s twenty years since I got my first mobile phone.
It was a reaction to the fact that the publications I was writing for at the time needed to speak to me and to the fact that the student flat I was living in at the time didn’t have a phone, even though I was one of those helping to look after a residence hall and had a couple of on-call shifts every week.
So I got a half-brick size mobile phone and became the first student in either the Media or Business School to have such a gizmo (I was probably the only Media & Business Studies student in the UK who had a couple of national magazine columns at the time as well, but that’s another story…).
There were several smaller phones that followed in the wake of the half-brick between 1995 and 2010 of course, but then I made the decision to not have a phone and guess what? I didn’t miss it at all.
That changed with getting a new day job of course and then I noticed that most of my work colleagues (and Caroline’s sons and her daughter) were all using smartphones. So I ditched my pay as you go talk and text phone and upgraded to a smartphone…
Which I got rid of back in April 2015 and went back to a talk and text phone.
Well almost. There is internet and email capability on the new phone, but it’s not an Android phone and I don’t actually use the internet and email capability on it.
I’m not looking at it and swiping or stabbing it on a regular basis. I’m making calls on it or sending texts when I need to or using it as a watch and that’s about it.
Do I miss the smartphone? No, I’d rather have the dumb-ass phone as it works and only needs charging once a week or so.
Do I take the mickey out of smartphone users?
Sometimes, usually when there’s a group of people huddled around a table in a hostel, bar, cafe or restaurant and they’re all on their phones rather than communicating with others by talking to each other.
And then there’s those who text or do social media updates as they’re walking around a shop or wandering around a village, town or city. They’re so intent on what’s onscreen that they’re oblivious to the fact that there are other around them and that they’re either holding others up on the pavement or that they’re about to walk into a lamp post, sign post or another person.
The one that really took the biscuit was the lady in London who was so intent on her phone that she couldn’t even control the wheelie case that she was pulling along with her at the time.
Not only was she oblivious to everything else, she didn’t even hear words including ones that rhymed with clucking bell which were coming from a certain bloke behind her who was trying to get back to his hotel before the heavens opened once more!
There’s been a few conversations on forums recently about people taking smartphones with them on their travels to use for social media purposes, getting information from websites or to take photos with the phone (with or without the use of a selfie/selfish stick). One guy even wanted to use a selfie stick to take photos out of train windows whilst train was moving – as if!
There’s also been a few comments about whether such phones are covered by travel insurance if they’re stolen or damaged. My annual travel policy has a limit to such cover, another reason why I got rid of the smartphone, don’t travel with a phone wherever possible and why I use a reasonably priced digital compact camera on my travels rather than a DSLR.
Think it won’t happen? We got into conversation with a lady at Lisbon airport a couple of weeks ago whilst waiting for our plane back to Liverpool. She’s been on Tram 28 around Lisbon and had had her smartphone stolen, even though she’s heard about all of the alleged problems with pickpockets on that tram and elsewhere in Lisbon. Didn’t ask what type of phone it was, but after seeing the prices of certain Apple and Android phones a few months ago, I suspect that it won’t have been a cheap one.
Which brings me back to a point I’ve made on forums a few times now.
I don’t take a phone with me unless it’s unavoidable (i.e. I’ve driven to the UK airport and don’t want to leave the phone in the car for a week or more whilst the car is parked up). If I need to know something about a town or city then I’ll either ask or use a paper guidebook (an item that is still relatively cheap and doesn’t need to be charged up in order to use).
And I’ll talk to people in a hotel, hostel or cafe rather than being someone who hides in a corner staring at a screen for hours on end…
wisepacking 
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