20th July 2026

A Few Days in London

Caught the 10.37 train from Macclesfield (which was slightly late) to Euston. It was a fast train compared to Australian trains and it took less than 2 hours to get to London. Actually it took about the same time to travel 230km from Macclesfield to London as the train from Wollongong to Sydney train takes to travel 85km.

Euston Station seems to have been rebuilt, it is nothing like I remember. It was very busy and crowded. BTW the toilets were free! Last time I was here they charged 30p to use them.

The hotel I was staying at was less than a mile away so I walked there. It took me about 20 minutes partly because of the time it took to cross the roads, that seems to take ages. Overall I found the pedestrian crossing lights very confusing, they are often only for half the road, ie they just take you to the middle, then you have to wait for different lights to turn green again for the other half – a couple of times I was watching the wrong cross signal.

The hotel was very nice when I checked in, my room was on the 7th floor but it had a dedicated lift and was a nice room.

After settling in and having a bit of a rest decided to walk to the PO Tower. It took me longer than expected as I kept getting lost but eventually I found it. To be honest I hardly remember how it was but it looks a bit sad, no aerials, no entry to anything. Even the local pub was no more.

I noticed that there were big crowds around the back of the British Museum to see the Bayeux Tapestry or perhaps not (see later).

On the way back called into a pub for a beer. Then to a souvenir shop for some postcards to send home.

It was about 5pm by the time I returned to the hotel.

21st July 2026

Morning

Went out fairly early for breakfast and to find a Post Office for stamps – Also bought nail clippers from a chemist because my nails were getting far too long.

Returned briefly to the hotel before setting off in the general direction of central London.

Finally arrived at Trafalgar Square, where I made a brief visit to the National Gallery to see a couple of Turner paintings.

Then walked through Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall to Parliament House and the Embankment.

Made a brief visit to Scotland Yard (remember the TV show “No Hiding Place”) and the New Scotland Yard on the Embankment.

At about 1pm decided to return to the hotel for a rest before visiting the theatre in the evening. Walking back I happened to come across Harry Potter.

Book of Mormon

Made my way down to Coventry Street to the Prince of Wales Theatre where I had a ticket for tonight’s performance.

It was a pretty enjoyable show, the audience obviously knew who the performers were judging by the cheers as they entered (I hadn’t got a clue) and there was a big crowd gathered around the stage door afterwards.

After the show made my way back to the hotel via Chinatown. I had forgotten how busy some cities are at night, there were crowds everywhere.

22nd July 2026

Not the British Museum

This morning I had intended to go to the British Museum for a wander round, When I arrived there were attendants directing people into long ticket holder  and non ticket holder queues which I initially thought must have been for the Bayeux Tapestry. When I asked one of them what was going on he told me that you had to book a time on line before coming. Well, that was the end of that.

Decided that I might just visit Brixton, so I caught a tube train on the Victoria Line and spent a while wandering around, I did not walk up to Brixton Hill where I used to live, that was a step too far. I recognised a few of the buildings such as the library and Town Hall but the market itself seemed a much subdued affair from what I remember.

Being as I was at one end of the Victoria line decided to make a quick trip to Finsbury Park where I also lived before moving to Brixton. The Finsbury Park Astoria, later the Rainbow Theatre, seems to have bee taken over by a happy clappy religious mob.

Like most places I have so far visited in London I sort of recognise them but they have changed so much, I recognise the street names but don’t have a clue why or where they go.

Frida Kahlo

In the afternoon took the underground to  Waterloo Station, it too has changed beyond recognition and I had trouble finding a way out, in fact only after asking a customer service personnel was I able get myself going in the right direction toward the Tate Modern. It was a much longer walk than I anticipated made worse by a fall when I rolled my ankle on some cobblestones.

Walked past The Old Vic.

Eventually I found myself at the Tate and eventually found the exhibition floor where I had a short wait until my allotted time to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition.

The exhibition itself was much larger than I thought it would be as it included works by her contemporaries as well as later admirers and works of pop culture.

After spending over an hour in the exhibition I had to get home as I was pretty tired so I set off for Waterloo Station again walking. As I strolled along the bank of the Thames I came across Blackfriars railway station where, to cut a long story short, I caught an overground train to St Pancras station and then walked back to my hotel from there.

23rd July 2026

Royal London

This morning took the tube to Green Park and wandered through the very brown park toward Buckingham Palace.

As I say it wasn’t very green!

Buckingham Palace hasn’t changed one little bit. According to the flag King Charlie wasn’t home anyway.

It

After wandering around the front of the palace I set off through Hyde Park toward a little pub in Petty France that I had been told about.

While there I had a couple of beers before walking back to Green Park and the hotel because this evening I was going to the theatre again.

Oh! Mary

A strange production but very enjoyable. Similar to the last production I went to I had no idea who the performers were though everybody else did.

Walked back to the hotel and had an early night because tomorrow I return to Macclesfield.

24th July 2026

Travelling North

My train didn’t leave Euston until nearly 11am so there was no rush. I checked out of the hotel just before 10am to leave my self plenty of time for a leisurely walk to the station.. It seemed to be much quicker returning to the station than on Monday when I was looking for the hotel.

BTW if I have a complaint about the UK it is the lack of bubblers (water fountains), there were virtually none that I saw during my whole visit except a couple like the one pictured above for filling a water bottle.

I found a seat in the main hall of the station to watch the massive departure board.

Eventually my train appeared with the boarding time of 10.35am.

Once on board I found my seat easily enough and exactly on time the train set off.

Passing Wembley Stadium the train seemed to be crawling along.

Soon there was an announcement saying that the train was being diverted via the west  Midlands due to an “incident” at Nuneaton. From that moment on the journey was a slow crawl. Announcements came at regular intervals putting our arrival time at Macclesfield further and further back.

To cut a long story short the journey took an extra couple of hours, instead of arriving at 12.42pm the train finally got to Macclesfield at 2.35pm. A train journey from hell. They said I could claim a refund but I didn’t bother.

My brother picked me up at the station and it wasn’t long before I could  finally relax at his house.

25th July 2026

Macclesfield Silk

I have no real plans for the last few days of my trip other than to spend time with my brother and his family.

About mid morning I set off toward Macclesfield town centre where I looked around the market and shops before walking down to the Silk Museum (after buying a couple of pork pies).

Macclesfield once made a good living from its silk industry and the museum celebrated that.

At first I thought I had wandered in to the wrong place, the first room was full of Egyptian relics collected by a pair of local women.

Finally I found the silk making exhibits. It was a quite interesting display with plenty of hands on examples of how the machinery worked.

26th July 2026

Didn’t do much today. Went with my brother and nephew to a camping store. The word “store” doesn’t do it justice, it was like Bunnings for camping and sports goods. The store was called Decathlon, it was massive.

Earlier we had been talking after my brother was invited camping with his diving club and I told him about my Malamoo 3 second tent and how easy it was to set up . He decided it was just what he needed. This store boasted a 2 person 2 second tent which he was keen to purchase for his trip.

27th July 2026

A Walk along the Canal

This morning my brother and I took the dog for an extended walk along the Macclesfield canal, it was a long but very enjoyable walk. We even stopped for coffee on the tow path.

Indian Food

That evening I went to an Indian Restaurant with my brother, wife and their son, we had an excellent meal.

28th July 2026

Tent Practice

I went for a solo walk for half an hour just to get some exercise before we set up the new tent. The design was very similar to my Malamoo but was a totally different execution of it which made it fold much smaller than the former.

After putting it up we had to view a YouTube video to finally work out how to carry out the last step folding it back up.

29th July 2026 – 31st July 2026

Flying out

About 1pm on the Wednesday my brother took me to Manchester Airport for me to catch my domestic flight to Heathrow for my return to Australia. Actually we got lost, missed the airport completely, had to turn round and came at it from the opposite direction. Not really a problem, still had plenty of time.

Security was exhausting, I joined a long queue. Only afterwards did I realise I could have bypassed it and used the Fast Track queue. My shoes failed some sort of test and had to be removed and X-rayed, my laptop was too large for their liking and was tested for explosives.

After much ado I was finally able to find the BA lounge and relax with a drink and a snack before flying on the absurdly short trip to Heathrow.

Heathrow itself was the same crowded lounge and long walks – a feature of both it and Manchester Airports but at least I was comfortable once I sat down.

The plane had much older style of seating than the one I had arrived in, it wasn’t uncomfortable in fact quite the opposite, just a bit dated. However the food was, as before, just fine. The plane flew mostly in the day time but treated it as if it were night time. Because of this when we arrived in Singapore I thought it was early morning and that I had most of the day to wait for my onward flight (same plane, different seat). When I checked the departure board I discovered it was in fact evening and I only had a fairly short while to wait.

Singapore airport had security before being allowed to enter the departure gate area but it was very modest compared to the Heathrow security ordeal.

Again the flight treated us to a night time flight because we arrived in Sydney at about 6am. Also again, good service on the plane and arriving in Sydney at 5.30am. Quickly got through Immigration and was soon waiting at the baggage carousel where my bag was one of the first to arrive. I had already filled in the passenger arrival card so handed that to the Quarantine/Customs bloke and found myself straight out into the arrivals hall.

Walked to the railway station to catch the train to Central where I found a Wollongong/Bombaderry train in the station waiting for me on the Grand Concourse level – I was very glad that I didn’t have to make my way to platform 25 in the bowels of the earth.

A couple of hours later I was home.

Summing up

Heathrow and Manchester Airports are the worst airports I have ever visited, absolutely terrible from a traveller’s perspective, little customer service, long distances to walk, definitely places to avoid.

Having said that it was a fantastic holiday, my brother and his family were wonderful hosts, my niece held a terrific BBQ in her garden, the holiday was was leisurely (I am getting too old to rush about) and I enjoyed every minute of it – except perhaps the long flight even though the service on board was really good it is a long time to sit on a plane but I can’t complain about that really. Not sure if I will ever do it again.