Lepod's Blog

Our big trip – by pod

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  • Cardiff and London

    We took the Great Western Railways to Cardiff on Saturday to visit our friends Kathryn and Mark, back on Sunday. Nice to see them again after we bumped into them in Athens!
    This week we’ve spent a bit of time on double decker buses. It’s a good way to get around as you get a view.
    Driving down Oxford Street
    221b Baker Street
    North London canal
    We had lunch in Soho and shopped in Carnaby Street
    I liked this pub in the west end somewhere
    I visited the Science museum while Pauline did some more serious shopping
    Early Soviet computer, Science museum.
    Rover turbine powered car from 1950. They were very forward thinking in those days.
    We went to see “The Mousetrap” in the west end. Oldest running play, in its 73rd year. It was very well done.
    On the way back home we walked along Regent Street enjoying the lights.
    Today we took various trains to Hampton Court palace, Henry VIII’s palace. I kept thinking about the song “I’m Henry the eighth, I am”
    The tiltyard.
    Pictures of Henry and some other guy. They reminded me of David Byrne from Talking Heads and his big suit.
    I presume this squirrel was doing his exercises.
    The palace on the banks of the Thames.

    Its been an enjoyable time here in London, tomorrow we are off to Kendal in the North. Looking forward to it!

    “I’m Henry the eighth, I am
    Henry the eighth, I am, I am
    I got married to the widow next door
    She’s been married seven times before
    And every one was an Henry (Henry)
    She wouldn’t have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
    I’m her eighth old man, I’m Henry
    Henry the eighth, I am”

  • Out and about in Notting Hill, Covent Garden and Seven Dials. No sign of Hugh Grant though!

    This morning we went for a walk to Notting Hill, mostly to see how Pauline was feeling because in the afternoon we had a guided tour called “the misfits of Covent Garden” scheduled and we wanted to be sure she’d be OK. Also it’s a nice area to look around.

    Nice Volvo P1800 for sale just around the road from our hotel.
    Unfortunately they want £40k for it!

    In the afternoon we went on a guided tour. The tour company is partly owned by a kiwi and Pauline heard her on Jim Mora’s calling home program on RNZ. Interesting people.

    https://rebeltours.co.uk/misfits-of-covent-garden

    Covent Garden Christmas tree. It’s enormous.
    Covent Garden market entrance.
    Inside the market was definitely Christmassy.
    This is St Paul’s church Covent Garden, also known as the Actor’s Church because it is surrounded by many theatres and it was the church of a lot of actors.
    Someone was rehearsing the organ while we were here. Very nice too.
    Quite a simple church inside, well it is C of E.
    There are some memorials to some pretty famous actors inside the church.
    Noël Coward and Charlie Chaplin for example!
    Quite a few of the “Carry on” actors. The young American woman on our tour had no idea who they were of course.
    Neal’s yard, seven dials. Monty Python had an animation production office here in the ’70s.
    The streets are beautifully decorated around here.
    Seven dials.

    It was great to be out and about with Pauline again and we had an enjoyable day in London. I can certainly recommend the tour company https://rebeltours.co.uk

  • Paddington and Mayfair

    Yesterday we both went to the dentist and unfortunately Pauline had to have a tooth removed so she’s laying low today. She’s ok but just taking things carefully. Fair enough too! So I had a bit of a look round by myself.

    He’s a popular bear is Paddington. At the station on platform 1.
    On my way to Mayfair I came across him again on this bench.
    We were watching a TV program called “Secrets of London” and the presenter visited this place. It looked so good I had to try it. Mayfair chippy.
    Classic cod and chips with tartare sauce, mushy peas and curry sauce.
    The mushy peas were excellent.
    As was the cod. Chips were good too.
    Fortnum & Mason have decorated their windows to look like an advent calendar.
    I walked past the Lotus showrooms in Picadilly but I didn’t buy one.
    Walking back through Hyde Park. Kiwis always get excited to see squirrels, presumably because we don’t have them.

    It’s a big city London, and Google maps shows things in miles so I always think it’s not as far as it really is. I do like wandering around looking at the shops and the people. Busy down Oxford Street as you’d expect. Tomorrow hopefully Pauline will be feeling a bit better and can join me.

  • Josselin to London via the chunnel.

    On Tuesday we took the bus to Rennes and the TGV to Paris.

    We had an hour or so to wait for the Eurostar to London so we had a coffee at our favourite cafe near the Gare du Nord.
    It’s a bit of a kerfuffle going through the border and security but once you’re on the train it’s next stop St Pancras.

    We are staying in a little hotel in Paddington. We both really like Paddington, partly because there’s a statue of Paddington the bear at the station but mainly because there’s lots of nice little restaurants and cafes and it’s central but doesn’t feel like you’re in an enormous city. Here for a few days, off to Cardiff on Friday.

  • A christmassy stopover in Paris on our way home from Berlin

    Morning view from our hotel near the Gare de l’est. Grey day but quite a bit warmer than Berlin!
    The Ibis breakfast was definitely up to scratch, these madelaines were fresh out of the oven. They’re supposed to remind me of something apparently.
    I thought this poster in the breakfast area was to the point.

    Pauline was keen to visit the Palais Garnier opera house so we walked down there after breakfast.

    The Palais Garnier has been called “probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica”. This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is “unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank”. (Wikipedia)

    At the foot of the grand staircase. According to Greek mythology, Pythia was the priestess of Apollo, the god of arts, and she delivered the oracles of the god.
    The grand staircase definitely lives up to its name.
    A view from the balcony.
    Inside one of the boxes, the auditorium ceiling.
    A view of some of the other boxes inside the auditorium.
    There are busts of famous arty types all around the boxes including this one of Berlioz.
    Upstairs is the grand foyer, the artist who painted the ceiling wanted to out do the Sistine chapel. It’s spectacular.
    The ceiling of the grand foyer.
    Outside, being France there were good natured protests against the government cuts to arts funding. Fair enough too!
    Pauline’s next plan was to visit this very fancy department store, Galeries Lafayette. They had some Christmas displays in their windows.
    Inside the decorations are amazing.
    It’s a bit flasher than even Arthur Barnetts was.
    They had some amazing boots.
    We climbed right up to the terrace on the roof, what a view! The Opera in the distance there.
    Tour Eiffel
    Paris traffic. Much lighter than it used to be thanks to bicycles and congestion charges!
    This wonky skyscraper had us intrigued. Built in 2017 apparently.
    We had to buy some touristy things, everything else cost an arm and a leg, even in the second hand bit.
    This second hand fur jacket for example, €610! Crikey.

    It was a fun day in Paris, and I’m glad Pauline thought of these places to visit. We got the 16:50 train to Rennes and the bus to Josselin arriving at 20:10. A very excellent long weekend was had by all.

  • East Berlin.

    We did not go to the espionage museum, maybe next time. It did look interesting.
    Berliner Dom was quite imposing.
    As was the old art gallery.
    For contrast, here’s Alex outside the new art gallery which is near Potsdamer platz. Quite an unusual building, from a distance the roof appears to be floating as you can see right through the building.
    I was taken by this rather smart VW.
    Ulrike took us to a very nice rooftop cafe Baret Berlin, on top of the Humboldt forum art museum. The views were spectacular but so was the food. So much so that we ate it without taking photos. Sorry about that!
    Here we are on the rooftop balcony.
    This balloon was having a nice time.
    The old art gallery from the roof.
    Berliner Dom
    The Fernsehturm ( English: Television Tower) in central Berlin was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, as both a functional broadcasting facility and a symbol of Communist power.
    We walked to Hackesche Höfe and I was thrilled when we came across a bunch of Trabis much to the amusement of Ulrike and Alex.
    Walking in East Berlin past the railway station.
    The Hackesche Höfe is a notable courtyard complex situated adjacent to the Hackescher Markt in the centre of Berlin. The complex consists of eight interconnected courtyards, accessed through a main arched entrance at number 40 Rosenthaler Straße. (Wikipedia)
    Inside the courtyard
    There were all sorts of very cool shops.
    This one was not a venison restaurant oddly enough but it should have been!
    I was tempted.
    Instead I bought this model Trabi with Ampelmännchen (literally ‘little traffic light man’) on the doors. Ampelmännchen is the symbol shown on pedestrian signals in East Germany.

    It’s been a fantastic weekend and we are most grateful to Ulrike and Alex, it was really all about spending some time together and it was so great to catch up. What a lovely city to do it in, and how lucky we were with the weather.

  • Very cool day out in Berlin.

    It was a cool day and Pauline had inadvertently left her hat on one of the trains so we went to a local market and bought her a scarf and a hat, Alex a hat and myself some gloves.

    Pauline and our friend Alex at the market, Potsdamer platz.
    The three of us.
    S-bahn, Potsdamer platz
    We took the s-bahn out to Mexikoplatz to meet Ulrike and Julia
    Julia, Pauline, Pod, Ulrike and Alex,  Mexikoplatz.
    Currywurst at Fischerhuette, Schlachtensee for brunch.
    Alex and Ulrike
    Alex, Pod and Pauline, NikolskoeForestPark.
    Same.
    Ulrike, Nikolskoe Forest Park.
    Ferry from Nikolskoe Forest Park to Peacock Island.
    Sunset setting, Wannsee.
    Roast goose, red and green cabbage, potato dumplings at Blockhaus Nikolskoe. Early Christmas dinner. Very tasty too, neither of us have had goose before.

    After a very nice if rather filling meal we piled into Ulrike’s little car and she took us to a famous spy bridge:

    As per Wikipedia:

    “The Glienicke Bridge (German: ) is a bridge across the Havel River in Germany, connecting the Wannsee district of Berlin with the Brandenburg capital Potsdam. It is named after nearby Glienicke Palace. The current bridge, the fourth on the site, was completed in 1907, although major reconstruction was necessary after it was damaged during World War II.
    During the Cold War, as this portion of the Havel River formed the border between West Berlin and East Germany, the bridge was used several times for the exchange of captured spies and thus became known as the Bridge of Spies.”

    Inspecting the plaque at Glienicke Bridge.
    Glienicker Brücke

    Ulrike then kindly drove us to a Christmas market in Potsdam before dropping us off at the S-ban and we headed back to the hotel. It was very nice to catch up with Ulrike, Alex and Julia, great to see you all today!

  • Paris to Berlin. Quite a long day.

    We left Paris on the 7:15. Frosty morning.!
    Waiting in Karlsruhe for the train to Berlin.
    Made it by 6:30 pm!
    There was a very nice Filipino restaurant next door to the hotel, so we had to try it out, joined by our friend Alex who arrived from Munich about half an hour after us.

    Nice to be back in Berlin, it was a long day though!

  • We’re on Paris on our way to Berlin to meet some friends.

    Nice trip from Josselin to Rennes on the bus and then to Paris on the TGV. We got there early afternoon and went to https://museebanksy.fr/ to see the Banksy exhibits. It was well worth the visit.

    “Rage, the flower thrower” painted in Jerusalem.
    “Queen Ziggy Stardust”
    “Monkey Queen”
    “The son of a migrant from Syria”

    In a rare public statement Banksy said: “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7bn a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”

    It’s cool to be back in Paris, nice day here although chilly. We had an interesting dinner of cold noodles with a spicy sauce and crevettes (me) or vegetables (the mrs) at a Tibetan restaurant near the hotel. It was tasty.

  • I loved this ute full of dogs outside our bakery this morning. Lovely day.