Weekend in Madrid

We spent a lovely weekend in Madrid with Lou's brother and his fiance Hannah at the end of November. With snow falling in London it was great to be in a warmer city. We had a great time, didn't overdo it (tired wee kids as we are) but the Spanish weekend has certainly made us decide to move Barcelona towards the top of our "must visit" list next year.



We saw plenty of the sights by jumping on a bus tour, went to a Flamenco dinner/show which was amazing, and visted the Museo del Prado. With only a couple of hours there we focused on Spanish artists including plenty of Goya and really enjoyed some of Flemish artist Bosch's weird and wonderful creations.


Oh and we LOVED the churros and chocolate, just the ticket for afternoon tea.

The side of the Thames

My work manager is a season ticket holder at Fulham, and when he went for a two week holiday back to Australia, he left us his season tickets. A traditional 3pm kickoff with Sunderland the opposition. It was a short bus ride and walk from home which made it easy for Lou and I to get to.

A quick look in the club shop, and we both agreed that there was not enough space to wander around freely, unlike previous clubs, and there was no natural flow through the store. The tickets were located in the Riverside stand, one of the more picturesque locations for a stand. You walk in behind the stand which is right on the bank of the Thames. On a clear autumn day, it was really pretty. Food options were pretty good, and Lou said the bathrooms were classy with lilies displayed, so amenities received a pass mark.

Sitting down, the seats were top notch. Then a most surreal experience, blaring over the sound system was a song about Mohammed Al-Fayed (the club's owner) with some traditional Arabic music and words like "That's his name, Mohammed". Just bizarre.

To the game. Fulham were lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw as Keiron Richardson from Sunderland had a free kick hit both posts, and another free kick that scored but was ruled out for a foul by one of his players interfering with the wall. The Fulham left-back Paul Konchesky was impressive, a good solid performer.

The walk home along the bank of the Thames was a nice end to the day out.

That makes the grounds attended: Millwall, Charlton and Fulham. Remaining are: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Leyton Orient, Barnet, Brentford, Dagenham & Redbridge.

Trips to Tottenham and Arsenal are potentially in the pipeline, and Sarah may have a route to Chelsea so some of the harder tickets are lining up.

The hometown tourist

We are starting to really feel at home in London but that is not diminishing our desire to get out there and do some of those classic tourist things.


Summer in London gave us a(!) good sunny day, so we maximised the opportunity and headed off with the intention to see one of the things at the top of the list, the Changing of the Guards. Normally it is hard to see the Changing of the Horse Guards (down at Whitehall) and get to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace as they are only 1/2 an hour apart, and a wee bit of a walk, but Sunday allows a much more sensible 1 and 1/2 hour gap.


Horse Guards - Just down the road from 10 Downing St is the Horse Guards. Changing of the Horse Guards was a small affair, due to the Queen not staying in London, so it was a bit underwhelming. Some tourists were a bit cheeky, feeling the bearskin shakos of the guards and rubbing their backs. Probably not a wise move, given their weaponry.




Changing of the Guards - Lucky for us the short Horse Guard changing allowed us to get to Buckingham Palace with an hour to spare. We certainly needed that time to get a prime position, right on the pavement where the new and old guards marched past on their way to and from the 'changing'. Had we been much later, we would have lived up to the Lonely Planet saying - if you are lucky you will be able to see the Changing of the Guard behind 5 or 10 rows of people! I think next time we would try to get a place up against the railings so we could observe the actual changing inside the gates.


The soldiers that guard the Queen, while maintaining the traditional uniforms, do have a touch of modern warfare with their sub machine guns, as opposed to the Horse Guards with their sabres. We were quite impressed with the police, who really stepped up their tourist herding about 45 mins before the Changing, constantly admonishing those climbing the Queen Victoria monument for a better view, and reminding people to keep their eyes on their valuables, and all the time remaining calm about those trying to walk the wrong way.




During the Changing, the brass band played a range of classy musical arrangements, including some more modern pieces, all very entertaining. We were glad to have done it and experienced one of the quintessential tourist experiences.






Other bits and bobs from Londontown - The von D parents stopped into London for a few days at the end of their trip. We enjoyed a trip to Hampton Court (and we signed up to be members of the historic places trust which gets us unlimited entry into 5 royal palaces for the next year, we’ll definitely make the most of that).







We also went to the musical Wicked which was the best one we’ve seen so far. Not far behind was Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat! Lou took some time off work and joined her folks at St Paul’s cathedral, with the amazing whispering gallery (you climb a couple of hundred steps in the dome and can whisper against the wall – the acoustics are so good that the whisper can be heard clearly from the other side of the gallery), the Victoria and Albert museum, and the Transport museum. Lou also went on an evening Jack the Ripper themed walking tour.

Abu Dhabi

At short notice Dean headed off to Abu Dhabi for work at the end of October.

For a first offshore trip away it would be hard to beat. Coming from the low teens in Europe, to 30+ was exciting, but I didn't get to be outside too much, as spent much of time indoors and in cars - both heavily air-conditioned.

Culturally Abu Dhabi is a very interesting place to visit, with oil behind the economic transformation meaning cars are the major way of getting around. Traffic wasn't too bad in Abu Dhabi, but we were lucky to have a dedicated driver to get us around. Apparently a decree by the head of the royal family means that the traditional dress is required to be worn, which made for a very cosmopolitan scene (we were OK in suits though!).

As well as meetings in Abu Dhabi we had some meetings in Dubai, and we drove the 150kms to Dubai along a 6 lane highway, straight as an arrow. Both meetings were on the outskirts of Dubai, but the architecture of Dubai was a lot more extravagant than Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi was pretty conservative, a lot of standard boxy buildings that seemed to be capped around 10 storeys high. Dubai by comparison seemed to have no limit to the height of their buildings, and the designs of the new buildings seemed to be a competition amongst the architects to create the most exciting building.

Traffic in Dubai was much worse than Abu Dhabi, with an incredible amount of articulated trucks moving about. It is said that 80% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai, and on the way back, I felt that it probably wasn't far off! Also spotted on the way back was a herd? of camels moving along beside the motorway.

Photos are limited, as photos of key buildings are discouraged, and it is considered rude to take photos of people, so I left the photos alone. But I have some photos of the view from the hotel room and inside (a very busy hotel meant I could only get a suite, sweet!, a room was bigger then our flat, and included two bathrooms. Wow). I would recommend the hotel fully if on a business trip!



The view of my lounge in the hotel. Similar area behind me, and the bedroom was the same size as the lounge!



View from balcony. The view from the private hotel beach is all construction.

Ceremony of the Keys

Sarah, Lou and Dean had planned to go to the Ceremony of the Keys in October, and when Mum and Dad Yarrall decided to come to London, they wanted to tag along as well.

The gang all went off to the Tower of London on a reasonable October night. The Ceremony is the locking of the Tower of London gates for the night. It has been going for over 700 years, every night without fail.

Our guide for the night was one of the Yeomen Warders, a retired Sergent-at-Arms who lives with his family inside the Tower. He had some tales of German prisoners and life inside the Tower and talked us through the Ceremony before it began.

The Ceremony is only a few minutes long, and literally has a set of old keys locking the Tower, with plenty of 'Who Goes There?' and marching about.

Oddly enough when it came to leave we left by a hole in the locked gates!

Overall a good night, and Dean and Lou decided that they need to get to the Tower of London during the day.

To get tickets to the Ceremony, you have to apply about 1 month in advance for tickets (free), longer if you want to go in the summer months.

Weekends away with the Yarralls

Mum and Dad Yarrall were over in October and we went away with them and Sarah both weekends they were here.

First Weekend

We left London on Friday night and drove to Stratford-upon-Avon. Saturday morning was spent wandering round Shakespeare country (including Shakespeare's birthplace) and checking out the farmer's market.

Then off to Birmingham to see West Brom vs Fulham. Dad Yarrall is a shareholder so he was keen to see how his 'investment' was getting on.

Plenty of fun was had in the cold autumn weather, going to the club shop, getting a half time Bovril (vital in the cold), and enjoying the 1-0 win for the Baggies.

Post game, drove down to a motorway layover for the night. Went for a wonderful pub meal at the Gaydon Inn (near Warwick). If you are in the neighbourhood, check it out.

Sunday, drove to Northampton to catch up with Dad's flatmates from Scotland during his time in Glasgow in the 1970's. All their families were there so a big long lunch in a pub was held. Good to catch up with them all.

2nd Weekend

With everyone a little more tired, we decided to do a bit of a shorter trip. We travelled into Kent and toured round the countryside and the seaside. Canterbury was our base, so we visited the Cathedral, home of the Church of England, famous for the matyrdom of Thomas a Beckett.

Louise also convinced us to visit the Canterbury Tales musuem as she had studied the Chaucer text at university. A great all-imersive experience, with selected tales illustrated with moving characters, diaromas and authentic smells!

Down in the Valley

Next game on the London football tour was Charlton vs Sheffield Wednesday at the Valley in South East London - a Championship encounter (the old Division 2).

Set off from home with plenty of time in hand, and did I need it! Managed to get what must have been the only train from Waterloo that didn’t stop at my stop and ended up practically in Kent! It was so rural that a fox was trotting along next to the train. Some other footie goers made the same mistake, so we all headed sheepishly back to London for a second shot at it. Got talking to one of them, he was a season ticket holder who lived in the Isle of Wight, so he gets a ½ hour ferry to the mainland, then an hour long train into London. He’s planning to go to a game in London on Tuesday night so he thinks he will get home at 4am! Great dedication.

Off the train and it was a short walk back to the ground. Having recently been in the Premiership, Charlton has a relatively large supporter base. This makes the pre- and post-game atmosphere that much more busy and exciting. With over 20,000 people at the game it had a big game atmosphere. The club shop was well laid out with a wide range of Charlton gear, even a Charlton themed air-freshener. Food options looked pretty good as well, a little sparse in options – I only spotted burgers (vege and chicken options as well) and fries, but the burger I had was pretty nice.

The ground is 75% of the way to being totally encircled, and planning permission already exists for the remaining stand-alone grandstand to be demolished and the rest of the stands to be combined into an all-in-one stadium. An ambitious plan, and one that would require the club to return to the Premiership to pay for it.

Game wise, the players’ skill level was a step-up from the League 1 game I last saw. However, the combinations weren’t as good and there was a fair bit of long ball footy played. Charlton went 1-0 up, and then Sheffield Wednesday scored twice, in their only two chances of the game, in 3 minutes to lead 2-1 at half time. After the break not much action, but Charlton had all the possession without really threatening to score. End of the game saw boos ring out around the ground.

After the game the ground cleared, and I was surprised to see the two sets of fans mixing freely. A reasonable police presence with a fair number of horse mounted officers. Everyone wanted to catch the train back into London, and so 3 or 4 trains went past before I could get on one. At least the queue was a classical orderly English one, and the station was kept safe by restricting access to the platforms. A quick 30 minutes later and I was safely back home.

Unfortunately a lack of planning led to the camera battery failing on start-up – so no photos!

As a side note, since I saw Millwall win, they have won their last 4 games. I hope I won’t give Charlton the same consistency!

Millwall and Charlton down so the list remaining is Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Leyton Orient, Barnet, Brentford, Dagenham & Redbridge.