Month: December 2023

We have completed our own Brexit and we are now in Spain. The airport was crazy busy once we got past security (that wasn’t too bad). Terminal 5 seems to have a real lack of decent food places but did manage to get some late breakfast

The Plane was nuts with people trying to squeeze a ton of luggage into the overhead lockers. Managed to get an iced coffee onboard !

The entry to Madrid was super efficient and quick. No queues at immigration or customs, rocked up to the taxi desk (another well organised thing) and we got a large taxi to take all our luggage and us over to the apartment.

The apartment manager was there to show us all around, the apartment is in the fantastic old building on the plaza, right near the metro and central to everything. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant just nearby and the food was amazing

Went back to Borough Market mid morning. It’s always been busy, but man, this was next level insane. Sharon had lunch there, I had to get out early it was way too crowded for me. As always lots of amazing produce on offer.

We are at Ralph’s Ka-Ching! Coffee house! Emma was super keen on checking this place out, the coffee is better than I expected, but at $32 for 3 coffees it should be… (they even have a pretentious door man who tells you where to stand when waiting etc. I was expecting someone to shout “NO COFFEE for YOU! and kick me out). everyone here seems to be gramming themselves rather than enjoying the coffee, so when in Rome so to speak…

Sharon and Emma had two west end shows booked for Wednesday, I wasn’t keen on more musicals so I thought I’d take myself down to the science museum to see the history of console gaming and then down to Battersea to do the “lift 109” to the top of the chimney for the view over London.

We started with coffee at my local favourite, which was excellent. Headed off to the museum and got there a little early. It was bone chillingly cold, so found a local cafe and warmed up with a hot chocolate. The museum was packed, it’s like London has doubled in population since we were last here (as well as in prices). The gaming display was actually a bit crap, so I left that early and just explored the museum which had an excellent display on how household objects work and I spent some time in the flight section of the museum.

The view from Lift 109 at night down at Battersea was excellent, although you need to go through 30 minutes of a rather bad video display etc before you actually go in the lift. If you want a great view over London, the “Shard” is miles better, although more expensive.

I’ve wanted to visit Kew Gardens for some time, and this trip the opportunity arose by booking to see the Christmas Light show.

We booed at 5pm, which given its dark atmosphere 4pm was plenty dark enough to see the lights. The lights are great, a little more subdued compared to what we are used to with Sydney’s Vivid light show and the Christmas lights at the Hunter valley gardens.

Also tried Mulled Wine, which is best described as drinking a Christmas Mince Pie. At least it was warm, but otherwise it’s actually pretty horrible.

Maybe it’s an acquired taste you need to grow up with, but I’ll pass on it next time.

When you buy a ticket, you can choose the “Victoria Gate” or “Elizabeth Gate” entry. If you can, choose the Victoria gate. It’s closer to the tube station. That gate was sold out and we had to use the Elizabeth gate, and to get to that we had to take a bus.