After all the drama of flying into North West England at the
peak of the floods (see previous), the rest of December was generally pretty
quiet for me.
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| Kendal Town Hall viewed from Allhallows Lane |
I more or less stayed in the old home town of Kendal for a
month. I grew up and went to school there
until I was 18, but now I know virtually nobody there anymore apart from my older
relatives. Pretty much all my old friends and contemporaries have moved away over the years, lured away by colleges or job
opportunities.
It’s a little strange, to be honest, I know the streets and
buildings so well, and the whole place has large amounts of personal history for
me, but I am essentially a stranger here now in many respects.
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| Lower Fellside, Kendal |
I did manage to track down a couple of old friends whilst in Kendal, however, who had been away and come back. I got to chew the fat and catch up with the news about people from school that I’d lost touch with for thirty years or so, which was great!
I had a fairly quiet Christmas and New Year period with the family. The furthest I traveled was a couple of trips into the Lake District.
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| The Bridge House in Ambelside - I did managed to make a couple of trips into the Lake District during December. |
January was a complete
contrast to Deceber, as I started some of my English/European traveling in earnest.
First on the list was a trip down to the South Coast to see
my brother and his family in the Brighton/Lewes area. The South of England has a different feel and
culture to the North, for such a small place England manages to have a host of
accents, dialects, geography, and cultures.
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| The narrow streets of Lewes |
It was great to see my young nephew. He’s currently losing his baby teeth and
getting his adult ones
.
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| My nephew |
I also managed to Squeeze in a day trip to London. I visited the National Portrait Gallery (mind-blowing!), The National Gallery and the Tate Modern. As well as a couple of super old pubs on Fleet Street.
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| Approaching St Paul's Cathedral on Millennium Bridge |
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| Looking down the Thames from Millennium Bridge |
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| Selfie with Van Gogh's Sunflowers behind me |
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| The National Gallery |
My second journey was to Leeds, a city I lived in (or
thereabouts) for about twenty years. I
met up with friends for a curry and then drinks in the pub. You don’t really get snow in Florida, so I
always hope for a little when I visit colder climes. Amazingly it snowed that very night, making the
meet-up all a little extra magical.
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| A snowy Chemic pub in Leeds |
Towards the end of January I flew to Hamburg, Germany for a
few days. I was getting a bit blasé about
traveling by this point so didn’t do a lot of preparation. Consequently I arrived in the evening with
just a crap map that I’d printed off the internet and it took me some time to
find the right train and then walk to my friends from the station.
Hamburg was excellent.
My favourite part was the evening spent in the Reeperbahn district with
an old German friend, seeing some of the old Beatles haunts, the famous redlight
area, and the lively dive bars that never sleep. Hamburg has definitely joined my (long and
growing) list of favourite cities.
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| The Reeperbahn in Hamburg |
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| Outside the /Star Club, and old Beatles hangout |
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| Birds skating on the ice in central Hamburg |
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| Docks area of the Elbe River |
It was a great month with some unforgettable traveling but
by the end I felt a little worn out and a rest was in order. If anything, I knew that February was likely
to be just as busy, if not more so!
So I laid low at my parents’ house for ten days or so.
I had Liverpool, Chester, Cornwall, London, Lewes, and at least one trip into the Lake District on the schedule for February.
I had Liverpool, Chester, Cornwall, London, Lewes, and at least one trip into the Lake District on the schedule for February.
