Category: europe 2018 trip

More London

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London again today, so here’s a bit of local history:

1850s London was bursting. The population had doubled between 1801-1850.
There was simply no more space to bury the bodies. And with cremation still taboo, the London Necropolis Railway was founded. The idea was to transport dead bodies and their accompanying mourners out to Surrey by rail for funerals and burials, so everyone in the party (but one) would have a return ticket back to London.

Wow.

The railway lasted for 87 years until 1941, running nearly every day, and at its peak it carried 2,000 bodies a year. In total 203,041 people were buried in Brookwood Cemetery during that time.

Given that our lodgings for this leg of the trip are also in Surrey, I was hopeful that this London Necropolis Railway terminus (mmm, I know) would be somewhere on the right side of the city for us to get to. And I was not disappointed:

Right next door (T&Cs apply) to Waterloo. I’ll hopefully be teaching the kids a bit of gory history later today.

London

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Google Trips tells me that I am spending the day in London today.

Yes, the train from Paris arrived here yesterday evening, but then it was all about the dash to get down to our hosts’ place after a day of travel.

Today, we get to explore.

Last time we were in The Big Smoke was just 10 months ago on a day trip down from Sheffield. [pics]

The light was awful that day. But perfect if you wanted to get a menacing shot of a Tower of London raven.

It’s also Tynwald Day in the Isle of Man. According to Google Trips, we’ll be popping over there on Saturday morning.

Popping in

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Well, hello.

I’ve been having the same problem logging into the back of the blog as I had last time we were over in Europe. That’s why I haven’t been in touch.

Plus we’ve been busy drinking wine.

Fortunately, the good news is that this was an intermittent problem, and this is one of those times that things are working, so I’m diving in.

The canal trip is going well. We’ve just moored up in Auxerre: the biggest place we’ve been to since we left Paris. It’s been a very leisurely trip down the canal, mooring up wherever we feel like overnight and stopping off for lunch or dinner on any appropriate bank.

The boat has been great, the people have been friendly, my French has been surprisingly good, the wine has flowed freely.

There’s a city to explore now, so please excuse me…

I’ll check in again when and if I can.

Thanks for reading.

Dangerously accurate tweet about dishwashers

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Spotted a while back, stored for blogging today, this tweet:

Lucy is entirely correct.

Obviously, I take the former role chez nous, which is important because masterful arrangement is key in the efficient use of water for dishwashing purposes. And we’re all about efficient use of water.

In scheduling this post, I’m relying on the fact that we’re on a boat some safe distance from decent wifi in the middle of the French countryside and thus Mrs 6000 will not see it. It’s not that she’d disagree with my part in the above relationship, but she may well take offence at the description of her tacited suggested position.

(Even though Lucy absolutely nailed it.)

[hides]

Dun fishin’

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The chances are that we will be doing some fishing when we get over to the Isle of Man. But although we are currently living and traveling on a canal/river (depending on how the journey North has been going) (pre-written post, see?), I’m not too keen to chuck a line over the side here.

Yeah. That talk of fishing was merely an excuse for an arty quota photo of a puffer fish which we found washed ashore on the beach at Suiderstrand. Its remarkable appearance, coupled with some early morning light and the addition of a subtle muted preset or two on Lightroom gave a striking, minimalist image.

Lots of dead stuff washes up on the beach in Agulhas. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I think it’s just a natural thing. Nothing lasts forever, and when it doesn’t last forever somewhere out at sea, it’s likely that it’s going to end up washed up onto a beach somewhere. When it is washed up on a beach near us, we find it, because we’re observant like that.

Examples of this at Suiderstrand include birds, seals, puffer fish (see above) and – importantly, not seagulls or turtles.