Postscript

I've come across in my souvenirs old youth hostel stamp books which was how hostelers kept track of where they had visited. Some of the stamps are quite artistic. Some of mine had dates which allowed me to refine the dates in this blog. Roughly speaking, everything happened 1 to 2 weeks later than I thought. It doesn't change the sequence of events or posts, the order of the slides doesn't lie, but it indicates that the trip wasn't as rushed as the sporadic photos seemed to indicate.

There are two books, one which was started in an earlier trip to NZ, and one given to me by a Scottish youth hostel when space on the first ran out.

Another constraint on dates is that my Eurailpass would have lasted 3 months so I would have had to arrive in Amsterdam no later than 3 months after leaving Athens.

Here are the pages I have scanned in from my books:

A life changing trip

I took this picture of the boarding gate for the Concorde service at Heathrow, another thing that has passed into history.

Life changing is an overused term, but this trip merited it. It was my first experience travelling for that long and still the longest I have been on the road. I marvel at my youthful audacity for embarking on such a prolonged trip. I had seen wonderful sights and met so many kind people.

This is not the plane I boarded, it was a Thai Airways flight as I recall.

It's difficult to reimagine the person I was; this retrospective commentary cannot recapture the way I thought and felt then. But I haven't lost that sense of curiosity about the world and its people.

My horizons were expanded. I decided that I enjoyed travel and would do more. In the years to come I would appreciate the truth of this quote: The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

London 5

I wish I remember how I felt in those last few days before the return flight. Was I wistful for home? Did I regret that my long vacation was coming to an end? I probably didn't worry about a job because I had been promised an interview with the same company that had given me the business contact who took me on a day trip to Lulworth Cove. All that is lost after 30+ years because I didn't keep a travel diary.

This is The Serpentine in Hyde Park.

The Orangery is in Kew Gardens. In 1875 Henry Wickham smuggled rubber tree seeds out of Brazil. They were germinated in Kew Gardens and sent to Britain's Asian colonies. Rubber contributed significantly to the development and wealth of Malaya. I reflected that I would not exist and be visiting the former colonial master country were it not for this history.

The most likely reason that I allocated a disproportionate amount of time to UK compared to continental Europe was simply one of familiarity with Anglo culture. I only had a smattering of other European languages at that time, and I knew more about British history than those of the other European nations.

A pleasant walk in the gardens with autumn around the corner.

Some feathered residents of the park.

A built up area for a change. I probably did have a wander inside Harrods but of course the prices would have been too high for me.

I think this might be Covent Garden Markets. It seems that it's changed a lot, making it problematic to match to current images.

Did I attend one last concert or play in the vicinity? Possibly.

Bath

I took a day trip to Bath, which is about a couple of hours west of London by train. The city, which the Romans named Aquae Sulis, takes its present day name from the Roman baths that were built there. This is the only picture I took there, of Bath Abbey.

I don't remember much of my day trip, unfortunately.

Cambridge

Colleagues of mine from Sydney who were in London during my visit suggested visiting an old classmate who was doing his post-graduate research in Cambridge. So we went there for a day trip. He gave us a tour of the buildings. This is St. John's College.

And this is Trinity College.

I don't remember much of the visit. One incident that stands out is that as we passed an appeal box, our colleague told us not to bother as Cambridge was well-endowed already.

London 4

Continuing my round up of the remaining sights in London, I paid a visit to Greenwich where there is an observatory and the prime meridian. (Trivia notes from the future: People like to jump back and forth across the meridian but more accurate measurements have located the 0° longitude somewhat to the east of the metal strip. So all the old maps of Britain are just that little bit off. The French refused to acknowledge GMT for many years, instead calling it Paris Time diminished by 9 minutes and 21 seconds. GMT has been replaced by UTC which is neither an English nor a French acronym, offending both nations equally.)

I guess I didn't find the observatory photogenic so instead I took a picture of Cutty Sark, the famous clipper.

The Tower of London. It's not a familiar view because I took it from across a busy road. I didn't visit; I'm not into gloomy fortresses.

Probably a bank of the Thames. The long shadows and joggers suggest an early morning visit.

The Tower Bridge of course.

I can't make out which Tube station this is. A friend thinks it's Bank. I probably just wanted a picture of a station so it doesn't matter. A Tube aficionado would probably identify it in a heartbeat.

London 3

I spent a few more days in London before the return flight so I'll break the rest of the photos across a few posts.

Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. Many of the listeners were visitors like me there to observe this quaint British tradition.

Marble Arch, just a stone's throw away from Speakers' Corner.

Portobello Road Markets. Incidentally my guess to the date of the photo is either spot on or a week off since the antiques and clothing market is on Saturdays.

Another scene from the markets.