First post-pandemic travel: London 2022

A gap in my travel experience resume

There is a gap of almost three years between the London trip of this post and my last travel experience, to present my PhD research at a conference at Southern Utah University in June 2019. Of course I had no idea when I travelled to Utah that a global pandemic was coming. How could anyone have conceived of such a thing?

I've called my month-long stint in London in 2022 "post-pandemic", but I'm not sure whether 2022 could be considered "post". Travel outside of my home city and state in Australia had been prohibited since early 2020 and the federal government had only opened Australia's borders a few months earlier. Australia had locked down its borders for a long while and as a whole, the country tried its best to stave off the worst of the pandemic.

I flew to London at the end of April 2022 when we were still wearing masks in closed public spaces, social distancing, and isolating if infected with the virus. I was, however, free to travel to the UK for the month-long stay and wasn't required to take a COVID test as I was fully vaccinated. I remember that I had to show my international vaccination certificate when I checked in for my flight in Brisbane and when I checked in to return home. All passengers were being checked by airline representatives to ensure they had taken the necessary measures and had the right documentation for their destination. That said, I was never asked for proof of vaccination when entering the UK nor during the course of my stay.

This was my seventh trip to London! My reflections on what the trip meant to me can be found at the end of this post. You can also check out my posts on my previous London wanderings in 1996, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

A little bit of background

The trip to London in April-May 2022 was part of my work in a new role I had taken on the previous year. If you've read about my travel experiences on my blog, you'll know that I've travelled internationally for work quite a bit, although mostly for short stints to present at conferences, and one two-week trip to film footage for an online course I was leading at the University of Queensland in 2015.

By 2021 I had left academia and was working for an international travel assistance company in a newly-formed role as their Global Education Manager. When I say travel assistance, I mean in emergency situations when travellers call the help number listed in their travel insurance policy. The organisation I worked for was owned by a large insurance firm and it provided travel assistance to a number of other insurers and organisations.

The company had a command centre in Brisbane, where I was based, and one in Toronto. Plans were underway to set up a new centre of operations in London. I was sent to London to train the first medical and logistical case managers to get the ball rolling. So, this was my first trip in a corporate job and my first experience of training new staff in travel assistance. At the time I only had a Trainer in Toronto, so this OG training in London was down to me. Gawd! (I say this because I was supposed to be the manager of training, not a facilitator...)

The training was being conducted at a time when the business was expanding and shifting to a new system for case management. Everything was somewhat chaotic as there was an expectation that we'd have more time to prepare while travel was banned during the pandemic. The Australian government unexpectedly opened its international borders in December 2021 and things just escalated from there. Looking back at my time in the role now, it all feels a bit surreal. I was probably never the right fit for the role or the company culture, but it certainly was an incredible experience and one that I will never forget.

This post is the first in a series of a four on my travel experiences in my role as the head of training for a global travel assistance company. The next one in the series documents my trip to Toronto in August 2022. There are two more posts on subsequent London trips in 2022 and 2023.

My journey to London

The trip to London was a landmark moment not only for reasons outlined above, but also because I flew business class internationally for the first time. At the time, company travel was all business class. Cool! I was booked on a Qatar Airways flight leaving Brisbane at 10.30pm on April 30, with a short stop in Qatar, arriving at Heathrow around 3pm the next day.

I have to admit that business class is probably a bit wasted on me as a non-drinker who doesn't eat much while flying. The cost to fly business class from Australia to the UK or Europe is astronomical and I'm not sure it's worth it. I did love the leg room (as a tall person) and the chance to lie down to sleep during the overnight first (and long) part of the journey. Also, it was rather lovely being served a delicious meal on the second leg on a white tablecloth with fancy crockery and a candle 😆. (Besides the nice meal, the warmed up bread, fresh fruit with rosewater syrup and the snack nuts were delicious.)

I was super impressed with Qatar Airways and joined their membership program after that first flight, gaining gold status for a bit. At the time of writing this post in 2025, I have flown with Qatar five times. Even without the benefit of fancy business class, I think the airline does a nice job of making the excruciating journey from the bottom of the world at least partly bearable. The airport in Doha is also super cool.

My home for four weeks

I arrived in London on Sunday May 1 but there wasn't much left of the day. I spent what was left making my way to the hotel where I'd be staying for the next month. There was no fancy command centre back then, just a space for case managers and sales people to use within the office of the parent company in Uxbridge, almost 30km from the centre of the city.

Here's a map to give you an idea of things. Uxbridge is in the far left corner of the map and about as far west as you can get and still be in London. It's an hour's journey by car and around 85 minutes on the Tube to central London (indicated by Trafalgar Square on the below map).

I stayed in the Staycity Aparthotel in Hayes, on the old Heathrow Connect line. Hayes is literally only a few minutes from the airport on the Tube, passing through the airport terminals and Hatton Cross station. I'd previously stayed in one of the Staycity aparthotels - part apartment, part hotel - in Dublin and found it pretty good for the price. Accommodation options near the office are limited and I wanted somewhere with kitchen and laundry facilities.

That's my hotel, in the photos below. It's right next to Hayes and Harlington station so nicely convenient for taking the bus or the Tube into Central London as well as the airport. There is a Tesco Express next door and a massive Asda a five-minute walk away. I ate in my room most nights and usually took brown bag lunches to work. That's how I roll 😉.

Hayes is definitely not the most salubrious part of London, but I was happy there for the month, even though it was a 45-minute bus ride to the office. I usually took Ubers fin the morning and the bus back in the evening. I initially felt super nervous on the bus not knowing the area, but I soon got used to it and felt like a resident by the time I left. One time the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere and we were all told to get off, with no explanation. I panicked for a moment then just waited to see what would happen. I even helped a young woman who didn't know what to do! Eventually another bus turned up and I got back to my hotel safely.

Weekends were great, being so close to the Tube. It is about 15 minutes to Paddington station from Hayes and Harlington. I felt like I was living in London for that month, and I guess I was to a degree. Staying in an apartment, buying groceries, and taking the bus made feel at home in London and eased the challenge of being away for an extended period. Trust me, working away from home and living in a hotel is not as glamorous as you might think!

Bonus May bank holiday

I'd arrived in London the day before the May Day holiday, and I was glad of the rest day to acclimatise before work began. I was up early after a good night's sleep to take the train (well, several, actually) down to Southbourne to visit my friend, KP. We flatted and worked together in New Zealand in 1988-1989 and had been friends for over 30 years. I'd last seen KP in 2015, when I travelled to London for an academic project.

It's about a two and a half hour journey down to Southbourne, on the train that runs to Brighton. I was super proud of myself for making the journey, especially since I'd come off a long international flight the previous day.

This map shows where Southbourne is from London.

Below are two shots of KP's house. How cute is it? I'd not been before as I'd stayed with KP in her London home in Limehouse when I'd been over on previous trips. I know that's a terrible shot of both us in the below set, but I've included it anyway, just to remember my visit.

Thirty-four years is a long time to be friends, but most of that time has been spent in different countries. As if no time at all had passed, we had a lovely catch up, spending most of the day exploring the beautiful landscapes near KP's home and having lunch in a local pub. The lush green grass was stunning! I recall that I had to borrow a coat from KP even though I had one of my own. It was COLD and not what I was expecting in spring.

My first week in London

Training didn't officially start until the following Monday which gave me between Tuesday and Friday to prepare. I also used the time to connect with my Toronto Trainer, AA, to take advantage of the five hour time difference rather than the usual fourteen.

On Tuesday I took the bus to the office in Uxbridge so I could test out the journey. Even though my hotel was next to a Tube station, the line from there didn't go out to Uxbridge. This was inconvenient but I still preferred to stay in an apartment-style hotel as the accommodation used by visiting team members in Uxbridge was just a basic hotel room.

Anyway, it was a good idea to check out the office and the training space and meet my London colleagues. I was anxious about the training so I very much appreciated not having to jump straight into it. There were some initial tech teething problems (that stressed me out no end) so getting to the office prior to the training starting gave me the chance to try to address those.

Below are some shots of Uxbridge town centre. The shot in the top right hand corner is of the park near the office. Uxbridge is at the end of the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines to the far west of London. The town is not the best part of London by any stretch, but it grew on me (as I was to return twice more for work) and I came to associate it with my stint in the global training role. It's a bit dodgy in front of the Tesco's where I used to wait for the bus, but no one took much notice of me (one of the benefits of being a middle-aged woman!).

I've included below some shots of the office space. The main photo shows the lovely view of the park next to the building from the training room that I used. That room became my home and my haven during the training period. The top shot in the right hand strip shows the exterior of the building. Parkview, the building that housed the offices of the parent company, sits on a busy road on the edge of Uxbridge, about a five-minute walk from the High Street.

I've included a shot of my first training day Pret-a-Manger lunch in the above collection. What's a trip to London without a Pret lunch?!

After my morning visit to the office I walked up into Uxbridge to take the Tube to Paddington to meet my medical case manager trainee. She had already started with the company so we'd arranged to meet for an introductory chat at Lancaster Gate. That's my posh lunch in the below collection, and some beautiful London shots that I took as I walked from the restaurant back to the Tube. It's very pretty in the Paddington-Bayswater area. I even spotted some mews!

My global role that spanned three time zones meant I worked long hours outside of the 9-5 pattern. I was in London for the training but I still had to do the rest of my job. That included recruiting a new Trainer in Brisbane after my first one had resigned. I had a small desk in my room at Staycity so it worked out well for me to work from my room for the rest of that first week.

I rearranged my work day on Thursday to spend a few hours with my friend, AD, who came down on the train from Rochester to meet me at Paddington station. When we'd last met during our 25th wedding anniversary trip in 2018, I was still working in academia. It felt strange somehow to be meeting AD in the new corporate role as we'd only ever known each other and met up in London when I was doing academic work.

It was a cool but sunny day and it was lovely to be outside and taking a break from work, walking with AD from Paddington Station to Oxford Street. I even got a shot in of a typical London door! We had lunch at Selfridges and I bought a few things (above collage) before heading back to the hotel to continue working.

My first weekend in London: Walthamstow Saturday

I was looking forward to my first full weekend in London as it gave me the opportunity to wander around the central part of the city on Saturday morning. London is so familiar to me now, this being my seventh trip to the city. I'm an old hand at the Tube, having been so daunted by it all when we first experienced London way back in 1996. I must look like a local now as people stopped me and asked for assistance! Staying where I was in Hayes meant a 15-minute trip into Paddington where I could take other lines to pretty much anywhere. I usually took the Bakerloo line to Baker Street and went from there.

I first went to my old favourite shop, Sports Direct, on Saturday morning, and found a lovely warm jumper on sale for £10. It was cool again but at least there was some blue sky. Here are some shots from around Oxford Circus that I took that morning.

Later in the morning I took the Tube out to Walthamstow (on the Victoria line from Oxford Circus), to meet my friend, AC. The last time I'd seen her was in 2019 in Australia when she was over visiting family. Prior to that we'd met up at Piccadilly Circus when I was in London in 2018. [No photos of this meet-up, sadly.] This was my first chance to see where AC lives so I was excited to go out to Walthamstow although on the opposite side of London to where I was staying. Ours is another longstanding and special friendship, having spanned 32 years since first meeting at university in Queensland when we were 19 years of age.

Along with having a lovely catch up, I also had the opportunity to wander around Walthamstow, a civil parish in East London that includes the Walthamstow Marshes, the the River Lea and the longest outdoor market in Europe. It's an eclectic and part of London, with people from all over the world living there, with the added bonus of pretty green spaces.

AC and I met at the Tube station then ambled through the market before having lunch (see below). Then we walked around the marshes and stopped for an ice cream. Bliss! You can see AC's house and the street it sits on in the below collage.

My first weekend in London: Sunday in Greenwich

The Sunday of that first weekend was beautifully pleasant and sunny. I took the Tube to North Greenwich station in the morning. That meant taking the Bakerloo line to Baker Street from Paddington and the Jubilee line to North Greenwich. I went there to meet my friend, HB, as we thought we might have a wander around Greenwich. HB and I first became friends at the conference in Helsinki that I presented at on 2013, but we hadn't seen each other since we met up in Nottingham the following year when I was conferencing again. In the interim, HB had gotten married, had two children, and relocated to London.

We thought we might do the 02 (Millennium Dome) climb so we went over to the ticket office as it's close to the North Greenwich Tube. There were no tickets available until the afternoon, but neither of us minded as it was a spur of the moment idea.

Below is a shot of me in front of the Dome before we headed off. The photos I took on that morning have me located at Canary Wharf some twenty minutes after we left North Greenwich station. Did we make a detour there? We must have, as I know Canary Wharf is only a couple of minutes on the Tube from North Greenwich station. I actually can't remember and my trip notes are surprisingly devoid of mention of Canary Wharf. I do love the cool shot I took there, though.

I do remember we took the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Greenwich station and walked through the pretty town to Greenwich Park. It's a super posh and expensive part of London, and there are absolutely stunning homes and lots of leafy green spaces. Greenwich is actually within the ceremonial county of Greater London, only around 9km east-south-east of Charing Cross, considered to be the geographical centre of London. Greenwich has a long history, dating back to the Bronze Age. Of course the place is most famous for its maritime history and putting its name to 0⁰ longitude (the Greenwich Meridian) and Greenwich Mean Time. I'd been before, in 2014, when my friend, AD and I explored the Cutty Sark. You can read about all that here.

I remember our wanderings around Greenwich Park because it was such a lovely day. The one thing I adore about London is when it's a nice day, so many people are out, enjoying the sunshine and warmth. It feels like a celebration of the weather - something we take for granted where I live as it's consistently warm and sunny. It's easy to get caught up in the celebration in London on a nice day. The sense of rejoicing when the weather is good is a lovely reminder to appreciate the seemingly small things in life.

We did loads of walking that day and I remember HB messaging me that evening about her sore feet 😜. It was so nice to catch up and we got stuck into lots of interesting topics as we wandered around. We made a pit stop at Bill's restaurant in the Greenwich high street. I know it's a chain (and it was packed with people that Sunday) but I had a delicious vegetarian bowl for lunch. The presentation of the dish was so pretty.

Spending my free time on weekends with friends was such a nice way to decompress, get outside, and generally cope with the rigours of the training. I would have been happy to wander around London on my own - as I have done my times before - but I am grateful for the friends I have in London and the opportunities that work travel has given me to catch up with them. My friends and my experiences with them in London have made me feel even more connected to the city.

Some work stuff

Being part of the OG team for the new London command centre for the travel assistance company I worked for was exciting and a privilege but it didn't come without its stresses and dramas. The below shots show my smiling face, but those training weeks were tough. I know I only had two trainees, but without the proper set up (especially from a technical/software standpoint), training was disjointed and interrupted. I'd also been in the job just on a year and my role was to oversee training, not deliver it. I was super anxious about running the training, desperate to do a good job and provide a positive introduction to the company for the two new trainees.

All that said, I learnt about the operations of the company from the training and I'll always feel proud of what I achieved under the circumstances. I'm no longer in the role or with that company, but I have made lasting connections with three of the people in the below photos. That week I also had the chance to have lunch with the wider team (sales and security) at a pub in Uxbridge that dates back to 1544. Cool!

The second weekend: Saturday wanderings around posh places

OK, so that's enough about the work side of things! The rest of this post is details how I spent my remaining weekends in London before returning to Australia. This being my seventh visit I had done a lot of the touristy things before. This time I felt drawn to just wandering around different areas and taking in the green spaces, the history that seeps out of the place, and the stunning architecture.

It was mid-May in London and I was fortunate to have another warm, sunny day on the Saturday of the second full weekend I was in the city. I was on my own on that Saturday, so I took the Tube from Hayes and Harlington via Paddington to Belsize Park in North London, about a 20 minute journey on three different lines. I got to know Paddington well over the time I was there and I loved turning up at the station, grabbing a chai latte and a cookie at the Starbucks, and wandering through the pretty streets.

Paddington is a lovely part of London, but Belsize Park and Hampstead are next level. Belsize Park is a residential area in Hampstead, in the London borough of Camden. The houses are Georgian and Victorian villas and mews and it's absolutely beautiful, especially on a nice day. I wandered around for ages, taking lots of photos. I had a nice burger lunch from a place in the high street.

Belsize Park is very posh and the Internet tells me that loads of notable people live there, including Helena Bonham-Cater, Martin Freeman, Tom Hiddleston, and Jude Law. They are probably the only people who could afford it! I also found out that Karl Marx and Agatha Christie once lived there.

A short walk away is Hampstead Heath. I'd planned to go to the Heath when we were in London over Easter 2018, but the weather was a bit rubbish so we didn't bother. I took advantage of the lovely day this time to tick it off my bucket list.

Hampstead Heath spans 320 hectares, running between Hampstead and Highgate. It's one of the highest natural points in London (at 134 metres). The heath is ancient, with archaeological discoveries in the area dating back to 7000 BC. Documentary evidence places the land in the hands of the Abbot of Westminster by Ethelred the Unready in 986. The estate once belonged to the Wilson family but the area known today as Hampstead Heath became a public space in 1899.

Again, I enjoyed the celebration of the sun that seems to always happen on a nice day in England. I walked around the whole perimeter of the Heath, bought an ice cream, and then lay down under a tree for a rest. It was even warm enough - and the one and only time this happened during me stay - for me to remove my jumper, as the below photo shows. Bliss.

After my ice cream I walked around Hampstead, enjoying the leafy suburb and beautiful homes. Hampstead is another posh part of London, known for its intellectual, artistic and literary associations. It lies in the borough of Camden, bordered by Highgate, Golders Green, Belsize Park, and Hampstead Heath.

I then walked the 2km from Hampstead Heath to Primrose Hill, another London bucket list item ticked off! (Again, the showery weather during our 2018 trip prevented me from getting here.) Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park north of Regent's Park that was first opened to the public in 1842. It was so named for the 64 metre hill in the middle of the park, another one of the highest natural points in London. Primrose Hill affords fabulous views of the London skyline with green spaces in the foreground.

It was crowded when I visited and quite hard to take photos at the famous bench that features in lots of TV shows and films. You'll know the one I mean, I'm sure. It's where scenes are often filmed when the characters want to have a conversation in a nice location, with a view of the city. I must have given up as I don't have any photos of the bench, just these gorgeous ones of the views.

It was another day of lots of walking, but I felt invigorated to be outside in the sunshine after a busy week of training. I walked another 1km to Chalk Farm station then took the Tube back to Hayes and Harlington, a 45-minute journey on the Northern, Victoria and Bakerloo lines to Paddington. What a lovely day out in the sun and in beautiful parts of London😊.

The second weekend: Showery Sunday in Chelsea and Battersea

Sadly, the nice weather didn't last, and it was cool and showery on Sunday. I met up with my friend, AD, again, this time at Sloane Square station (a short distance from Paddington on the Circle line) so we could wander around Chelsea. This was the trip for exploring posh suburbs!

Chelsea is a super affluent area in West London on the north bank of the Thames River. It is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and once was associated with the Sloane Rangers, a term coined in the 1970s to describe its wealthy residents. The first record of the area dates back to 787 (Chelsea Manor) and it has been a place of affluence since the 1600s. Chelsea was once a bohemian quarter but is now mostly home to investment bankers and film stars, again probably the only people who can afford to live there.

Despite the dreadful weather, AD and I had a lovely poke around Chelsea. Here's a selection of my photos of the fancy houses. Honestly, though, I found it a bit vanilla. I'm not sure that I would want to live there, even if I was wealthy enough to.

I do have something that I took away from my wanderings, a lovely bag I bought at the John Lewis store in the high street. AD and I had a pretty ordinary lunch in the John Lewis café but made up for it with some delicious artisan ice cream later in the afternoon.

As noted above, Chelsea sits on the north bank of the Thames. Battling the showers, we walked across the river, over Albert Bridge, to wander around Battersea Park. You can see from my photos below that crossing Albert Bridge meant we had a nice view of Battersea Bridge, a five-span arch road bridge made of cast iron and granite that crosses the Thames on a sharp bend in the river. The flimsily-constructed Old Battersea Bridge - the last surviving wooden bridge on the Thames - was in place from 1771 to 1885 and the current bridge opened in 1890. The old bridge features heavily in art, including a notable series of paintings by James McNeill Whistler.

Albert Bridge has an interesting history, too. It is a road bridge only 650 metres from Battersea Bridge. It was built in 1874 as an Ordish-Lefeuvre cable-stayed bridge that was later modified (due to instability) as a suspension-beam bridge. Along with Tower Bridge, Albert Bridge has the honour of being the only Thames road bridge in Central London never to have been replaced! The sign I spotted (bottom lefthand shot below) advises troops that they must break step when marching over the bridge. Cool!

I'm a bit of a bridge nerd, and if you're interested, check out my post from our 2018 trip where we spent the day walking the Thames and exploring the bridges between Tower Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge.

Another London park crossed off my list! My wanderings were limited due to the weather, but AD and I still had a bit of a jaunt around Battersea Park. The park covers 83 hectares in Battersea, situated on the south bank of the Thames in the borough of Wandsworth. It's a Grade II listed park that occupies reclaimed marshlands from the Thames and land once used for market gardens. It was also once a spot for duelling, including a battle between the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea in 1829. Awesome.

The final weekend: London Transport Museum and other Saturday city wanderings

There was a welcomed return to lovely weather for my final weekend in London. On Saturday, I went to the London Transport Museum in the morning, before meeting HB again for lunch. I took the Tube to Covent Garden from Paddington via Piccadilly Circus and walked down to Trafalgar Square first. The sun was out while I pottered around there. I love the below shot of Trafalgar Square that I took, with the reflection of the National Gallery building in the fountain.

I arrived in Covent Garden before the London Transport Museum opened so I had a wander around and a chai latte and chocolate chip cookie at the coffee shop you can see in the below photo.

I'm fascinated by the Tube system in London and I'd been keen to visit the Transport Museum for some time. Entry is by way of an unlimited annual pass, costing £24.50 at the time of writing this post. An annual pass (if you don't already have one) and timed ticket is required to enter the museum. Kids are free! It's easy to get to the museum as the Covent Garden Tube station is only a 2-minute walk away.

I loved the museum! I always enjoy museums that tell a story and there's 200 years of London's transport history to explore in the museum. It's a great place for kids, too. I had to wait my turn on the interactive exhibits and different modes of transport on display for climbing on while families explored them😉. I enjoyed immersing myself in the exhibitions and reading about the history of the Underground, especially during WW2 when London residents took shelter in the stations during air raids. I also found the exhibition of the London Transport's Caribbean workforce fascinating and something I knew little about.

I could have gone mad in the museum gift shop. There were so many cool things to buy! I settled for the below cards that sit on a shelf in my home office and the glasses case that I still use.

I had no idea if/when I'd be back in London again, so I relished the chance to soak in some of my favourite parts of Central London before I flew home the following weekend. I had some time before I met HB and the sun was (mostly) out so I took the chance to have a final wander around. Big Ben was covered in scaffolding while it was being cleaned when I was last in London (2018) so it was nice to see it all shiny again. How good does it look?

Another part of Central London that I love is the area around the Victoria Embankment Gardens, on the north bank of the Thames. I walked along Victoria Embankment, between Waterloo Bridge and the Hungerford and Golden Jubilee Bridges. It's a beautiful leafy walk and especially nice on a warm, sunny day. That's Brettenham House you can see in the bottom left hand shot that sits adjacent to the north bank side of Waterloo Bridge.

Here are some fab shots of cloud action over the Thames. You can see Waterloo Bridge in the bottom left hand shot and the Hungerford and Jubilee Bridges in the other two photos, with the London Eye in the background. The Thames may not be the prettiest of rivers, but it looked rather sparkly that day.

Below are the last shots I took before meeting HB at Charing Cross station. The station was first opened in 1864 and takes its name from the nearby road junction of Charing Cross. This bit of real estate is considered to be the notional centre point of London from which distances from the city are measured. Charing Cross station is in the City of Westminster, on the western end of The Strand, east of Trafalgar Square. It sits near the Embankment Pier. The railway leads directly onto the Hungerford Bridge across the Thames to Lambeth. The other photo below is of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, a church I have visited numerous times, largely for its awesome café in the crypt. The church was built in 1721 and sits just off Trafalgar Square.

HB and I went to a Thai place near the station for lunch while we decided what to do with our afternoon. We ended up taking a taxi to the edge of Brick Lane, a famous street in London's East End in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Brick Lane crosses Bethnal Green Road, reaching Spitalfields to the end and Whitechapel to the south. The Spitalfields-Whitechapel-Bethnal Green area has a long and fascinating history, with Bethnal Green once used as grazing land in the 13th century. Bethnal Green was heavily bombed during WW2 and in March 1943, sadly 170 people died in the rush to get to the underground to take shelter. Today, the area is the heart of England's Bangladeshi community (HB's heritage) and there are several mosques and synagogues in both Spitalfields and Bethnal Green.

I trailed around behind HB as she looked in some shops selling traditional clothing along one of the main streets near Brick Lane, taking in my surroundings in a part of London that is less familiar to me. I had been to Spitalfields during my 2011 visit to London but we'd explored the Spitalfields Markets and only a little bit of Brick Lane. It was nice to return and take it all in again. I didn't take any photos - not sure why - but this one looks like where we went. I recall HB bought some churros, so this might be where we were that afternoon🤔.

Source: Googling stuff until I found a photo that I think is where we went...

Later we headed west towards Liverpool Street station, stopping for a snack and a wander along Brick Lane itself. Here we are, not on that day, but when we caught up earlier in my visit at Greenwich.

The final weekend: Sunday Whitstable wanderings

Sunday was my last full day of free time in London. The weather gods were smiling on me and it was a magnificent day. I took the Tube to King's Cross from Paddington, taking the District line to Edgware Road and then the Hammersmith and City line to King's Cross. I bought a regional train ticket for Whitstable, meeting my friend AD there for our third meet-up during my month-long stay.

You can see on the below map where I travelled, around 90 minutes east of London to the Kent coast. I've also marked Southbourne on the map, where I took the train at the start of my trip. It's so easy to get around in the UK by train, partly because the distances are much shorter than in Australia and because the rail service is so convenient and inexpensive.

I did have a drama with my ticket that left me feeling super anxious. I bought a paper one at King's Cross from a ticket machine. The ticket didn't print properly and was so faded that the text was barely legible. I had trouble getting through the barrier onto the platform with it, and then later a ticket inspector asked me to produce my ticket once we were on our way to Whitstable. I was so nervous about doing the wrong thing that I showed the inspector the bank transaction on my phone to prove I'd bought the ticket. He was good about it, but the person manning the barrier when I got back to King's Cross was NOT impressed and made me feel like I'd done something terrible. I should have found a ticket office at the station before I got onto the train and sorted my ticket out. Lesson learnt!

Whitstable is a popular seaside town on the north Kent coast at the convergence of the Swale Estuary and Greater Thames Estuary. I loved the idea of going there as I wanted to experience a quintessentially British small seaside town. Whitstable is famous for its oysters, collected from beds beyond the low water mark from Roman times until the mid-20th century. Archaeological evidence suggests the area was inhabited as early as the Palaeolithic Era. Dwellings as we know them today were recorded from the 11th century.

Here's a look at the harbour and the stunning blue sky I was treated to that day. Whitstable beaches are separated by groynes every 40 metres or so to stop erosion. Apparently the water is relatively warm compared with other English seaside resorts although swimming is only possible two hours each side of high tide. The reason for this is that the sea retreats by up to a kilometre at low tide to expose the muddy seabed. That's how oysters are farmed.

We had a wander around the cute little town but spent most of the day an the pebbly beach. Nothing like beaches in Australia, but Whitstable does have its own charm. I loved the boardwalk! Here I am in front of one of the iconic beach huts.

We bought a picnic lunch in an M&S in town and sat by the water to eat it. There was a nice relaxed vibe to the day although I imagine it's a lot busier in the height of summer. Here are some more shots of the different kinds of beach cottages. I had an absolute blast poking around at Whitstable. So British!

There were also some gorgeous buildings in the town. Imagine living there! I gather it's quite expensive as the area is popular with tourists. I was so glad we'd had a nice day to enjoy it although I still didn't feel warm enough to take off my jumper😉.

This postcard that I bought in one of the market stalls near the harbour is better than any of the photos that I took. It beautifully sums up Whitstable.

The final week

I still had five days of training to go after my final weekend, but they flew by. To be honest, I was ready to go home by the end of the week. I left work early on Friday afternoon (my last day) to take one final trip on the Tube into King's Cross from Uxbridge on the direct Metropolitan line.

I went to the Harry Potter shop that is located adjacent to the Platform 9 3/4 photo opportunity at King's Cross Station. The shop opened in 2012. It was packed when I was there but I had the best time poking around. I bought the t-shirt you can see me wearing in the below photo and the cool key chain.

The Elizabeth line opens

One of the big things that happened while I was in London for that month was the opening of the Elizabeth line. It was originally planned to open in 2018 but was delayed due to the pandemic. The Queen opened the line on 17 May 2022 and passenger services started on 24 May, my final week in London. The distinctive purple-coloured line runs west of Paddington to Abbey Wood and Shenfield and to Heathrow and Reading in the west, passing through Hayes and Harlington where I was staying. It's a lovely line to travel on as it's brand new and the carriages are modern and clean. The purple colouring of the Elizabeth line is etched in my memory and will forever be a reminder of my time working in London.

One thing to note, though is that the Oyster card that is valid on the Tube and buses is not accepted between West Drayton and Reading. The tickets are also priced at a premium if you're travelling from Heathrow due to the line's use of the rail tunnel between the airport and Hayes and Harlington.

The end of the road

I was homeward bound on Saturday 28 May, back on Qatar Airways flying business class. It had been an incredible month but I was also pretty exhausted. This post shows all the cool things I was fortunate enough to be able to do on my weekends off, and the friends I could catch up with, but travelling for work is not as glamorous as it sounds. I was facilitating training and doing the other parts of my job in three different time zones. It's exhausting trying to do all that while living in a hotel a long way from home. That said, my experiences over that month will always be a significant part of my learning journey, both professionally and personally. This first trip, while chaotic, felt optimistic and full of promise. I had so little idea of what lay ahead...

My seventh London experience

Seven trips to London! What an absolute privilege. London is a city that I love and would happily go back to time and time again. Yes, it's familiar to me now, but it's also a place that I find both intimidating and comforting in equal measure. I feel swallowed up by the enormity of the city and its diverse inhabitants, but I also feel completely connected to the history, the buildings, and the green spaces. Until next time, London 💞.