My first trip to Europe in many years brought about the opportunity to travel to a destination i never made it to previously. Neuschwanstein Castle . I mean I had been to Munich 3 times before. But never made a trip to the castle. I have to admit though 2 of those trips were when I wasn't experienced in independent travel, and the other was when I had sprained my ankle skiing making mobility a challenge in winter. Famous for being the Disney Castle yes. But also to me more famous for being the castle from the movie Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang. A favourite childhood movie. It wasn't until I was an adult I got to hear of the real castle story with King Ludwig the second. But let's leave that for later. So how did we make it to Neuschwanstein . Yes we. I was traveling with my friend who did all the planning. So when I say "we" I admit it, I refer to the royal we. I was riding coat tails on the logistics getting through jetlag with google maps and contributing only a vag...
So I was back in London just for little over 24 hours. Importantly I used this time to catch up with a friend. One who over time I see every few years. Hence it seemed fitting that we went out to Greenwich to walk around spending some time. But more importantly I visited the line.... Where longitude is counted from. Technically time is what it is. But Greenwich Royal Observatory is that special spot where time means a lot more. Where longitude is 0. And hence why we refer to worldwide time by Greenwich Mean Time. Interesting you'll also find at the observatory the gauge by which a British yard of rope is measured. But a yard today just isn't the same as it used to be. Around Greenwich there were quite a few things to do. The walk under the Thames wasn't visually inspiring. However to thing this was build so long ago it's an amazing piece of engineering. It also served as a safe haven during the Battle of Britain. Like the tube. The Cutty Sark and Navel museum as...
I took the opportunity to visit Layess, my former Brisbane flatmate, as a part of my Panda trip. The idea was that I could make a side trip to her home city of Chongqing from Chengdu. It was about 2 hours by train. This was easy enough to complete in theory. I just had to figure out myself how to get there. Which meant navigating the long distance trains myself after managing to buy a ticket. Easier said than done. The first step was easy. I just had to retrace our trip from the Chengdu Train station we had arrived into. Then I just had to board the right train at the station. It was fairly easy on the way to Chengdu. But then we had guided instruction on what to do from the tour. Although we didn't actually have the guide with us every time we were inside the station we were seemingly under the safety blanket beingtold what to expect. This trip has no such support. I was alone and had my memory to rely on. I had no ability to book my train tickets onlin...
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