My latest trip to London for the wildlife photographer of the year award exhibition 21 March 2014

My latest trip to London for the wildlife photographer of the year award exhibition 21 March 2014

I joined our U3A photography group, a little while ago, we have visited a number of venues, but this one to London seemed particularly interesting, given the fact that I’m going on Safari in the next few months, so I was hoping that this would give me inspiration as well as be a pleasant trip out in good company. The first thing I realised was I would not be ale to achieve a full day with such an early start, so common sense made me realise that I should that I should travel down the day before and then meet up with the others.

Because I have done this trip before it was going to be easy to book the train tickets and hotels, while the train tickets were not a problem other than the fact that I adopted for E tickets and had problems printing them out, but that was quickly solved, trying to find a hotel in a suitable location, at a reasonable price was a much bigger task, but eventually I booked one with travel Lodge, which was not too far away.

I did as I had done previously and went on Facebook to where a group of friends I have in London post I mentioned my trip, for most of them, unfortunately they were unavailable on the day that I was free, which was a shame booked, I was would find other things to do, fortunately close to the date a man called Dave volunteered to meet up and show me round and Maggie, who was been brilliant in the past, at showing myself and others the sights of London, said she would also meet up, but suggested the Tower of London experience as a good place to spend a couple of hours, I had had confirmation from my U3A friends that we would be meeting on the Saturday lunchtime going for a meal and then to the exhibition, so all was arranged.

On the day there were no problems on the train, I met with Dave at Euston, we decided because I only had a backpack not to go to the hotel first but instead to travel to the tower bridge, it’s funny how the brain does not work sometimes properly, the bus we were getting on was what I believe is called the Route Master, a real old boss, complete the conductor that you boarded at the back, it wended its way through the streets of London but then seem to get stuck when we looked out of the window realise we were close to the tower, so you might as well get off, it was only then I realised the bus was something to take a photo of because there are so few of them now, unfortunately, by the time I had got my camera out it had sped off into the distance, never to be seen again.

We walked over to Tower Bridge bought our tickets and spent a couple of pleasurable hours looking at the various exhibits and taking photos, it was interesting to listen to Dave about his various trips and career and life, I had sent a text to Maggie to confirm where we were so we met at about 5 PM, just as it was starting to get dark, which gave me the opportunity to take a series of photos of the tower, Tower Bridge, the Shard and various other places illuminated at night. We then went from meal, which was quite pleasant but in the short time we were there, it quickly filled up and Maggie explained this was typical of London, I felt it was time now to book into the hotel, the other two decided they would travel with me, part of the way which was very kind of them, I could not believe the length of the queues for a ticket on the underground, but once bought there were no problems and Maggie parted with us. I think at Victoria, I really do appreciate the effort she goes to to make these trips so memorable. Dave offered to see me all the way to the hotel, so we continued to Euston and then walked to the hotel, luckily he was able to use his phone and Google maps to find it for us, once booked in I parted with Dave and said I would be in touch when I got back home, but thanked him for his time and effort and kindness.

Went to my room it was a very basic compared to some I had been in, but there again, given its location, not too expensive, luckily it had a bath so I could have a good soak and a drink of tea before resting and watching TV before going to sleep. The hotel did say on its website that there was some traffic noise, even without my hearing aids with the window closed, it was still intrusive, but initially I slept quite well,despite the strange bed that seemed to rock, but woke in the early hours, so found it difficult to get back to sleep again. Eventually did. I got up about eight get washed and dressed, then went looking for somewhere for breakfast, those of you know me will not be surprised that I ended up at McDonald’s. I then went back to the room to sort my things out, then travelled back to Euston to meet up with my U3A friends. We could not believe the queue to get down to the underground and how many people wanted a ticket, including me. Eventually, this was sorted, luckily one of us knew where we were going, so off we went. It was decided we would have a meal first which was very pleasant and again those that know me will understand when I say how pleased I was to find carrot cake was on the menu, I think if I remember correctly it was a Lebanese restaurant.

We then joined a great big long queue to get into the museum, eventually we were inside, again , lots and lots of people and lots and lots of noise, we first went to a talk by a young man who, when he was 14 had been the young wild life photographer of the year, for one so young. He was exceptionally talented and knowledgeable about his subject. We then went to look at the photo exhibition, I had never realised how dedicated some people are to their photography, the time and effort some spent looking for that elusive photo was truly incredible, having said that some of the people lived in areas of the world where it was more conducive to the photos that they took than others. After this we parted with one member who was going on elsewhere, we had a short walk round a small part of museum before it was time to go back to Euston for our train.

We had a drink and cookie there then it was time for the train, we chatted on the train so the time passed quickly, when we got back to Manchester. We got the Metro to Piccadilly gardens and just by good luck the Fountains were working, and displaying in a range of colours which were quite spectacular, so we took a few minutes to get photos before going for the other tram, at Bury. I had just missed my bus so got the taxi, then the task of unpacking doing washing and catching up with those usual day-to-day tasks. It was all a very enjoyable trip in good company, I think I would like to go back to London again maybe spend more time looking at the buildings at night time, but we will have to see.