London & Norwich 2026

Usually when we head towards Europe, we plan to see and stay with Rachel, Jarad & kids, living in London, and usually when we do this, we also try to visit somewhere else in the UK and this year, 2026, was no exception.

This will be a succinct post, simply due to only being in the UK for a short time during the grandies long annual summer school holidays, and it was an opportunity to assist their parents during this time, translation… enjoying some child minding.

Before we arrived we had planned a few things we could do with the 3 grandies, starting with teaching them to play a card game called ‘Bastard’, not a good name, but it wasn’t very long before they became quite obsessed with wanting to play it a LOT.

Couldn’t play cards and other games all the time, so it was time to ‘tap on’, board a London bus and find the Water & Steam Museum.  In the museum there is a large array of very large, historical machines and pumps, designed to move water and sewerage throughout an ever growing London.

Some of the historical machines used
were very large and complex

The grandkids were intrigued
by some of them

This movement of liquids, became even more important as buildings started growing in height, let alone population increases in an ever growing and spreading urban area.

The grandies enjoyed looking at the machines for awhile but enjoyed a variety of working models they could crank handles on to simulate these movements and/or the videos available to keep them additionally entranced.   Thank heavens!

This hands on display encouraged building
dams, diverting & pumping water by hand

Rachel has one day free each week, so the 3 adults and grandies, after more games of cards, spent the day visiting various locations in London like Trafalgar Square, the West End, Covent Gardens and walking over a footbridge across the Thames.

Trafalgar Square

Tourist busy footbridge across
the Thames

Rob had researched a few ‘quirky’ locations to include in our extended walking tour.  One of these was an underground Cafe located inside a Victorian era toilet.  One of the seating areas included sitting between mens urinals and only a photo can explain that!

The underground urinal cafe

We also visited the Crypt Cafe near Trafalgar Square and this unique cafeteria lets you dine if you wish, under original 18th-century brick-vaulted church ceilings with worn tombstones built directly into the floor.

The Crypt Cafe

This is called 'Coffee with a corpse'

Not far from their house is the River Thames, so we took them for a walk to feed the ducks and pigeons, before then taking them to a favourite cafe to enjoy smoothies (and coffees for ourselves), was something they always enjoy.

Along the Thames River near where the family lives

You can ponder this

On a weekend, everyone went exploring around Twickenham and found Strawberry Hill House, locally known as a Gothic Castle, but actually a villa, built by Horace Walpole between 1747 and 1792.  Morning tea for all in the gardens was a treat but really impacted on us was how brown the normal green parks were.

Strawberry Hill House and note the brown lawns

Another building in the same complex

A philosophical saying

The UK like other areas of Europe had been hit by very hot weather and lawns and parks were simply brown and dusty, causing me to suffer badly with hay fever from the moment we had landed.

The UK and London especially due to its long history, has a plethora of interesting and at times quirky places to visit, which was what Rob had researched before our visit and she thought might intrigue them.

Another full day with the grandies, meant a train ride which they always enjoy, back into the city and more walking.  Part of the goal was to entertain them but also wear them out a little or a lot.  First was the ‘Thin House’ in South Kensington, which is certainly thin.

The Thin House

The Victoria & Albert Museum allowed us to have a break in its cafe, but the real reason we were there was to admire the decorations across its walls and ceiling, quite something.

Cafe in the Victoria & Albert Museum

The final visit required booking timed entry tickets into the Science Museum, including the Wonderlab.  It was a first for us and we all enjoyed it with 4 hours immersed in the various displays including for Clocks and Flight and hands on experiences in the Wonderlab.  It was a very good day out and about!

Part of Flight display with a Supermarine Swift

Artificial lightning (Tesla) display
in the Wonderlab

Magnetic power moving display in the Wonderlab

It was time for Rob and myself to travel to a new location in the UK and this time due to a warm invitation by some new found friends, met during last years Rhine/Danube river cruise, we travelled by train to Norwich in Norfolk.

Here, our new friends met us at the station, and then over a few days, showed us through Norwich the city, with its beautiful Cathedral, UNESCO listed cobblestone roads and flint rock built Tudor buildings and a river walk, resplendent with canal boats to hire.

Norwich Cathedral

Flint Stone built buildings

Very old buildings

Canal boats for hire and
larger than narrow boats

Flint rocks are a common natural building material in this part of the UK, which can be used with a round shape pointing outwards or are split, so that a flat face points out on the building.

We were also taken down along the coast to a small town called Sheringham with a links golf course, great views down the coast from a nice hilltop on the coast, walks along the beach front and to add to the experience, watching a small steam train taking tourists on a short ride along the coast.

Golf course and great coastal views

Summer time on the Norwich coast

Quaint tourist steam train

Our friends were incredibly hospitable and it was great to spend time with them in a different and their environment.

Before leaving London, we dedicated some times just for ourselves, again involving a lot of walking but we managed to see quite a lot.  

This included the monument to the Great Fire of London, Mug House - a pub under a rail line, Parish Church -over 1,000 yrs old and built by Christopher Wren, Ye Old Mitre Pub - built in 1546 where we enjoyed lunch, Temple Church of Da Vinci Code fame and Host Cafe, located inside a church.

St Pauls Cathedral

Great Fire of London Monument

Entry to Mug House pub under
the railway lines

Host Cafe located inside a church

Parish Church history

Narrow lane entry to 'Ye Olde Mitre' pub

Inside 'Ye Olde Mitre'

Temple Church of Da Vinci Code fame

If you put in the research effort, there is an abundance of very interesting and at times quirky and odd-ball places to visit and learn about.

If you would like to see a few more photos of our time in the UK, click on the link below.

CLICK HERE for more UK photos

We were done and it was now time to head off to the next phase of our overall trip out into the Atlantic Ocean, to be covered in the next post, so until then… have fun and go well.

Dubai 2026

Now after all that cold in the arctic, and heading southwards back towards Australia, it was a great opportunity to visit our final destination at the right time of the year due to it being cooler… Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

We had seen those amazing architecture photos and videos of multiple structures in Dubai, but it always seemed a very hot destination, but our simple research told us January was an excellent time to visit with averages temperatures of 24/15⁰C

Our travels throughout Dubai using trains, taxis & walking

Our plane touched down around 12:30am into Dubai and normally we wouldn’t talk about what follows, but as it turned out, it was quite typical of our 4 nights in this interesting city.

‘Things’ are BIG in Dubai and its not just the buildings!  We landed into section F of the airport and we started walking to where Customs were located, almost a straight line from the gate.

We walked and walked and walked… and after ~5,000 steps later, we reached the area where passports were checked and then started our ‘trek’ again to the baggage collection carousels and now having our luggage, it was time to find a taxi which wasn’t too hard as there were hundreds of them.  Next small challenge was to be allocated one before heading to our hotel.

By now it was nearly 1:30am and by the time we reached the hotel along very busy freeways, we were in bed ready for sleep after 2:00am.

Now Dubai to us is long and sort of ‘thin’ and maybe one way of understanding this is via the dimensions of a very efficient railway that runs much of its length being the ‘red line’ running north/south up to 67 kms and a ‘green line’ covering east/west-ish for 22.5 kms

From here on things were from a planning point of view very straight forward.  We had learnt how to make use of the trains having each bought a Silver Nol Card with a pre-paid amount on them, worked out the key things we wanted to see… we thought.

Walking to the railway station under the overhead railway

Will get started with a succinct description of visiting the Dubai Mall and beyond because it became more typical of doing sightseeing in Dubai.

We were staying a relatively short distance from a railway station to catch a fairly packed but frequent train, which was quite common, to the Burj Khalifa/ Dubai Mall Metro Station one station away.  

Then you start walking and the first time we walked using the meandering but covered walkways which were busy with many other tourists.  Eventually we reached the Dubai Mall which by the way is huge, including its famous and large aquarium, so this meant more walking.

The aquarium inside the Dubai Mall is like everything else... big!

Outside the Dubai Mall next to the Burj Khalifa Lake

Outside the mall is the Burj Khalifa Lake and of course, the tallest building in the world currently, the Burj Khalifa but more on that later, so more walking.  After whatever period we then found a shorter route around the lake and amongst some stunning parks, walkways and buildings back to the station, train back to our station and then a walk back to the hotel.

The Burj Khalifa or 'The Burj'... it certainly
stands out as the world's tallest building

So why go on about this?  If you are considering a visit to Dubai, be prepared to walk and walk.  Small fact, in the first 24hrs of our visit we walked over 20,000 steps!

Another few observations are that many of the primary attractions like the Palm Jumeirah, the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, the Dubai Creek area, the King Spice gold souk Dubai area and say The Museum of the Future as examples, are spread all over the length of Dubai so it takes time via the train and then walking.

Always something to see including
this old defence tower

Now you can take taxis after getting off the train if they are there when you need them and there are a lot of taxis but not always easily where they're needed.

Next little challenge due to the popularity of Dubai are the queues to get into various attractions.  As an example, we pre-bought tickets to visit The Palm Tower to then visit ‘The View at the Palm’ to view the Palm Jumeirah from the 52^nd floor.  Our ticket was for 11am!

Very famous development in Dubai using
Google Earth... the Palm Jumeirah

We arrived before 11am but did not reach the 52^nd floor until after 12:15pm due to the queues.

The Museum of the Future, a spectacular building had a queue time of around 1.5 hrs so we simply didn’t bother because if you add train, walking and then queue times in an environment where different locations are spread out, you actually may not get to see too much of what you hoped. The message simply is, work out your priorities before you get to Dubai.

So lets go through the key things we did visit and some impressions.

Dubai Mall

Our first destination was as described earlier, the Dubai Mall and is the world’s largest, has 4 floors and covers a total area of 1.2 million square metres.  It has over 1,200 retail stores, 200+ dining outlets, and major attractions like the Dubai Aquarium, an ice rink, fountain and immersive entertainment zones. In 2023 it had a record 105 million visitors.

The aquarium was a stand out

Dubai Creek & Old Dubai

We used both the red & green lines to reach Dubai Creek, a more traditional area where boats are used to ferry people along and across the creek.  There were numerous boats waiting to take people and was good to watch the overall process whilst enjoying a coffee.

The taxi boats wait and slowly moved
to the right to pick up passengers

Simply walk on, sit down, pay the money and its off

In the same area walking away from the creek looking for the old area of Dubai, we found it including the Grand Souk, housing spice, clothing and some jewellery shops, the smell of spices wafting throughout.

This was certainly a very earthy and traditional Grand Souk

Just loved the smell of all the spices

This area was very run down and quite dirty, but we knew of another location, The Heritage Village in the Al Shindagha Historical District, also labelled as ‘old town’. We reached it by train and more walking and it was very up market, very clean, also on the creek and full of shops.

Very different up market 'old town' vibe here

Well designed and presented

The views along Dubai Creek are quite pleasant

It was really like a self contained tourist village and created in the 1990s to showcase a little of historic lifestyle and buildings, including the cooling towers used to keep temperatures lower during summer.

Clever... these towers pull cooler air in
as warm air expelled out of the tower

Burj Khalifa

Time to get ‘Burj’d’ by visiting the tallest building currently in the world.  We had bought tickets during our mall excursion, joined the queue and eventually after a 70 second elevator, arrived over 125 storeys into the sky, Rob detecting slight rocking in the building due to her dislike of heights.

The Burj dominates the skyline

It really is quite a building and the views we experienced as the sun started setting certainly were both spectacular and ensured we better understood the extent and nature of Dubai more clearly.

Sunset was hampered by the smog but the view was still great

Then the lights came on

Burj Khalifa Lake & Dubai Fountain

After our lofty visit of the Burj, we found our way to the lake to witness the nightly ritual of the Dubai Fountain light show(s).  These show runs every 30 minutes from 6pm and to give you a sense of scale, its the world's largest choreographed dancing fountain system, located on the 12 hectare lake using 270+ metres high-powered water jets and lights.

View of Burj Khalifa Lake from the Burj

The lake before the show starts

The water forms created were very clever...

...and each show was different including the music playing

CLICK HERE for time-lapse of nightly fountain show

View at the Palm

Having already described some of this, especially the writing times, the purpose for being here was to get a good view of the famous Palm Jumeirah and by now you should have a sense things are big in Dubai.

View from 'The View at the Palm' of the Palm Jumeirah
and the Atlantis Palm at the end of the Palm

Again, a few size details - the Palm features a 2-km long trunk, a crown with 17 fronds, and a surrounding 11-km crescent breakwater.  On the fronds are exclusive villas and private beaches.

Combination of homes and The Atlantis Royal hotel on a section of 'The Palm'

In the same broad area as ‘The Palm’ is the sail type structure of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah.

The Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in the distance where
Federer & Nadal played tennis on the heliport

Museum of the Future

Also reached easily by train, it's quite a structure which opened in 2022 but due to very long queues, we didn’t go through the museum, which is also actively involved in futuristic research.

The covered walkway from the train station
to the Museum of the Future

The Museum of the Future

It is an elliptical design with the solid structure representing what is known now and the void representing the unknown future.  It is covered with 1,024 stainless steel panels, the number symbolising 1 kilobyte and each panel engraved with Arabic calligraphy.

Reflection of the building in
the lake out front of it

Gold Souq

A souq is like an arcade and is known as the ‘City of Gold’ and houses 380 retailers selling gold, silver and precious stones.

It was packed with people and we have never before seen such a display of gold in our lives and how anyone would easily decide between one item and another with so much on display.

Walking through the Gold Souq

The items which certainly stunned us were the solid gold chest plates hanging in the windows of multiple stores.

There were the 'normal' forms of jewellery

Then there were the abnormal gold items for sale

General

During all our wanderings both day and night, there were a multiplicity of other constant things to look at, admire or in their own way stun us.  At night as were were walking to/from the Dubai Lake, there were light displays on buildings, in trees, man made displays everywhere.

Interesting location for a swim

The architecture is very creative

Most walkways are illuminated at night

Dubai for us was like the Gold Coast in Australia but on steroids.  It was exactly like what we were expecting, but as already described, the distance and the time it took to reach, wait and enjoy the experiences, in our humble opinion, need to be prioritised and planned to maximise available time.

Whilst we enjoyed the visit as a unique destination and were happy to have been there, we left with no real need to return for a holiday.

CLICK HERE for more photos of Dubai 2026

Well that’s it until next time we venture off somewhere, so until then… stay and go well!