Southbound 2026 - London

London, England. Thursday/Wednesday 28 August/02-September-2026.

All posts

• London, England. Thursday/Wednesday 28 August/02-September-2026.
• Frankfurt, Germany. Wednesday/Thursday 02/03-September-2026.
• Nuremberg, Germany. Thursday/Sunday 03/06-September-2026.
• Milan, Italy. Sunday/Wednesday 06/08-September-2026.
• Castelnuovo Berardenga, Tuscany. Wednesday/Thursday 08/10-September-2026. 
• San Vincenti, Tuscany. Friday/Wednesday 11/16-September-2026. 
• More to follow…

Introduction.

About a year ago we booked ourselves on a week long yoga and pilates retreat in Tuscany for mid-September 2026. Having got into the swing of this interrailing malarkey we decided to make a proper train trip of it. The outline plan was to spend the bank holiday weekend in London catching up with old friends, a couple of days in Milan to meet up with my nephew Lorenzo and his family then onto the retreat and onwards to Cisternino with various stops along the way, unsurprisingly, taking in parkruns en route.

In London we organised a HomeExchange in Bermondsey for the weekend very close to the Jubilee line station which made it really handy to get into central London and back out again..

Thursday 27-August-2026.

Thursday’s meet up was with ex-colleagues from CSC where I worked from 1983 to 1999 when I took voluntary redundancy and went freelance. Several times a year we meet up for a curry in the Royal Masala in Woking, travel plans permitting

We got the train down from Penrith into Euston, across to Bermondsey to drop our bags for a quick turnaround, back to Waterloo for a fast train to Woking. Great to catch up, eat some curry, drink several Kingfisher and Cobra and then wend our way swiftly back home.

Friday 28-August-2026.

Friday’s meet up was with another ex-colleague from CSC, an American now living in the UK in Cambridge. While Mary was having lunch with her girlfriends from one of her previous employments, I caught the train up to Cambridge. We went for a very tasty Jordanian lunch at Little Petra for a good old natter and my first taste of a Jordanian wine followed coffee, ice cream and a bit of a wander around Cambridge admiring the architecture.

Mary’s gathering was catch up and lunch at Gaucho at Tower Bridge with all five of the UBK "girls" - ex-colleagues from way back. 

Early evening Mary and I rendezvoused in Cork and Bottle followed by a play: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard at The Duke of York’s theatre. With Stoppard you have to pay attention as the plots flip-flops between past and present. We last saw the play in 2015 at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking and neither of use can remember any thing of that production. We first saw the play back in 1994 when it first opened in the West End as a National Theatre production from year before with new cast.

Saturday 29-August-2026.

Peckham Rye 29-08-26 32:22 [207/327]

Nearest parkrun and a P contributing towards our third alphabet.

Back to the apartment for a shower. Mary relaxed at the apartment whilst I went out for my next meet-up. 

Lunch was with friends, Catherine and John, that I met at the age of five on the first day of infant school 68 years ago! I had kept in touch with Catherine during my college years but kind of lost contact with John. Through the miracle of social media we reconnected and managed to meet up this time last year. This time we met in the Civil Service Club, an oasis of calm just off Whitehall and the throngs of tourists for a lovely chat.

The evening’s entertainment was the Buena Vista Social Club Live Revue at Toulouse Lautrec a jazz bar in Kennington. To quote the advertising they are "a dazzling celebration of Cuba’s most iconic musical heritage. This unforgettable tribute brings the timeless sounds of son, bolero, danzón, and cha-cha-cha to life, performed by some of the UK’s finest Cuban musicians." To quote the band leader and drummer "we play Cuban music with heavy metal attitude" With: 

• Adriana Lord – lead vocals 
• Nestor Rojas – lead vocals 
• Luis Alberto Musiquito – trumpet 
• Doranze Lorza – bass 
• Alejandro Tellez – tres, guitar 
• Vanchito Compay – musical director/band leader, drums.

Followed by supper in the restaurant downstairs.

Sunday 30-August-2026.

Sunday’s gathering near Tumbridge Wells with a group of friends I call "The Birmingham Crowd". These were a bunch of friends many of whom first met at Birmingham University and I fell in with around 1980 when we were all late-20-somethings living in London. Starting during Covid we hold fortnightly Zoom calls which continue to this day. We try to meet up in person once or twice a year. This was a fantastic gathering and lunch hosted by Marilyn and Jeremy.

As we were returning to London we were treated to a wonderful double rainbow over Tunbridge Wells station.

Back to London for a quiet evening, we were heading for a Thameside pub when we passed Glue wine bar. It was supposed to be closing at 8pm but had decided to stay open later because of the Bank Holiday. We did a swerve into a couple of comfy chairs and two glasses of wine. We had a very pleasant chat with the owners, Belinda and James, and two more glasses of wine including a Welsh rosé.

Monday 31-August-2026.

In the morning we first went to Hamleys toy shop in Regent Street to by a present for my great nephew. The went south of the river to have a nose round the Battersea Power Station development. 

The afternoon’s entertainment was an open air concert in Battersea Park with Annie, an ex-colleague of Mary’s, her partner Simon and a couple of their friends.

The headline act was Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra with preceded by the Amy Winehouse band.

Full writeup of the event at Battersea Park in Concert 2026.

Tuesday 01-September-2026.

We met with David and Mary Fee at The Archduke at Waterloo for lunch. I met David back circa 1968 whilst working on an archaeological dig, the Lunt Roam fort. We subsequently went to the 1970 Isle of Wight festival together. In discussion it turned out that David’s Mary had worked at the dig at the same time so I must have met her then as well! Talk about nostalgia.

That evening we had a booked a Portuguese wine bar in Bermondsey. but a change of location meant a switch to Bar Roija, very close to King’s Cross, offering tastings with tapas. We went for the mid-priced range.

Our host Denise was everything you could want from a host: fun, friendly, knowledgeable and generous.

Full write up of the tasting at: Rioja Tasting at Bar Rioja.

Next stop: Frankfurt.

Battersea Park in Concert 2026

Battersea Park, London. Monday 31-August-2026.

As part of our Bank Holiday sojourn in London we went to an open air concert in Battersea Park with Annie, an ex-colleague of Mary’s, her partner Simon and a couple of their friends.

We all brought a picnic and some wine; Annie very kindly rustled up an extra set of picnic chairs for us. 

The headline act was Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra preceded by the Amy Winehouse band.

Timetable:

• Gates Open - 1.30pm
• Jazz Dynamos - 1:45pm
• Inzeza - 3:00pm
• Toby Lee - 4:20pm
• The Amy Winehouse Band - 5:45pm
• Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra - 7:20pm
• Last entry - 8.00pm
• Expected show finish - 9.00pm

We entered just as the second act, Inzeza, was finishing up and got settled in for Toby Lee, previously Young Blues Musician of the Year. He played some impressive rocking blues.

The next act was the Amy Winehouse Band (her original backing band).

The singer did a good job of standing in for Amy.

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra played an a mixture of big band and jazz standards with a good sized horn section to belt out the tunes.

This guitarist added a splash of colour.

They had three different guest singers, unfortunately I didn't capture their names, but the best was the last.

Then we went home via the new Northern Line spur line tube station at Battersea Power Station - a public transport first for us.

UK Road Trip, June 2026

London / Penrith. Wednesday/Tuesday 10/16-June-2026.

This whole road trip was triggered by a biannual face-to-face meeting of the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths. Video meetings are all very well but there is no substitute for meeting in real life. So we booked ourselves a flight and train to come back for a short trip. Originally planned as a five day trip it was extended when we learned that Keb' Mo' was appearing in London the day before we were due to fly. Full write up of that gig on the blog at Keb Mo at Union Chapel 2026.

You couldn’t call it a relaxing trip - we had a packed agenda for the week and it was a great opportunity to catch up with lots of friends.

Wednesday 10th:

Drive to Bari: given the cost of a taxi to and from the airport, it was much cheaper to book ourselves into long-stay P3. What we had not counted on was their over booking policy. We arrived to find that every single slot was occupied. Fortunately, a Fiat 500 is such a dinky little car we were able to do some creative parking on the end of a row. There was another guy circling the car park and then phoning the office to complain about what the hell was he supposed to do?

Flying from Bari to London: we had allowed plenty of time because we had heard horror stories of long delays due to the new EES system. However, we could not drop off our luggage until two hours before the flight so arriving early was pointless. As it turned out, the airport was very quiet and the automatic gates were not working so we had to queue anyway and were quickly seen by the border guard, no problems.

The train from Gatwick to London was uneventful. We dropped our bags off at the not-so-budget Premier Inn near St Pancras and went for a delicious, light supper at Morr in Islington. Recommended.

Keb' Mo' concert at Union Chapel: 

The concert was excellent. Hardly surprising as Keb Mo is one of our favourite artists. This was the sixth time we had seen him and I really like his laid-back Americana style. 

Thursday 11th:

Because our original flight was for the Thursday, we had booked a train for early evening back to Penrith. The cost of changing the train time was so exorbitant that we decided we would spend the day in London and fit in a number of other activities. 

M. C. Escher exhibition at Somerset House: First was an excellent exhibition at Somerset House featuring all Escher's greatest hits well curated with explanation boards and interactive exhibits plus examples of his influence on other artists, filmmakers and pop culture. 

Interactive exhibits included this one where your could put yourself in Escher's place and take a selfie.

An optical illusion thanks to sloping walls and floors.

Classic M. C. Escher.

When you get up close the detail is astounding for something carved by hand into a wooden block.

One of his impossible buildings.

Mary took the opportunity, as she often does when we are passing through London, to visit Fiona at Hebe in the Strand for a trim. Mary has known Fiona longer than she has known me! On the way to the hairdressers we passed another Paddington so there had to be a photo.

My siblings and I like to meet up for a meal several times a year, sometimes just the three of us, sometimes with partners. A habit that we started when dad and mum were getting old and in care homes and needed coordinated care from the three of us. I am so grateful and so lucky that we all get on so well and are so supportive of each other.

We then went shopping for clothes for Mary and on the way we passed Bedford Street Wines that were offering two-for-one on glasses of champagne. How could we refuse?

We then went up to Euston in good time for our pre-booked 18:30 train back to Penrith. Multiple cancelled trains on the board was not a good omen. It turned out that a vehicle had hit a bridge somewhere in the midlands dislodging a great lump of parapet. Inspections were required which meant no trains were running on that line. We did eventually board our train which set off 45 minutes late. It then was forced to do two detours plus some other delays. 

At Preston we were informed that, due to the very late running of the train, the staff at Penrith would have gone home and we would not be stopping there. We overshot and detrained at Carlisle well after midnight and were taxied back to Penrith where we eventually fell into bed at nearly 1am. The journey normally takes just over three hours, on this Thursday it took more than six! 

Friday 12th:

We had been wanting to do the Settle to Carlisle train journey for sometime. They occasionally run steam trains excursions along this route but at an exorbitant price. Then Northern Trains were offering a deal and we got two returns for £9.10 in total. It’s all about the journey, not the destination as the line passes through some beautiful countryside. 

It was just a shame that it was the day after our nightmare journey up from London. Despite not fully catching up on our sleep, we had to get up early in order to get the train up to Penrith to pick up this journey. It was worthwhile though - lovely scenery and cute stations all along the line.

When the trolley came round I ordered a cup of tea and a biscuit but the lady persuaded me that I had to have parkin as we were in Yorkshire and very tasty it was too.

We have friends who we met in Cisternino and live in Skipton. They drove up to Settle to meet us for lunch. After lunch they kindly took us to the amazing Courtyard Dairy cheese shop (and adjacent Natural Wine Company wine shop). We came away with several lumps of cheese and a couple of bottles of wine.

The smell was amazing as was the selection of cheeses. They have a slick operation. You are assigned your dedicated assistant who makes recomendations and lets you taste every cheese.

We then drove over to Malham Cove for a short stroll. I last visited this cove in 1990 when working in Bingley. It reminded me of our first cat, Cleopatra who we acquired in 1990. The company immediately assigned me a project at Bradford & Bingley Building Society. To avoid disrupting the kitten’s life I relocated up to Skipton with Cleo and Mary came up most weekends. 

Since I was staying in “the Gateway to the Dales” I thought I would try this walking malarkey and bought my first ever pair of hiking boots thinking they would last me a lifetime. How wrong I was! They were Brasher boots, much lighter than the traditional heavy leather variety, and the write up from Chris Brasher said “the first time I tried these on I gambolled like a Spring lamb“.

We parked up in the village and walked up to the cove.

Close up it is an impressive cliff. Halfway up there is a little red dot which is a climber.

Looking a bit windswept.

Back on the train to Carlisle we missed the connection to Penrith by about a minute. It was sitting on the adjacent platform, but its doors were already locked for the off. Plan B the 104 bus back to Penrith followed by a relaxing supper of our just-purchased cheese and wine at home.

Saturday 13th:

Saturday was parkrun as always. Mary was feeling tired and possibly coming down with the lurgy so volunteered as Marshall.

Penrith 13/06/26 31:09 [256/365]

Lunch with friend Ann. We went to Tebay services which has a great café and we got a window table so we could look out over the pond and the occasional duck.

In the afternoon Mary had a Chiropodist appointment in between rearranging the furniture in the house to optimise the dining room. This meant a full domino effect as bookcases and hi-fi systems were rearranged to suit.

To relax after the furniture disorder, we had a couple of beers at Fell Bar and an Italian meal with friends Andrew & Sarah

Sunday 14th:

Finally the social event which was the trigger for this whole trip - BBQ and meeting with the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths. It was well attended and it was great to meet our fellow volunteers in real life, have a chat and get an update on the progress that has been going on behind the scenes. All very encouraging!

Home for a couple of beers at Fell Bar with other friends followed by more cheese and wine at home working our way through our purchases from the Settle cheese and wine shops.

Monday 15th:

Various health & beauty appointments for the both of us followed by coffee and a catch up with friend Nigel. The afternoon was cleaning the house ready to receive guests whilst we are away.

Tuesday 16th:

A long but uneventful trip - Penrith > London > Cisternino. We had bought an Itsu picnic supper to eat on the plane but ended up saving it until we got home and ate it with a couple of glasses of wine.

And so to bed. [Pepys].

Keb Mo at Union Chapel 2026

Islington, London. Wednesday 10-July-2026.

Is it really 10 years since we last saw Ken Mo? The blog does not lie: we last saw him at Union Chapel back in 2016. He is one of our favourite artists and a regular on our playlist. We missed a couple of previous gigs in London because we were in Italy. This year we had already booked a flying visit back to the UK when we discovered this concert scheduled for the day before we were due to fly. So we brought our flight forward by a day and booked ourselves a Premier Inn so we could make the gig. 

The support act was a very creditable Robbie Cavanagh who played a relatively short set including a slightly bizarre interlude where he made himself a cocktail when he could have sung one more song. He commented on the fact that the audience were there for his set as normally they are in the pub until the main act comes on. This was a sold out show with unreserved seating which was obviously an incentive for people to get there early.

Keb came on to a rapturous reception and proceeded to to perform a solo set; no band unlike last time, just him. He played for a good hour and a half with songs we knew well including the encore of “Put A Woman In Charge”. He kept the roadie busy by swapping guitars for almost every song.

The audience also knew the songs well as they were singing along to several of them which I find slightly irritating as I go to a concert to hear the artiste not the audience. Fortunately they generally kept the volume down. However Keb clearly appreciated the feedback with the audience and was lifted by it.

As we had been up early for our flight we skipped the usual beery nightcap and went straight back to the hotel to catch up on our sleep.

Elles Bailey at Islington Assembly Rooms

London, England. Thursday 19-March-2026.

This is the eighth or ninth time we have seen Elles and obviously we keep coming back for more. This concert was the start of a tour to promote her latest album “Can’t Take My Story Away”. 

As always Elles is very supportive of other artists and used this tour as an opportunity to promote a band we’ve never heard of Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast a band from South Carolina. Normally they play with a full line-up but just the two of them flew over for this tour. They will be returning in the autumn with the full band. They played a half hour set and got an enthusiastic reception

After a short break Elles came on with her band now augmented by trumpet and sax. The latter definitely added a richer sound to the band and it was all sounding like they were ready for the big time. The venue was packed - it definitely looked like a sell out. Surely they are ready for stadium size venues.

The set list was evenly split between songs from the latest album and a selection of tracks from her back catalogue.

Elles looking the part in her trademark sparkles, rocking the rhinestone cowboy, Americana look. I once went to a gig where the band all wore grey suits, looking like a bunch of accountants. I like a bit of visual pizzazz from my entertainers. It’s not just about the music. It’s also about the entertainment, the show they put on.

As with many of Elle’s gigs, the lovely and talented Demi Mariner was on stage to provide additional vocals and play a range of percussion in addition to guitar.

At the end they got a well deserved standing ovation.

Milkfest 2026

Halifax / London. Friday / Monday 27-January / 02-March-2026.

A two part weekend. We bought tickets for Milkfest some while back and were thinking of a weekend in London, but then comparing diaries to arrange a visit to our parkrun friends Tim and Sue in Halifax we hit upon the triangular trip solution.

Friday 27-January-2026. 

Train down to Halifax followed by a meal with live music from the Landlubbers singing sea shanties. The pub was rammed so we only got a distant view of the band.

Saturday 28-February-2026.

As always Saturday is #parkrunday. Halifax parkrun was always the plan. 

Halifax 28/02/2026. 32:07 [104/187]

We got there early as Tim was doing the first timers’ briefing.

“Halifax is Hilly” said the sign and it was not wrong. Definitely not a PB course. But then these days for me that is true of all parkruns.

The crocuses are out and looking lovely.

Then we went into Halifax to see the town’s number one attraction: the Piece Hall, a Grade I listed building built as a cloth hall for handloom weavers to sell the woollen cloth "pieces" they had produced.

Evening was a delicious supper at Tim and Sue‘s.

Sunday 01-February-2026.

After a great cooked breakfast at Tim and Sue’s we caught the train down to London, straight to the hotel to dump our bags and then on to the Indigo at the O2 for the festival. 

We laughed this at this Traffic Light Tree on the route from the tube to the hotel. Mary had booked a Radisson Blu hotel believing it to be close and convenient for the O2. It was close as the crow flies but not convenient on account of the fact that the Thames was between them!

The entire event is organised by The Milk Men as a charity event, this year in aid of Dementia UK. There were Dementia T-shirts and a raffle for a guitar signed by all the band members performing that evening. They modestly put themselves as the opening act rather than the headliners at the end of the evening.

2pm - THE MILK MEN. 

We missed The Milk Men, but were in time for the start of Mississippi McDonald…

3pm - MISSISSIPPI MACDONALD  

Having recently had the pleasure of seeing Mississippi MacDonald at Blackpool performing two sets, acoustic and electric, we were pleased to be able to arrive in time to catch the whole of his set. In a different venue and all seated, it felt very different to Blackpool but still hugely enjoyable.

4pm - ERROL LINTON  

We first saw Errol 10 years ago at the Green Note Café and enjoyed his set then, a blend of blues and reggae, the latter a nod to his Jamaican heritage - his parents were part of the Windrush generation. Today he brought the same up-tempo energy to the stage. Very enjoyable.

5pm - ROBBIE & STEVE  

Another blast from the past. We saw Robbie McIntosh a decade ago at the Half Moon in Putney and enjoyed his blues driven set. He played with The Pretenders for a number of years and as a session musician for a roll call of famous names This time his planned oppo Hamish Stuart was indisposed and his place taken by Steve who did not pass my “fast fingers on the fret board” test. He mainly strummed chords to accompany Robbie.

6pm - ALICE ARMSTRONG  

We just caught a snippet of Alice at the UK Blues Festival 2025 and were impressed. This time getting to hear a full set from her she rose significantly in our estimation. We appreciated her song writing skills and she belts out the songs with great joy and enthusiasm. Reminding me a little of Janis Joplin but not so raspy. Partway through her set, as an extra treat, she was joined by one of our favourites, Elles Bailey, for several numbers. 

Elles then graciously stepped back to become a backing singer for the last couple of songs allowing Alice to showcase her talents. 

Will definitely be looking out for her in the future.

7pm - BRAVE RIVAL  

Another favourite band who we saw in Blackpool in February. More rock than blues but hugely enjoyable. The bass player has a serious case of hipster beard!

8pm - CLIMAX BLUES BAND  

We enjoyed the Climax Blues Band on the previous occasions we’ve seen them but we did need to fit in supper at some point so choose this set as band to skip and go for a curry. We did get back in time to catch the last couple of numbers. The lead singer is starting to grow on us the more we get used to the fact that the lineup has changed - not better or worse, just different.

9pm - CHRIS DIFFORD 

I would not have recognised the name of the headliner but Chris Difford was guitarist and composer with Squeeze responsible for such classics as “Up the Junction”, “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)” and my favourite “Cool for Cats”. His set was entirely composed of the Squeeze back catalogue which, truth to tell, is what the audience want to hear and he delivered along with a modicum of banter.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nightcap. We couldn’t be bothered to summon an Uber and wait for it to arrive so treated ourselves to a black cab from the rank. It may have cost a little more but we were tired enough to decide we were worth it. 

The only slight disappointment of the event was that each band had a strict 45 minute slot so there was little time for the banter that we usually enjoy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and evening. 

Roll on Milkfest 2027!