Thus does our Arctic odyssey come to an end. From Reykjavik we flew to London, and then, after a few days, directly to Sydney on British Aiways with a brief refuelling stop in Singapore. Really, quite a painless trip home.
The map below summarises our route on this trip. The Arctic Circle is presently at latitude 66o34' north, just skimming the top of Iceland, and thus we were genuinely in the Arctic only in the norther part of Norway, and in Svalbard, plus a few minutes when we walked north of the marker on Grimsey in Iceland. The precise location of the Arctic Circle depends on the earth's axial tilt which "fluctuates within a margin of more than 2o over a 41,000-year period, owing to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon" according to Wikipedia. Right now, the Circle is heading north at just over 1m per month.
Orthographic map centred on the North Pole shows our journeys on this trip, and that Svalbard was as far north as we got.
Our final days in London were mainly spent catching up on laundry with a little bit of sightseeing, and a lot of walking. We frequently walked the loop between Tower Bridge and London Bridge, and used the tube to visit Hampstead and Hampstead Heath on one day. You can never have too much of London!
Threatening clouds over Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast. [2381]
St Pauls Cathedral looking from the footbridge across the Thames to the Tate Moden gallery. [2386]
Threatening light illuminates the City of London. [2391]
Hampstead is about 9km north-west of Tower Bridge. Wikipedia tells us that the name comes from Anglo Saxon for "homestead" and the suburb "has been home to more Prime Ministers, and contains more millionaires within its boundaries, than any other area of the United Kingdom." So it's an upmarket area, and we did enjoy walking in the township, but the suburb is dominated by a huge parkland, the Heath, and we enjoyed a good walk around it, in fine weather.
At the No1 Pond on Hampstead Heath. [2397]
View back towards central London from Hampstead Heath. [2403]
Summer, but the men's swimming pool at Hampstead is not that inviting. This gentleman was not discouraged. [2413]
A shady walking trail in Hampstead Heath. [2417]
Our lunch this day came from La Creperie, with a cleansing ale from the King William IV pub. [2421]
Tube train arrives at Hampstead on the Northern Line of the London Underground. [2424]
Close to Tower Bridge, where out hotel is, is the magnificent Southwark Cathedral, building started in 1106AD. The site is mentioned in the Domesday Book, a survey of all of England, 1086AD. In 2017, a terrorist attack outside on London Bridge and in the Borough Market caused 8 deaths and multiple injuries, and the Cathedral was where many people sought safety on the day. There's a memorial to this atrocity outside the Cathedral.
In the nave of Southwark Cathedral. [2440]
Rainwater control at Southwark Cathedral. [2435]
Riverside pub. [2453]
Texture, the Thames riverbank near Southwark. [2457]
Scene in Clink Street on a soggy lunchtime. [2460]
Jet enroute to Heathrow, passing the Shard in central London. [2428]
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