Last updated: 29 July 2023
From the Roaming Required Archives. Here’s a flashback from August 2016.
It’s hard to believe summer is quickly coming to a close. Those balmy summer nights, picnics in the park, and a cheeky beer session in the garden will soon be distant memories. Before we know it we’ll be dusting off our woolies, winter coats and prepare to rug up for the damp and the darkness of winter. A grim prospect.
As mentioned in the review of July, we forecast August to be quiet. In Europe, August is peak time for travel as well as the summer school vacation meaning just about everyone is on holiday. While it’s the perfect weather to lounge on a beach in Nice, you’d be sharing it with 10,000 other people craving some vitamin D.
Beach towels lined up with enough space for a sandy foot to pass by doesn’t fill me with any joy. So for August it was UK ‘staycation’ time. While we hoard our annual leave for special trips, it means August is mostly weekend activities in the nation’s capital.
The big news for London was that the Night Tube had finally become a reality. Two of eleven lines on the London Underground are now open 24/7 on weekends. Initially proving little benefit for us, but should the urge to rave present itself we now no longer need to hoard money for a taxi or shudder at the thought of a night bus. Huzzah!
We kicked off August with another tour of the disused tunnels of the London Underground. This makes my third and Russ is up to number four! The highly sought after tours are run by Hidden London in conjunction with the London Transport Museum. This time we ventured to the most expensive property on a standard Monopoly Board, Mayfair.
The station is known as “Down Street”. It had a brief career as a working station but more famously became critical in the WWII efforts when it was covertly transformed into a bomb-proof bunker. Exploring the the warren of narrow tunnels where the nation’s railways were coordinated and where Winston Churchill secretly took refuge at the height of the Blitz! Fascinating stuff!
Russ has been travelling a lot for work in August ticking off Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol & Cardiff. He’s quickly becoming quite the expert on business travel hotels. What works and more importantly what doesn’t (ahem, WiFi).
While he was away I joined analogue portrait photographer Oliver Blohm for an evening focusing on his work of large format photography. Hosted at a trendy private members in Soho, Oliver gave a presentation and for a few lucky attendees an 8×10 portrait to take home. Alas, I wasn’t one of the lucky ones!
Exploring 8×10 with @oliverblohm @Impossible_HQ and @lightsofsoho.
#impossibleproject pic.twitter.com/Eqq0pkBdr7
— Roaming Required (@RoamingRequired) August 24, 2016
Twas overcast Saturday when we explored the East London street art scene. This regularly changing canvas offers a variety art. Some displayed in our post will last a long time and others will be painted over in a matter of days.
August provides the last long weekend before Christmas. For some it’s time to party in the streets of swanky West London for the annual Notting Hill Carnival.
For us, the long weekend was a last ditch effort to dash to the beaches and escape the city before the long 3 ½ month journey to the festive season. We took off by car to England’s garden county, Kent. Exploring the impressive Leeds Castle, picking fresh raspberries from the vine and exploring the ruins of a medieval abbey were all part of the adventure.
Read more: Weekend road trip to Kent
The Highs
The highlight of August was a date night in London for the Friendsfest extravaganza. A sold out pop-up event focused entirely around the TV series Friends. The show ran for a decade (1994 to 2004) right through our impressionable teen years. To this day we’re both still big fans and happily watch reruns and laugh as if it was our first time. Friendsfest was set up as a temporary structure in a park in East London. Organisers built the set for Monica & Rachel’s apartment with incredible accuracy, Ross & Rachel’s wedding chapel, and an opportunity to star in your own opening credits scene. Hilarity ensued as we meandered around the park loving every minute of the experience.
Social Media
The most popular Instagram for August was this shot snapped in Poznan, Poland earlier this year. The colour of the merchant houses seemed to attract a large following and continues to be a popular favourite on Instagram.
What’s Coming up in September
September will see school go back. Trains and roads will again be consumed with people dropping their kids off at school and making the dash to the office. Museums will quieten down and airfare prices will drop. Horray!!
What’s booked in?
It’s been more than six months in the making, but we finally have tickets to tour Britain’s oldest manufacturing company. They made Big Ben and the Liberty Bell, of course I’m referring to non-other than the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
For a weekend in September we’ve got a fellow blogger friend visiting from the US. Seeing one another on the rare occasion means there’s bound to be some wine and dining around London.
After that we’re heading South to the home of the ill fated Titanic. We’ll be joining Princess Cruises for a tour of their latest ship docked at Southampton, explore Hampshire and hopefully some time at the beach if the sun is shining.
Til next month, Happy Travels!
