ON THE EVE OF MY DEPARTURE

EXPLORING LONDON TOWN

This time tomorrow night I'll be winging my way overseas to London. It's not the first time I've visited London. I've lost count, actually, so it's another of those familiar places that I'm returning to. Last year my sister and niece and I were there and met up with one of my friends who showed us around town, even to some place I hadn't seen before. This time I'm hoping to meet some musician friends, take the Beatles walk tour and a historic pubs tour. I'm trying to keep a literary trend to my trip and will visit a couple of places such as this Fitzroy Pub where Dylan Thomas used to hang out, as well as other notables in the London literary scene. This area around the Indian Y where I will stay, is part of the Bloomsbury Group's haunts. And right across the little park from the Y is the home of Virginia Woolfe and next door, George Bernard Shaw

THE FITZROY PUB
I'll only be in London a couple of days and then I'm heading for Wales to spend some time with my cousins.
During that part of the journey I hope to visit some of Dylan Thomas's old haunts including the boat house where he used to live and write. Of course I will also be exploring more of my family's genealogy and going on a search for my great-grandfather and grandfather's graves. I'll be spending my time in Caerphilly where my father was born and lived until he immigrated to Canada in the early '30's
after the mining strikes in Wales. He had been a coal miner since the age of 14. Many of my father's family were coal miners, and my great grandpa and some of his family died in a great explosion in Senghenydd in around 1904 when my dad was born. I've been to Wales many times and since I grew up listening to all my dad's stories it is almost like another homecoming for me

VIRGINIA WOOLFE'S HOUSE
After I leave Wales, I'll be heading for Germany to spend time with my friend Patrick and his family in Mainz.
And then I'm off to Athens and further adventures on the Greek Islands.

You can follow my journey here as I will post every few days, whenever I can find a web cafe.