Glen Fitzgerald Taxi Tours

09/07/2025

Thought it was about time this got a dusting down and and ready for Friday’s BST in Hyde Park. Neil Young ….the soundtrack of my life. A day off from providing personalised first class taxi tours in London to see this living legend in London on Friday. .com

12/06/2025

It’s always nice to provide a tour when guests have been recommended by previous customers or they return as repeat customers.
Bernie, from Sacramento, had been given my contact details by a family that I had taken on a tour over three years ago.
His request was “to see as much as possible” with an accent on London’s rock and pop music connections.
Despite the long transatlantic flight from California, Bernie, his wife Debbie and family were very enthusiastic, and thrilled that we managed to pack so much in, even finding time to walk the famous Abbey Road crossing. A great mix of iconic landmarks, historic shops of St James’s and as requested, some rock ‘n’roll🎸🎶🎵

05/05/2025

BADLANDS BUT GOOD TIMES
Rounded off our South Dakota Road trip with a drive through The Badlands National Park. Stunning scenery. Vast plains, rugged rock formations, big blue skies.
One of my great pleasures in life is visiting the National and State parks of America. Whether large or small, they are invariably well run. The staff, many of whom are volunteers, are always helpful, informative and passionate about their jobs. They truly are a national treasure.
Badlands ticked all the boxes. I have been fortunate enough to have completed a number of American road trips over the years and this South Dakota trip is right up there with the best. Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, Badlands, the town of Custer, the base for our tour, will all have an affectionate place in my memory. Visiting just before the summer hordes arrive towards the end of May, has been a real bonus with sparse crowds and next to no traffic on the wildlife drives. What also keeps the crowds down is the fact that “there ain’t no easy way to get to South Dakota” according to Tennessee Jet( see link to Spotify playlist at the end of the post).
The closest decent sized airport is Sioux Falls in the east of the state, a six hour drive to the hotspots in the west. The Interstate 90 is long, straight and pretty featureless, travelling about 450 miles through the prairies, the only highlights being The Corn Palace in Mitchell and crossing the Missouri River at Chamberlain. But the drive is still worth it as
the pay off is the fantastic scenery of The Black Hills of Dakota. The whole trip has been a blast. Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17YuQb6lllS1Whn5UVH3oL?si=46AqDfNfRWGsxpHq0p_OMQ&pi=FfzWySzLTmyM1. # Glen Fitzgerald.londontaxitours

30/04/2025

Today was all about a work in progress.

A short drive from us, today we visited The Crazy Horse Memorial “the world’s largest sculptural undertaking” according to the foundation that is responsible for managing the project.
Work was started way back in 1948 and current estimates vary between thirty and fifty years until the work is likely to be completed.
As it is an ongoing construction site, it was a little disappointing not to be able to get closer to the memorial. Around twenty people are employed full time, to work on the site, and another eight workers are taken on during the summer months. So getting up close and personal to Crazy Horse Memorial whilst the work is ongoing is out of the question.
We were given a brief, guided bus tour with a chance to take our photos, albeit from a safe distance, and to marvel at the scale of the work involved.
The whole story of the inception of the project is a fascinating one, The idea for the monument originated with Chief Henry Standing Bear, who sought to honour Native Americans with a memorial as grand as Mount Rushmore. The monument was initially planned to be a tribute to all Native Americans, but it became focused on Crazy Horse after Korczak Ziolkowski, a Polish immigrant from Boston was selected as the sculptor who was tasked with bringing the monument to life.
But the construction of the memorial has been controversial, and was not greeted with universal approval.
Some Lakota people, including descendants of Crazy Horse, consider the monument an insult as it was carved into what they view as sacred ground, whilst many complained that the project lacked the necessary Lakota cultural consensus before the work began.
But begin it did, and the project became the life’s work of Korczak and his wife Ruth. Many of their ten children and grandchildren are still actively involved in the sculputre today.
Tomorrow we are off to Mount Rushmore where we are hoping to get much closer to the action🤞

30/04/2025

A lot of research goes into planning a road trip. Choosing places to stay along the route can be time consuming, but necessary. Sometimes, despite reading and evaluating reviews from the plethora of on line platforms, you can still get it badly wrong.
Take The Hansen Inn and Cabins, near the small town of Wall on Interstate 90.
A while back, looking at a few possible hostelries in South Dakota, I immediately swiped left when I saw the location of The Hansen with the towering silos dominating the skyline so close to the motel. Who on earth would want to stay there? But yesterday, seeing the Hansen up close, when passing through, I actually wished I hadn’t been quite so hasty, and stayed, at least for one night, to admire the shimmering silos in all their majesty against the big blue South Dakota sky from my humble abode.
Sometimes the absurd just works!
The whole small town of Wall is dominated by what started life as a drugstore back in the 1930’s and is now a very touristy megastore, selling cowboy apparel, souvenirs, Native American artwork etc. Walldrug, as it is named, dominates the Wild West style Main Street, enticing visitors by offering free iced water and coffee at 5 cents a cup, as well as boasting an enormous cowboy styled bar and restaurant.
The iced water was very welcome after a long drive, and the 5 cent coffee went down a treat.
We still had a few hours drive ahead and eventually arrived at Custer just in time to hit a snow and hail storm that made the last half an hour of the drive very challenging. A feature of the weather here is that it changes so dramatically, and so quickly. Had we stayed by the silos, we wouldn’t have got caught in the damn storm!

28/04/2025

13/07/2024

Had a lovely day today as part of my 70’th Birthday celebrations. Thank you so much to the Morley family for treating us both to afternoon tea on the famous Bluebell Railway in beautiful East Sussex. A very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon

06/07/2024

One of the many reasons I love living close to London, the greatest city in the world, is that I am able to provide first class London taxi tours to travellers from all over the world.
Another reason is that when the top bands are touring, they invariably stop off in London to perform. “The Killers” are playing for seven nights at The O2 Arena, and on Thursday I was lucky enough to see them on the first night of their London tour. What a performance by the band, and what a front man Brandon Flowers is, a true showman.

01/07/2024

Lynda and her husband from California had already seen a number of London’s iconic sights during their stay in London. My remit was to fill in any gaps and ensure they hadn’t missed anything before their flight back to the U.S tomorrow. The St James’s district and the Royal Albert Hall never fail to impress.

27/06/2024

After giving a tour in sultry London yesterday, I spent a lovely evening at Cecil Sharp House in Primrose Hill, watching a concert by Dom Flemons, known as “The American Songster” If you are interested in the roots of American folk music then Dom is the man.
A multi instrumentalist, songwriter and great storyteller. My wife and I saw him at a concert at The James Museum in St Petersburg, Florida last year, so when I found out he was playing in my home town I had to see him perform again. Thanks Dom for a great night out.