Back in England

Stayed in Guisborough with Helen (Andy’s mother-in-law) who thoroughly spoilt us all – not that we were complaining!  Spent a day exploring the nearby west coast. Whitby - where Captain Cook was born.  Very picturesque and has the ruins of a beautiful Abbey and yummy fish and chips.  The abbey became the renowned backdrop for Bram Stokers Dracula making Whitby the Goth capital of Britain.  Bet you didn’t know that!  Visited several other quaint villages.  One called Staithes had an Arts Festival on, where people hosted artists in their homes.  Saltburn had a display of knitted figures depicting various Olympic sports attached to the railing of the pier done by the ‘mysterious secret knitters’.  Very clever.

Bid a sad farewell to Helen and headed south across the edge of the Yorkshire Moors stopping at Rievaulx Terrace and Castle Howard, where Brideshead Revisited was filmed.  What we loved about this place, apart from being quite spectacular, is that it is lived in by the family who have their own private apartments.  The rooms that we saw had family photos scattered about and are used either by the family for entertaining or for functions to help raise the 2 million it takes to keep Castle Howard going.  Mind you they do own five villages and huge amounts of farmland which is tenanted which also bring in income.

York: Rain again but you get that.  The UK has had the worst summer for 100 years so we have been pretty lucky with the weather so far.  Once again Nick and I have seen York at its best weather wise so not to worry.  Lots to do at York where you can dodge the rain anyway.  York Minster, Northern Europe’s largest Gothic Cathedral with its stunning stained glass windows was our first stop.  Followed by a walk around part of the wall and then a visit to ‘The Shambles’.  Jorvick – the interactive, multimedia museum that has recreated the original Viking settlement that gave York its name was next.  My personal favourite was the York castle Museum that has the last 400 years of York’s past from the civil war to the 60s.  Lots of rooms dressed as they would have been in various time periods, a Victorian Street complete with sound effects, a section on the swinging sixties and the York castle Prison.  A great day out despite the weather!

Hay/Straw Bales

These huge cylinder shaped bales lie like statues on the golden grass everywhere in the paddocks of Europe and the UK.  Are they never to be collected and find a home in a snug warm barn?

Rest of Scotland

Stirling Castle – Just had a 12 million pound renovation of the Renaissance palace built by James V.  This was the childhood home of Mary Queen of Scots.  Once again an introductory tour by a guide – another Frank!

The Whiskey Trail - From Pitlochry we took the scenic route across the Cairngorm National Park - the majestic Highlands with their steep heather and bracken clad hills.  Very cold (6 degrees though it did warm up slightly).  We hooked on to ‘The Malt Whiskey Trail’ and visited the Glenfiddich distillery whose tour ended with 3 tastings and it was free!  Not often you get a Scotsman giving you something for free.

Speyside Cooperage.  Just down the road from Glenfiddich.  One of those little gems you sometimes find when travelling.  The only working cooperage in the UK.  Exhibition boards, a movie and then we watched the coopers at work and had an ex cooper explaining what we could see on the shop floor.  Very interesting – the history and the coopering process.

Culloden - Quite an emotive site.  Over 1,200 dead in less than an hour as the Jacobean army supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie was crushed.  360 immersion movie, detailed exhibition boards recounting the sequence of events and then a battlefield tour with a guide

Heading south – From Inverness we travelled down Loch Ness where we visited the ruins of Urquhart Castle which overlooks the dark waters of the Loch.  Scottish weather finally caught up with us as it rained steadily all Thursday as we drove past Ben Nevis (shrouded in low cloud), through Glencoe (where the famous MacDonald massacre took place), down Loch Lomand then around the coast at the Firth of Clyde to Dumfries.  However, like Southland, Scotland is still beautiful in the rain.

Friday dawned cool but sunny.  First stop Gretna Green – obligatory photos. Went to a great museum while the others had coffee. It gave the background to formal marriages in Scotland and England and the role of Gretna Green in elopement.  Hand fasting was still legal in Scotland until 1940!  Next we worked our way down Hadrian’s Wall stopping at Lanercost Priory, Birdoswald Roman Fort and Housestead Roman Fort.

Since Canal Boating we have:

Lake District – made a flying visit – Windermere cold, raining and really the first miserable weather we’ve encountered since April.  Both the Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth museums closed.  Well of course they would be – it was Friday and no one visits the Lake District on a Friday! So we headed north travelling through the pretty villages of Ambleside and Grasmere.  Fortunately Nick and I have seen the Lake District at its best – in fine weather.

Carlisle Castle – a frontier fortress with a colourful history including the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots and the Highland soldiers from the Battle of Culloden.   A brilliant military museum.

Scotland So Far:

Edinburgh

·         Edinburgh Castle.  Another mighty fortress and past residence of the Scottish kings and queens.  Today it is the home of the Scottish crown jewels and three military museums.  Introductory tour by our witty guide Frank then we spent all morning exploring.  A very impressive castle

·         Royal Yacht Britannia.  The royal families floating residence.  Something really different.  We had access to all areas of the ship, from the queen and prince Phillips simply decorated rooms, various crew quarters to the stunningly dressed dining area that had entertained politicians, other royalty and captains of industry.  I was amazed at the huge number of staff required when the queen was on a royal visit.  They even took a band.

·         The Real Mary Close – the hidden warren of streets buried beneath Endinbugh’s Royal Mile that have remained ‘frozen in time’ since the 17^th century.  Our guide did the best with the material she had to work with but the rooms would have benefited from being dressed and not leaving so much to the imagination.

·         Rosslyn Chapel – made even more famous by ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Very ornate stonework and like all these building has a fascinating history attached.

Canal Boating

Couldn’t get our boat till mid-afternoon so we visited Chirk Castle just over the welsh border.  Once again different from other castles we have visited previously.  Built to defend the Welsh border in 1310 it was later converted into a home in the 17^th century.  They had to hollow out 15 feet of stone from the internal walls by hand. (Labour was cheap in those days). Loads of staff who were happy to chat and provide inside details and quirky facts about the various rooms and their contents.

Canal boating:  After receiving operational instructions followed by a quick lesson we were off.  I know they’re called long boats but I was surprised how narrow they are. (Ours was just over 2 metres wide and 60 foot long).  All the mod cons – microwave, TV, two toilets shower and radiator heating (just like school).   We successfully navigated two locks (fortunately we had several boats ahead of us that we could watch and look and learn from).  We then cruised a bit then moored for the night.

Day 2 – We continued our journey crossing back into Wales and over our first aqueduct (the Chirk) completed in 1801 the through the 420 metre Chirk Tunnel.  The countryside was very scenic – green and mostly farmland.  Our second aqueduct was The Pontcysyllte, the highest and longest aqueduct in Britain.  One side of the trough has no protection and you feel as though you are suspended in mid-air.  It took 10 years to build and opened in 1805 so you can see that they’ve been around for some time and is a testament to the engineering skills of the day.  As we continued on towards Llangollen the canal became narrower – just wide enough for one boat so one had to be patient queue and wait your to turn to proceed.  We moored that night at Llangollen and treated ourselves to a pub meal of pie and chips.  Michelle had a curry which you can get with ½ and ½ (1/2 rice and ½ chips – why? Beats me!).

Day 3 -  Ater a substantial feed of mushrooms on toast, thanks to Nick, we headed into town and visited Plas Newydd – a home owned by two aristocratic ladies who formed a ‘deep attachment’ and after two attempts to elope together started a new life at Llangollen in1778 with their maid.  Quite radical for the times.  They turned the it into a gothic styled house with ornate wood carvings and stained glass windows (much of it recycled).  The ladies eccentricity captured the imagination of Regency society and they were visited by many famous personalities from the era including Wordsworth, Duke of Wellington and Sir Walter Scott.  We then started retracing our journey stopping mid-afternoon for a bevy and a wander through Tretynant to stretch our legs before again crossing the Pontcysyllte aqueduct.  

Day 4 – The following morning we continued retracing our journey.  Back through the Chirk Tunnel then we moored and went into Chirk for supplies.  We sampled the local savouries, checked out the church wandered around the graveyard.  Next we recrossed the Chirk aqueduct, navigated the two lock and continued on into new territory travelling as far as Ellesmere.  Once again we sampled the local brew and had an excellent pub meal.

Day 5 – Up early as sadly our canal boat adventure was nearly over.  We turned around and boated back to our starting point.  We had a great time and met lots of interesting people along the way.  Though in no way are we experts, our canal boating skill did improve and we only put a few extra scratches on the boat.  

                                           Another narrow bridge on Dartmoor

                                                    Wells city and cathedral

                                                                              Bath

 

                                                 House of the Ladies of Llangollen

                                                         Crossing the aquaduct

 

                                                                   Our canal boat

Cornwall

We ‘holed up in Newquay and hired a car having decided not to try and squeeze our 6 berth camper down Cornish roads

Lands End – exorbitant parking to check out the view

Geevor Tin Mine.  Closed in the 80s. Even had to wear a hard hat.  Aunty OSH is the same in the UK!  Very informative.  I’ll be a mining expert by the time I return.

Picturesque fishing villages.  St Ives, Hayle, Penzance and Padstow – Rick Stein and Chalkies stomping ground.  Loads of eateries and craft shops.  We dined on scones, jam and clotted cream – a very yellowy substance.

Port Isaac aka Port Wen.  Michelle and I had our photo taken outside Doc Marten’s cottage (of course).

Boscastle – the site of the horrendous 2004 floods which swept many buildings away.

Lots of touring down narrow roads (thank goodness for our hire car)

Tintagel Castle or rather ruins.  By this time mist had rolled in from the sea and swirled around obstructing our view of the ocean.  Made it mysterious and Celtic.

Caught up with friends in Bude who took us to a quirky local pub perched on the edge of cliff.  Lots of fun.

Falmouth, another fishing village and home to Pendennis Castle. A very different castle as it was built by Henry V111 specifically for defence and therefore only inhabited by military personnel.  In has been used by various monarchs and the government to protect the 3^rd largest deep water harbour in the world until the 1950s.  NZ soldiers trained there in WW1 before setting off to Normandy.  Once again we scored a guide all to ourselves who walked us through the castle’s colourful history and took us down to the bunkers.

Michelle and I visited Lanhydrock – a Victorian country estate (think Downton Abby) while the boys went off and did the grocery shopping!   It is designed to show the contrast between the elegant world of the family and the servant’s rooms and work spaces.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  Although the last owner had nine children, only one married and there was no male heir to inherit so the last owner bequeathed it to the national trust.

 

Somerset

Wells Cathedral – amazing scissor arches (yes they look like scissors hence the name) and the oldest clock with a face with a suns, moons and knights on horseback doing their thing on the hour.

Bath – Of course we ‘took the waters’ after our tour of the Roman Baths.  Once again an audio guide and cunning use of holograms and film sequences to dramatically reconstruct life at the Roman Baths. So much better than last time where we just wandered around.  Next we dragged the boys to the fashion museum (yes I can hear all the male friends groan sympathetically). In our defence it was free with our Heritage card.  Checked out the Assembly Rooms with their beautiful 18^th century chandeliers.  I could just picture Regency society milling around, drinking champagne and women dancing in their muslin gowns.  Very Jane Austenish!

Wales – to catch up with family, have a bit of down time and give the van some TLC.

Drove from southern Wales northward across the Brecon Beacons then crossed over into Shropshire ready for our canal boat adventure.

                                               Widecombe on the Moor, Dartmoor

Mount St Michael , Penzance

                                                                  Boscastle

                                                                           Port Isaac

                                                     Port Issac (Doc Martin country)

                                                                               Bath

                                                                     Batchelor farm

                 Village on cornwall coast where we had pub meal with Johnathon and sally

                                                             Salsbury cathedral

                                                     flower market (21 million flowers per day)

                                                  sunrise on english channel

 

 

 

                                                                        Gent

                                                          Bar in amsterdam

                                                                    Amsterdam

Update from Kent

We bid a sad farewell to Europe and closed the door on that part of our journey.  More adventures to come with the UK and Ireland before heading home via Dubai.

Wind Farms

They’re everywhere in Europe.  Standing like statues on the horizon.  Huge, alien like structures silently surveying their surroundings. Call me paranoid but I think they look sinister.  I expect them to transform at any moment, sprout limbs and stomp over the countryside causing havoc and destruction.

England so far – we have visited:

·         Battle near Hastings – scene of the 1066 confrontation between William and Harold which was to transform the country for ever. Excellent audio guide enabled us to relive the events of the battle.

·         Brighton – No visit would be complete unless you wander along the pier, check out the fairground thrill rides, peer into the noisy arcades and sample the greasy takeout food (well Greg did, Nick and I had Cornish pasties from the bakery).  We also visited the ‘Royal Pavilion’.  Once again they provided an excellent audio guide.  I love this exotic pleasure palace of George 1V with its flamboyant Indian style domes and Moorish minarets and lavish oriental themed interior.

·         Day out on The Isle of Wight visiting Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s seaside retreat.  Very different from her uncle’s Pavilion – a family home.  Cool bathing machine complete with a WC.

·         Salisbury Cathedral – highlights modern font with its overflowing water that reflects the stain glass windows and checking out the Magna Carta (one of 4 originals still in existence).

·         Crossing Dartmoor on a bleak misty day – very ‘Hounds of the Baskerville”