Month: September 2015

Last day in Salisbury. Last days are coming thick and fast now, with only a week to go before we are on an aeroplane back to Australia. Depressing.

We visited Stonehenge’s little brother today, the Avebury stone circles. You might need to look that one up on Google, as it has much better overall views of the circles than I could hope to provide. The site is less spectacular than Stonehenge to view on the ground but is every bit as interesting given the size of the site and the number of stones. Apparently it’s also much older. 

For your edification, Stonehenge isn’t a henge. A henge has the ditch on the inside and the mound on the outside. Avebury is a henge. Stonehenge has its ditch on the outside and mound on the inside. The world is full of fascinating contradictions, isn’t it?

 

 
Okay, let’s get to Bath. Only 32 miles and an hour later we are in Bath. Like me you have probably heard stories about how little people travelled in the ‘old days’ and how most people “never travelled more than 20 miles from their home their whole lives”. I now know why. It takes you most of your life to travel 20 miles. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love these little narrow windy roads and lanes. To me it’s a novelty. Just don’t expect to get too far, too fast. A 100-mile drive is not a walk in the park, it’s about three hours on a good day (ignore the obvious contradiction with the previous paragraph, that was hyperbole). That three hours is full on in terms of required concentration, number of gear changes and need for brakes.

But back to Bath. What did we do? We looked at the Roman baths, what else. Another very good experience, with a very well designed exhibition. The original thermal spring that supplied the baths in Roman times is still running today and still supplying the same baths. Still warm too. Not a lot else to say, they are baths after all.

 

 
Tomorrow we head for Wales and the next rugby game. Wales take on Fiji at Millenium Stadium at 4:45pm tomorrow and I’m hoping for a closer game than the corresponding fixture in 2011. I was in Hamilton, New Zealand for that one and poor old Fiji were on the wrong end of a 50-point thrashing.

All for now, Steve J.

Okay. So we are in Salisbury. Where else would we go besides Stonehenge when in Salisbury? Nowhere, so we went there. 

The monument people do a pretty good job with their interpretive centres, making the whole thing an experience, rather than a wander around a bunch of rocks. It is a rather imposing collection of very large rocks and not surprising that it is a popular spot with tourists. 

 

 
The weather has been excellent on this leg of the trip. It rained the first day we arrived in London and has been fine since. Perfect for the outdoorsy stuff.

More old broken stuff after Stonehenge, with a trip to Old Sarum, the original site of Salisbury before someone decided to move closer to the river and build a cathedral there. Old Sarum never recovered and Salisbury never looked back.

 

 
Late lunch, saunter around a market, collect the washing – has to be done even on holidays – and back to the farm to regroup. Filled in an hour with a stroll down a country lane looking at the quaint cottages, picked some blackberries and reflected on life (just ate the blackberries really, but reflecting on life sounds cool). 

 

 
That was pretty much how the day went. Emily and I went out on a late sortie to view the regimental badges carved into the hillside (hard to explain, see the picture).

  
Tomorrow, Avebury and Bath. 

Until then, cheers. Steve J.

P.S. Added some photos to yesterday’s post.

Today’s fare:

• Battle of Hastings (which wasn’t at Hastings)
• Brighton Pier (which is at Brighton)
• Visit to the English version of Horsham
• Arrived Salisbury for a stay of 3 days

Not enough time to fill in the details. I’ll edit this post in the morning.

The details.

Battle is about 10 kms north of Hastings and is where the battle actually took place. Strange isn’t it? Waterloo wasn’t fought at Waterloo, Agincourt didn’t take place at Agincourt. The world is full of oddities. 

Today there is little more than the remains of the abbey William the Conqueror built to mark the battle, plus a sheep paddock. Still fairly amazing to walk around it and soak up the thought that something major happened right there. Try not to step in the poo though, that’s not the sort of thing we want to soak up.

 

 
Brighton Pier is kind of gross. Sort of a gaudy Luna Park come penny arcade. Interesting to look at and we can say we have been there. No need to ever return, especially after the local council relieved us of £13 for 2 hours in the car park. Ticked off the list.

The detour to Horsham added a fair bit to the length of the day. We wanted to see what the English version looked like, after living in the Australian version for 10 years. It was pretty unremarkable, which may be unfair since we didn’t see too much of it and didn’t stay long.

 

 
Then off to Salisbury.

Off to bed now. Steve J.

A straight forward day with not a lot to comment on.

Spent all day romping in and around Dover Castle. This is a very large site, with a myriad of things to see. The site ranges from the Roman Pharos (lighthouse), to the medieval keep, Napoloeonic defences, WWI anti-aircraft defences and the WWII tunnel complex. Being a Sunday, we were treated to re-enactors putting on a display with the WWI AA gun.

 

 
Without describing the whole thing in detail, that’s it.

Dover is 45 miles from Hawkhurst and the drive to/from Dover was an interesting ramble through country lanes and small villages, with a bit of motorway thrown in.
More tomorrow, Steve J.

Fairly quiet day. Emily and I took the bus into central London first up to pick up our hire car. Fortunately the roads were very quiet and we got back to the apartment without incident. 

Getting out of London was hard work. It was supposed to take about an hour to get to Hawkhurst, a little village in Kent. It took three. Traffic was very stop-start out of London. Then we made the mistake of getting off the motorway at Tunbridge Wells for lunch and a toilet. After tangling with the local traffic for half an hour we got back onto the motorway without either.

Lunch finally at the Royal Oak Hotel in Hawkhurst, then we ducked off to Bodiam Castle for a quick look around. This was the first ‘real’ castle that Michelle and I saw on our 1989 tour of the UK. We didn’t plan to see it, the castle turned out to be only a few miles down the road from where we are staying. We got caught out a bit as we thought it was one of the ‘free’ sites on our English Heritage pass. It wasn’t. Bugger.

   

 

We are staying two days in a little farmhouse a couple of miles out of Hawkhurst. Very nice, the girls are taken with the old claw-footed bathtub. Tomorrow’s provisions will include some bubble bath.

Nothing more to report. Bye for now. Steve J.

The itinerary is being gradually chipped away. Another milestone today, with our last day in London. Last minute souvenir shopping has been completed. Tomorrow morning we pick up the car and head off into the countryside for two weeks.

We hunted as a pack today, starting off with a walk by of the parliament buildings at Westminster and Big Ben. Then onto Westminster Abbey. Michelle and I visited this on our last trip in 1989, surprising how little I remembered. I admit that although I am heartily sick of abbeys and cathedrals,  Westminster’s unique historical aspect, with all the kings and queens entombed there (along with its record of coronations, weddings, etc.) makes it just a bit special.

 

 
Then onto the Churchill War Rooms. Another rather different attraction. Emily and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Michelle and Amelia are a bit over the history. 

The afternoon was filled in with a long walk taking in Buckingham Palace,  the Marble Arch, Hyde Park and the Princess Dianna Memorial (most unmemorable). We split up at this point, Emily and I taking in the Science Museum for a couple of hours, while Michelle and Amelia popped into Harrods to do ‘real’ shopping. They didn’t buy anything.

 

  

 
 

 
The last act in London was a visit to M&M World at Leicester Square. I didn’t realise such a thing existed. It is great. It’s only a shop, but very entertaining nevertheless. This sort of cultural experience only comes along once in a while. You can even get your own name printed onto M&Ms. We didn’t, but you can!

   
 
Enough said. Steve J.

Bit of a rude awakening this morning after a very late night. 

 

 
The girls went off this morning to see Harry Potter World, or whatever it’s called. It’s a fair way outside of the city so they needed to get on the move. Harry and his wizard mates didn’t appeal to me so I headed off to the RAF Museum at Hendon. This was a fighter base during the Battle of Britain.

The site claims it has over 100 aircraft. I didn’t count but I reckon they’ll be on the money. I won’t go into details, since most people can’t tell a Messerschmitt 109 from a Gloster Gladiator. I arrived a bit after 10am and left at 4:30pm. Even then I feel that I only skimmed it. I have only posted a couple of essential photos.

 

  

   
I had only finished Bomber Hall by lunchtime, which is about half the main exhibition. The WWI hall and the Battle of Britain display turned out to be museums/displays in their own right.

The best thing? Most of it, although the walk through the Sunderland flying boat was especially good and a chance to be a bit interactive, similar to the HMS Belfast tour yesterday. Seeing the Vulcan bomber in the flesh was awe inspiring too. The wing on that thing is massive.

The worst thing? Finding my way there, as the directions to the place provided by Apple Maps were pretty ordinary. More long walks through unfamiliar surroundings wondering where I was. Should be used to it, decided to wing it on the way home and caught random trains and buses until I got there. That was easier.

All from me for now, Steve J.

Guest bit on Harry Potter (by Emily J)

Mum, Milly and I headed off bright and early this morning to make the long journey to the London Warner Brothers’ Studio Tour (FYI it’s not really in London, but in Leavesden). Luckily, public transport to the studios was super easy, with an extravagantly decorated double-decker shuttle bus transporting people to and from the nearest station.

 

 
This tour is huge. The studio lot takes you behind the scenes of the making of all the Harry Potter films and contains countless props, costumes, set pieces, and behind the scenes secrets. Suffice to say we were thoroughly amused spending the majority of our day (10am – 3pm) within it’s walls.

I could spend days doing laps of the place. There is just sooo much to look at and so many behind the scenes secrets to uncover. Not to mention a whole load of fun photo opportunities.

   
   
   
 While it’s super hard to pick a favourite part as it was all so insanely awesome, if we absolutely had to pick these were our answers.

Milly – loved it all, but was especially enthralled by the expansiveness and novelty of the gift shop (there’s a surprise).

Mum – most fascinated by all the behind-the-camera action that we learnt about towards to the end of the tour, including the special effects make-up and prosthetics, the electronics and engineering behind the mystical creatures, and the set construction processes.

Me – the prop and set collection at the very beginning of the tour. It was huge, and so well laid out. Being able to see all of the original costumes and props was almost sentimental in a way.

Emily J.

Officially I have missed a day with the blog, as it is now 10 past 12. We are not long home from the rugby. Game was good, seats were great, right on halfway, 9 rows back. Getting there and getting home again was a bit tedious, but you don’t want to hear about that.

Too late to write much, so – summary of the day:

• Went to RWC shop to get stuff we didn’t get yesterday
• Found a Starbucks and had a decent cup of coffee
• Picked up our London Passes, which give free (not exactly free, since we paid for the card) entry to lots of stuff
• Went to Tower of London for free
• Did over the Tower Bridge for free
• Rummaged through the HMS Belfast for free (loving this card)
• Saw France down Romania in match 11 of the RWC.

That’s it. That’s the blog for Wednesday. I’ll leave you with some pictures. Some very special pictures that I know ewe will enjoy.

Steve J.

  

 

   
 

And some slightly less interesting views of London:

  
  
 

 

Well, funnily enough, yes it is. But not much, and you would expect it to anyway, so no problem.

Yes, we are in England! Not a single problem with catching the train from Brussels. At the station in plenty of time, no issues. The trip to London from Brussels takes about two hours, which is pretty snappy.

The channel tunnel is fascinating in concept, but the ultimate bore – no pun intended. The moment you enter it’s pitch black until you come out the other end, so absolutely nothing to be seen or to marvel at. Fortunately that bit only takes about 20 minutes or so (might have been longer, or shorter – I wasn’t paying much attention).

We got off the Eurostar train at Kings Cross, caught the Picadilly line to Heathrow to collect Emily, then back to Kensington to find our apartment. That takes 2 minutes to write and about 3 hours to do. 

 

 
Next order of business was to find the Rugby Shop to get kitted up. We also checked out some typical London stuff, caught a big red bus, popped in and out of a telephone box. The usual. Not a lot really. 

 

 
Tomorrow we have a full itinerary, lots of tourist stuff. Michelle has put her foot down. No bloody museums. Looks like I won’t be seeing much of her. Plus tomorrow night is the first rugby game of the tour – France vs Romania. Kickoff is not until 8pm, so with a bit of luck we’ll be home by midnight.

All for now,

Steve J.

Yes, finally made it to see the site of the Battle of Waterloo. It was one of the milestones in my trip, nearly missed it though. It was another one of those days that makes for a good blog post but a harrowing day.

First up I thought, let’s get out of Brussels to see Waterloo while we’ve still got the car and we are allowed to drive it. That was the first bad news of the day when we discovered someone had smashed the car window to break in. Fortunately we had left nothing in the car, but with glass everywhere and no window, it wasn’t really drivable.

While the girls shopped, I walked over to the Hertz place and they said “no worries, drop it back and we’ll swap it over for another”. The 2 kms between the apartment and Hertz was a drive the likes of which I don’t want to repeat again in a hurry. I told them they could keep the car. It was due back tomorrow morning anyway.

It was lunchtime by now and we still hadn’t got to Waterloo and now no car. Some research turned up a #365 bus that goes from the train station in Brussels right to the battlefield. We found the bus without too much trouble and hopped on. 

The driver asked where we were going and where we were from (without really being able to speak English). We settled back and had probably the most exhilarating bus ride experienced for a while. An hour of precision driving followed, missing parked cars by inches, until we got to Waterloo. The bus driver let us know that the next stop was the one we wanted (my research hadn’t been too thorough on where to get off, just where to get on).   

Visited the brand new and very impressive underground museum, which was finished in time for the 200th anniversary in June, so very new. Climbed the Lion Mount memorial and marvelled at the view, after we got our breath back.
 

 

What now? Home. Any idea how we do that? No. 365 bus I suppose. Where do we catch it? Let’s try over near where we got off. Any idea how often they run? Ah, might be on the hour, not sure. We can always walk back to the train station, that’s only a couple of kilometres.

Sometimes things do work out. The bus stop was where it was supposed to be, and no sooner had we got there a no. 365 arrived. And who was driving it? Our mate who dropped us off a couple of hours previously. He seemed pleased to see us. We were very pleased to see him.

What did I mean by the blog title? Check out the modern day Waterloo below. Amelia has been flabbergasted and horrified with the open air urinals dotted around. I think it is etiquette to not drop your pants while using them though. Amusing, but hardly hygienic. As you can see, they are well used, overflowing in fact. 

And so ends the continental leg of the trip. It’s on the train tomorrow for London, where we meet up with Emily, and the start of the real excitement – Rugby World Cup 2015.

Here we come Blighty,

Steve J.