UK 2017

It really is over. It must be, I’m back in Wagga, Michelle’s back on the Sunshine Coast and Hannah has been evicted from Tallangatta.

I added a few photos to the Hong Kong post as well, just to round things out.

So, the second day in Hong Kong was more like our usual forays, with some heart stopping timing to catch the shuttle bus for the airport. But first a round up of the early part of the day.

We had a few hours left on our bus ticket and one route untouched. Onto the ferry and over to Hong Kong Island to do the green route. This route winds its way through the city, then heads out of town to Aberdeen and Stanley. We thought that Hong Kong was just a concrete jungle however once you get out of the city proper some of the scenery is spectacular, as were the margins between the bus and other vehicles.

We planned to be back at the ferry wharf by 2pm, so as to have ample time to catch our shuttle bus at 3:15pm. No problems, we were on the first bus of the day and off to Stanley. The weather was very warm and humid so we sat up the top of the bus (in the open) to get some breeze. This tactic backfired when we got caught in a torrential downpour 10 minutes into the trip. Fortunately the return of the heat quickly dried us off.

The Stanley Markets are highly recommended although we skipped them as we didn’t think we would have time to do them, catch the funicular railway (Peak tram) to the Peak and be back at the wharf by 2pm.

Anyway, with the tour complete, it was off to the Peak about midday. The tram only takes about 10 minutes to drag you up a steep incline some 400 metres to the top (to the Peak). Not as steep as the Blue Mountains funicular railway, but pretty steep nevertheless. The views over the city and harbour are magnificent. Well worth the time and effort.

With that out of the way we were down the hill and back on the bus about ten minutes before 2pm. Our timing was looking pretty good. Unfortunately the bus winds its way through the centre of the city in a big loop before heading for the wharf. Normally this doesn’t take very long (longer than 10 minutes though), today was different. Traffic was crawling through the centre of town, damn near gridlocked. We were watching our margin of error rapidly evaporate.

When all looked lost the bus went off route and took a shortcut back to the wharf, saving probably 15 minutes. We guessed he was on a schedule too and probably in trouble if he didn’t keep it. We bolted to the wharf and onto a ferry, getting back to the Kowloon ferry terminal at 3:01pm. Back to the hotel, collect the bags and out the front at 3:14, just in time to see the bus pull up outside. Whew, made it.

Everything else went to plan. A 9-hour flight in 8 ½ hours, no sleep again but no screaming kids either. It was so quiet, or relatively quiet. We were seated at the back of the plane and it is fairly noisy back there. Hard to hear your movie soundtrack even with headphones on.

We landed in Sydney just after 6am yesterday (Saturday). I was back in Wagga around 1pm and Michelle was home on the Sunshine Coast about 2pm. I drove to Tallangatta this morning and collected Hannah, dropped her at Albury airport and then drove back to Wagga again. Hannah arrived on the Sunshine Coast about 8:30pm.

Final observations:

• The UK is a bloody long way away and it doesn’t matter what your clever coping ploys are, the airline seats are still bloody uncomfortable and bum-numbing after 12+ hours
• Emily is loving life in Brighton and although we miss her we’re not expecting that she will be back anytime soon
• I really enjoy driving up the narrow little hedge-lined lanes around Britain, Michelle doesn’t
• Beer in the UK is good, plentiful and cheap – £1.60 for a 600mL bottle in the supermarket there, cf. $4.50 for a 330 mL bottle of the same beer here
• There are a lot of people in Hong Kong, reportedly 7 million in a land area that would roughly equate to the Sunshine Coast (where there are only about 200,000)
• Drivers in Hong Kong are very good. Despite the huge numbers of cars and buses on the roads, pushing and jostling, I didn’t see any with dents. No road raging or even horn blowing. The bus drivers seem to drive with precision and at some speed despite the tight tolerances. 

That’s it. There is no more. Tune in for the next exciting mini-series in 2019 or thereabouts.

Thanks for reading.

Steve and Michelle.

Anyone remember the movie? Starred George Lazenby (Australia’s James Bond) as the bad guy, but was absolutely terrible other than that.

So obviously we’re in Hong Kong tonight. We would like to be checking out the night markets about now but instead we’ll be going to bed (Michelle’s gone), having now gone goodness knows how long without sleep. The flight from Gatwick was fine, no turbulence or anything else worrying – except for the bloody kid behind us. For fully 12 hours this kid yelled, cried, kicked seats and was a general all round pain in the arse. 

“Don’t worry about it” I kept telling myself, “he can’t last all the way to Hong Kong”. He did. Then the little bastard had the temerity to go fast asleep five minutes before we landed. I have never wanted to shake someone so much in all my life. “Wake up you little bastard! No one else slept, why should you?”

We checked into our hotel in Kowloon on the mainland and then found a hop on-hop off bus over the road. We managed to fit in a lap of two separate routes before they finished for the day. We hopped on, but didn’t hop off. The thought of a lot of walking didn’t enthral us, so we just took in the sights and slept through about half of them. One or the other of us was perpetually dozing off.

We have to leave for the airport around 3pm tomorrow (Friday), so we will finish the bus tours and hopefully have a look at the city from the Peaks in the morning. Then it really is over and we’re back home early Saturday morning. This will be the last post before I get home. I might do a bit of a roundup to finish it off on Saturday.

Cheers,

Steve J.

Unfortunately it’s just about that time, it’s the penultimate day in the U.K. 

Slipped off to the Natural History Museum for a couple of hours this morning. It was horrible. The Museum is great, but the crowds were a bit overwhelming. I thought school was back? Where did all these people come from? After wandering through the dinosaur exhibition I was feeling claustrophobic, so we quit the Museum and looked for some lunch. We probably did a third of the Museum in the two hours we were there.

The exhibition on the earth, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc., was really well done. I enjoyed the crystal section too. It was very dark, and very empty. It looked like I was one of the few who was enjoying it. But who wants to look at crystals when there’s dinosaurs?

Onto the express and back to our second home, Brighton. This time we’re staying at the Imperial Hotel, Hove. The view below is from our hotel room window. We have sea views. Can you spot the sea?

We are just back from dinner with Emily at a little Thai restaurant around the corner. Lovely meals. I had the ‘angry duck’. I would be angry too if I knew someone was going to eat me. We have waved goodbye for the last time this trip. Bit sad really. I wanted to pack her, but I already have too much stuff. Besides she is having the time of her life and isn’t ready to leave yet. We will have to come back.

Tomorrow it’s on to Hong Kong, then I suppose I’ll eventually have to go back to work.

Cheers for now,

Steve J

Another short post, with lots of pictures.

In summary, we spent most of the day cruising along the Thames between Westminster and Greenwich, with a break to pore over the Cutty Sark at Greenwich. Plus a walk half way across London, looking for the Old Curiosity Shop, which we found – closed.

We have been using the underground to date, so it was a pleasant change to get on a double-decker bus and head into Westminster. The bus drivers are good, very good. Apart from having much more patience than I possess, they guide these monster machines around places I wouldn’t take a push bike.

Some of the things we spied on the boat. All very interesting, some with no story, some with much history.

And the Cutty Sark, with no captions:

We found it.

Some other interesting photos:

Tomorrow is our last day in London. We head back to Brighton tomorrow afternoon and then fly to Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon. We are nearing the final few posts.

Bye for now,

steve J.

Quiet day, short post.

Apparently I’m not getting the briefcase for Fathers’ Day, so I’ll have to make do with breakfast. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Michelle, Emily and yours truly caught the train to the Elephant and Castle tube station to visit the London campus of the Imperial War Museum. Breakfast first, to chew up a bit of time before the Museum opened at 10am. Free admission, which was a bonus. Very busy, last day of school holidays and a Sunday, not such a bonus.

The Imperial War Museum has some very well curated displays. It is a real contrast to the Fleet Air Arm Museum, which is largely a naval aircraft collection, and Bovington Tank Museum, which is (no surprise) largely a tank collection.

The IWM presents themes with a lot of artefacts and notes, and takes a long time to work your way through. By lunchtime I felt like I had read three books. Great exhibitions though. The Holocaust exhibition is extremely well put together.

We went and found some lunch at 3pm, then put Emily on the train back to Brighton.

The photos from the day aren’t as spectacular as at some of the other sites we’ve visited, but here is a short selection.

 

And just to finish off, this is a hanging basket with a difference.

No post from Friday. We spent most of it travelling. Michelle and I left Llanrhaedr-ym-Monchant about 8:00am and drove all the way to Brighton, arriving around 4:30pm. Traffic mostly okay, as long as you ignore some of the crazy driving norms over here, like overtaking with oncoming traffic if the road is wide enough. I’ll never get comfortable with that one.

Stopped for lunch in Swindon and were mightily unimpressed by the seedy city centre. We visited Swindon in 1989 and went to the Great Western Railway Museum (it’s still there) but don’t recall too much else. I do recall the magic roundabout, five small roundabouts (one at each junction with a side road) arranged around a bigger roundabout. It all seems to work, but I was glad to see the back of it after traversing it on the way in and the way out of town. I won’t be recommending that Wagga install one of these any time soon.

Paid £30 pound extra for a room with a sea view at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton. It definitely had a sea view, complete with seagulls. Was good actually, straight over the road from the Brighton Pier. Dinner at the King and Queen Hotel with Emily then bed, ready for travelling to London today.

Left the majority of our stuff at Emily’s, we will head back to Brighton on Tuesday night and pack it all up and scoot off to Gatwick on Wednesday morning. Dropped the car back to Thrifty this morning, no dents or damage thank goodness. Always a relief to hand hire cars back. Breakfast at the Mad Hatter cafe in Brighton then train to Victoria Station. We have a flat at Chelsea for the next three nights, which is very handy to trains and the city.

Quick trip to Harrods for a look around, then into the city to M&M World to pick up some essential stuff for Amelia. I need to save more money before I can do any serious shopping in Harrods. I liked a briefcase, only £10,000. I suggested that Emily split the cost with Hannah and Amelia and get it for me for Fathers’ Day. I won’t hold my breath.

 

That’s it, you’re up to date. Probably off to the Imperial War Museum tomorrow, then I don’t know what after that. Emily will catch the train back to Brighton tomorrow afternoon ready to start the new school term on Monday.

Bye for now,

Steve J.

A decision has been made. A quick look at the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall just out of town then we’ll check out Crick Castle. Pistyll Rhaeadr is the tallest waterfall in Wales, or something like that. Very pretty as you can see by the photos.

On to the castle.

I’ll let you check out the history of the castle on Google. The Myddleton family (no relation to Kate) lived there for 400-odd years. I do have to register my disappointment with my ancestors for not having the foresight to have purchased something similar hundreds of years ago.

The place is a mix of medieval, Tudor and Victorian. All of it looks good. We wanted to check out the grounds as well, this plan was cancelled when it started to rain quite heavily. We got wet enough getting back to the car. Let’s move on.

Move on we did, to the British Ironworks Centre. I had no idea what it was about. I’m still not sure, sort of a cross between a display of metal sculptures and a garden ornament centre. Anyway, it was bloody amazing and a lot of fun. Enjoy the photos. Happy to share more.

Cheers, 

Steve J

As planned, we chuffed up the line from Llangollen to Corwen today. Today’s duty loco was a steam engine. I thought we got lucky there as they had been alternating a diesel and a steam engine. 

We were in Llangollen in plenty of time to buy our tickets and catch the first train up the valley. Not too busy, not too many screaming kids, beautiful weather. Great scenery, very relaxing. The sight and sound of a steam engine puffing away is a rare treat.

The trip up the valley only takes about 40 minutes, stopping at Berwyn, Glyndyfrdwy, Carrog and Corwen. You can either stay on, or get off and catch a later train back. We hopped off to explore Corwen. 

Some dude by the name of Owain Glyndwr declared himself Prince of Wales hereabouts and squabbled with the English king, Edward II. There was an old stronghold site above town called Pen y Pigyn. Not sure on the correct pronunciation so I called it Peppa Pig. Michelle and I struggled our way to the top, only because a local said the climb was worth it for the views – she was right.

Back into town for a quick look around and then back to the station in time to catch the train for the trip back.

Onto Oswestry for a better look around the town and to get some essential reading supplies. Without Internet we needed something to fill in the evening (we could talk to each other I suppose, but that seems a bit extreme).

Back to L-ym-M and down the street to the Ploughman Inn for an evening meal. Steak and ale pie. Funnily enough the steak and ale comes as a sort of a stew in a bowl and there is a pastry shell sitting on top, which comprises the ‘pie’. Anyway, tasted great with a pint of the local ale (wasn’t enough ale in the pie).

No plans for the morrow just yet, we’ll sort that out in the morning.

Cheers,

Steve J

Don’t ask me to pronounce it, we’re here. We took the main road, this petered out into a hedge-lined lane about 2 metres wide for a good long way, some of it even gravel. You don’t see much gravel in the UK, even the back roads are usually asphalt – except on the way to L-ym-M. No Internet at L-ym-M, so these posts won’t be seen for days.

I’ve also discovered that WordPress crashes and is in danger of trashing your blog if you do anything offline. So hence I’ll only be doing updates when I can upload them. There may be a day or two missing until I do a catch-up.

We handed the boat back this morning after a final hour on the canal. I could get to enjoy narrow boating. It isn’t hard, but it is constant. Whilever you are moving you need to be alert and watching around the next bend, mentally picturing what you will do if you meet a boat. Sometimes you do.

Not too many challenges today – a short tunnel, a few bridges and the picturesque Pontcysyllte Aqueduct to round out the three days. We’ll soon forget the many near misses, bouncing off the canal sides and the need to pull over and clear weeds and rubbish off the prop; we might even forget that the bloody inverter alarmed at 4am and we ran around looking for the alarm, worried that we might be sinking. 

We won’t forget the challenge of working out how the boat operates, the satisfaction of getting rather good at navigating it, nor the magnificent country the canal traverses. 

We drove around the Welsh countryside looking at things the rest of the day before arriving at L-my-M. Dropped into the local pub for dinner tonight to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. This (dinner) turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. Nothing wrong with the food, just that almost everything listed on the menu wasn’t available. The publican kept apologising that with the long weekend and it having had been a busy weekend, they had run out of everything and hadn’t yet got new deliveries.

Tomorrow we are off to the Llangollen Railway for a trip up the valley. Should get some great photos as I don’t need to steer.

Cheers.

Okay, so as I said, today was a bit like yesterday in reverse. Even had more hot air balloons to start the day. It must be a great view, not that I’ll ever know.

Breakfast on the boat, plus a quick dash into Ellesmere to grab essentials (toilet paper). It looked like it was going to be a very bad start to the day when all the shops were shut because it’s Bank Holiday Monday, fortunately a corner store was open and we could sail off with one less worry.

Easy run until we hit the first lock, then an hour plus wait while each boat made its way through. Much easier coming up in the locks, as I didn’t have to pull in to the bank to collect Michelle. She could step straight onto the boat once it came up. That manoeuvre is a bit harder when it’s going down as that first step is about 10′ high.

Pretty easy going again until we got back to the 469-yard-long Crick Tunnel. The boats were queuing three deep in the waiting area while boats came through from upstream. Another hour spent studying the landscape and surrounds. While we waited we learnt that the couple on the next boat came from Eastbourne, down near Emily at Brighton, and that their daughter is living at Mooloolaba and studying at the Sunshine Coast University. Small world.

We’re parked up again now. We have an hour or so to run in the morning to deliver the boat back to Trevor.

Photos are still dodgy, so there are none for the moment. Never mind, at least the whole blog wasn’t destroyed, which is what I thought had happened last night.

Cheers.