SealsInEngland2004

This is a digital reproduction of a hand-written travel journal I kept during our family trip to England in June/July 2004.  Photos from the trip are in SealGalleries, here.  Lisa, Martin and Claire each kept their own journal, and one day I will add them to our site.

Sun, June 13/04 – Day 1

Let the tour begin!! After a rather long flight (about 9 hours including a 1 hour stop-over in Halifax – of all places) finds us in London. Arrived on time at 7:10 am, all quite tired. Claire had about 3 hours sleep on the plane, myself the same, Martin an hour and a half and Lisa an hour. The energy levels were flagging.

At Gatwick we hopped a short 1-minute train ride from the gate to the man terminal and found the ticket booth for the Gatwick Express – the train from the airport into Victoria Station in the city. £70 lighter we headed to the tracks and jumped right on the waiting train. It’s a half hour ride into the station and Claire and I sat on the sunny side of the train (it was a bright sunny day in London – hope we see lots of them on the trip!!). The sun flickering through the trees on the ride in seemed to suck our already-low energy levels some more. 

Arrival at Victoria Station saw us about 2 ½ hours early to be able to pick up our keys for the flat so we decided to have something to eat at the station. Our first meal in England?? McDonald’s!! Pancakes for Martin, two hash browns for Claire (“I’m not hungry”!!), and a sausage and McMuffin for me. Lisa passed on the McDonald’s and had a quintissentially English….. bagel with cream cheese! 

Since we were early, we decided that we’d save on a cab and brave our first tube ride with all our luggage. luggage. Didn’t take too long to figure the fare needed to get us to a stop on the Circle Line – Notting Hill Gate – which was not too far on the map from the hotel where we were to pick up our key for the flat. So we were off!! Got the right train headed in the right direction first time trying. Damn we’re good! The train was quite quiet – but it was Sunday morning after all. I’m not sure I would have wanted to lug all our packs and luggage onto the Tube if it had been a rush hour morning. 

Arrived at Notting Hill Gate after a relatively short 15 minute ride. We began our hoof to the Kensington Hilton – it didn’t look too far or the map and we seemed to have all gathered a second wind. After a bit of walking, we arrived at where we thought the hotel would be – only it wasn’t there. I asked the directions at a corner store and discovered it was only a bit further on than we had gone. We had just been figuring it was a different “H” on the map.

After picking up the key from the hotel concierge we figured if we had made it that far on foot that the flat was only just that far again so we could walk. Well, I guess our second wind gave out because it seemed and felt a lot longer! Martin was so tired he tripped and fell a couple times. But we made it! 20 Cambridge gardens, flat 20C. Our flat was on the second floor of a long row of houses facing … tube tracks and an elevated road!! Actually, there is a bit of a park as a buffer, so it isn’t really too noisy or terrible looking. It had two bedrooms, (each with two twin beds), a tiny bathroom, a living / dining room and a small kitchen you walk up six steps to get to. All together, small but cozy. 

After dumping our gear, a small nap was in order. Just an hour or so, then we would head out for something to eat. While I half expected not to wake up for at least 12 hours, we actually did rouse ourselves after about 1-2 hours. Claire, who “wasn’t tired”, was of course the most difficult to get going.

So feeling only slightly more refreshed, we headed out to explore a bit and to pick up some food for dinner. We headed down Portobello road, which was just at the corner of our street. There was a small bazar/garage sale thingy going on right on the corner (books, clothes, records, cds, jewelry, etc) and lots of stores and people all along the street.

We sauntered up one side (stopping at the Woolworths for Martin to pick up an England soccer flag) and then back down the other, stopping at the Tesco to pick up some groceries. Well, I don’t know if Sunday is the big grocery shopping day or what, but it was a zoo in there! Combine that with the fact that due to our sleep deprivation we had a hard time really thinking what we needed, so we just ended up getting something for dinner that evening and for breakfast next morning. Then back to the flat for some vegging in front of the boob-tube. I took another neighborhood reconnaissance stroll down Ladbroke Grove to Notting Hill and back again, only almost getting lost (these curving roads throw my directional senses way off!!). 

We had dinner (pizza for the kids, which Claire didn’t like and didn’t eat – what a surprise – and steak and stuff pie for us, along with salad), bathed the kids, then everyone off to bed.

First day in London, not much of a sightsee, but we didn’t expect it either. Just catching our breaths (and circadian rhythm) for the weeks ahead!!

Mon, June 14/04 – Day 2

The day dawned bright and early 9:30 a.m. for me!! Not a bad rest – 9-9 – interrupted only by Martin waking a couple times in response to some of the local nightlife – someone wailing outside our window.

A quick breakfast for us (bagels for Claire, nothing for Martin and Martin’s bagel for me) and we were on our way. We walked down to the Ladbroke Grove Tube Station – a 3-minute walk from our flat – and figured out the best (read: cheapest) approach to Undergrounding for the day. A family pass for the day – good on all tubes and buses – for £7 something. Then we boarded the train for Hammersmith, with a transfer (above ground and outside the station it turned out ) to take us to Knightsbridge station. Our first destination was Herrod’s Department store.

The world famous Herrod’s – department store of everything, and especially toys (at least for me and the kids). I was a little surprised by the store layout – a bunch of “themed” rooms. Each one led to another. Perfume, jewels, watches, clothes, food stuffs. The toy department was on the 4th floor, and we rode the lift up. It was spread among three or four rooms, with lots of different stuff for all ages (Claire found a walking pig she had to have, and Martin got some goalkeepers gloves). We then picked up something for Lisa F back in Toronto (who really just wanted a Herrod’s bag) and moved on. All together, it really wasn’t that impressive.

Our next stop was lunch. Trying to find something that will satisfy our two children is proving so far to be quite a challenge. We went to the cafeteria in Hyde park, which had a limited selection of sandwiches, salads, and stuffed potatoes. Martin decided a salad was all he wanted and Claire chose a hummus pita wrap. Well, of course, she took one bite of hers and decided she didn’t like it, and Martin ate about half of his salad. Both ended up eating an extra half-baguette of bread I purchased while Claire traded her hummus for Lisa’s fresh fruit salad. I had an egg and Watercress sandwich, which was decent.

After lunch, we crossed from the corner of Hyde Park to the Wellington monument, then continued down the road to Buckingham Palace. We took a few pictures of the two guards and the palace and then hightailed it on towards Westminster Cathedral, which was Lisa’s real main stop of the day. The cathedral is quite  imposing and large from the outside, and just as humongous from the inside. The visit involved walking around the many rooms and reading who was buried or memorialized there. It was quite neat seeing the final resting place of numerous kings, queens and other historical figures. I must say I was kind of taken aback with how the whole place was partitioned up into a bunch of smaller rooms. I had expected a large open space, like many of the churches I remember from Italy. A guided tour to take in some of the details would have been great but surely would have tested the kids. So we made do with our own tour.

After the cathedral, we wandered down the road to take in Big Ben and the Parliament buildings. We took a short break in the park next to parliament, viewing the Thames and relaxing on the bench, then walked back along the river (after a Claire bathroom break) to Cleopatra’s needle. It was most interesting to me to read about the scars on the monument and Sphinx’s surrounding it and how they were caused by a bomb dropped by German planes in 1917, than the monument itself. That’s me I guess. Anyway at this point, the day was getting later so we hopped on the tube at Charing Cross and headed back to the flat.

Once back, we stopped at the Food & wine to get some dinner essentials, which for the kids consisted of lasagna (a hit for MJ, Claire ate most) and for us rice and curry chicken (all microwave stuff but decent). After dinner we went for a walk around the block to wear us out some more – because we hadn’t walked enough that day – then went home for bath and bed.

Our second day in London was a hot, sunny day and we saw lots of stuff and covered much ground. Enjoyable, and tiring. Looking forward to more tomorrow!!

Tues, June 15/04 – Day 3

Welcome to day 3. Day three of what feels like a whirlwind tour of London so far. My images of what a tour of London would be like are somewhat different than how it has been. But I think it is totally to do with my expectations, which are just different than reality. I somehow had in my mind a vision of small London streets, British people, and fun strolls through the “Old Town”. Well, London is no old town, and is a very busy city, with a constant stream of cars, buses and people. It is very busy everywhere!! It almost feels like crossing any street is an exercise in crossing the 401 at rush hour.

Well, I think we finally acclimatize ourselves to the time difference. We all got up  fairly easily at about 8:00 a.m. and had breakfast that all of us could agree on. Se then set out on our adventure of the day. 

First stop was the Tower of London. Our first brush (or maybe second, after Westminster) with the tourist trade. We arrived at about 10:00 a.m. and already the place was crawling with tourists. Upon entering, we joined up with a 1 hour guided tour, just starting. I recall having a Beefeater guided tour when I was here last and learning a lot about the place. But because of the fairly thick accent of the beefeater, and the kids attention span (which in fairness, if you are not understanding the words, would wear thin quickly on me too) we decided to branch out on our own. Lisa bought a book so we had enough information to make the visit interesting enough for the kids I think. We saw all the highlights including the White Tower, the crown jewels, the Bloody Tower, and the Traitors gate.

It’s interesting but it was not at all how I remember the tower when I visited previously. I have this picture of a more isolated, different place. but it wasn’t the same. Interesting, yes, but different. and the place is far from isolated, surrounded on three sides by busy roads and modern buildings.

After the tower, we walked our way over to the Museum of London. A very interesting (and quiet) museum detailing the history of London from pre-Roman times to today. It is hard to imagine original peoples living in movable huts on the banks of the Thames where currently jumbo jets are taking off all the time (Heathrow is the site of a lot of archeology from the 4000-0 BC period). A very interesting museum, and I’m very surprised there weren’t more people there. 

After the museum, We hopped the tube down to the embankment station, to take a ride on the London Eye. Once again we saw the tourist trade in full action – long lines and tons of tourists. Funny how when you are one, you don’t want to see them or be associated with them. Seeing as it was close to 5:00 p.m., and we had plans to see a movie that night (see below), we (the kids) decided to forgo the Eye. So we made our way across the bridge (Westminster Bridge) and got back on the subway headed for Kensington High street.

Before the movie, we needed to eat dinner. Here we go again. Fortunately (???) there was a Pizza Hut near the subway station, and since we needed a fairly fast meal anyway, Pizza Hut it was. Kids satisfied. Us? Well, we can eat pizza, even if we would rather be sampling something else.

After dinner, and once we were given directions to the cinema by the waiter, it was off to see Harry Potter 3. The Prisoner of Azkaban. Woohoo!! Well, it was all right, and the kids enjoyed it.

We arrived back at the flat around 10:00 p.m. and the kids were put off to bed. Very little problems!!

Another day. Tomorrow, more of the same – but different. Hope the weather holds!!

Wed, June 16/01- Day 4

Another beautiful and sunny day dawned bright and early. We were on our way at 9:30 a.m. sharp – just late enough to give us the cheaper family rate on the tube. Our first destination of the day – Greenwich.

We took the tube and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) there, which took about an hour or so. Seemed an awfully long time. Upon arrival we headed straight for the Maritime Museum. A nice little tour of that museum – interesting history of UK Maritime history – we hopped on the “Road Tram” to the top of Greenwich Hill. We were going to walk, but the train was there and waiting, so on we hopped. 

At the top of the hill is Greenwich observatory. Before our visit, we had a quick lunch at the cafe on the hill. Claire enjoyed her pasta while Martin forced down his cheese sandwich without much complaining.

A tour of the observatory included the Harrison longitude clocks. Neat to see the clocks I read about last summer. Assorted other clocks and telescopes rounded out the visit. Then it was back down the hill to catch a boat back into the city.

After the tube ride out, we decided to take the boat back up the Thames into the city. The ride gave me an appreciation for the distance we traveled to Greenwich. It was a nice, long ride along the Thames with great sights all along the banks the whole way. Traveling under the Tower Bridge gave a great impression of its majesty.

Upon arrival at Westminster docks, we headed off to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Trafalgar Square was an impressive open space, with the huge Nelson monument. A few pictures later, we headed into the National Gallery.

Another free attraction (I wonder how long these places are going to remain free) that had lots of paintings covering the 1200→1900s. None of us – including Lisa – we’re really in the frame of mind to spend a lot of time viewing however so we only spent about 1/2 to 3/4 hours there. We then headed across the street for a quick peek at St Martin’s-in-the-Fields (there was a choir practice going on) and a small market beside it.

Since we were going to be visiting with some friends for dinner that evening, we thought it best if we had the kids eat a bit of something beforehand, just in case.  We stopped at an authentic Italian restaurant, and the kids scarfed down an entire cheese pizza in about 5 minutes flat. I think they were hungry. We still had time to kill so Covent Gardens were close by so we headed over. Claire enjoyed seeing the place where Eliza Doolittle plyed her trade. Otherwise, it was a pretty touristy place (though I must say that on our walk over, we walked through some narrow, quieter streets that made me feel like we were in the real London (see my earlier thoughts on day two)). It was time to head to Fahim’s so we made our way to the tube at Covent Gardens and took the lift down to track level. According to a sign, there were 193 steps down had we decided to take the stairs.

We took the tube to Fletchley Road, which is where Fahim and Mo are located. They have a flat on the second floor on a nice residential street. We had a nice visit and caught up on things (Fahim and I worked together at Consumers Gas for a number of years). They made us a lovely dinner and strawberries and cream for dessert.

We said our goodbyes and headed home around 9:30 / 10:00 p.m. Pretty late for the kids. They did very well with our visit considering they didn’t know anyone.

Tomorrow, our last full day in London, will be another adventure.

Thurs, June 17/04 – Day 5

Well, I woke up to sunshine, but this is the first day since we’ve been here that we had more clouds than sun. In fact it was quite cloudy and cool at times during the day, but there was no rain. And the cooler day worked out just fine since my shorts were still drying from the washing (and rinsing, and washing, and rinsing) that they got the evening before. (no, it wasn’t because they were really dirty or stinky, but because we were figuring out how to use the stupid washing/drying machine). So I was wearing pants. But enough about my clothes!!

Today on our agenda was Madame Tussauds, Temple church, and the Tate museum.

First stop (after breakfast – of which Claire would not eat her hot cross bun because they tasted like cinnamon – it’ll be interesting to see if this continues as a theme throughout the trip) was Madame Tussauds.

I barely remember visiting this tourist trap when I was in London as a kid, and I remember it being okay. I remembered walking through aisles and looking at the wax figures, some of which were familiar and some of which were not. I remember it was an orderly line of people. This is not how it is now.

Upon paying the £70 entrance fees (which did not include the Chamber of horrors/serial killer section – which is extra – and I’ll have more on this later) we took an elevator to the entrance, whereby you are inundated with loud music and flash bulbs, pretending you are some celebrity stepping out of your limo. We then entered the first hall of figures – celebrities. 

At the entrance, there were only a few people buying tickets and I figured we were early enough that it would be quiet. but I sure got that wrong. The place was jammed with teenage kids from what must have been a hundred tour groups, each one of them trying to get pictures of themselves with the wax celebrities.

We pushed our way around with the kids, pointing out who each of the figures were. There were numerous other sections with sports figures and historical and political figures, and each was just as jammed.

We got to the Chamber of Horrors/Serial killer part, and went through the bypass. At the entrance to the museum, a sign had indicated that this section was not appropriate for kids under 12, and we told Martin we would not go in that section. I think he was quite disappointed, because he had been excited about going and visiting the chamber. But at the same time, I think he was a little relieved that he wouldn’t have to get scared. But the whole way through the rest of the museum, I could sense his disappointment. I’m not sure that even if it hadn’t been so packed with people and we had been able to have a little look at the rest of the  exhibition, he would have been any less disappointed. As somewhat of a consolation, at the gift shop, neither Lisa nor I tried to talk him out of buying a severed hand. I think that made him feel better.

Overall, Madame Tussauds is one of the most expensive riff-offs I have ever been in. Even the meager planetarium show at the end of the tour didn’t make up for the patheticness of this attraction. I think I was also disappointed for the kids, as they – especially Martin – had been looking forward to this visit. Anyway, we put that behind us and moved on.

We picked up a couple of coffees and headed to Regents Park, which is just behind Madame Tussauds. It gave the kids a bit of a chance to play in the playground, and for us to plan our next attack.

As it was getting close to lunch time, we figured we would walk down to Oxford Circus and find somewhere to eat along the way. We walked, but found nothing, and eventually reached Oxford circus. With no prospects in sight, with great reluctance, we settled on a McDonald’s in the area. I really hated going there, but trying to find somewhere where the kids would both eat anything, and given the time, it appeared to be the only choice. Eating at a McDonald’s in London made me feel like an American. But I’m an adult, and I can get over it. and the kids did eat. 

So our next order of business was the Temple Church. Claire had been asking to ride a double decker for ages, so we thought why not now. The buses in the area all headed more or less to where we were headed, so we hopped on one of the old double deckers and ran up to the top. We got seats right at the front of the bus for the 15 minute ride to Westminster. We all had fun bumping around and seeing the streets from level two.

At Westminster we hopped off, and headed to Temple Church. I guided us through some of the small back lanes and alleys, and once again felt like we were in the “real” london.

Temple church, which is the old church of the Knights of Templar, is a small (by London Church standards) church buried behind and among some more modern buildings. It was a beautiful and simple church, with effigies of some of the old knights in stone on the floor.

Since it didn’t take us long to visit, we figured we would head to nearby St Paul’s Cathedral before moving to the Tate.

We arrived after a short walk, but found that they were closed to visitors until 3:15, about an hour wait. So we decided we would just take a walk around the outside (and a brief visit to the Crypts beneath which we didn’t explore because they were charging) and then took the Millennium Footbridge across the Thames to take in the Tate.

After crossing the bridge, we took a slight detour to circle the Globe Theater (which, once again we did not tour as the £25 fee seems steep) and then visited the Tate modern museum. It sure was a change from the National Gallery, and I think the kids enjoyed it more too. One of their favorites was the exhibit showing the various and sundry items that were recovered from the Thames in front of and across the river from the Tate – everything from plastic jugs to walkmans to glass and china to cow’s teeth. Martin liked the teeth, and Claire liked the plastic Tasmanian devil.

We were all getting tired and aching feet again, so we didn’t spend as much time as we probably would have liked. We walked back across the bridge (after Claire donated some coins to a homeless man which she was determined to do) and hit the tube again. We decided we’d head for home and pick up something to eat there along the way. But first, Lisa wanted to email Mom and Pop so we hunted for an internet cafe around Notting hill. A bit of searching (and asking) and we found one in some kind of ethnic mall/indoor market. After satisfying our technological needs, we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some pre-cooked chicken and assorted fixings and headed for home. 

So that was our last full day in London. It hasn’t exactly been what I envisioned, but only because I think I had seen London through the eyes of someone much younger before. We saw lots of great things, and I think we all enjoyed our stay. There’s lots more stuff to see, but that will be for another time.

Just waiting for the laundry to finish its last load, then it will be off to bed. Tomorrow will be a new adventure – driving on the wrong side of the road. I hope I’m ready!! 

Fri, June 18/04 – Day 6

Our last day in London – actually, not really a day as we are heading out to pick up the car and head out of London. Didn’t start out well. We were all ready to leave and found that we couldn’t unlock the door!! The security lock at the bottom of the door would not open. Lisa called the flat owner and he said he would be over in 15 to 20 minutes to let us out. While we were waiting I fiddled around with it some more and suddenly, click, it opened. We were free from our prison flat! What to do now? Do we wait for the owner or head off? Lisa wrote a note explaining that we were able to open it, then we disembarked. We headed to the tube station with all our bags in tow, and I thought why don’t we take a taxi? Claire had said she wanted to take a taxi ride anyway, so we waited on Ladbroke Grove outside the tube station to flag down a taxi. Well, we waited for a while with no success but just as we were resigned to take the tube, a taxi arrived. So we flagged him down and hopped in for the ride to Victoria station.

When we arrived at Victoria, we knew exactly where to go as it was the same place we had been upon our arrival 6 days ago. We took the lift down to track level and voila, there was the Gatwick Express waiting for us. We hopped aboard the first door, stowed our bags and in 10 minutes we were off!

An uneventful half hour later and we arrived at Gatwick. Now, our next adventure was to find out where to go to pick up the car. Follow that sign! The “car rental” sign that is. Down a couple ramps and we were on the street level along with the throngs from the airport. The kids and I parked ourselves while Lisa scouted out the possible pickup point. 

She found it not too far away and we tried down, only to find the dollar shuttle bus right there. second good timing of the day! We were off to pick up the car.

We arrived at the rental office and filled out the paperwork and waited for them to bring us our car. Martin and I watched the staff member walk out to the lot. Among the cars, there was a red PT Cruiser. I said to Martin, “do you think that’s ours”? Sure enough, that’s the one we had rented. I think that made Martin’s day.

Now for the fun part for me! Check the mirrors, figure out the controls, load everyone in and … time to go. Pulled out of the lot and on to the “right” side of the road – by that I mean the left side of course – and so far so good. First round-about – approach cautiously – then dive in!! Whoops! Ran the left wheel on the curb! Still need to get used to the width, along with the overall feel of the car, and at the same time driving on the left, shifting with my left hand, and checking my rear view mirror on my left! A lot to think about, as you are trying to get to the motorway!

But we made it to the motorway with minimal problems and I started to get more and more comfortable on that side.

Since it was after 12:00 (closer to 1) already, we stopped at a rest stop on the side of the motorway for a bite to eat. As usual, someone didn’t eat much – this time it was Martin. Then back on the road again.

We drove past Stonehenge on the way to our first real stop in Salisbury. We had planned on a nice walk in the town, but got lost once in the town. We ended up in a parking lot for the grocery store!! So instead of trying to figure out where best to go, we decided to head back to Stonehenge for a visit – a couple days earlier than planned. Didn’t take us long and we were there.

Well the stones were somewhat smaller than I had imagined, it was a very majestical sight. We walked all around and listened in on our audio tour. Even Claire listened to hers. The day was perfect. Sunny but with lots of puffy clouds in the sky, warm but with a cool breeze. We spent about an hour walking around and taking pictures. all in all, quite an impressive sight

Then it was back to the car and off to check into our motel.

The route to the motel – in Tiverton – took us through a small country road. It was very windy, and very narrow in spots. Lots of fun to drive, but I think Lisa was kind of nervous. Only brushed the passenger side mirror on a couple of hedges! Won’t say I wasn’t a little nervous myself sometimes – and certainly glad we didn’t meet anyone oncoming on some of the very narrow stretches. But we made it without incident. I find the toughest thing now – after a day of driving – is making right hand turns. It’s still a little weird making a right turn and crossing traffic.

Well we had planned on taking a trip into Exeter after we checked into the motel. It was getting rather late, so we stayed and had a meal at the Little Chef beside the motel (Claire’s turn not to eat). We then turned in early, ready for tomorrow’s exploring the English countryside.

Sat, June 19/04 – Day 7

We were all up fairly early today. We all went to bed around 10:00 p.m. last night and since we’re all in one room, if we want the kids to go to bed we pretty much have to turn out all the lights (though I’m writing this currently sitting on the loo! No I’m not going to the bathroom only sitting on the toilet with the seat cover down). We were all awoken last night around 1:00 a.m. or so by some loud guests in the hall, but otherwise had a good sleep.

We were up early as 1) we didn’t have to wait until 9:30 for the cheap tube tickets to go on sale; and 2) we had lots of driving to do to get to our first destination – Tintagel.

Tintagel, a small town on the cliffs overlooking the ocean in the county (??) of Cornwall was the mythical home of King Arthur (or birthplace at least). On a rocky Peninsula jutting out of the water high up into the air, are the ruins of an old castle and village. While the actual date of the castle has been put at the 1200’s and therefore is well after anytime Arthur would have been there, the myth lives on. And the castle was built on top of ruins of other buildings, of which little is known.

It was a wonderful sunny/cloudy day – fantastic for visiting this location. We spent an hour or so on the “island” (which is reached by walking up a fairly steep Stone staircase along the side of the cliffs) and then walked down to the beach and explored some caves. I believe the kids enjoyed themselves. We then hiked back to the town and enjoyed a lunch at a pub. Cornish pasties for Lisa and I and chicken nuggets for the kids. First meal I think they both enjoyed! After a bit of gift shopping, we hopped in the Cruiser to head to Exeter.

The driving today was again lots of fun. Windy, twisty, narrow roads between the hedgerows. And I am now quite comfortable on the left side. (Though one note about the car – it is very difficult to get into reverse! Very annoying at times).

We arrived in Exeter around 3:00 p.m. and parked the car. Our first destination was to be the cathedral, however, a service was in progress so we could not go in. Instead we walked up the main street and had a tour of some underground passageways. The passageways were initially built in the 1400s to house lead pipes which had been built to pipe water into the cathedral in the city center. It was a fairly short and rather unsophisticated guided tour. The kids really enjoyed it – especially when they got to walk down one of the very low tunnels by themselves

After the tour, we went back to the cathedral to see if we could get in but it was closed once more. we had to suffice with looking at it from the outside.

It was time for dinner so we settled (after some argument from Claire) for a Greek restaurant. Martin had calamari, Lisa a greek beef stew dish, I had chicken kabob, and Claire had… chicken nuggets. Oh well, at least everyone enjoyed their meal again.

It was then time to head home on the motorway. I’d say we covered about 150 to 175 miles today, and saw some nice sites. 

Sun, June 20/04 – Day 8 – Fathers Day

Today, we packed up and left Tiverton, our home base for the past 2 days (well, night’s actually, at the Travelodge, and it wasn’t really Tiverton but seven miles outside Tiverton off the main M4 motorway). Up early again, we loaded up the Cruiser and headed for Glastonbury. It was about a 45 minute drive, and we arrived just in time for a first rain shower.

We were a bit early for a tour of our first destination – Glastonbury Abbey – so we kept ourselves occupied and out of the rain having coffee, Coke and hot chocolate in a little cafe across the road from The Abbey entrance.

The rain let up just before we finished and we headed across the street. The Abbey is actually the ruins of the old Abby built in the 1100s and taken down in the 1500s with the Dissolution. Some towering walls remain, but they are not much when compared to what the place was like originally, which we could see in a model in the visitor center. 

We spent an hour touring the ruins and the grounds, during which time much of the clouds cleared up and a significant amount of sunshine came through. After the abbey, we started our hike up to the tour, a large mountain right in glastonbury. It is a rather strange looking sight, as it seems to just rice suddenly from the plains.

We hiked up some small side streets, through a pasture or two, past grazing cows and alongside some country lanes before the main ascent up the steep side.

After a good solid climb, we reached the very breezy top, where stood the remains of a church which was built on the summit. I can’t imagine that the parishioners in those days looked forward to Sunday services! A short stay at the top and we were on our way back down the more gentle South slope.

Walking back to the car park, we ran into the return of a parade we had seen earlier, which according to the information center people was a parade for the new mayor.  Our next destination, down more of those narrow squiggly English roads, was Cheddar, and Cheddar Gorge.

Upon arriving, we first stop at a pub to partake of our daily lunch ritual – try to find something for the kids. They were happy with their chicken teddies and chips, while Lisa had a plowman’s lunch and I a steak and Guinness pie. Mmmmm.  We picked up some grocery staples at the grocery store afterwards, and headed for the Gorge.

Driving into the Gorge, it had a very touristy feel to it – lots of little gift shops and people lining both sides of the street. We found a place to park, and once we found where to buy the parking ticket (from the guy with the orange vest across the street) headed to see the caves.

The first cave we explored was Gough’s cave – named after the guy who first explored it back in the late 1800s. It’s the cave where the skeleton of Cheddar Man was discovered. This is a self-guided tour using those audio “wands” which winds its way through some large caves fairly deep into the rocks. There are some stalactites, stalagmites and calcite “waterfalls”. Interesting, but not overly impressive. And I’ve seen a few caves in my day. Those audio “wands” are neat though as they allow you to go at your own pace, and listen to what you want. And they had special commentary for the kids, which both Martin and Claire followed and enjoyed (though Martin took some of it a bit too literally). The main downside to them relative to having a live guide is that you can’t ask questions. 

After Gough’s cave we walked down the road a bit to enter Cox’s cave (a relative of Gough’s).It was a smaller cave (both in width and length) and included a hokey “Crystal Quest” which involved saving the good by reaching the crystal. Both kids enjoyed this cave more! We left Cheddar Gorge after that, making our way to Bath.

I’d always pictured Bath as being close to the ocean, but it is in fact nowhere near. The town looks quite different than I imagined. It took us a bit of driving back and forth to find the hotel, and then the parking lot since we didn’t have a decent town street map. But we got there. Once checked into the Bath Travelodge (£25 a night!!) we moved the car to the long-term parking lot and looked for a place to eat. I don’t know if it was just because it was a Sunday night, but the place was pretty dead. We settled on a Pizza Hut, mostly cause we were tired and the kids needed feeding. Then it was back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Tomorrow – exploring Bath. 

Mon, June 21/04 – Day 9

It was a bit of a fit for Sleep Last night. Though I was pretty tired after all the exploring, and walking up the Tor, 9:00 p.m. (or so) is too early to be going to bed. I was waking up every couple of hours or so, first to listening to Claire grinding her teeth and farting, then to the seagulls outside our window making their racket (don’t birds sleep at night?), then by whatever. And I was having weird dreams all night, indicating I wasn’t in too deep a sleep. Still, I didn’t get out of bed until about 8:00 a.m. and both kids were already awake. As I had my shave, I looked at my hair in the bathroom mirror and thought it was getting pretty long. It had been about 3 weeks since I last cut it, and that is about as long as I usually let it go at home. I didn’t have my hair clippers with me, but I do have my mustache trimmer on my razor. So what the heck.

It started out okay, but before I had even finished – or made a decent job of – the front of my head, the trimmer stopped working. I briefly considered using the shaver itself, but thought the better of it. When Lisa and the kids got to look at my butcher job, they decided I was a football hooligan and Lisa would not be seen with me. So my first task, after putting some money in the parking meter for the car, was to find a Barber of Bath. 

I wandered up and down the streets of town looking for somewhere to fix up my disaster. Having no luck (even the hairdressers I passed were closed), I thought maybe someone at the tourist information center might know where I could go. So over to the info center I went. Well, I’m slowly realizing that English businesses are in no hurry to open in the morning. Even the tourist info center did not open until 9:30 a.m. and it was still 9:20 a.m. So I wandered around some more – not veering too far from the info center. Finally, at 9:30 a.m. on the nose, they opened their door, and I was in even before they had put out their sandwich board.

Realistically, I was only holding out for a less than 50% hope that they would know somewhere. I mean, how many times can they have been asked where a local barber is? As luck would have it though, one of the girls knew of a place not far away, and with directions sent me on my way. I almost missed it, but did find it in the end, and Carmine was able to fix up the botch job I had started. And he didn’t even ask how it happened. So that was the start of my day. 

Back at the travelodge, Lisa and the kids have been cooling their Jets watching tv. I made it back before 10:00 a.m. though – as expected – and we set off on our way to explore Bath.

The first destination was the Royal Museum. We walked across the park to a semicircle of row houses, where the museum was located. On arrival, Lisa read the hours, and discovered it didn’t open until 10:30 a.m. it was 10:20. So we cooled our jets for 10 minutes looking at the stately row houses. At last (for Martin), 10:30 arrived and we were back at the entrance. Still, the door wasn’t open. We heard someone else say something about “not open Mondays” and when Lisa looked again, sure enough, closed on Mondays. Strike one.

So we moved on to our next site – the Assembly Hall and Costume Museum. The Assembly Hall was an old meeting hall in Bath where socialites of the 1760s to 18??s used to socialize. When we arrived, a big sign on the door notified us “not open until 11:00 a.m”. It was 10:40 a.m. Strike two.

So, where to next? Lisa wanted to visit the Jane Austen museum, and we figured the kids definitely would not enjoy that. So we decided Lisa would go by herself, and I would take the kids to the Postal Museum, which we had seen down the street from our hotel. We agreed we would meet back at the Assembly Hall at 11:30 a.m. So off we went our separate ways.

The kids and I trundled down the road and arrived very shortly at the museum. What did we find?? Not open till 11:00 a.m.!! Strike three, we were out!! And to top it off, it started to rain ( nothing heavy, just a light shower).

As a consolation (at least for Claire) we decided to find somewhere we could get a hot chocolate (and a coffee for me). We discovered a small coffee shop a short walk away, and headed in. Claire got her hot chocolate, I got my coffee, and Martin? He coveted a big piece of sticky chocolate cake. What the heck, after our morning of disappointment, I let him have it. We stayed there about 20 minutes or so, then moved on to rejoin Lisa at the Assembly Hall (which was open by now!).

A quick tour of the Assembly Hall (not really that interesting – we could only go in two rooms anyway) and then we visited the Costume Museum. We weren’t going to go there originally, but since the Royal Museum – where people dressed in Period costume – was closed, we decided the Costume Museum would be consolation. It was interesting looking at the exhibits – all real, original dress dating back as far as the early 1700s and up until the present – and seeing the changes in fashion through the centuries. It had one of those audio wand tours. It was also interesting to see how changes in clothing style have been much more accelerated in the 1900s than previously. But perhaps that is just perception. In any event, Martin was getting bored, so he and I exited and waited for Lisa and Claire.

Our next stop was the Pulteney Bridge – a bridge over the Avon River which has shops on both sides. This was kind of a dud, since the shops were few, and uninteresting. So, on to our next.  Another Abbey.

The Bath Abbey, one of the central attractions in the city, was crawling with tourists. It is a beautiful big abbey, right in the heart of Bath, with lots of plaques and memorials on the walls and the floors dating back to the 1700s. We had our wander through (we may be getting tired of Abby’s) and moved on.

Destination 6 was the Roman baths – the highlight of the Bath visit. It was fascinating to walk through and see the baths that had been built by the Romans 2,000 years ago. While not quite being like the picture I had in my head, they were neat nonetheless. And I think the kids enjoyed them also. We spent about an hour there, once again with an audio want assisted tour. (Forgot to mention that our lunch was at the French Brasserie – the cashier was a Canadian from Montreal).

After the baths, we wandered a bit south, and picked up a hair dryer replacement for Lisa – hers  died that morning. We then visited an internet cafe to catch up with our email, and transfer some money. For some reason, I could not access our line of credit account from the bank machines here, so I transferred some money to Lisa’s account.

We then headed back to the hotel for a bathroom break before heading out again for a short walk, and dinner. Dinner was at a hotel close to the Abbey which had a menu very similar to that of Greenjeans or Grumps. The kids were happy with their pizzas, I with my penne polo alfredo and Lisa had an okay salmon. It was then back to the hotel for the regular bath, story and bed. After putting the kids off to bed, I decided it was still too early to go to bed tonight, so I went to the pub next door to watch/listen to the end of the England/Croatia football match (Martin has this latest obsession with the Euro Cup, which I admit is starting to suck me in too), which they won, and write in my journal.

Being now complete (the match, today’s journal entry, and my two pints), it is time to turn in. But not without another short amble through Bath?!? 

Tues, June 22/04 – Day 10

Today we Departed bath. A better night’s sleep as the birds weren’t as noisy as last night. Our first stop of the day was a little town about 45 minute drive east of Bath – Avebury. It’s actually a little less than a town – a village really. Avebury is situated in the middle of a ring of stone circling it. The stones are a fair bit smaller than those at Stonehenge, and a lot of them have been removed or buried. We walked around the mound circling the town and through the grazing sheep. A neat site to visit, but apart from the stones, nothing else to see here. I was actually surprised by the number of people that were here. When we arrived there were only a few cars in the parking lot. but when we left, after lunch at the local pub, the lot was quite full. Maybe not as popular as Stonehenge, but for a smaller, lesser known site still quite busy.

After Avebury, we were on the road again. Our next destination was the Veil of the White Horse. This is an image of a horse which has been carved in the top of the hillside, down to the chalk bed. It’s about the same vintage as Stonehenge – 4,000 years old.

We drove up a very narrow winding road to the parking lot at the top of the hill and parked the Cruiser. There were only three or four other cars in the lot. From there, we hiked over a large field at the top of the hill (felt like I was Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music). Crossing a small road, we then hiked up to the top of another hill which had the carving. From above the horse, you can’t actually see much of it, but you do get an appreciation for how large it is. It is maintained by the locals who have a supply of chalk nearby and keep the white horse clean. For many years, and even today, there are celebrations every few years where all the locals get together on the hill and have a party and clean the horse. Sounds like fun (and the sheep take care of maintaining the grass).

From the top of the hill, we hiked down the steep path to a small hill and plateau just below the horse. We thought this was the site of the old castle, but it turns out that it wasn’t. Legend has it that it was the site that St George slayed a dragon. As it was getting later in the day, we didn’t have time to visit our other intended destination of the day, another castle. Instead we headed for our hotel in Cheltenham and had dinner at the attached restaurant. By then, it had started to rain a bit. (Oh, forgot to mention that on our way to Cheltenham, part of our journey – only a small part – involved a trip on the M5 Motorway. Just as we got on, we came to a standstill. An accident a little further up the motorway had closed it down completely so for about 20 minutes we sat unmoving amongst all the other cars and lorries on the road). It was an early night again for all of us. 

Wed, June 23/04 – Day 11

The morning in Cheltenham dawned gray, windy and wet. it was our intention to see… the laundromat today!!  We were down to our last bit of clean clothes so we needed to do a couple loads.

Originally, we thought that we would do the laundry in Cheltenham and then head for a visit to stratford. Lisa thought that instead that we should just go to Stratford, find a laundry there, then visit the town. so we were off.

When we arrived in Stratford, it was still wet, windy and gray – only more so. We had trouble locating the laundromat that was on the map in our Lonely Planet guide, so we just parked the car in a lot and looked to find the tourist info center. But we were in luck! We turned the corner after parking the car, and there was a big sign on a building for a laundrette. Bingo! We checked it out, I got some coins from the bank on the corner, and went back to the car to get the laundry. While Lisa and Claire started the laundry, Martin and I popped over to the internet cafe (which happened to be only a few doors down) to catch up/cleanup emails. Claire, Martin and I then made a quick trip through Stratford to scout out a lunch spot.

When the laundry was done, we had our lunch at a tiny thatched roof pub. Plowman’s lunch for the kids and fish and chips for me. I took the laundry back to the car while Lisa and the kids wandered over to the main street. It was such a miserable and wet day, that wandering the streets did not seem like an enjoyable thing to do. So instead we decided to head north.

I gave my Auntie Hazel a call to confirm that they were expecting us, and found out that Auntie Marjorie was expecting us to be at their place. So off we headed. 

It was a fairly long drive along some fairly congested motorways, but we finally made it to the valley.

Lisa successfully navigated us into Rawtenstall, then it was time to find Auntie Marjorie’s house. We found the road okay but because Auntie Marjorie’s house doesn’t have a house number – only a name – I had to rely on my memory of what it looked like. After driving to the top of Burnley Road, I had seen one spot we passed that looked sort of like I remembered the house, but much more treed. So we drove back down and passed it a second time. As I wasn’t 100% sure, we stopped and phoned. Sure enough, the one I thought was the correct one was it.

We were met in the lane by Auntie Marjorie, who looked very much the same as I remembered. After bringing our things in, we had a supper of fish sticks and chips, put the kids to bed, and had a nice visit sitting in their sunroom and listening to the rain beat down on the roof and the wind rushing through the trees.

Quite late that night, we settled into bed.

Thurs, June 24/04 – the Day 12

It was a fairly restless night of sleep for me last night. I was awake almost hourly, and really only dozed a bit after 4am. The sun comes up so early here – about 4am – and it is light so early that the room we were in was quite bright by that time.

Lest you get the impression it was sunny – it was not. Rain had been pattering on the windows to our room all night, and it continued.

Today, we were going to make a trip to York, and see my mum for the first time. I’d been given instructions on how to get to my Uncle Jim’s from Auntie Marjorie’s house about three times, and had a pretty clear picture in my mind about where I was going. Unfortunately, reality did not conform to the pictures in my head. We went one way, then another way, then another way, and finally admitted we were lost. I called Uncle Jim from the cell phone Auntie Marjorie had given us and he tried to give directions, but ended up bringing mum to us. That worked. Then we were off to York in the rain.

We arrived at York after a wet drive on the motorway in time for lunch. That was our first order of business. Now we had to find a place that would satisfy three picky eaters – the two kids and mum! After popping in a few places, and rejecting them for one reason or another, we settled on a little cafe that seemed acceptable to all of us (pizza for the kids).

After lunch, we made our way through the narrow, crooked, people-filled streets (I think this is the busiest tourist town we’ve been in next to London) to York Minster.

It is a huge, very spacious cathedral with lots of stained glass windows. We wandered around the main floor for a time and then went to visit the undercroft – or basement – of the church. It costs extra for this part of the tour, but Martin wanted to go so we paid for it. Turns out it was well worth it.

The tour (assisted by the audio guide!) shows you how the current church was built over top of a former Norman church and how that in turn was built on top of a Roman garrison. You can actually see parts of the older and newer foundations, which hundreds of years ago were at street level but are now 6 feet underground. You can also see where they have laid tons and tons of concrete and steel reinforcing rods to reinforce the central tower foundations, which were discovered in the 60’s to be in imminent danger of collapsing. There were also displays of the treasury, and the crypts. Overall, it was a good tour, and well worth it. The kids really enjoyed going through it with Grandma.

After the cathedral, we made our way to the Viking exhibit. The Jorvik was the site of a viking settlement that was discovered in excavation some years ago. The museum has been set up as a ride through the ancient settlement. Cars suspended from an overhead track take you through the town showing you (and letting you smell) various aspects (all this after a hokey simulator ride in a time machine taking you back in time to 966 AD). Then you got off for a short trip through some demonstrations, finished off by the obligatory gift shop. Here, Martin purchased another sword.

Our final stop in York was an old tower at the top of a large hill, right beside the parking lot. We really only went there because it was an English Heritage site, and we wanted to get value for the English Heritage passes we bought in Tintagel. It was neat though because you could climb to the top of the tower walls and walk around looking out over the City of York. Mum didn’t enjoy being on top of the wall.

Then it was back in the car for the drive back to Uncle Jim and Auntie Beryl’s for dinner. Auntie Beryl had a nice cold cuts and veggie spread laid out for us. After dinner, Martin watched the first half of the England-Portugal quarter final match with Uncle Jim. I’ve really been impressed with how easily Martin has been able to get to know people he has met for the first time. And both kids have behaved very well. Claire in her usual quiet self with new people.

We went back to Auntie Marjorie’s at half time, where Martin watched the end of the game (a loss in penalty shots) with all of us. We sat and chatted some more after that and then it was off to bed.  Another good day.

Fri, June 25/04 – Day 13

Today was a local tour day.

Mum was going to take us around some of the local places, including showing Lisa where she grew up in Haslingden.

We picked up mum and drove the short trip to Haslingden, parking in the church parking lot. After a bit of looking around the churchyard, we were about to embark for a walk around the town when I noticed some of the church people eyeing us and our car in the parking lot. Mum went back to make sure it was ok to park there, and it turned out that the church guy was someone she knew. So he unlocked the church and gave us a tour of the inside, while chatting about people with mum.

From the inside the church was a whole lot bigger than it looked from the outside. From the outside it had looked like a fairly nondescript small local church. But from the inside, it looked positively huge, and had recently been renovated. It was quite nice.

After about an hour or so, we moved on for a short walk through Haslingden, with mum pointing out the sites for Lisa and the kids.

We walked back to the car and took a short drive across the moors to Oswaldtwistle, to visit Oswaldtwistle Mills. I thought (and I think everyone else did too) that it was going to be an old mill/museum kind of thing. But what it turned out to be was an old mill which had been converted into a bunch of shopping stalls. Bit of a surprise! We had a wander through, killing a bit of time until it was lunch time. We had lunch in a small cafe right in the Mills. Then it was on to our next stop.

Back across the moors we went to arrive at Helmshore, and the Helmshore textile museum. At this museum, they showed you how cotton and wool were made into thread and woven into cloth, which was the prime industry of that neck of the woods since the 19th century up until the middle to latter stages of the 20th century.

The Museum started with a walk-through display that showed the evolution of cloth making from a single family cottage industry through to the industrial revolutionized large mill production that it became. Then you headed off to the second floor to actually see the machines in action. As there were very few people in the museum we actually got a personal demonstration of each of the machines – a carding machine, a second level carding machine (I can’t remember its name) where the cotton was made into fine strings of thread, and the final machine, the Spinning Mule, which produced the final threads. It was quite interesting to see, and boy, what a racket that place made when running.

After that room, the guide took us back downstairs and showed us a mechanised loom in action. If I thought upstairs was loud, it was nothing on this smaller machine. As the shuttle was pounded back and forth it made quite a racket. And a mill would typically have hundreds of these machines in one room!

The last part of the tour was the water wheel. Here they showed us the process of making the wool cloth into thicker and heavier materials – like Hudson Bay blankets.

Using the power of the water wheel (which wasn’t working due to a deformation in the wheel shape which was causing it to hit the bottom), large hammers would pound the cloth (which had been soaked in urine to remove lanolin) to mash the fibres together. The cloth was then rinsed, or fluffed, using prickly thistle heads. Originally this was done by hand with the cloth stretched on a drying rack. Later, some ingenious inventor built a machine which incorporated all these thistle heads onto a large roller, and the process was mechanized. Overall, it was a quite interesting museum. And because there were very few people, we got a personalized tour.

After the museum, we had arranged to meet Uncle Jim and Auntie Beryl for dinner. We met them at the cemetery where my grandfather is buried. It took us a while before Uncle Jim showed us where the grave was. We then headed off to dinner a short drive (across the moors again) to the pub for dinner.

After dinner, when we got home, Uncle John and Auntie Marjorie took the kids and I for a short drive up the road (in his old Anglia) to a garage where a friend of theirs had stored a bunch of old army equipment – jeeps, tanks, and transport vehicles. Clarie and Martin had a great time hopping on and off, in and out, of each of the vehicles. Uncle John had just as much fun, if not more, describing each of them to us. One of the vehicles is his, an old tank towing truck, which he has spent time restoring. I hadn’t brought the camera with me so we have to head back another day before we leave to get some pictures.

It was then time to head back to the homestead, put the kids to bed, have a chat, and then head off to bed.

Sat, June 26/04 – Day 14

The day dawned bright and… actually, no it didn’t. The day dawned dark and gray. Rainy again. The plan for today was to have a day with Uncle John and Auntie Marjorie. Unfortunately, Uncle John’s uncle was sick and in hospital, so Uncle John couldn’t come with us.

We had to take two cars, as we had more than we could take in one, so we headed out in our mini convoy. We traveled about an hour or so to the Falconry Center somewhere near Settle. They have a lot of different birds at the center, which they train and use to teach falconry skills to those interested. One of the trainers gave us a demonstration with a few of the birds – a young bald eagle (still to get its distinctive white head feathering), a Batele eagle, and an owl (I forget its name). He also showed us a vulture, but I missed that as I was back to the car to pick up Claire’s sweater for her. It was rainy, windy and cold. Not the most ideal of conditions to be standing outside watching the birds. But interesting

At the end of the demonstration we had lunch at the cafe in the Falcon visitor center. It was a cozy little affair. Martin surprised me by choosing to eat a cheese and onion sandwich. He ate the whole thing! After falconry, we hopped in the car again and headed for the caves. Even though there was another bird demonstration just starting, we had to choose between it or moving on to the caves. The case won.

It wasn’t far to the caves, about 15 minutes. The White Scar caves are in the side of a hill up from the valley. The Visitor center seems almost brand new, with a new wooden awning. We had to wait for about half an hour until the tour started so we waited in the gift shop.

The tour was led by a grumpy old man, or at least that’s how it seemed. No audio tour this time. There were about 25 people on our tour, and we were all issued our obligatory helmets.

It was an 80 minute tour of the cave – brisk walks interrupted by brief stops with a canned talk. The pathway for a lot of the tour was actually metal grating suspended above the cave river, which fed the waterfall. It was a neat cave, quite different from the one in Cheddar – apart from being longer. It had more of a rawness to it, despite it still being quite a touristy site. 

There was a point, after ascending the 90 some-odd steps into a large cavern, that the tour guide stopped to catch his breath, and I was somewhat concerned that he was about to have a heart attack. Don’t know if it was just catching a breath or what. At the end of the cave, you had to walk back the way you came, occasionally squeezing past another tour group, or banging your head a second time on one of those ceiling parts. After the cave, we headed back to Auntie Marjorie’s. Lisa wanted to stop at a pottery store she had seen a sign for, but we missed it.

When we got back to Marjories we changed and headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Mum decided to come along this time (I gather she had been invited before but declined since she didn’t like Italian – or so she says). It was a nice restaurant – quite Italian. The owner was a funny guy, always kidding Claire. Wwe had a bit of a scare when Martin started choking on his calamari. But fast acting Lisa put her lifeguard training to work and Heimliched and back slapped him clear. He was a little shaken up, but okay. Not sure if he’ll order another calamari again for a while. Oh ya, they also sang Happy Birthday and presented me with a sparkler in a cake for my birthday.

After dinner we dropped off mum at Uncle Jim’s and headed back to Marjorie’s for the night.

Sun, Jun 27/04 – Day 15

Sunday we were leaving the valley. but before we left, we needed to take another trip to the tanks to take pictures. So off we went and all piled into the Anglia.

We said our goodbyes to Auntie Marjorie and Uncle John and headed down the road to pick up mum. Before leaving, Uncle John gave Martin one of his old carbine motorcycle lamps. Martin loved it. And Auntie Marjorie gave Claire a bracelet to remember her. We then said our goodbyes to Auntie Beryl and Uncle Jim and hit the road to Blackpool.

Instead of the motorway, we took the old roads into Blackpool. We actually went to Lytham-St Annes, which is at the south end of Blackpool. Auntie Beryl had mentioned a nice cafe where we could have lunch so we looked for it, and thought we found it (turned out it wasn’t the right one) and had lunch beside a boating pond. After lunch we had a walk around the pond, looking at the ducks, Canada geese, and some model boats that a club was setting up in one part of the pond. We then drove up the Promenade to Auntie Hazel and Uncle Norman’s house.

A short while after arriving, mum took the kids for a walk down to the beach, while Lisa and I went out so that she could call her mom from a phone booth outside. We caught up with Mom and the kids and had a short walk along the Promenade with them. We then went back to the house where we had a nice supper.

Janet and Les arrived from Manchester just after the kids went off to bed, and uncle Stanley and Auntie Jean came with them. We had a short visit before heading off to bed.

Mon, June 28/04 – Day 16

Monday was our road trip day. After sorting out who was going to go where (a major event since Janet and Les didn’t have transportation and Uncle Norman and uncle Stanley didn’t really like to drive – so Janet and Les had a day in Blackpool) we were off to visit Hadrian’s Wall. It’s a good distance from Blackpool and took us some time to get there. We stopped for lunch in a little Hamlet called Haltwhistle and ate at the Black Bull – a small pub that was written up in one of our travel books. I haven’t been writing as much about meals as the kids haven’t been complaining about things as much – or maybe we’ve grown numb to it. Of course it helps that the chicken nuggets or chicken teddies are on the menu. And Claire has been having sausages and mashed potatoes. We had a decent meal there (I asked for chili and got a ground beef and kidney bean thing on top of rice. Not what I expected, but decent).

We then drove on to the Wall. Since we had our English Heritage membership, it was free for us to enter. Yipee!! 

We walked up the pathway to the top of the hill and toured the Roman Fort and the wall. The kids had a good time running around on the grass and climbing the wall. Martin and Claire hopped down to the other side of the wall into “Scotland” and attacked the fort. It was a nice day – not too hot, not too cold, with white puffy clouds in the sky.

While we were walking back down to the visitor center, a fighter jet flew overhead, quite close to the ground. Made for an interesting contrast to the ancient site. After the fort, we took the long route back to Blackpool, over the Pennine mountains. It was a slower route over smaller roads, but fun, with beautiful views. We stopped in Penrith at a hotel in town and had a meal at the pub. After that, it was an hour or so drive through some heavy rain back to Blackpool.

Just after we arrived Janet, Les, Auntie Jean and uncle Stanley came by for a short visit. Then it was back to bed for another night.

Tues, June 29/04 – Day 17

Slept pretty well last night. Day dawned kind of gray and drizzly. We were going to have a visit up to the lake district, but due to the travel problems, we decided to have a day in Blackpool with Janet and Les and mum.

We started out with a walk into Cleveleys. We walked along the prom for a while and then went up the main Market street. It was a typical tacky tourist street with lots of junky souvenir shops. We wandered in and out a few of them – Lisa picked up some cheap Christmas cards. Then we wandered down the road toward the tram lines.

We hopped on the tram headed for Fleetwood and the market there. We had no idea where the market was, and neither did mum. So when we got off the tram we just followed the other old people. That got us there. We had lunch at a pub across the way, and then spent about 45 minutes wandering the market. Didn’t buy very much – Claire got some socks and Lisa got an Elvis bag for tracy.

When we were done, back on the tram into Blackpool. The destination was Blackpool tower. Claire was looking forward to the circus at the tower, but unfortunately, it was sold out. We bought our reduced price tickets (because no circus) and went in. We headed straight to the elevator to get to the top. Les and mum declined to go to the top but the rest of us were game.

A fairly short elevator ride – accompanied by some humorous commentary – and we were at the top. We ascended the three flights of stairs up as high as we could go and had a look around. Great view of the beach, the piers, and the roofs of Blackpool. We then braved the glass floor. It was pretty weird standing on the clear glass that far above the ground.

We didn’t spend much time and then we headed back down. Just before the elevators there was a wall picture which showed all of the tallest structures of the world. They show Blackpool Tower as the tallest structure in the pictures, but if you look at the heights, Blackpool Tower was the smallest. CN tower still wins!!

After the top of the tower, we visited some of the amusements. The kids spent some money playing the games, and I tried to win a stuffed animal for Claire. No luck. I’m sure the game is rigged. Didn’t take us long to work through the two bags of two-pence that Uncle Stanley gave the two kids.

The next attraction was the dinosaur ride. This was a ride that took us through time from the dinosaurs, to the present day. Lame. 

The only thing left to do was to visit the aquarium. Aside from the main tank in the center which had a Greek ruin among which swam lots of beautiful tropical fish, it wasn’t much of anything.

Overall, I wasn’t very impressed with the tower. It seemed unusually quiet (which I suppose was actually better than having it busy) and I think that made it seem less “fun”. I think Mum really enjoyed watching the few older couples dancing to the organ music at the dance hall. She was remembering that it was the last time that she had a dance with dad. Good memories for her.

It was getting later and we were headed home to make supper. We decided we would pick up some food from the Sainsbury and have supper for everyone. When we got home Lisa, Janet and I got in the Cruiser to go to the grocery store. We were looking for precooked hot chicken – which is found these days in most supermarkets. But not at this supermarket apparently. So we got the cold chicken instead. And do you think we could find any cold beer? Nope. So we did the best we could. When we got back to Auntie Hazel’s I went out with Uncle Norman in search of cold beer. We passed a place on the tram earlier in the day at Cleveleys – Bargain Booze. That’s where we went. Success. So now we had all the fixings, and enjoyed a good dinner. 

Later that evening, Ian, my cousin, and his two kids dropped by. Jay, Ian’s son, was into Warhammer and had brought some of his figures along. Martin really enjoyed looking at them all. When Ian and the kids left, Jay let Martin keep some of the warhammers he had brought. I think Martin was in 7th heaven. We visited for a bit longer and then it was time to hit the hay.

Wed, June 30/04 – Day 18

Since we had put off our visit to the Lake District yesterday, we are planning on driving up there today. but the weather had other ideas. It started off as another gray and rainy day. The decision was made to stay local, and visit some more places in Blackpool. Janet and Les had decided to take the train down to Manchester. For the morning though, Lisa and Mum had a walk down to Cleveleys again – Mum needed to get a replacement battery for her watch and Lisa wanted to pick up some things. Martin, Claire, and I tried to get caught up in our journals.

For lunch we had the picnic lunch we had prepared for a trip to the Lake District – only we had it sitting at the dining room table. By the time lunch was done, the rain had stopped and it looked a little brighter outside. We traveled down to the tram tracks again and headed into Blackpool. We got off at the North pier and walked through the streets a bit, past the Games Workshop store. We had a look and saw it was just as expensive – or more so – than it was at home. We then headed – through a mini sandstorm – to Toussad’s Waxworks. This was Martin’s consolation for missing the Chamber of Horrors in Madame Tussauds in London.

Admission was a lot cheaper than London – £25 – and the place was a lot quieter. We wandered through, looking at the figures. One of the rooms was of English and international soccer stars. None of us wanted to visit this room – except mum. So we all went and dragged her out.

The final section was the Chamber of Horrors. Martin was all ready, maybe only a little nervous, until Lisa read the sign saying that there may be live actors. Well, that was it – there was no way Martin was going in.  After much prodding, and a few tears, Martin, clinging tightly to both Lisa and I, came in. Luckily, there were no live scary actors, and after a bit, Martin was getting a bit more comfortable. But we didn’t exactly stroll leisurely through.

After the wax works, we headed across the road to walk out the Central pier. There were a few amusement arcades, some arcade games where no one was playing, some rides which were closed, and some souvenir and trinket stores. There weren’t many people on the pier, and all together, it was a little depressing. At least the Sun was shining by then, and the view from the pier of Blackpool and along the beach was very nice – though Lisa neglected to bring the camera so we couldn’t take any pictures.

We walked down to the beach and Claire had a ride – courtesy of Grandma – on the donkeys. We had a stroll, a run, and more of a stroll, and then made our way back up to the promenade. We hopped the tram back to the house.

Tonight, we were all going out – all of us including Auntie Jean and uncle Stanley – to the carvery for dinner. This is basically a buffet style place. We had a decent meal, and then said bye to Uncle Stanley and Auntie Jean, and went back to the house. Janet and Les came by later, back from Manchester, then we had some more visiting, and then said our byes to them. I finished off the remaining beers, chatted some more, then headed off to bed (actually, I haven’t gone yet, as I’m writing this right now).

Tomorrow, we’re saying bye to Blackpool and Auntie Hazel and Uncle Norman and taking Mum to Norwich.

Thus, July 1/04 – Day 19

Happy Canada day!! We brought four small Canadian flags with us on our trip. After we had showered, we went downstairs and all of us waved our flags around. Auntie Hazel thought we were crazy.

Today was time to say goodbye to the last of our relatives. While kind of sad – it’s been nice, and easier than I thought, seeing my relatives after such a long time – it will also be kind of nice to be just the four of us again.

After packing all our luggage and Mum’s into the back of the Cruiser (if you open the hatch make sure you stand out of the way!!) we said our goodbyes to Auntie Hazel and Uncle Norman.

This time, I listened to Uncle Norman’s directions to the M55 motorway and we found it no problem (or at least I didn’t make any wrong turns. It was still less than direct!). The drive to Norwich started out fine, but soon got bogged down. The m6 got clogged up close to Liverpool, so Lisa guided me off the motorway and onto the side roads. Only they weren’t much better. What should have been an hour drive, at most, turned into a two and a half hour drive.

Once we got to Norwich, Mum did a pretty good job of directing us to Paddy and Gordon’s house. Even though we made some wrong direction decisions, and even though she had been to their house only once before, and even though we had no map or written directions, we found it. Since we were off to Chester and then driving back up the north to Newcastle, we didn’t stay and visit with Mum’s friends. Maybe a bit rude, but mum probably prefered the quick goodbye anyway. We said our goodbyes, and hit the road to Chester, 18 miles away. On the drive into Chester, the kids were pretty quiet in the backseat. I think they were both missing having Grandma in the backseat with them.

Paddy had advised us to park in the park-and-ride on the outskirts of Chester, but we were pressed for time and couldn’t afford the extra time. We drove right into the city, and parked it a lot just inside the wall. First order of business – lunch. It was 1:00 p.m. by then and we were hungry. We stopped at the first place we found, an Italian restaurant that reminded me of Il Fornello (wood burning pizza oven and all). We had a rather fancy (and expensive £40) lunch, and then went to explore a bit of Chester. 

The wall was right across from the restaurant so we went up on it there and struck out on a walk around the city. The guidebook says it’s about an hour and a half walk all the way around (though I’m sure at the pace we were going it would only have taken half an hour) so we decided to only do a partial walk. Took us through part of the city and along the river. It was neat to see businesses that were directly accessible from the wall – either via a narrow footbridge or directly abutting the wall. After we came down, we wandered through the narrow cobbled streets, and visited the Chester Cathedral. Another beautiful old church that looks much larger from the inside than out. We then wandered a bit through the streets, window shopping. Some of the streets have shops and sidewalks on two levels. Neat. Lisa was searching for some interesting pottery – to no avail. I wasn’t searching for anything, but when we came to the Marks & Spencer’s, I decided that I couldn’t let my trip to England conclude without buying some salt and vinegar chiplets. They were on sale so I bought three bags! We then headed back to the car, and departed Chester.

Our drive to Newcastle involved a fair bit of backtracking – back up the M6 (no jams this time), past the Blackburn turn off, past the Blackpool exit, and back along the route we had traveled on Monday to Hadrian’s wall. It was quite a long drive, and we arrived at our motel at around 8:30 p.m.

The lady at the check-in desk suggested that if we were hungry, a visit to the pub just down the road would be preferable to the Little Chef beside the motel. Our past Little Chef experience made this an easy choice. So we made the 10-minute walk, round to the other side of the roundabout and down the road a bit to the pub (can’t remember its name). Claire was being difficult and wouldn’t eat anything, but the rest of us had a good meal. We then walked back to the motel at around 10:00 p.m., with the daylight still quite bright. Into bed and lights out.

Fri, July 2/04 – Day 20

Only three more days of holidays left!! Quite frankly though, I’m feeling like it’s time to go home.

We rose a little earlier today and packed up the car after PB breakfast. We headed up the road, north of Newcastle, to Holy island, or Lindisfarne Island. This is an island with a village and some Abbey ruins and a castle that is accessible by a causeway that floods at high tide. We didn’t know when high tide was supposed to be. But since it was only about 20 miles or so further than our intended destination (Alnwick Castle) we decided to chance it.

As luck would have it, we got there with plenty of time as high tide wasn’t expected until 1:05 p.m. (they have tide tables at the entrance of the causeway so that you know whether or not you might get stuck on the island until the next low tide). We drove to the island and parked the Cruiser in the main lot before the village.

From there we walked into the village and visited the Lindisfarne priory, an old Abby that is now a ruin. All the ruins we have visited have been very nicely kept, with well-kept green lawns throughout the ruins and lots of information plaques to help you see/understand what the place looked like before much of it fell down. And the Lindisfarne Prior was no exception.

Since the castle was down the road a mile further, we decided to forgo this one as we were to visit a real castle next. So after our short visit, we headed back to the car, and set off back down the road a spell to Alnwick castle.

Our primary reason for visiting Alnwick was due to its use in the first Harry Potter film. We thought the kids would enjoy seeing it. Alas, I think that Martin was expecting to be more like a Harry Potter movie set, than an old castle that played host to some scenes (notably flying lessons and the Quidditch match) in the first movie. So he was out of sorts for the first part of the visit.

The castle is a beautiful castle, still in operation as a residence for the Duke of Northumberland. We had a walk around the grounds and through some of the towers which house exhibits on the previous uses of the castle, and on the history of Northumberland regiments throughout the ages.

Luckily, there were some cardboard cutouts of some of the Harry Potter characters around, so we took some pictures of the kids with them. We had lunch in the cafeteria in the castle, sheltering from a brief but heavy rainstorm before heading into the village, which was just beyond the walls of the castle. We walked around the village and its tiny streets, and visited a street carnival and market where all the vendors were dressed in period costume. Claire bought another stuffed dog!

We then walked back to the castle, to tour the inside of the castle residence. It certainly was not what I imagined the inside of an old castle to look like. Inside, it was a very stately residence with lots of fine antique furniture and paintings. It is a Duke’s residence after all. The kind of place I think it would be great fun to live in. After that, we headed back to the car and drove on to our third destination of the day – Durham.

What should have been an hour’s drive at the most turned into a 2-hour drive. More traffic jams on the motorway. We arrived at about 4:00 p.m. and hightailed it from the parking lot to the Durham cathedral, which Lisa really wanted to visit. Unfortunately, our visit happened to coincide with a graduation ceremony for the University of Durham, so we couldn’t walk around much of the cathedral, only some parts of it. Needless to say, Lisa was disappointed. Rather inconsiderate of them to hold graduations today!

Since that was the only thing we had planned on visiting in Durham (the castle, right next to the cathedral, was also closed) we got back in the car and headed to our motel, about another hour or so down the road. We arrived about 8:00, had dinner at the Moto food court, then retired to our chambers. Seems like a day with a lot of driving again, and I suppose we did cover a lot of ground again.

Well, two more days to pack in as much more as we can before heading home! I think the kids have had about as much as they can take.

Sat, Jul 3/04 – Day 21

Up and outta here! our usual breakfast routine – PB sandwiches and fruit for the kids (and this time real coffee from the motostop for Lisa and I) and we were on the road again. Under gray and rainy skies. Our destination today – the land of Robin Hood.

Our first stop was Sherwood Forest. I have a vague recollection of visiting Sherwood when I was younger, and remember there not being very much in the way of forest. But this time, it was very clearly a forest. No, not a forest like a thick rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver island, but a forest nonetheless. Perhaps my youth experience on the island biased my view of what a forest is.

We had a brief visit in the visitor center (don’t remember it from earlier) and then a brisk paced walk to the Major Oak – a huge (in width not height) twisted oak. It is over 800 years old – and showing its age! I think that there are more supports holding up its aching limbs than there are limbs! But there it was. Wwe completed our walk, and then Lisa had targeted a craft shop just the other side of the Sherwood parking lot. A 15 minute walk (in the drizzle) later and we saw the shops. Martin and I returned to the car to drive it over to the shops. 

When we arrived, we paid another 1.50 to park the car (!), just in time to see Lisa and Claire leave. Oh well, keeping the local economy going.

A short drive down the road and we arrived at nottingham. We parked the car at the parking lot directly over the Tales of Robin Hood exhibit, which is where we were going first. It was another of those fairly cheesy educational rides, followed by a not-bad museum type exhibit. The very beginning of the exhibit was a bit unusual as we were greeted by a large sword-wielding Prince John, who managed to put a bit of fright into some of the young girls in our group, just by sticking his tongue out at them.

After leaving the gift shop, it was raining heavily, so we cooled our jets before finding somewhere to lunch. We found a decent Italian place to lunch, and then moved on. Our next destination was the Galleries of Justice – an exhibit showing aspects of justice through the ages.

The first part was actually on policing. A constable let us into an old police station, told us a little bit about it and locked us in a cell for a spell. We then wandered through the exhibits (oh – forgot to mention the kids had themselves fingerprinted). All in all, it was a pretty boring exhibit and the section on how today’s police are such an extremely helpful lot, well that  smacked big time of propaganda.

The Halls of Justice were next (this is sounding a lot like Law and Order!!). Here, a robed solicitor herded us into a room to hear about Ordeal by Iron, where women accused of a crime were determined guilty or innocent depending on whether scars obtained from holding on to a white hot iron bar for nine paces healed quickly or not. There was then a little room which had more details on justice through the ages. After that, the solicitor took us into a courtroom, where a judge decided to fate of a guy in the 1700s (played by a volunteer for our group) who had participated in a riot. We then went down into the prison cells to be entertained and educated by additional tour guides playing the parts of jailers. Overall, this is a “not bad” touristy exhibit – the actors certainly added something we had not seen yet.

It was then getting close to 5:00 p.m., and the town of Nottingham was beginning to shut down. The people on the streets were thinning out. We wandered through the shopping center and then back to the car. It had been a pretty busy day. 

The drive to our next Travelodge, in Northampton, seemed long, though it wasn’t really. We arrived, checked in (oh look, it’s so different!) and then looked for something to eat. There was a Little Chef in the parking lot, but across the street we could see a TGIFfridays. Tough Decision.

Unfortunately, the TGIF was jam-packed, with a 45 minute wait. The Italian roadhouse restaurant just up the parking lot was also packed. So back across the road to the Little Chef, which was not packed, we trumped. And sure enough, it lived up to our Little Chef expectations. Oh well, it was food, and the kids ate most of theirs.

Back to the Hotel, a bath for the kids, and bed for all of us.

Sun, July 4/04 – Day 22

This is it, the last day of our tour of England. w\We had no plans for this day (or any of the past 3 days really) so we were just finding places to go. Today we decided we would visit Dover, so that Claire would know something about what she was singing about (“there’ll be bluebirds over, the White Cliffs of dover…). It was a long drive, but we had to drive down to Gatwick today anyway.

After about 2 hours on the motorway, we reached over. We followed the signs to Dover Castle and found it easily (I must say, attractions and highway/roadways are fairly well marked in how you get to them. The only complaints I have of the British road system are the lack of markings so that you know what road or highway you are currently on (so you know if you took the wrong exit off of a roundabout) and the lack of speed limit signs. With the number of speed cameras around, I never know what speed I’m supposed to be going!). As it is an English heritage site, it’s free!! 

The first part of the visit was an escorted tour of the secret tunnels. These are tunnels dug into the chalk cliffside which were used extensively during the second world war to direct the evacuation of Dunkirk and as a hospital. Some of the tunnels actually date back to the battle with Napoleon in the 18th century, and were used to house troops. Interesting tour, if it was a bit fast-paced. 

After the tunnels, we explored Dover castle. The Kings keep (or main Castle) was exactly as I expected the inside of a castle to be. It had been done up inside as if they were expecting a visit from Henry VIII (who did visit for 4 days back then). You could go through the rooms and see where people waited to see the king, where they had an audience with him, where the king slept, and where he went to the bathroom. You could also walk up to the roof of the keep, which had great views of the town, of the harbor, of the Channel, and of the surrounding fields. All together we spent a good 4 hours at the castle and everyone enjoyed themselves I think.

After the castle, we had a brief stop at White Cliffs park where I watched the ferries entering and leaving the harbor and then headed into town.

It was still too early to eat dinner, so we looked for something to do in Dover. Lisa had read that the Dover Museum was supposed to be decent, so we headed for that, just off the town square. At first, I thought that it was going to be a cheesy, small town museum, but it turned out to be quite interesting. There were well done exhibits showing the history of the Dover area back to the bronze age, and another interesting exhibit showing the town and people during the Victorian years. The Highlight was a magnificent Bronze Age boat that had been discovered during some city road works. We watched a short video showing the excavation and restoration of it, and could see it and a replica which was built using the same tools that would have been available to boat makers of the day. It was all very well done. There were also some exhibits showing and honouring all those who had attempted swimming the channel. Well worth the £5 family admission fee.

After the museum, it was time to eat, so we set off in search. As it was to be our last dinner in England I really wanted one more pub meal. but this was downtown Dover on a Sunday evening. the place we really reminded me – and Lisa – of being in Piraeus on our trip to Greece. Very desolate, not at all pretty, and slightly scary. The only place we found that seemed hospitable and pu-like, we went to. Not quite the pub-like experience I was looking for, but it will have to do. The meal was okay – not great.

That was it then. After dinner we headed for our final Travelodge in Gatwick. That was a bit of a lesson itself. We thought that rather than take the motorway route, which went a bit north of our eventual destination, we would take the country roads. Big mistake. It took us over 2 hours, when a trip by motorway would have taken about one. While I enjoyed savoring my final hours of driving on the wrong side (quite natural now) it was a bit much.

But we eventually made it. Four tired souls. The Travelodge in Gatwick is quite a large affair – four floors – and right beside the Gatwick runway. Quite loud on the outside, but not a sound of jets at all on the inside.

While Lisa packed for the flight, I called Zoom – first from the hotel lobby phone, then from the pay phone outside. Wasted £2. All I got was a circular hold pattern. Had to hope the flight was still at the same time.

Back in the hotel, Martin and Claire were already sleeping and Lisa had mostly finished packing. So that was that. Our days in merry olde England were done. It was time to go home. Had a great trip, enjoyed ourselves and saw a lot (put over 2,300 miles on the Cruiser). But looking forward to being home.

Until next trip….…!!