Meandering through Southern England

In true Robinson form, we didn't travel far but we saw a lot in a small area.  That is part of the beauty of England.  Around every corner there is something else interesting to see.  This was just as well because travelling just a few miles seemed to take hours.  

We started off in Oxford with family.  We spent a relaxing weekend punting on the river and more Harry Potter sightseeing at Christ Church College.

Christ Church Hall, as used in Harry Potter

This might be time to comment on our favourite drinks enjoyed in the UK.  The children enjoyed the standard cordial drank in the UK.  A brand known as Robinsons.  Dave and Jenny took a particular liking this time to a beer brewed in Oxford which was Brakspear Triple.  With 7.2% Alc/Vol it was a serious beer.  It supplanted our previous favourite being Theakston's Old Peculiar.

Five days in the Cotswolds went by incredibly fast.

We enjoyed 'rambling' on public footpaths and right of ways and walking across woods and farms.  This is a novel experience for Australian's who aren’t used to accessing private land.  The kids loved the stiles, kissing gates and walking amongst domestic animals.  On one walk we saw cows, sheep, chickens, pheasants, squirrels and were stalled by an inquisitive mob of horses who wanted our company.  And we did as the guide book directed us to, we descended sweetly across a field back to the starting villiage.  And of course there was always a sight to see in the middle of the walk.

Decending "sweetly"

While in the Cotswald area, we also took in Blenheim Palace, Sudeley Castle, Chedworth Roman Villla, more Harry Potter in the cloisters of the impressive Gloucester Cathedral, the Rollright Stones and were introduced to Geo Caching by one of Jenny’s cousins.

Our wettest English day was spent a day at Warwick Castle.  They have developed the interpretive aspects of it a lot since we were last there.  We started by watching and chatting with an expert long bowman, saw a trebuchet fired and learnt how the castle was used during different periods from medieval times to the early 20^th century. 

Another weekend with cousins.  This time in Solihull which is near Birmingham. More walking and a huge lunch in a 16^th century pub. And lots of time for the children to simply play.

Then a quick change of plans and we were off to Bath for another Roman history lesson.

We also visited a fashion museum.  Mia was particularly intersted in the dress ups.  She is dressed in outfits worn by children of the Victorian era for sport.  She decided quickly that sport would have been difficult in such garments.

They also had an exhibition of dresses worn by Princess Diana.  It was interesting to see the effects of time and history up close.  Our children had no idea who she was.  It was amazing to see clothes she had worn though and get more of an idea what she actually looked like.

 Being people who prefer to avoid the main tourist track, we passed by Wookey Hole Caves and the Cheddar Gorge and caves and went for a short walk at a small gorge instead.  We were met by this stick bear which looked very realistic.  This type of sculpture must be quite a thing in England as we later saw a book full of picutres of structures made out of sticks.

We explored a little of Dartmoor for the first time.  We did the most fabulous 10km walk on the moors. We lunched in a round house built over 4000 years ago by the Bronze Age inhabitants of Dartmoor and saw mining ruins and stone circles.

With guide book in hand, we asked at the pub for directions to start the walk.  The bar lady didn’t like us going with only a guide book and insisted we borrow a proper map to use.  She said it was difficult country to navigate.  She didn’t have an understanding of our navigation experience in Australia.  When the book said stand in the middle of the stone circle and then walk straight up the hill following the path over a stile, that is what you did.  Couldn’t be easier.  And if you couldn’t see the stile, or the hollow or whatever you were looking for, walk 50m in a straight line, and there it would be. 

That night we camped in a perfect campground with drystone walls, animals all around and hot croissants delivered to our van the next morning.

A Bronze Age Roundhouse

The Eden Project in Cornwell was fascinating.  In an old clay mine they have created a facility to showcase plants and the environment from around the world.  The have created these things called Biome's which house tropical rainforests and another with a Mediterranean climate.  

Across to Tintagel where there is a ruined castle which is said to be the place where King Arthur was conceived (myth or fact?) in the 5^th century.  However what is there turned out to be 12^th century ruins.  We were there on an extremely windy day and we couldn’t imagine why anyone would go to the trouble of building a castle in such a windswept place.  Despite that it was dramatic, especially Merlins' cave which goes right through from one beach to the next. 

We spent time with Dave’s cousins and had the opportunity to visit his aunt who unfortunately is now in a nursing home with dementia.  It was good to see her although she didn’t know who we were.

We had an interesting day in Exeter with Robin, one of Dave’s cousins.  He has recently moved to Exeter so we went exploring together. 

Underneath Exeter is a fascinating network of tunnels built as a water system in the 14^th and 15^th Century.  It was the only place in the UK to have such a system.  It was initially constructed to carry water direct to the Cathedral.  The tunnels were built to be large enough for people to work in to repair the pipes.  Pipes were made of lead.  Leaks were common and were fixed with cloth soaked in animal fat.  However rats liked the fat so ate the cloth.  So repair was needed again.  The system was later expanded to supply several hundred houses.  It was lost once a full water supply was installed to the town.

Stonehenge was on Joel's list to visit from the beginning of trip planning.  We managed to take that in on our return back towards London.  Despite what people say, we found it a worthwhile excursion.  The stones are quite majestic.

The following day (and our very last activity for the trip) found us visiting the Avebury stone circles.  We found them more interesting still than the more famous henge that every tourist seems to go to.  You can walk in and around the stones and touch.  They are a lot more extensive, even if smaller, and very few tourists seem to actually get there.  Lunch was had in a thatched pub in the villiage.  Out the window were standing stones.  Incredible being in 2010, in a 16th century building, looking at stones tranported and installed there 4,500 years ago.

 And what a way that was to finish our trip.

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The Motorhome aka The Tank

 The motorhome was a great way for us to travel as a family.  There were many positives to it.  Mainly that we travelled like snails, with our house on our back.  We didn’t have to pack and unpack, were able to sleep somewhere different each night with no fuss and always had access to food and a fridge.

The children enjoyed travelling sitting facing one another.  They invented wonerful games to pass the time while we drove.  It is amazing how long it takes in England to travel a short distance.  

However with there were a few challenges.   

 Firstly driving something of that size on the tiny UK roads.  It can be a royal pain to get into tight English villages or to find somewhere to park.  Patience is required especially when you meet a large oncoming 'lorrie' - that's truck to everyone else.

Then there was the sleeping accommodation.  By the end we had all slept in most of the beds.  Dave and I were unable to sit up in bed and it tended to get hot and stuffy, even in the cooler weather in the bed over the cab.  We did however get used to it.   

It was noisy to drive.  Dave and I had to shout to talk to one another.

 

But with a bit of planning and reliance on the patience of other motorists we got everywhere we wanted to. We constantly reminded ourselves that lorries and buses travelled these roads, so there was no reason for us to be concerned.  And using the final piece of advice given to us by Tony on handover; to ignore the other traffic and just go for it.  This approach was helpful.  We were definitely bigger than they were; except for the lorries of course which we paid due respect to.

Along the way we found many wonderful places to stay.  In Autumn, we lowered the average age in the campgrounds significantly.  There was only one night the the children found another child to play with.  Which meant that the rest of the time they had the playgrounds all to themselves.  A great advantage when there was a special flying fox which didn't need to be shared.  

We developed a very short repertoire of meals that were easy to cook for 5 in one small frypan or one saucepan.  But that got us through supplemented by pleasant pub meals.

We highly recommend a motorhome as a way to get to see England.

London

Next it was off to London. Again there is so much to see and enjoy and it is impossible to have enough time

We have been on a Harry Potter tour. This started as we stepped off the Eurostar at Kings Cross St Pancreas Station. We quickly made our way to find platform 9 3/4 which these days is located between platforms 8 and 9. Later on our tours, we have been to other locations where they have filmed scenes in the films. It seems Harry Potter has used most every Cathedral, Cloister and College that exists in this country to film scenes in the films.

We also went looking for Monopoly streets, often coming across them on our walks, and ticking them off the list. 

London is such a huge city but we kept finding our selves walking past interesting places quite by accident. The best of these was finding the only specialist flute shop in the UK. It was on a street round the corner from our hostel. Ellie bought herself a Piccolo which will be a very special souvenir of her journey. She has been busy practising it. She even earned a pound playing in the kitchen at the youth hostel the day she bought it.

We have been impressed by the English skills at bringing history to life at the sights. We learned a lot about life in Tudor times at Hampton Court Palace. Actors and historians were dressed in period clothes and acted out the day of the last one of Henry VIII's weddings. The wedding, to Catherine Parr, went on throughout the day. There was also the opportunity to talk to the actors to learn about the roles they were playing. We even ran into one of these people the next day at the Tower of London. This time he was playing a character several hundred years earlier than the day before. Interestingly we found that whilst outlined, the parts are not scripted and the actors (who differ day by day) work it out themselves with a lot of ad libbing so each day is a little different. This type of experience is all new since our last trip to the UK. History is brought to life and gives context to the experience and makes it all seem real and easier to interpret to both children and the big people who have little people in tow.

They Europeans are also very skilled at entertaining the children appropriately. We spent a whole day at the Tate Modern art gallery. A special audio guide for the children kept them entertained for hours. It even had games based on the art to play. The adults had museum fatigue, however the kids wanted to keep going.

The London Eye was another hit. As were the Tower of London with the Beefeaters who don't like being called Beefeaters! And Tower Bridge, not London Bridge as our 'Beefeater' guide at the Tower pointed out quite forcefully.

A big highlight was going to see Oliver on stage at the Theatre Royale on Drury Lane with dinner in Covent Garden thrown in. How could you not see an English show at a signature West End theatre if the opportunity arose? And getting half price tickets in Leicester square is just so easy.

We have got a kick out of those little words that the English use so well with that unmistakable accent like:

"brilliant", "rubbish", "very good", "lovely", "frightfully" and "oh, right"

Then of course there are those little phrases that appealed to us on signs around the place:

"lets have a little chat about the loo..." = toilet rules

"not yet recycleable" = can't recycle

“if you are lucky enough to look under 21” = if you look under 21

and our top pick;

"devour before" = for best before on a packet of crisps.

We do like the English way of presenting things like this, much more polite than the Australian bluntness and with anywhere from just a hint to a decent lashing of humour all at the same time.

Paris plus Disneyland

We had a wonderful five days in Paris.  Visited many of the highpoints (literally top of Notre Dame and top of Eiffle Tower) and Disneyland.  Of course it wouldn't be a major city major attraction if there was some scaffolding covering some of the attractions, some signature piece of art out on loan or being refurbished so missing from a musuem or one strike that leads to other plans - in our case the Arc de Triomphe so we headed to the 'best ice-cream in the world' and had a Bethillon ice cream on the banks of the Seine - fair compromise!  

It is a wonderful city to holiday in.  We couldn't do it all.  And it just wasn't long enough.

We rented an apartment which was built in 16th Century in a great quarter of Paris.  We could walk all over from our home.  Ellie and Jenny enjoyed the market. Cheese in one shop, fruit in the next, vegetables, meat (marvellous terrines) and of course cakes and bread (with pain au chocolat being the childrens's favourite) all in seperate shops. The quality of the food is magnificiant. And the wine too of course!

One of the many highlights was meeting up with Melbourne friends and spending time exploring and eating with them. It's such a small world when travelling - they booked well after us, had no idea where we are staying and when we finally communicated we found out our apartments where only three minutes walk from each other.  We enjoyed dinner and breakfast together.  And an expensive private art gallery visit where we met, caught up and soaked up the Monet Waterlillies.

One day we wandered back from the metro via the Georges Pompediou centre and caught an hour of various street theate - break dancers, a soccer dude doing amazing things with a soccer ball and a 'bubble' man with two sticks linked by two ropes and a bucket of bubble mix who could create bubbles a metre wide.

The number of people moving in this city is phenomenal.  Even in the 'quiet' times of the day the metro is jammed shoulder to shoulder and there is a huge amount of foot traffic on the streets which may be a factor of the Paris population density (almost same population as London in half the space) and also just the Paris way of life. Living the cafe life in the City of Lights.

However we had no problems with crowds at Disneyland.  We had heard the horror stories about the amount of time spent in lines, but going mid-week and off-season proved to be the way to maximise the ride time.  We had arrived right on opening time, raced of to Big Thunder Mountain, 10 minute queue, off the ride with massive grins on our faces and then straight back in it was so good and had done two rides in 30 minutes!  Big Thunder Mountain proved to be a hit with all of us,  We rode it 4 times. Other rides were enjoyed too.  The kids enjoyed driving their own cars on Autopia.  By 4pm we had done enough.  We had enjoyed it, but don't need to go again.  Thanks to Mia for having a birthday and wanting to go to Disneyland.