London area and Yorkshire

Summer is over. Once we hit London, the temperatures started dropping and the shorts have been put away. We were staying at Romford which is only a few miles out of London.

The first day we headed down to Buckinghamshire with Janice’s cousin, Angie. We toured the locations used in the Midsomer Murders TV series. We visited the villages of Great Missenden, The Lee (where we had a drink at the Cock and Rabbit pub) and Wendover where we had lunch at the Red Lion. We then visited Amersham, Beaconsfield, Burnham, Hambleden, Marlow, Bledlow and Turville, all beautiful country villages. Photo of street in Turville.

The following day we went into London by train and met Angie at South Kensington. We walked to Albert Hall but were only able to see the outside as there were no tours available due to maintenance. There was a café open in the building so we stopped for a coffee.

It was then off to Harrods for a look around and had lunch at a nearby pub. Next stop was Buckingham Palace where we arrived early for our tour. We walked around the front and visited the souvenir shop before joining our tour group. Janice had booked us all in some weeks ago as they only do palace tours when the Royal family are not in residence. The Queen was at Balmoral for her summer break.

We didn’t realise how big the palace was. You seemed to flow from one enormous room to the next, each adorned with such grandeur and with walls covered in valuable paintings. The contents alone, if sold, would probably eliminate the national debt.

At the rear of the palace is a large private park that would probably take about half an hour to walk all around. There are many different trees and numerous lakes. Photo outside Buck House.

We had originally planned to spend a week in London but our stay had to be curtailed as my cousin in Chester passed away and it was his funeral on the Friday. We packed the car and headed off for Oxford, parking in the Park and Ride and travelling into the city by bus.

There we boarded the Hop-on-Hop-off bus that toured the city and then walked around various places of interest including Christ College which is the one that features most in the Morse and Lewis TV series. The main hall in the college is the main dining room at Hogwarts used in the Harry Potter series. It was then off to Chester to prepare for the funeral the following day.

We spent the weekend in Chester and headed for York on the Monday morning. Travelling over the Pennines, the temperature dropped to 7 degrees. We were staying with friends, Steve and Chris so in the afternoon we had a fleeting trip around York but the weather wasn’t too good so after a drink in a tiny pub, we headed home.

The following day it was off to Goatland (or Aidensfield as the Heartbeat fans would know it). On our way we approached Filingdales which is the RAF listening station. All of a sudden there was an almighty roar and a dozen or so jet planes flashed by in front of us. We stopped and it was the RAF Red Arrows doing a display. We didn’t find out until later they were celebrating 50 years of Filingdales. The display went on for about half an hour with many of the fly pasts at low level.

At Aidensfield we visited the village store, the Aidensfield Garage and had a drink in the “Aidensfield Arms”. It was then down to the railway station to catch the steam train to Whitby. Photo outside Scripps Garage.

Chris and Steve met us in Whitby and we had lunch before walking around the town. Next stop was Scarborough where we found the building used as the hospital in the TV series “The Royal”.

The following day Steve had to work so Janice and I went into York and did the Hop-on-Hop-off bus trip, visited the National Railway Museum, went on the York Wheel (York’s equivalent of the London Eye), visited York Minster and the Jordik Viking Centre where they have unearthed the remains of a Viking village. They have re-created what the village would have looked like complete with models of people and animals. Absolutely amazing. Photos below of York Minster and the famous "Shambles" street in York.

The following day we had planned a train trip to Newcastle but it was forecast rain all day and the train fare was 70 pounds so we visited the local towns of Knaresborough and Harrogate instead.

Yesterday I woke up with a Yorkshire cold so we travelled back to Chester where we will be based for the last 2 weeks of our UK stay. 

Deal and South East (Part 2)

Another episode to keep you up to date with our travels.

Since our last report, we have visited Dover, Scotney, Sissinghurst, Walmer and Bodiam Castles, the countryside down here is riddled with them. Most of the castles on the south coast were built by Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I to protect against Spanish invasion but there are many that date from much earlier times. For instance, there is a tower at Dover Castle which has a stone base dating back to Roman times where it was a fire beacon to guide Roman galleons into port at Dover. The old Roman upper structure has long since gone but some subsequent castle occupant built a new tower on top of the Roman base. Below is a picture of Bodiam Castle which has hundreds of enormous carp over 2 feet long swimming in the moat.

We spent the day with my niece and her family at Uckfield. We had a great time with them and didn't get back to Deal until 11.30pm.

 We have also been on a train ride from Hythe to Dungeness in a one third scale train. Picture below.

Janice’s cousin Angie from Welwyn Garden City joined us for a few days and we visited Howletts Animal Park which is an open air zoo not far from Deal. That evening we had an excellent meal at the Kings Arms Pub in the village of Sandwich. There is a village nearby called Ham and the pub had a photo on the wall of a road sign indicating Ham ½ mile and underneath Sandwich 3 miles.

Another day we met up with Christine (a second cousin of Janice & Angie) and her husband Mike. It was a glorious day and we ate lunch outside the Kings ead HHead pub in Deal (we haven’t come up with a pub featuring any other part of the King’s anatomy). We retired to our flat overlooking the beach for coffee. A great day.

We also spent a day in Canterbury, looking around the old town and visiting the Cathedral. Picture of the cathedral below and the house where the crooked man lived.

One evening we visited the St Crispins Inn at Worth for dinner (at least this one did not feature a part of the King). It was a 14^th century building with loads of character. I was taken with the sign hanging just inside the door. Picture below.

Today we decided to pop over to France for Sunday lunch. Deal is only 8 miles from the Dover ferry terminal so we hopped on a ferry this morning paying the princely sum of 10 pounds return for BOTH of us and headed for Calais. We indulged in a 3 course lunch at Le Mirador restaurant on the Boulevard Jacqard in Calais and looked around the city center. Being Sunday, all the shops were closed (you can be lucky sometimes!!!). We also visited a World War II museum located inside an enormous German concrete wartime bunker which was extremely interesting. It was then back to the ferry terminal and a pleasant ride back to Dover. Great day.  Note from Janice – the fare over might have been cheap, but I still managed to spend plenty on the ferry (duty free) !! Photo of Calais Town Hall below.

Well, moving on to London tomorrow. Life's hectic isn't it?