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
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 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
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